Students’ Attitudes towards Cultural Learning in the English Classroom: A Case Study of Non-English Major Students in a Chinese University

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate Chinese non-English major university students’ interest in learning about Big “C” and little “c” cultural themes of different countries. A questionnaire was randomly distributed to 69 students in a university in China. Research findings revealed that the respondents were in favor of learning mostly about their own culture, followed by target and international target culture. Regarding cultural themes, they seemed to show a slightly stronger preference towards Big “C” over little “c” culture. With respect to Chinese (source) culture, students were interested in learning about “History”, “Food”, and “Holidays”;  for international target culture (i.e. the cultures of France, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, and Iran), the respondents were curious to learn about the cultural themes of “Geography”, “Food”, and “Holidays”; and for the target culture (i.e. America and Australia), the cultural themes of  Science” and “Geography” were favored by the respondents. Pedagogical implications of training learners to improve their ICC are offered.