Chinese School Teachers’ and Teacher Trainers’ Perceptions of Culture Teaching in ELT: A Case Study in Xinjiang

Article Sidebar

PDF

Main Article Content

Han Hui

Abstract

This paper investigates the perceptions of secondary school teachers and teacher trainers from Normal Universities and Teacher Training Colleges in Xinjiang Province of culture teaching in English language teaching (ELT): How they define culture; what they think the objectives of culture teaching are; and, how important they view culture teaching in ELT. The findings show that the teachers define culture in a very broad sense, such as traditions and beliefs, while the teacher trainers think that literature is a major channel to expose students to foreign cultures and tend to adopt an elevated form of Culture in the classroom (Culture with a big C). The study also reveals the teachers’ and trainers’ positive attitudes towards the integration of cultural information in their application, and their understanding of culture teaching objectives in the language classroom.

Key words: Culture teaching, English Language teaching, teachers’ perceptions,
cultural awareness, curriculum

Article Details

How to Cite
Hui, H. (2014). Chinese School Teachers’ and Teacher Trainers’ Perceptions of Culture Teaching in ELT: A Case Study in Xinjiang. Journal of Studies in the English Language, 6. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jsel/article/view/21855
Issue
Vol. 6 (2011)
Section
Articles
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:  Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.  Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.  Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Author Biography

Han Hui

Han Hui is a professor in the School of Foreign Languages of Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, Donghu
Campus. She has taught English at college level for 25 years. She obtained her PhD from Durham University, UK. Her
research interests are in teacher education; English education and intercultural studies. She has published over 20 papers in
academic journals. She can be reached at [email protected].