Section 1 Teaching Culture

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I.Thinking

【Case Reflection】

To improve students' interests in English learning, Mr W once invited a foreign friend to his class. After a brief introduction, he left the classroom to make them feel comfortable about communicating freely. There was a short silence as the shy Chinese students would not speak first. The foreigner in response walked over to the students and greeted them. This gradually started the conversation. But afterwards the friend complained to him that the students were too curious about her private life and they made her feel as if she was being interrogated by a judge, because most of the questions were; How old are you? Are you married? How much money do you make?

Do you know why the foreign friend complained?

II.Concepts of Teaching Culture and Learning

Culture is a broad concept. It has many definitions, such as culture is civilization; or culture is communication or intercultural communication; or culture is community interaction; or culture is the dynamic structure of the relationship between people. English anthropologist Edward Tylor( 1871) first proposed culture as “a complex whole, including knowledge, beliefs, arts, ethics, law, customs, and all the abilities and customs one has acquired as a member of that society” in his Primitive Culture . Thus, culture is a multifaceted and complex system. Moran describes the five dimensions of culture as; product, practice, perspective, community and person. Culture product is the physical manifestation of what is created or adopted by communities and persons. Culture practice refers to the cultural communication between individuals, including verbal and non-verbal communication as well as all the behaviors related to the community and products. Culture perspective reflects people's knowledge, values, beliefs and attitudes, and influences people's cultural communication behavior and the creation of culture products. All culture practices happen in a certain culture community. The community includes the social environment and groups, ranging from the broad perspective of national culture, language, and religion to specific social groups and families. Hence, culture is an evolving way of life of a group of people, with a shared set of practices associated with a shared set of products, based upon a shared set of perspectives on the world, and set within specific social contexts.

(I) Definition of teaching culture

Teaching culture in English refers to the teaching methods that integrate language teaching with teaching about the country's situation, culture and background knowledge contained in the language. Teaching culture is culture knowledge instruction that accompanies communication and foreign language teaching as well as the study of the similarities and differences between cultures. It enables students to have a higher level of culture awareness which they can use in actual communication to improve their communicative competence.

The National Curriculum Standards clearly points out that we must broaden the cultural horizons of students and develop their intercultural communication awareness and basic intercultural communicative competence. It also describes the content of cultural awareness in terms of detailed objectives and content standards.

Cultural awareness refers to having knowledge of social conventions, values, and beliefs of the target language culture. Cultural awareness can be divided into four levels. In the first level, learners know about the distinct features of the culture but find it strange and difficult to understand. In the second level, through cultural conflicts, learners become aware of meaningful but subtle cultural features which are quite different from their own, but do not understand them yet. In the third level, learners understand those subtle and meaningful cultural features rationally and find them understandable from a cognitive point of view. In the fourth level, through deeper understanding of the culture, learners are able to adopt the perspective of the target language culture, and feel and think from a different viewpoint. Therefore teaching culture should have two phases; culture knowledge and culture understanding. Culture knowledge is to know about a certain culture phenomena. Culture understanding for students is to understand the culture's perspective, and transform it into their own behavior and build their own cultural awareness.

Therefore, having culture knowledge is only the beginning of learning culture. The goal of teaching culture should be to enhance learner's communicative competence, and should start from culture knowledge and cultural awareness training, and ultimately achieve culture understanding.

(II) Importance of teaching culture

1.Teaching culture is part of teaching language. Thus, teaching culture of English-speaking countries is an important element of teaching English. Traditional English teaching has four basic aspects; language, grammar, vocabulary and choice of words. These are the four elements of language and also the central task of English teaching. However, grasping the above merely means grasping part of the language, but not the whole, as language is a reflection of culture. Language is a part of culture and a tool for spreading culture. Language has rich cultural connotations. If we only have knowledge of the language but not the culture, it's hard for us to fully understand the language and use it properly. Language is both a product and manifestation of culture and we must follow cultural rules when using language. In other words, culture influences thinking and language expressions. In this way, language and culture affect each other. To understand language we must understand the culture and vice versa. Language permeates through all facets of culture and is an inalienable part of it, and therefore language learning is inseparable from culture. Teaching language is teaching culture to some extent.

2.Teaching culture is the key to applying language in communication. Language is the basis of communication, but having language competence does not mean possessing communicative competence. More and more people have reached a consensus that learning a language does not merely mean learning its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar knowledge, but also means learning the historical and cultural traditions and social customs of the country and the people. The aim is to truly master the essence of the language and ensure the correct understanding and use of the language in communication.

3.Teaching culture is the focus of the English teaching reform and development. For a long time, China's English teaching focused only on language knowledge and grammatical forms, and completely ignored the effects of culture on communication. The National Curriculum Standards for English language teaching include the development of student cultural awareness as one of its objectives. The new curriculum reforms have started throughout China and have made tremendous progress in many aspects of English teaching, from teaching objectives, teaching theories to evaluation methods. It is widely accepted that learning a foreign language is not only a process of mastering a language, but also a process entailing exposure to another culture and understanding it. Cultural factors are implicit in the language learning process, even the communication competence of good language learners may be hindered by cultural factors, which create obstacles in their understanding of the world. People speaking different languages in different cultures have different ways of thinking, values and character. Therefore, foreign language learning does not only broaden learners' ways of thinking, but also greatly impact learners' values and character. Foreign language learning and foreign culture learning help people to observe and understand their own world from different perspectives. This is the human side of foreign language education. Foreign language teachers should make an effort to teach students cultural knowledge, enhance their sensitivity to cultural differences, and gradually build their capacity to make cultural comparisons and finally improve their culture competence and help them communicate properly. Teaching culture in English teaching not only helps strengthen students' basic language skills but also helps to raise their enthusiasm for learning English. Teaching content is changing from being solely vocabulary and grammar teaching to the teaching of both language and culture. This change makes teaching content and teaching methods more diverse and interesting and thus encourages enthusiasm and initiative in both teachers and students.

4.Teaching culture is needed to implement quality education and improve teacher quality. The new teaching reform requires teachers to raise their own level of cultural knowledge, and this sets a higher standard for teacher quality. This is not an easy task even for an outstanding English teacher. To raise their own level of cultural knowledge, teachers should read books and magazines about culture. Only after teachers' culture knowledge is enhanced, can they carry out culture education effectively. Otherwise, quality education will only be mere rhetoric.

5.Teaching culture is necessary for training qualified personnel. For various reasons, after the mid-20th century, the humanistic side of education was severely weakened in foreign language education in China. In the 21st century, the trend of foreign language education is to improve students' overall personal qualities. In a sense, learning a new language is to master a new kind of communication skill and to learn a new culture. Through comparisons and analyses of Western and Chinese culture, the students can understand English culture more objectively and comprehensively. They can also develop new insight and understanding of their own culture, and thus understand their counterparts better in international communication. Only in this way can the students achieve the outcomes of broad culture awareness; having a strong global understanding and competitiveness; bridging the gap in economic development; and promoting international exchange and cooperation actively and effectively.

When teaching culture, we should balance the teaching of Chinese and foreign cultures. We should introduce valuable aspects of Western culture as well as the good things in China. Through studying Western culture, we should deepen students' understanding of their own culture. Such learners not only can adapt to the overseas cultural environment, but also can introduce our cultural heritage to foreigners, thus contributing to the flourishing of world culture.

(III) Principles of teaching culture

The purpose of establishing principles of teaching culture is to integrate the cultural content of verbal and non-verbal communication into the overall system of foreign language teaching systemically and with purpose. Thus language instruction and introduction of culture can be addressed simultaneously, so that students can learn and acquire language and culture at the same time and overcome the intercultural communication barriers caused by cultural differences. The following teaching culture principles should be adhered to;

1.Be communicative

The purpose of teaching culture is to cultivate and improve students' intercultural communicative competence, so being communicative should be fully addressed. To help students communicate, what needs to be taught is the culture knowledge that Chinese students are likely to misunderstand or misuse in communication. In terms of vocabulary, what should be emphasized is the semantic component that is reflected in the target language.

2.Compare

The characteristics of culture knowledge are not the same for people coming from different cultural backgrounds, and this leaves room for cultural comparisons. But to make comparisons, a culture reference system must be established first. A proper reference system is to look at the culture of the target language from the Chinese point of view, namely to determine the teaching culture scope and content by comparing the culture of the target language and Chinese culture.

3.Be staged

This principle of teaching culture demands that the students' language level, cognitive ability, and their physical and psychological states be fully considered when teaching culture. We must proceed gradually and select teaching content that progresses from easy to difficult materials, from outside to inside, to help students understand the nature of culture. Culture teaching should also be suitable for the student's actual language level, ability or grade.

4.Be universal

Language and culture may have differences in how many people they apply to. In reality, we may find that there are cultural phenomena in communication culture which only apply to a small group of people. What we need to teach is the shared cultural knowledge and customs of the majority of the population in the target countries, rather than the culture of a select group or a region, or an individual. Of course, we also have to include the typical national culture that is embedded in the verbal and non-verbal communication.

5.Be selective

Materials and teaching methods need to be suited to the students' level. We should choose materials that represent the mainstream culture. Teachers should create appropriate opportunities for students to carry out inquiry and research-based learning. Teaching content should be selected based on the teaching objectives and purpose, rather than choosing the content non-discriminately and neglecting student ability to acquire the content. The appropriate standards should be to “eliminate the current cultural barriers” and “take into account possible future cultural barriers”. When we encounter cultural barriers in teaching, we can therefore introduce necessary cultural background and elaborate in order to clear the way for similar encounters in the future. Moreover, limited teaching hours also compel us to be selective. Aimlessly teaching an extensive amount of cultural background knowledge will inevitably take up much of precious teaching time. To be reasonable, cultural content could be touched upon or studied but should not take up too much teaching time.

III.Teaching Culture

(I)The goal of teaching culture

Teaching culture takes the cultivation of student's cultural awareness as the main goal, and this is achieved through a staged process. Teaching objectives in different stages should be different. The National Curriculum Standards lists the teaching goals at four stages; level 2, level 5, level 7 and level 8.The difficulty level of the content and the requirements for cultural understanding are gradually increased. Level 2 requires the students to understand how culture is expressed in daily life through such things as communication, language, recreational activities, foods and drinks, festivals and holidays. Level 5 requires the students to understand the cultural connotations of recreational activities, festivals and holidays, clothing and dresses, body language, etc. It also requires them to deepen their understanding of Chinese culture. Level 7 requires the students to understand literature, arts, politics, economy, and daily life in English-speaking countries. Level 8 not only requires the students to understand cultural connotations in English, but also requires them to know the differences between Eastern and Western cultures; understand how culture is expressed in language; form initial intercultural communication awareness; have a respectful and inclusive attitude towards different cultures; and foster awareness as a global citizen. The following is the description of the goals in the National Curriculum Standards for level 2, level 5 and level 8;

Table 13-1

(II) Content of teaching culture

The content of teaching English culture, from the perspective of global culture or one's own culture, can be roughly categorized into the following 3 types; verbal culture, non-verbal culture and communication culture.

Verbal language culture has three aspects;

1.Culture in pronunciation

Pronunciation in a language not only ensures communication between people who use the language, but also reveals the speaker's cultural identity. For example, in American English there are no diphthongs /ɪə/, /ʊə/, /eə/ as in British English. Instead, /r/ is added at the end of the preceding vowels; for example, beard, hare, pour are pronounced as /bɪrd/, /her/, /pʊr/ in American English. This /r/ phonetic feature is a feature of American English, revealing the speaker's American cultural identity. Moreover, most Americans speak with a clear nasal sound and are accustomed to lengthening the syllables, while the British do not have this characteristic. Pronunciation reveals not only the region but also the social status of the speaker. British imperial aristocrats and upper society people speak in RP( Received Pronunciation) wherever they are. They take it as a symbol of their social status as this pronunciation has been known as King's English, Queen's English, or Oxford English. Common people mostly like to speak in their local dialect. If a high-level executive spoke in his/her dialect, it would be considered inappropriate and degrading. Conversely, if a porter spoke in RP, he would be laughed at as “putting on airs”.

2.Culture in grammar

Grammar reveals the basic rules of putting words into phrases, combining phrases into sentences, and connecting sentences into passages. There are different language expressions in different cultures. The English language uses connectives to perfect the sentence structure and logic. If one wants to say, “He is one of my friends”, one does not use “He's my a friend”, but he would say “He's a friend of mine”. The use of dual possessive cases accurately reveals the partial relationship between “he” and “my friends”. Another example is “If winter comes, can spring be far behind? ” and on seeing the “if”, the grammatical relationship between the clauses becomes obvious. On the other hand, Chinese expressions do not share the same property. Chairman Mao's famous quote, “If you can win, fight; if you cannot win, flee; why still worry about what to do?”( “打得赢就打, 打不赢就走, 还怕没办法”) looks like a succession of verbs; without conjunctions between the phrases, but the semantic context causes the phrases to flow together naturally. The above shows that English favors hypotaxis while Chinese favors parataxis. Westerners are more rational and logical while the Chinese are more perceptional and dialectical. Knowing these cultural differences in thinking and their influence on language will help students to reduce the use of Chinglish and learn English grammar better.

In addition, different kinds of expression reflect different ways of thinking. Grammar contains not only logical structures but also psychological and social factors. It is the language rules formed in the process of language communication, so it inevitably reflects the speaker's psychological and social influences. It would be hard to understand certain expressions and idioms if we ignore the psychological factors in grammar. For example, the British like to say “I was scolded”, while the Chinese say, “Some people scolded me” instead of using the passive voice. This is because the doer is more prominent than the object to the Chinese. Thus, different cultures have different ways of thinking, language expressions, and sentence structures. When the teacher introduces syntactic structures to students, he/she should also introduce their semantic and communicative functions. For example, the tag question in “Lovely day, isn't it?” is not a real question, but a common way to start a conversation. The sentence “Why don't you do something? ” is a question in form, but a polite request and suggestion in function. “Would you please turn down the radio? ” is not a question but a request, as Westerners often use questions to make a request to show their politeness.

3.Culture in vocabulary

Vocabulary is the bearer of meaning, and meaning reveals cultural connotations and cultural differences. Vocabulary is the most active component of language and has a distinct cultural flavor. So, when teaching culture in a foreign language, we should attach importance to vocabulary which has cultural connotations, i.e., culture vocabulary. The challenge of teaching culture is in the connotation of some vocabulary. Even simple expressions like “Hello”, “Hi”, “Sorry”, and “Pardon” may have cultural connotations that will confuse students. What troubles students are not pronunciations and spellings, but how to use the language appropriately. Take color words for example, which have different connotations in different cultures. Red is jubilant in traditional Chinese culture. On happy occasions( such as marriage) , Chinese people used to wear red, and not white, as white was worn at funerals. In the West, the white wedding dress represents the purity of the bride. In addition, red in China is a symbol of revolution, progress, like the red flag, red star, red scarf, red sun, red heart and so on. While in the West, red often signals “danger” or “radical, rebellious” behaviors. For this kind of word, teachers should introduce or elaborate on the relevant cultural background knowledge, and make comparisons with the Chinese culture when necessary, so that students understand their meanings and cultural connotations.

Non-verbal communication culture should also be included in teaching culture. The spread of a culture depends on verbal communication as well as non-verbal communication. There are many definitions of non-verbal communication. According to Hu Wenzhong( 1999) , “non-verbal communication is communication outside of verbal language, including gestures, postures, eye contact, facial expressions, body contact, and physical distance etc.” Non-verbal communication is related to culture, folklore, sociology, anthropology and many other disciplines. It is used in a wide range of contexts and has complicated semantic meanings. The meaning is clear only in a certain context, and it is meaningless to understand it in isolation. There are many classifications of non-verbal communication. Professor Hu classifies it into four main categories from the perspective of intercultural communication;

Body language; including basic postures, basic etiquette, and some of the body movements that convey communicative information;

Paralanguage; including silence, cues and various non-verbal sounds;

Object language; including the information provided by the enhancement of the skin, the cover of body odor, clothing and makeup, etc.

Environmental language; including spatial information and time information.

The first two categories can be described as non-verbal behavior, and the latter two are non-verbal means.

In teaching non-verbal communication culture, the following should be paid attention to. Firstly, the same behavior may carry different meanings in different cultures. For example, people in China like to pat or touch a small child to show their connection and affection for the child, while Western women do not. They feel uncomfortable as they perceive this action as impolite and possibly offensive. Physical contact between people of the same sex also has different meanings in different cultures. In China, it is seen as a way to show friendship and intimacy and is considered acceptable. But in English-speaking countries, people of the same sex should not walk hand in hand or with arms around each other's shoulders after childhood, as it is seen as a sign of homosexuality. Secondly, different behaviors have the same meaning in different cultures. For example, when showing disagreement, awkwardness, disapproval, etc., the Chinese tend to shake their heads or hands while the Westerners prefer to shrug. When signaling someone “to come here”, the Chinese usually reach out their hand, palm down, and bend their fingers several times, while the Americans like to reach out, palm up, make a fist with the index finger swinging back and forth. The way to express welcome is also vastly different in different countries. Arabs, Russians, French, and people from Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries hug each other warmly and kiss on the cheeks even if the contact is between two men. But in East Asia and English-speaking countries, men rarely hug; instead there is usually only a handshake. In Japan, a deep bow is used instead. Thirdly, some behaviors only appear in a certain culture. For example, chewing your nails in the US often indicates the person is under a lot of stress, and is afraid or at a loss. Putting the hand in front of the chest, clenching it into a fist with the thumb down, swinging downward several times means to strongly disagree with a suggestion, an assumption or a person. Shaking the index finger( with the index finger extending upward, the other four held together) means to warn the other person not to do something or to reprimand him/her. In China, when people speak with one open palm covering the mouth, he/she is telling a secret. Handing over something with two hands is a way to show respect. And if someone pours tea or wine into your cup, you should open your palm, and place it near the cup to express thanks.

Attention should also be paid to cultural factors related to the environment when teaching culture. This is important as culture is closely related to contexts, interpersonal relationships, customs of etiquette and values, and could cause misunderstanding in intercultural communication. Cultural factors mainly includes culture differences in greetings, expressing thanks and gratitude, compliments and praise, taboos and euphemisms, appellations, etc. Therefore, apart from helping students to remember communication-related terms, the teacher should also help them to summarize cultural factors in daily communication so that they fully understand the communication rules. For example, when students meet a foreign teacher, to make conversation, they might say “Hi！ Mrs Murphy, where are you going? ” This is a common greeting to the Chinese, but is considered impolite or too personal and prying to the British and the Americans. Another example is when responding to praise, such as “You speak English well！” Chinese people tend to reply, “My English is not good.”, or “I do not deserve it, I still have a long way to go！”, whereas British or Americans will say “Thank you.” or “Thank you for saying that.” If you reply in the Chinese way, the other party may feel that you think he lied or was insincere. Westerners do not like to impose their will on others, so they rarely say “You should do ...” but generally use tactful phrases, such as “Would you mind doing ...? ” When making suggestions, Westerners rarely use imperative sentences, instead they say “How about doing ...?” When offering help, Westerners will say “Would you like me to ...”.When welcoming guests from afar, Chinese people will say “You must be exhausted from your journey.” or “Are you tired? ” to show their concern. But this may be inappropriate, because foreigners want to appear young and energetic in front of others, and do not want to appear fatigued and weak. Therefore, we can greet them with “How was the flight?” “Have you had a pleasant flight?” “You have had a long flight”. Moreover, Westerners take age, marital status, income as private personal information and it is rude to ask about such topics. Therefore, the teacher must enable the students to grasp what is taboo in conversing with Westerners, so that they can avoid miscommunication and use the language more appropriately.

(III) Methods of teaching culture

In the practice of teaching culture, we can employ the following methods.

1.Direct method

The direct method introduces cultural background directly to students in language teaching. Chinese students mainly learn English in the classroom and they have little contact with a native English environment. They often feel puzzled when they come across cultural background materials in the text. In this case, teachers should play the role of a leader and introduce cultural background to the students directly. Teachers can choose some typical culture information that is relevant to the teaching content and let the students apply them properly in the classroom. This method can make teaching informative and interesting, stimulate students' curiosity, and enliven the classroom atmosphere. For example, in Junior English for China; Book 1, Lesson 74; PEP when someone asks “Would you like something to eat/drink? ”, the Chinese often reply “No”, “Please don't bother” and so on. But in English-speaking countries, if you do want something to eat or drink, you can just say “Yes, please.” If you don't, just say “No, thanks”. This example illustrates the reservation of Chinese people and the frankness of people from English-speaking countries.

2.Supplement method

This method adds cultural content to supplement the materials in the textbook. Setting up specific sections in the textbook about culture; holding lectures about culture; visiting cultural exhibitions; and organizing cultural discussions, performances and activities are recommended here. In this way, supplemental cultural knowledge can enable students to systemically master basic cultural knowledge of different countries. The supplemental cultural knowledge can be attached to the textbook, and can also be organized into a separate reader. The teacher can recommend books and magazines on British and American culture, and organize special foreign cultural events after reading to cultivate student's cultural competence. The activities can include questions and answer sessions, discussions, contests or drama performances, etc.

3.Fusion method

This is to integrate the goals of cultivating knowledge, attitudes, and abilities into language teaching so that the students learn culture subconsciously in the process of language learning. This method is to write language materials with culture as content. In classroom teaching, conversations, cooperative interactions, performances, and exchanges about culture are used. Culture knowledge is seamlessly merged into the textbook and the teaching process in this method. But as language knowledge and competence teaching has its own unique processes, ( for example, we need to learn the singular form of nouns before we learn the plural forms) it is hard to fully incorporate teaching culture goals. So this method can be used together with the supplement method. With the supplement method we can present comprehensive views of culture, and with the fusion method, we can integrate the goals of culture education into the text, and build student's culture competence together with foreign language competence.

4.Interactive method

This is a method in which the teacher and students perform and interact as people coming from different cultures. In the interaction, the teacher and students compare a particular cultural phenomenon, and the students can notice the cultural differences between themselves and their teachers in the process, and then they can draw their own conclusions. To implement the interactive method, we can analyse the causes of cultural confusion, resolve cultural conflict, and research into a specific cultural topic. The interactive method is most suitable for cultivating the appropriate attitude in teaching culture. Through open, interactive and fair discussions, students can independently form an open, equal, respectful( free of discrimination) , tolerant, objective( without bias) , prudent cultural attitude. So in organizing the interactive discussion, the teachers should pay special attention to their own openness, fairness, respect, tolerance, objectiveness, and prudence. Of course, in interactive discussions, the teacher should just give out the materials, but not the point of view directly. They should lead the students to discuss the matter broadly and deeply to form their own cultural attitude.

5.Practice method

This is a method that allows the students to participate directly in cultural communication, so that they can acquire culture knowledge, form their attitude towards culture and develop their competence in the practice. The teacher can create a cultural communication environment and place the student in a typical real-life scenario. The teacher can also use modern teaching techniques, such as multimedia, the Internet, TV, slides etc. to play videos and movies. This can give students direct contact with foreign language and culture and they can absorb the culture through what they see and hear. The teacher can also recommend students read simple readers on foreign culture in order to increase their understanding of English culture. The teacher can also hold English corners or English parties to give them more opportunities to use their culture knowledge.

6.Comparison method

This is to compare the differences and similarities of the native language and target language cultures, so as to enable the students to understand and grasp their differences and similarities. The similarities can lead to positive transfer of language learning and acquisition, while the differences can prevent negative transfer of culture learning and acquisition. This method proves to be effective as it compares the different and similar points of the target language and native cultures, working from the depths of language to the surface of it. It is helpful in overcoming student's psychological barriers in learning foreign language and culture. For example, both Chinese and English have euphemism when talking about “death”. In modern Chinese, some examples are “leaving this life”, “eternally asleep”, “farewell forever”, “resting in peace”, ( “逝世”、“去世”、“永别”、“病故”、“千古”、“安息”、“长眠”、“捐躯”、“牺牲”、“归天”、“上天堂”、“夭折”) etc., and in English there are; go the way of all flesh, breathe one's last, pass away, one's heart stopped, depart from this world, demise, passed over to/joined the majority, handed in his accounts, be in the dust, come to untimely end, and shuffle off this mortal coil. Some idioms may be different because of different cultural backgrounds. For example, “as close as an oyster”( 守口如瓶) , “to spring up like mushrooms”/“as plentiful as blackberries”( 雨后春笋) , “as rich as a Jew”( 富可敌国) , “as strong as a horse”( 力壮如牛) . Another example is the word “summer” which has different connotations to the Chinese and British. The mention of “summer” will make the Chinese think of scorching sun in June, while the British will feel the cool and mild weather because of its maritime climate. A famous quotation from Shakespeare may serve as a good illustration; “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day; thou art more lovely and temperate.”

Of course, in comparing two different cultures, teachers should guide students to correctly understand and deal with the relationship between the foreign and the native cultures. On the one hand, we should hold an objective and tolerant attitude towards foreign culture and avoid a close-minded attitude and rejection of all foreign culture. On the other hand, we should avoid blindly following foreign cultures. We should maintain our own cultural traditions and deepen our understanding of our own culture.

7.Experiential method

The experiential method is to let students obtain cultural knowledge, form positive cultural attitudes, and finally build culture competence through personal experience in teaching culture activities. In foreign language teaching, there are two kinds of experiences; direct experience and indirect experience. Direct experience is to allow students to have direct contact with the foreign culture( such as studying an independent unit on foreign culture in a textbook, attending lectures on foreign culture, watching foreign movies, having direct contact with foreigners) . Through direct experience, students can get to know the foreign culture directly, and they can find out what the foreign culture is and their own attitudes towards it. They discover what attitude is conducive to learning about the foreign culture and how to communicate with foreigners, etc. In this way they develop a positive attitude and cultural competence through direct communication. Indirect experience is to incorporate teaching cultural content in conventional teaching and learning activities to enable students to understand foreign cultural knowledge subtly, form positive culture attitudes and efficient cultural competence. Indirect experience is particularly suitable for elementary school students as little children learn culture mainly through perception, which is conducive to cultivating their attitude towards culture. Direct experience is more suitable for clear and targeted instruction of culture and is good for teaching culture in middle schools.