Cross-Cultural Competence
Problem:
In the policy, there is no concrete and measurable criteria to introduce culture awareness in language teaching. Therefore, absence of this part is another reason accounted for Chinese students’ lower proficiency in English language learning. Moreover, under the current trend of examination-oriented education, the primary goal of school education is to ensure that students can pass the entrance examination and enter a higher school. Thus, raising students' culture awareness in language teaching is crucial. Moreover, lack of real cross-culture communication environment may lead to students’ absence of culture awareness as well.
Solutions:
For language planners:
a) Language planners should lay more emphasis on cultural content when designing textbooks.
b) Language planners should provide training opportunities on how to teach cultural content.
For teachers:
a) Teachers should foster their culture awareness first. Only when teachers acquire his or her awareness can he or she weave cultural awareness into language teaching.
b) Teachers can design activities, like role play and drama performance, to help create a cross-cultural communication environment.
c) Teachers can provide students with different online resources like journals, WebQuests, online courses, online videos etc.
