Sunday 12:15-1:05PM
TTI 303/4
Small Group-Activities in EFL and Culture Learning
Chung-shun Hsia
Chinese Naval Academy, Taiwan
Language and culture are bound together in many ways. Second language
acquisition consists of not only the learning of language skills but also
the adoption of other behavior patterns of the target language community.
This paper focuses on the application of small- group discussions concerning
critical incident exercises in EFL and culture learning. From comparative
perspectives, this paper shows that people may interpret the same story
in terms of their own culture (ethnocentrism) because of different cultural
backgrounds. This paper demonstrates how the effect of cross-cultural background
knowledge plays a crucial role in foreign language comprehension. This
paper argues that small group activities aid students to change (or evolve)
from "ethnocentrism" through stages of greater recognition and acceptance
of difference to "ethnorelativism"
Chung-shun Hsia is Associate Professor of EFL and Department Chair
of Foreign Languages at the Chinese Naval Academy. His research interests
include EFL reading, EFL Curriculum and Instruction, second languages and
cultures education. |
