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As it is known, linguistic accuracy in a foreign language is one important feature to be learned, but a person needs to achieve functional abilities in the foreign language as well. Worse still is the possibility of a total communication breakdown and the stereotypical labeling of the foreign language users as people who are insensitive, rude, or inept. The ignorance of culture in learning and teaching has not only affected students’ abilities of learning a foreign language, but also cause misunderstanding at communication level. “Learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. It means learning also to see the world as the native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their “language of the mind”. Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.
As a result of examination-oriented influence, although the students have received several years of formal English education and had good grades in school, they are still “mute” in speaking or cannot speak English appropriately and effectively. A number of studies and tests in the area have also been made in all attempt to find out how Chinese teachers’ and students’ cultural competence is related to their linguistic competence. Although the studies are quite obvious in showing that Chinese English learners’ cultural competence is far behind their linguistic competence, they mostly fall short of accounting for the causes and suggesting remedies.
2.3 The Significance of Carrying Out Intercultural Education
The study of foreign language learning has a history of over one hundred years, which has contributed a lot to Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) both in theory and in practice. And it is lacking neither in theoretical construction nor in practical experience. However, the study of target culture teaching and learning has never experienced such popularity and prosperity. It did not find its place in FLT until the birth of sociolinguistics, a branch that studies the relationship between language and society. Even up to now, culture teaching has not been seriously studied as an independent discipline; instead it has been still in a subordinate and subsidiary position in FLT. Such a position is not in accordance with the demand for an integration of foreign language learning and foreign culture learning, which has been proposed as a possible solution to various problems such as sociopragmatic failures. Therefore, to promote a mature and comprehensive study of foreign language teaching and learning, there must be an increasing study of foreign culture teaching.
In addition to facilitating language learning, culture teaching is instrumental and essential to the development of an intercultural perspective and intercultural communication competence. This can be realized by learning or experiencing more than one culture, and foreign language learning is an efficient channel of acquiring knowledge about different cultures. Accordingly, if FLT incorporates culture teaching as an integral part, learners will obtain both a communication tool and all intercultural perspective, a very important qualification for the 21st century.
To summarize, the study of culture teaching is highly necessary.Without enhancing culture teaching, foreign language teaching would still be preoccupied with the teaching of grammar and vocabulary. Without enhancing culture teaching, FLT would be always boring to learners, and their motivation to learn could not be easily aroused. Without enhancing culture teaching, FLT would still be a profession that helps to equip the learners only with a communication tool, and its potential could not be fully exploited. Such an understanding of the significance of culture teaching and learning justifies an impetus to the study of culture teaching in foreign language education.