Critically Evaluate Foreign Language Teachers Training in Culture and Intercultural Communication

The aim of foreign language teaching in the contemporary is to develop foreign language talents who own intercultural competence.Thus,it is necessary to improve teachers’cultural quality and intercultural awareness.The paper explores some relevant training courses on culture and intercultural awareness,and discusses the deficiency of these courses.

Four Dimensions of Integrating Chinese Culture Into College English Teaching From the Perspective of Tyler’s Basic Principles

Integrating Chinese culture into college English can not only enhance students’humanities literacy and cultivate their cultural confidence,but also facilitate the inheritance and international dissemination of Chinese culture.Taking Tyler’s curriculum framework as the starting point,this paper analyzes some factors that affect the integration of Chinese culture into the college English teaching and proposes some strategies for the integration of Chinese culture into college English teaching by innovating teaching objectives,enriching teaching contents,transforming modes of course delivery,and reconstructing the assessment system.

How can TESOL Teachers be Mediators of Culture?

Language and culture are closely related to each other. Language teachers, who introduce culture through the language teaching activities, are the most important cultural mediators for students in their language learning process. This essay is to help TESOL teachers to think about their importance of being the cultural mediators and how to be good mediators.

Teacher and Culture Mediator:A Reflection on Teaching English Listening through American Materials

This essay is to help TESOL teachers to think about their importance of being the cultural mediators and how to be good mediators as well.Firstly,in this article,some concepts about language,culture and the connections between them are intro duced.Then it explores why it is important for English teachers to view themselves as cultural mediators and in what way they are cultural mediators.Finally,the study reflects on the situation in a tertiary teaching context.

Culture shock： Indirect communication A foreign teacher＇s teaching experience in a Chinese university located in a Hakka region

Culture shock is unavoidable for foreign teachers in China. Using qualitative method, this paper reports a case study of culture shock--a foreign teacher＇s teaching experience in a Chinese university located in an area with a unique local population. The city involved in this study is Meizhou, located in Guangdong Province, which is considered ＂the capital of Hakka＂. The study found that indirect communication is a big shock for foreign teachers who teach in this area. The paper explores the reasons from the perspectives of Hakka culture and points out that culture shock can be an important aspect of foreign teachers＇ professional development, cultural learning and personal growth. Finally, the study provides implications for language teaching and learning in a similar area, such as Meizhou.

An Annotation of Language Teacher Beliefs in View of Educational Culture

The research on foreign language （FL） teachers＇ cognition and its development has been attracting attention in the field of applied linguistics. However, the gap between teaching theories and truths, teacher beliefs and behaviors can only be annotated by an in-depth investigation of belief determinants （BD） that are shaped by specific educational culture. Based on an investigation of language teacher beliefs, this paper is an annotation of language teacher beliefs in view of educational culture. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods of interviewing forefront teachers and making a literature review, it intends to reveal the dynamic nature of teacher beliefs as the teaching reality in view of the impact and significance of educational culture. It hammers home with the conclusion that the teachers-role-fulfillment in China is based on their real beliefs and loaded with cultural, social, and subject pressure; it is not a lincal impartment from theory to practice, from advocating to implementing, but a selective practice with teachers＇ active cognition and adaptation towards the local educational culture.

Teaching in Different Cultures:Comparison of Teacher Education Programs between China and the U.S.

In recent years,teacher education,as an important part of educational issues,has attracted governments'attention in the world and made some achievements.Chinese people often say that education is the hope for the revitalization of the nation,and teacher education is the hope for the revitalization of education.Thus,teacher education plays an important role in the devel opment of the whole nation.This essay aims to find out the respective advantages and disadvantages of the teacher education pro grams in China and the America,through the comparison of their specific characteristics.It will also explore what the Chinese teacher education system can benefit from the successful experiences of that in the U.S.

Teacher and Student Roles in Chinese Culture

Nowaday, going abroad to further education has gained the greatest popularity among chinese students. Majority of these oversea students may suffer from some problems in their cross-cultural classrooms, even though they are excellent in their own country. Chinese learners are frequently labeled as"passive learners", compared with other foreign learners. The teachers in foreign countries may also play a sharply different role in teaching. These problems have already attracted some education experts and researchers'attention and a few research programs and experiments have been conducted. This paper will adopt Tweed and Lehman (2002)'s Confucian-Socratic framework to systematically analyze student and teacher roles in Chinese culture and communicative norms of the students and teachers in Chinese contexts. A better cross-clutural classroom will be built on the basis of foreign teachers and chinese students'mutual efforts on understanding each other's culture background.

Rebuilding School Culture and Promoting Teachers'Professional Development Rebuilding School Culture and Promoting Teachers'Professional Development

School culture is an important carrier for teachers' professional development.It is also a double-edged sword that can either promote or hinder the professional development of teachers.The improvement of teachers' professional development fundamentally lies in the reconstruction of school culture.School culture is derived from the school system because the system creates the environment that determines professional development.The improvement of school culture is achieved through learning because learning can create a solid platform for teachers'professional development.Principals should rebuild their relationships with their schools and teachers,while teachers should rebuild their relationships with other teachers and their students as well as between their own practices and educational theories.

The Culturally Responsive Teacher in Class-teaching

Successfully teaching students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds requires a new way of looking at teaching that is grounded in an understanding of the role of culture and language in learning.Teachers need to be familiar with constructivist views of learning,develop socio-cultural consciousnessuse instructional strategies.

On Cultural Identity of Teachers in Teaching English

English teaching is a big project in China,whenever we teach English,we transmit western cultures,when taking in the essence of western culture,students also receive the bad things of western culture.Besides,because of learning English,many students know less and less about their own culture and are not interested in learning it.So there is a clash between Chinese cul ture and western culture.So English teachers face a problem:what is their cultural identity in English teaching?Based on the anal ysis of the necessity,demerits and clash of English language and culture teaching,this paper attempts to discuss about teachers’cultural identity in teaching English.

Cultures and Subcultures

A cross-cultural analysis of an extract of the book Lost in Translation is provided in the essay. Definitions of culture and subculture are discussed and different theories from Hofstede and Schwartz are referred to in order to validate the analysis.

A Study of Intercultural Adaptation of Foreign Teachers in Pingdingshan Colleges and Universities

Along with the advance of cross-culture communication, intercultural adaption arouses a heated discussion in the branch of social science, which is mainly dealing with maladjustment within a host culture. As the matter of fact, in the process of education internationalization, increasing amount of foreign experts and teachers come to China and play an important role in Chinese higher education. While bringing in advanced teaching ideas to local colleges and enjoying exotic Chinese culture, they are also suffering culture shock of different degrees. The thesis is trying to find out: 1) What are the intercultural adaptation levels of foreign teachers in Pingdingshan colleges and universities? 2) What factors may affect their adaptation? 3) What should we do to improve their adaptation levels? In order to solve those problems, a practical study is conducted based on Taylor's transformative learning model theory.

Simplified three-dimensional culture system for long-term expansion of embryonic stem cells

AIM: To devise a simplified and efficient method for long-term culture and maintenance of embryonic stem cells requiring less frequent passaging. METHODS: Mouse embryonic stem cells(ESCs) labeled with enhanced yellow fluorescent protein were cultured in three-dimensional(3-D) self-assembling scaffolds and compared with traditional two-dimentional(2-D) culture techniques requiring mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder layers or leukemia inhibitory factor. 3-D scaffolds encapsulating ESCs were prepared by mixing ESCs with polyethylene glycol tetra-acrylate(PEG-4-Acr) and thiolfunctionalized dextran(Dex-SH). Distribution of ESCs in 3-D was monitored by confocal microscopy. Viability and proliferation of encapsulated cells during long-term culture were determined by propidium iodide as well as direct cell counts and PrestoB lue(PB) assays. Genetic expression of pluripotency markers(Oct4, Nanog, Klf4, and Sox2) in ESCs grown under 2-D and 3-D cultureconditions was examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Protein expression of selected stemness markers was determined by two different methods, immunofluorescence staining(Oct4 and Nanog) and western blot analysis(Oct4, Nanog, and Klf4). Pluripotency of 3-D scaffold grown ESCs was analyzed by in vivo teratoma assay and in vitro differentiation via embryoid bodies into cells of all three germ layers. RESULTS: Self-assembling scaffolds encapsulating ESCs for 3-D culture without the loss of cell viability were prepared by mixing PEG-4-Acr and Dex-SH(1:1 v/v) to a final concentration of 5%(w/v). Scaffold integrity was dependent on the degree of thiol substitution of Dex-SH and cell concentration. Scaffolds prepared using Dex-SH with 7.5% and 33% thiol substitution and incubated in culture medium maintained their integrity for 11 and 13 d without cells and 22 ± 5 d and 37 ± 5 d with cells, respectively. ESCs formed compact colonies, which progressively increased in size over time due to cell proliferation as determined by confocal microscopy and PB staining. 3-D scaffold cultured ESCs expressed significantly higher levels(P < 0.01) of Oct4, Nanog, and Kl4, showing a 2.8, 3.0 and 1.8 fold increase, respectively, in comparison to 2-D grown cells. A similar increase in the protein expression levels of Oct4, Nanog, and Klf4 was observed in 3-D grown ESCs. However, when 3-D cultured ESCs were subsequently passaged in 2-D culture conditions, the level of these pluripotent markers was reduced to normal levels. 3-D grown ESCs produced teratomas and yielded cells of all three germ layers, expressing brachyury(mesoderm), NCAM(ectoderm), and GATA4(endoderm) markers. Furthermore, these cells differentiated into osteogenic, chondrogenic, myogenic, and neural lineages expressing Col1, Col2, Myog, and Nestin, respectively. CONCLUSION: This novel 3-D culture system demonstrated long-term maintenance of mouse ESCs without the routine passaging and manipulation necessary for traditional 2-D cell propagation.

Establishment of the Culture Technique o f Pulmonary Vascular Pericytes and Its Identification in Rats

Summary: In order to study the cellular origin of muscularization in non muscular arterioles of the lung, the pulmonary vascular pericytes culture was established. The terminal lung tissue of the rat was taken out and minced. Then 0.5 % of type Ⅳ collagenase solution was added for digestion and the microvascular segments were obtained by screening. The targeted cells were cultured by “selective conditioned media”. Under phase contrast microscope, the cultured cells were large in size with ragged margin and numerous pseudopodia, which imparted tubule like structure. There was no contact inhibition in growing cells, so multiple layers developed. When they were confluent, there were morphologically no “hillock and dale” growth pattern as in smooth muscle cells or “weave like” pattern as in fibroblasts. The ultrastructure of cultured cells showed numerous digital processes, moderate amount of rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, rich Golgi's apparatus, microfilaments, few lysosomes without myofilaments and dense bodies. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the cultured pericytes had same kind of cellular skeletal protein, α SM actin, like smooth muscle cells. The cultured cells also exhibited positive reaction to CD 34 antigen and S 100 antigen, which were negative in smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. The cell growth pattern, ultrastructure and immunological phenotype suggested that the cultured cells had characteristics of vascular pericytes. Pericytes are one of the components of microvascular cells, and the establishment of in vitro culture technique of pericytes is of significance for further exploration of the muscularization of non muscular arterioles in lung and the mechanism of structural remodeling of pulmonary vessels.

Feminism, Patriarchy and Culture Dominance ——A review to "The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior" is an influential book in the 20th century making a thunder of voice in the world to accuse the stereotype of patriarchy and racism, which also shows the Chinese Americans’ difficulty of being edged to the cultural cliff. This article analyses the content and the style of the novel to see inside what the writer wants to express and to figure out the real reason of the inequality between sexes and reveal the truth of the western culture dominance. Feminism, Patriarchy and culture are the main factors considered in the article.

On Characteristics and Cultures of the Hakka's Enclosed Houses in South Jiangxi Province

General situation and distribution of round houses of the Hakka in south Jiangxi were introduced, such architectural styles as enclosed house with a square yard (kouzi wei, in the shape of 口), enclosed house with a yard of three transverse and one longitudinal constructions (guozi wei, in the shape of 国), and enclosed house with a round house in its yard (tao wei) were taken to analyze features of the Hakka's enclosed houses. It was highlighted that the Hakka's enclosed houses in south Jiangxi has diversified architectural styles and outstanding defensive and living functions. Construction art and religious culture shown by the enclosed houses were interpreted, and the branch of Han people with unique dialects, cultures, folk customs and emotional attitudes was proposed as a miniature of the culture in south Jiangxi. Moreover, it was stressed that more attention of the public and more efforts for the protection should be given to the Hakka's cultures in south Jiangxi, carriers of the locals' history over the past thousands of years.

A Study of Pearl Buck’s Translation View of Cultural Symbiosis

Based on the theory of cultural symbiosis put forward by Mr.Zhang Liwen,this paper summarizes the translation view of cultural symbiosis,and uses it to explain the relevant characteristics of the Noble laureate Pearl Buck’s English translation of All Men Are Brothers.This paper,through laying out Buck’s cultural harmony value full in her translated work,probes into the connotation,manifestation,and enlightenment of Pearl Buck’s idea of a harmonious symbiosis of Chinese and Western cultures.

Rural Tourism, Shanxi Merchants’ Culture and New Rural Construction of Socialism

Rural tourism was a new form of tourism gradually emerging in China in recent years. It satisfied urban residents' pursuit of nature and had a promising market prospect. New rural construction of socialism was an important historical task in the process of economic and social development of China at present and in future period. New rural construction was the important basis of rural tourism development and meanwhile rural tourism development could promote new rural construction. Shanxi Merchant's Culture of Xi Village in Jinzhong City was a kind of excellent rural tourism resource. Developing rural tourism was one of the effective ways to promote new rural construction of socialism in Xi Village.