Chapter 99 Research of Attitude of Chinese Learners on Culture Education in EFL Classroom

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1 Chapter 99 Research of Attitude of Chinese Learners on Culture Education in EFL Classroom Dai Nalian Abstract This paper analyses the attitude of Chinese learners towards the teaching of target culture in EFL classroom. It focuses on the attitude of the students at Xiaogan University, Hubei, China. With the help of a questionnaire which involves several aspects of target culture, we measured participants responses. The questionnaire was composed of different sections concerning customs, beliefs, social organization, gestures, arts and notions of privacy of the target culture. Results revealed that learners have an obvious negative attitude towards the teaching of culture in EFL classroom. These responses are similar to those of other studies outside China and implications for the results are discussed. Keywords Culture of target language EFL classroom Attitude Chinese learners 99.1 Introduction Attitude plays a vital role in the formation of our view of the world. It affects our perceptions of the people and things around us and determines how we respond to them. In view of the important role of attitude in our lives, it is not surprising that attitude studies have a long historical background. Researchers have defined and discussed it from different perspectives. Attitude is usually defined along mentalist and behaviorist paradigm. Behaviorists describe it as a social and accordingly observable product, while Fasold [1] portrays the mentalist view of attitude as based on cognition. Hence it is supposed D. Nalian (&) School of Foreign Languages, Xiaogan University, Xiaogan , Hubei, China dainalin230@126.com W. Du (ed.), Informatics and Management Science VI, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 209, DOI: / _99, Ó Springer-Verlag London

2 786 D. Nalian to be analyzed on the basis of learners reports about their mental attitudes. Mentalists usually define it as mental response to a given situation. People may interpret it at cognitive, ideational and experiential level [2] or discusses its model upon the basis of three factors: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Hence a dominant aspect of attitude is emotional response to particular topics. Attitude can also be described as abstract unit realized in the form of behavior. It not only predicts behavioral patterns, but also elicits its different manifestations, one of which is realized through culture [3]. Culture and attitude is mutually dependant. Paige et al. [4] define the former in terms of positive or negative. However, we should not simply delimit culture to attitude only as culture is composed of various aspects. Classifies culture as forms of speech acts, notions of personal space, social organizations and proper gestures while Kramsch [5] summarizes it as membership in a discourse community. Each discussion of culture is in a sense correlated with certain aspect of attitude Definition of Culture Previous theories view culture as a static entity made up of accumulated, classifiable, observable, thus teachable and learnable facts [4] while more recent ones see it as dynamic and ever changing. It is connected with beliefs and knowledge and defined as a set of attitudes based on our responses and beliefs. Ilter and Güzeller [6] use culture to refer to the belief system of a community and include knowledge and values in its definition. This view is supported by Kachru et al. [7] who defines culture as socially acquired knowledge. Ariffin [8] believes that culture differs from country to country and community to community. The diverse nature of culture elicits various responses. Hofstede [9] divides the differences into attitudes at regional, national, generation, gender and social class levels. Robatjazi and Mohanlal [10] categorize it into Culture with capital C and culture with small c. This division complicates the definition Relationship Between Culture and Language Teaching Attitude to language and the culture related to it is of vital importance in language teaching. Ammon [11] claims that the way learners respond to culture of the target language affects their attitude towards the language. Khuwaileh [12] holds the same view and portrays language classroom as various cultural variables. It suggests that learning foreign language essentially involves learning its culture. Ilter and Güzeller [6] point out the positive effect of using culture on learners cognitive attitude and claim that the teaching of culture in EFL instruction results in improved social attitude and positive view to the community of target language.

3 99 Research of Attitude of Chinese Learners 787 Ho [13] relates culture teaching with positive attitudes towards higher level of motivation for learning target language. The teaching of culture in EFL classroom also elicits negative responses. Adaskou et al. [14] found that most of the teachers argue against the teaching of target culture in EFL classroom and assert that learners are more motivated when they compare target language with their own one. Fredricks [15] carried out research on an EFL class of Tajik students and maintains that learners are more likely to adopt positive attitude towards the target language if teaching material is nearer to their own culture. Shafaei and Nejati [16] holds that it is of vital importance to know learners culture as it predicts their behavioral patterns of language learning and that any EFL teaching practice excluding learners culture may be ineffective and exert negative influences on language learning. Ariza [17] points out that abandoning one s own culture is like forgetting oneself. Hence it becomes exceedingly important to use learners own culture as a source to teaching EFL. Other researches explored learners response to the culture of the target language. Most of them advocate that the incorporation of target culture in EFL classroom should be minimized or abandoned. Abed and Smadi [18] studied Saudi students response to target language culture and found the subjects attitude to language learning more positive where cultural loading was avoided or at least kept to the minimum. Prodromou [19] found that Greek students interest in target culture is merely based on the fallacy that its knowledge can be a source of securing their better grades in testing. In order to resolve the controversy concerning culture teaching in EFL classroom, Robatjazi and Mohanlal [10] propose that teachers take context into consideration and create an combination of target and local culture according to learners demands. They emphasize teacher s role in creating a balance between the teaching of culture in EFL classroom and facilitating learners communicative requirements. All the above discussion lead us to conclude that learners show different attitudes towards the teaching of culture in EFL classroom. Thus this paper aims to investigate Chinese learners response to the issue. The following questions are to be addressed: (1) what is Chinese learners attitude towards the teaching of culture in EFL classroom? (2) Does Chinese learners economic status influence their attitude towards the teaching of culture in EFL instruction? (3) Does Chinese learners educational background affect their attitude towards the teaching of culture in EFL classroom? (4) Do Chinese learners learning objectives affect their attitude towards the teaching of culture in EFL instruction? 99.2 Methodology This is a case study of Xiaogan University. Case study is an intensive study of a single case which is recommended by as a valid tool for educational research. The reason for choosing Xiaogan University is access and convenience.

4 788 D. Nalian We used representative sampling which aims to choose a target population sample and generalizes the results of the research [20]. The population selected is experimentally accessible as it consists of 354 Chinese EFL learners at Xiaogan University who learn English language as a compulsory course at undergraduate level. Since it is impossible to include the responses of all the EFL learners from Xiaogan University, we have taken a representative sample from three different schools where English is taught as a four credit course. Of the 354 participants, 53 % are males and 47 % are females. All respondents have finished three semesters of their degrees. The three schools were chosen randomly and for the sake of convenience. In order to find the specific answers to the four research questions, a questionnaire has been designed based on Cohen et al. [21]. It is composed of two parts. One focuses on participants personal information and the other aims to elicit their responses to the four research questions. We used a number of question types such as rank ordering and multiple choices to trigger participants personal information. Family income and education variables are divided into five multiple elements. Participants may choose one of them to mark the group to which they belong. As for the rank ordering, subjects are urged to rank seven learning objectives according to their preference. The second part is divided into various aspects concerning learners responses to cultural customs, beliefs, speech acts, social organizations, gestures, arts and notions of privacy. Each of the aspects is arranged in sub-categories and supported by at least two or more questions. Every question is an attitude statement which refers to learners attitude towards an aspect of culture. Choices are divided into anchor statements devised on the basis of 5 Likert scales and offer a range of responses from strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree to neutral. The pretesting of the questionnaire had been conducted in the previous week of March, The questionnaire was then modified and certain changes were made based on the results. Its reliability coefficient was The modified version was used to collect the data needed for the research. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed by means of SPSS We studied the correlation between learners responses to the teaching of target culture and variables such as educational experiences and family income. The relationship between these variables may be inverse or direct. In addition, the effect of learning objectives on learners attitude towards the teaching of target culture is also evaluated by cross tabulating learning objectives with learners responses. Cross tabulation is described as a statistical tool of measuring correlation between sets of scores which also indicates the strength of correlation between factors. These two tools enabled us to interpret the data in a quantitative way and also added to the validity of the findings.

5 99 Research of Attitude of Chinese Learners Data Analysis and Discussion Descriptive statistics revealed that 52 % learners consider acquisition of higher education as the top ranking objective for learning English. As higher education seems to be the most important objective, we cross tabulated this objective with learners responses. Results indicated that 84 % of the respondents have a negative attitude towards the teaching of target culture in EFL classroom. It is interesting that one objective for learning English language is the desire to know western culture, especially American one. Accordingly this is the objective of lowest ranking with 59 % of the participants assigning it the last. Data analysis also shows that 65 % of the participants fall within the family income group of five thousand RMB per month. Hence the majority of the participants belong to low and lower middle class. It can be seen that there is a strong correlation between family income and learners attitude towards the teaching of target culture. Respondents belonging to the low income group have an obviously positive attitude towards the teaching of target culture. But as family income increases, respondents tend to show negative attitude. Despite of that, the situation is not that simple or clear cut. Respondents who adopted positive attitude in general deem some aspects of target culture negatively and those who have an overall negative attitude have no objections when certain aspects of culture are taught in EFL classroom. Hence as for the teaching of beliefs and values, 81 % of the participants responded positively. This result is somewhat surprising in the context of the present situation in China where lack of tolerance for conflicting viewpoints or values is often regarded as a sign of extremism. Besides, 79 % responded positively to the teaching of social organization of target culture in EFL classroom. It can be seen that apart from these two aspects of culture, respondents revealed strongly negative attitude to the teaching of target culture, which is similar to overall reaction of other countries against culture-loaded teaching material. For example, Abed and Smadi s [18] research arrived at the same conclusion. In our study, the correlation is also strong between respondents educational background and their attitude towards the teaching of target culture in EFL classroom. 65 % of the participants used to study at ordinary high schools while 35 % in key ones. Correlation analysis indicated that most our population adopted negative attitude towards the teaching of target culture and that learners respond positively only to the teaching of beliefs and social organization of target culture. They respond negatively if exposed to any of the other cultural aspects. Thus we may conclude that income and education influence learners attitudes and those ordinary high schools do not emphasize the promotion of intercultural tolerance and critical thinking. So their students may not be expected to have positive views of the learning of target culture. Hence learners educational background also contributes to their attitude towards target culture in EFL classroom.

6 790 D. Nalian 99.4 Conclusion and Implications The above discussion reveals that our participants adopted predominantly negative attitude to the teaching of target culture in EFL classroom. Both education background and family income contributed to the result. Besides, participants learning objectives also play a significant role in their attitude. The findings may be of great help for policy makers and course designers since it is essential for them to take learners responses into consideration when designing curriculum and prescribing syllabi for students. Textbook writers are supposed to be aware of learners attitudes towards different aspects of culture in EFL classroom. Ariza s [17] research focused on the same issue and proved the importance of learners attitudes while making educational policies. Another important aspect is that learners negative attitude towards the teaching of target culture may result in the rejection of the language itself. So policy makers have to decide whether to insist on teaching culture at the cost of language or to revise and reanalyze teaching approach. Those who argue in favor of the combination theory of culture teaching supported by Ariffin [8] should also reconsider their position. As if both target and local culture are incorporated into EFL classroom, what will be the criteria for selection, combination and exclusion or which aspects of the target culture will prove to be acceptable to learners? Although our findings reveal that some aspects of target culture are acceptable in EFL classroom, the overall response of learners is so negative that the few tolerated elements had better be avoided or kept to the minimum. Ariffin [8] proposed that target culture should be taught to language learners who intend to visit the target language country some time in future. Our data indicates that respondents ranked this learning objective as the second lowest in the list of rankings. Hence we suggest that language classes for those learners should be arranged separately. For most of the learners, target language should be taught in the local cultural context which will lead to their positive response and active act to the language and learning act itself. References 1. Fasold R (1985) The sociolinguistics of society. Wiley 45(44): Halliday M (2005) On grammar. Continuum International Publishing Group, New York 9(4): Speilberger CD (ed) (2004) Encyclopedia of applied psychology. Academic, London 42(15): Paige RM et al (2003) Culture learning in language education: a review of the literature. In: Paige DL (ed) Culture as the core: perspectives on culture in second language learning. IAP 74(32): Kramsch CJ (2008) Language and culture (8th edn). In: Widdowson HG ed Oxford University Press, Oxford 47(42):

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