Promoting Local Culture Learning in the Context of Foreign Language Instruction

Foreign language learning is also culture learning,which is a dynamic process of bridging the connections between the local culture and the foreign culture.Based on a survey of 667 teachers of English and 278 students in colleges and universities in China,this paper first reviews the current research on the promotion of Chinese culture into the classroom teaching in the context of foreign language learning and then explores future prospects in this area of teaching.The discussion starts with the discussion on these major questions in the process of incorporating local culture in the form of telling stories about China,i.e.,“why need we tell the stories”,“who tells the stories”,“who leads in telling the stories”,“how can we tell the stories”,“what can we tell in the stories”,“where can we tell the stories”,and“how well can we tell the stories”.It continues proposing to pay attention to interdisciplinary research on discourse construction,communication modes and evaluation of communicative effectiveness,and also the design of foreign language curriculum and teaching materials.It concludes that incorporating local culture into the foreign language instruction is of great help to widen students’horizons,cultivate their language proficiency,enhance their culture awareness,strengthen their confidence,and realize shared appreciation of civilization with the people from other cultural backgrounds.