论文总字数：45132字

摘 要

20世纪70年代，美国应用语言学家舒曼提出了文化适应模式理论，从社会距离和心理距离两个角度研究了二语学习者的文化适应问题。本文通过对淮安外国语中学从事二语教学的三名中国本土教师和两名外教以及他们的学生进行访谈和课堂观察，从文化适应的角度对比该校中外教师课堂教学之间存在的差异及其对学生二语习得效率的影响。通过对比，笔者发现从文化适应角度来看,外教相对中国本土教师占有很大的优势，这大大促进了外教课堂上学生的二语习得。然而,外教在教授中国学生学习二语的过程中，由于不能充分考虑到中国学生的实际情况，不可避免的会遭遇到跨文化交际方面的障碍。而中国教师由于文化上的差异，在教学过程中会发生背离目的语国家的语言习惯和习俗的情况，使学生无法了解真正意义上的二语。因此，为了创造更有利于提高教学效果的课堂教学模式，教师应结合中外教师的优势。例如吸取以学生为中心的教学理念，加强中外教师之间的合作交流以及在二语教学过程中向学生普及跨文化背景知识等。

关键词：文化适应模式理论；二语教学；二语习得

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Acculturation model theory 2

2.2 Second language teaching 4

2.3 Second language acquisition………………………………………………...5

3. A Comparative Research on Second Language Teaching by Chinese and Foreign Teachers 6

3.1 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in teaching content 6

3.2 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in their professional quality 8

3.3 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in their classroom practice 9

3.4 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in their classroom atmosphere 10

3.5 Discussion 12

4. Suggestions to Improve Teachers’ Second Language Teaching Effects 13

4.1 Absorbing student-centered teaching concepts 13

4.2 Strengthening cooperation between foreign teachers and Chinese teachers 14

4.3 Popularizing cross-cultural background knowledge 15

5. Conclusion 17

Works Cited 18

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of globalization, the borders between countries are gradually disappearing, and the earth gradually evolves into a small village in the enormous universe. As a result, cross-culture communication such as cross-border trade and studying abroad has become more and more frequent. Therefore, it is imperative for talents in the 21st century to master a second language. Schumann"s acculturation model theory answers the question why learners have significant differences in the speed and effectiveness of second language acquisition, which provides a theoretical basis for learners to study the second language in depth. At present, the L2 acquisition of most people is done in the classroom-teaching environment. Consequently, to a large extent, learners’ second language acquisition efficiency depends on the teachers’ second language teaching level. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the influence of acculturation on teachers’ L2 teaching, and thus to improve learners’ L2 acquisition efficiency.

In view of the problems and obstacles in the process of second language acquisition, domestic and foreign scholars have described, analyzed and interpreted them through experiments and other means. In the early research, most scholars prefer to explain difficulties in L2 acquisition at the language level. However, since Schumann put forward the “acculturation model” theory, other social and psychological factors such as different social and cultural environments and cultural backgrounds are gradually being recognized and valued. For example, the scholar Zheng Yuhua (2007) also discussed the relationship between the “acculturation model” and the second language acquisition effect. The author also divides the object into three groups according to nationality and family language: English ethnicity, English Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese ethnic group. The author concludes that there are differences in social distance and psychological distance between the three groups, which are in line with Schumann"s acculturation model. However, for the local residents living in mainland China, the second language acquisition of most people is done in the classroom-teaching environment. How to improve teachers’ teaching efficiency and thus promote students’ L2 acquisition, to this question, the attention of scholars at home and abroad is far from enough.

This paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 is a literature review, which introduces the acculturation model theory and the status and shortcomings of second language teaching at home. The third chapter is a comparative research on Chinese and foreign teachers" classroom teaching. The fourth part gives some suggestions on how to improve the efficiency of teachers" second language teaching according to the conclusions drawn in the third part. The fifth part is the conclusion of this paper.

2. Literature Review

Schumann"s acculturation model theory reflects the sociolinguistic perspective of second language acquisition research, and explores the influence of social factors on second language acquisition from the perspective of sociolinguistics.

2.1 Acculturation model theory

Acculturation model theory was first used to explain the social integration between groups. In second language acquisition, it means “the process of being adapted to a new culture” where the L2 learner should try to think and deal with things from the perspective of the native speaker. The core content of the hypothesis: Second language acquisition is only part of acculturation, and learners are always in a transition from being unadapted to adaptive. In general, the better the learners can adapt to the target language, the better they will be in acquiring the second language.

Today"s acculturation research has become an important area of ​​psychological research. Different from the research of early anthropologists, psychologists" research pays more attention to individual level research and explores the influence of acculturation on various psychological processes. In the past two or three decades, the increasingly frequent and complex cultural exchanges between ethnic groups have promoted the rapid development of acculturation theory research. An important aspect of those researches in cross-cultural psychology is the examination on its dimensions. In 1921, Parks along with Miller projected a one-dimensional model. The “melting pot” view of American society, or the expectation of “Americanization” of immigrants, is a concrete manifestation of this theory in the United States. The one-dimensional model that dominated both the early and mid-20th century has faced many psychologists" challenges since the 1970s, and has emerged with a two-dimensional model supported by numerous empirical studies. The most typical is Berry"s two-dimensional model. In recent years, the acculturation study mainly used the SL-ASIA scale (single dimension) to study the acculturation of Asian immigrants. Lim and his team also established a suitable application for Cambodian immigrants based on Berry"s two-dimensional theoretical framework and the actual situation of Khmer culture. This type of research attempts to explore the relationship between acculturation and various mental health variables, including drug dependence, alcohol abuse, smoking, eating habits, and bad behavior.

At present, there are not too many studies on acculturation in China. Chinese researchers are more concerned about the influence of Western culture and its cultural products on Chinese mainstream culture, such as the influence of cultural products represented by Hollywood films, McDonald"s and Coca-Cola on Chinese society and culture. With the further acceleration of the globalization process, the cultural shocks and acculturation problems that China and other countries have produced in the process of cultural exchanges and integration have begun to attract attention. From the perspective of cross-acculturation of immigrants, China currently faces the following two acculturations: one is the acculturation of Chinese residents or Chinese in other countries, and the other is the acculturation of residents of other countries in China. Especially for those foreigners in China, because of their relatively small number and problems in language communication, it is of great significance to study their acculturation. As mentioned earlier, acculturation studies in the field of psychology have begun to pay attention to the impact of acculturation on the cross-cultural social adaptation and psychological adaptation of immigrants. In addition, the impact of acculturation on academic performance, especially learners’ second language acquisition, cannot be ignored.

2.2 Second language teaching

Language is an important carrier of culture and a key medium for information exchange. Naturally, the learning of language has always been an important part in the history of human development. At present, L2 teaching is an educational activity carried out by various countries around the world, and it is the focus of school education in China. With the rapid development of economic and network globalization, L2 learning can not only meet people"s communication needs, but also serve as an important path for individual growth and self-improvement. Therefore, improving the level of second language teaching is a topic that all countries are currently studying.

In recent years, China"s economy has developed rapidly. In order to adapt to the situation of economic development and the need for new types of labor talents, China began to realize urgency of education development. On the other hand, with the expansion of colleges and universities, college students must learn skills to meet the higher requirements of society. However, their poor performance in listening and speaking of foreign languages has shown the shortcoming of such education. There are two reasons for this: First, teachers over-emphasize exam-oriented education and pay too much attention to the scores obtained by students. Second, second language teachers still use traditional grammar translation methods, which makes the classroom atmosphere dull and lacks teacher-student interaction. “Under this mode of education, students spend a lot of time reciting new words and trivial grammar rules, which help greatly them to read, write and test. However, when they face cross-cultural communication, they tend to get confused and troubled.” (Hu 32)

The study of cross-cultural foreign language teaching in China has a history of nearly 60 years and has developed more rapidly in recent years. This is because second language teaching not only teaches language knowledge, but more importantly, it is to cultivate students" communicative competence to apply foreign languages for intercultural communication. Nowadays, the cultivation of intercultural communication competence in foreign language teaching has attracted great attention from many educators and linguists, such as Hu Wenzhong (Introduction to Intercultural Communication), Jia Yuxin（Intercultural Communication）and Lin Dajin(Intercultural Communication Research). Second language teaching should be carried out in conjunction with relevant cultures, which seems to have become the consensus of the current L2 teaching community.

2.3 Second language acquisition

Second language acquisition research has flourished since its inception. Especially since the 1970s, various research theories have been continuously updated, the research team has been expanding, and research methods have also moved toward scientific development. Among them, Krashen projected the Input theory. In his point of view, the knowledge that the learner is to be taught and received should be a little harder than the knowledge he has already mastered.

Since 2000, second language acquisition has been studied in depth. The research method is based on empirical evidence, and a comparative analysis of corpus-based interlanguage has emerged. The main areas include foreign language teaching research, second language theory, individual differences, internal and external factors, cognition, and external factors. The research content of L2 acquisition is comprehensive. It includes the major fields of the fundamental skeleton of the L2. Its contents are separated to three kinds. The first kind is the “introduction” nature, including the direct translation of a paper or work, introducing new dynamics, new ideas or new ideas in Western modern second language acquisition theory, such as Introduction to the Sociological Turn in the Study of Second Language Acquisition (Ma Dongmei, 2005), Introduction to the Second Language Acquisition Philosophy (Jia Guanjie, 2005), Introduction to the Second Language Acquisition Theory (Xu Haiming, 2009) and so on. The second kind is the nature of “research”, or a commentary study of a researcher"s theoretical system. For example, the Contradiction between Two Language Acquisition Theories written by Jia Guanjie (2004), the article reclassified many theories through the discussion and research of the second language acquisition theory, which helps foreign language teachers to fully understand the relationship between the theory and practice of second language acquisition. Similar articles include Twenty Years of Chinese Second Language Acquisition Research (Guo Jianguo, 2004), Second Language Acquisition Research in the Past 50 Years (Li Zhigang, 2008). The third kind is the character of “innovation”. Such articles or works require researchers to use scientific methods to collect data and then conduct statistical analysis based on a full understanding and research of second language acquisition theory and draw on their nourishment, and finally confirm or reverse a theoretical hypothesis. For example, in order to verify the effectiveness of foreign language learning strategies, Wen Qiufang (2004) carried out three empirical studies, and finally through empirical research and statistical analysis, proposed methods to study the effectiveness of strategies.

The study courses of L2 acquisition theory at home began late. Although it has made several achievements in the present study, there are still some obstructions: the study of L2 acquisition theory in China has not been achieved in line with global criteria and the theoretical study is too superficial.

3. A Comparative Research on Second Language Teaching by Chinese and Foreign Teachers

At present, nearly all learners’ L2 acquisition is done in a classroom-teaching environment. Consequently, to a large extent, learners’ second language acquisition efficiency depends on the teachers’ second language teaching level. Therefore, a high-quality teaching environment and a qualified teacher are crucial. Through interviews and classroom observations of three Chinese local teachers and two foreign teachers engaged in L2 teaching in Huai"an Foreign Languages Middle School, this paper compares the differences between the Chinese and foreign teachers" classroom teaching from the perspective of acculturation and its impact on students" L2 acquisition efficiency, and thus making some suggestions for creating a classroom-teaching mode that is more conducive to enhance the teaching effects.

3.1 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in teaching content

As a second-language teacher, it is necessary to determine the teaching content based on the in-depth interpretation of the textbook and the actual situation of the students and the social development.

Example 1:

The summary of foreign teacher teaching content topics

The summary of Chinese teacher teaching content topics

It can be seen in the table above that Chinese teachers have their own set of teaching programs, which consist of reading, vocabulary, grammar and so on. Their teaching content is procedural. They require children to keep in mind as much fundamental knowledge as possible. Even when it comes to reading, the reading topics of Chinese teachers teaching contents are more serious than those of foreign teachers. However, we cannot deny the fact that through the most basic book learning, students" second-language sense is gradually improved, students’ confidence in learning the second language is enhanced, and their second-language level is gradually improved. While according to after-class interviews with students and class observations, under this mode of teaching, teachers rarely involve supplementing the cultural knowledge of the target language. Learners’ learning of second language only stays at the surface of knowledge, and it is difficult to penetrate into the core of culture, so it is easy to produce a sense of fatigue and boring. For foreign teachers, their teaching content is more life-oriented. They generally pay attention to the practical application of second language, emphasizing the correct intonation and the pause between sentences, and thus bring students into the target language environment.

In the context of exam-oriented education, Chinese teachers generally accentuate exams. Each lesson has a corresponding teaching task. Teachers instill much knowledge into children. This is understandable. However, while imparting knowledge to students, teachers should also supplement some of cultural background knowledge according to the current social development.

3.2 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in their professional quality

The achievements that a teacher can make must be limited by how he masters the language. The best grades a student can achieve are always lower than the goals set by the teacher"s own language ability. It is ridiculous for the teachers themselves to fail to meet the prescribed goals. Consequently, a teacher should try to improve himself.

Example 2:

A conversation between a Chinese teacher and a foreign teacher

CT: “Can you fetch my bike for me this weekend?”

FT: “Why do you talk to me like that?”

CT: “What do you mean?”

FT: “In America we command our dogs to fetch when we want them to retrieve something for us.”

CT: “But the dictionary says that fetch is used to refer to going someplace and bring something that is there back.”

FT: “Yes, but in actual daily usage we only tell our dogs to fetch.”

It can be seen vividly from the example above, for Chinese teacher, it is not difficult at all for them to tell the dictionary meaning of a certain word, and they can easily form a grammatically correct sentence. In fact, from the interviews and the subsequent classroom observations with the three local teachers who were involved in the second language teaching, it was found that the native linguistic teachers had a general good grammatical ability. While the grammar training accepted by foreign teachers seems to be relatively scarce. They know how to form grammatically correct sentences. However, it seems to be based on intuition. That is, “knowing it but not knowing why.” However, nearly all local teachers lack confidence when using idioms or words. “I worry that my second language is not authentic enough” is their common concern. “I only know that my language is grammatical, but I am not sure whether this usage is commonly used, or whether some idioms are outdated....” A Chinese teacher said in the interview. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the example above, the Chinese teacher would feel confused about the usage of the word “fetch”. What is worse, if the teacher does not realize this wrong usage and passes it on to his students, it will undoubtedly do great harm to the teaching effect, which in turn will do great harm to learners’ second language acquisition.

The childhood is a crucial period for cultivating learners’ interest in L2 learning when learners’ ability to imitate is very strong. As a second language teacher, an excellent command of professional knowledge is necessary. Therefore, it is imperative to cultivate and improve the second language level of Chinese teachers from the perspective of teaching and from the perspective of adapting to social development.

3.3 Comparison of Chinese and foreign teachers in their classroom practice

Teaching practice is crucial for accomplishing teaching tasks and purposes. When the purpose of the teaching is determined and the corresponding teaching content is available, they must be put into effective teaching practice. Otherwise, all the other things will be defeated.

Example 3:

A Chinese teacher’s class

T: “Hello, Lucy, how are you doing?”

S: “I"m doing my homework.”

T: “‘How are you doing?’ is not ‘What you are doing?’ It is used to greet people. The meaning of it is similar to ‘How are you?’”

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