文化可教否? 应该教谁的文化?——访著名语言学家David Nunan教授

Interview with Prof.David Nunan on Culture in Language Teaching and Learning

本刊从2009年第6期开始特别开设“学者访谈录”栏目，拟邀请相关专家对世界知名语言学家进行采访，以促进对国际语言学研究现状的宏观了解和把握。本期刊登的David Nunan教授是香港大学荣休教授，曾任教于哥伦比亚大学，蒙特雷国际研究学院，夏威夷大学和香港大学，现任加州Anaheim大学副校长，

Prof. David Nunan is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He served two terms on the TESOL Board of Directors. He is the first person to serve as President from outside of North America. In 2005, he was named one of the 50 most influential Australians internationally. He has published a number of scholarly books and arti- cles on teacher education, curriculum development, classroom-based research and the teaching of grammar in the communicative classroom. In addition to his research and scholarly work, Prof. Nunan is the author of several major textbook series for the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language. These textbooks are based on his task-based language teaching approach, and are widely used in schools, school systems and universities around the world. His series Go For It, which is widely used in China, is the largest selling textbook series in the world with total sales of over one billion copies. In December 2009, Prof. Nunan was invited to give talks at Shanghai International Studies University on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. Prof. Zheng Xinmin and Dr. Li Citing took the opportunity to conduct a semi-structured interview with him on a number of issues of public concerns. These issues looked into aspects of how to keep a fine balance between curriculum design and language assessment/testing in terms of macro and micro levels, what constitutes the core part of the teaching of culture, and whose culture should be taught and relevant pedagogic implications. The discussions therefore shed light on English language teaching and learning, and the teaching of culture in particular.