Chapter Eight: Cultural Influences on Context: The educational setting:

教学要点：

? Education is an important social context in which cultural influences are much in evidence.

? System of formal and informal education seek to meet the perceived needs of societies.

? Schools help to fashion the individual.

? Schools are a primary means by which a culture’s history and traditions are passed from generation to generation.

Schools teach the informal knowledge of a culture.

What and how cultures teach

?Schools are the primary vehicle for teaching cultural values.

Multicultural education in the US

? Schools in the US are becoming increasingly diverse.

?Schools no longer teach only Eurocentric cultural values: instead, today schools routinely teach the experiences and values of many cultures.

? Despite improvements in multicultural education, there is still much controversy about approaches to teaching multiculturally.

Learning styles

? Learning styles are particular ways that individuals receive or process information.

? Cognitive, communication and relational, and motivational learning styles have a profound impact on classroom learning.

Language Diversity

? Language diversity is an important issue in the multicultural classroom.

? Students who are limited in their English proficiency face various obstacles in the classroom.

? Several approaches to linguistic diversity have been incorporated into the educational system.

? Teachers can do a variety of things that will assist the learning of their LEP students.

Gender, Culture, and the classroom

? Culture establishes norms regarding what is acceptable behavior

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for boys and girls, and these expectations extend to the educational environment.

Multicultural Teaching Competencies

? Teachers should be aware of what they bring to the classroom. ? Teachers should know as much about students’cultural backgrounds as possible.

? Assessing the acculturation levels of the students in the classroom will help the teacher determine how much their students are involved in their own culture as well as the Anglo-American culture.

? A key characteristic of the competent multicultural teacher is empathy.

Classroom of the future

? New technology has the potential to transform the educational environment and resolve some of the current problems in multicultural education such as language diversity, dropout rates, and different learning styles.

Additional information:

A social occupation has an ironclad rule, that is to say, only a professional occupation can have social status and be respected socially. If an occupation can be occupied by anyone at all, it can’t have social status. If teachers have no social status, their vocations can’t be respected socially, the educational structure will collapse, and progress will come to a halt.

Education Setting in Britain

Even though the UK government implements a mandatory education system for children from the ages of five to sixteen, the opportunities for education range much higher. If parents agree, the government ensures every child can be admitted to a nursery school at the age of four; and the majority of youngsters of age seventeen receive some kind of continuing education or vocational training.

In the UK schools are classified as government funded and privately (independent) funded. Private schools, which charge fees, are independent and not under the control of the government. There is a wide range of independent schools with, different charging systems to suit various types, ages and religions.

The academic year in UK has three terms, each term running for seven to fourteen weeks. School holidays are Christmas, Easter and summer vacation (July to Sep). The primary / secondary schools and further education colleges normally have much longer terms than those

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of the Universities.

Compulsory Education

Compulsory Education includes kindergarten, primary school and secondary school.

Kindergarten (3-5)

The government does not require children under five years the local Bureau of Education (LFAs) of age to go to school, but in most areas provides pre-school or early childhood education, taught by qualified teachers. In addition, there are separate individuals and agencies offering pre-school classes, enabling pre-schoolers

to better adapt to school life.

Primary School (5-11)

Generally, the British National Institute provides education for 5-11 year old primary school children although in Scotland and parts of England it is up to 12 years. Primary is usually classified as \\of Education a three-tier system is used: elementary, primary and secondary schools. Students of eight or nine-year nine years study in primary school , and 12 or 13 year-olds in secondary school. Most primary schools are co-educational.

Secondary School (11-17)

In the UK education is compulsory for students aged 5-16 years. There have been some changes to the education system in recent years, introducing some new National secondary schools funded by central government and providing free education without local government’s control. In addition, there are about 2,500 private schools for13-years plus students, teaching the secondary school curriculum. Most private schools have student hostels financed by fees and donations. These schools must be registered and government officials inspect them every four years to to ensure they are adhering to required standards.

GCSE：

Grade A* (A good result of exceptional quality)

Grade A (The higher grades needed for further and higher education)

Grade B Grade C Grade D

(Regarded as average grades-a good base from which to grow) Grade E

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Grade F

(The lower, but still useful, grades of achievement) Grade G

Ungraded (Unfortunately, no score)

Further Education

Further education is tertiary education after primary and secondary education. The continuing education of students between the ages of 16 and 18 years is generally accepted. Tertiary education is divided into two systems : academic routes and vocational routes. Academic routes focus on cultivating talents, vocational routes meet a combination of social dimensions: occupational needs, training in a variety of industries with specialized skills, and knowledge of personnel.

Academic Route and GCE A-Level

A-Level, the full title is \Certificate of Education Advanced Level”, is an important stage of the academic route , which totals over 100 subjects, over two years of general education. Students reading such courses are aged between 16-18 years old, but we must not be deemed equivalent to Chinese students studying in high school courses. A-Level is the basis for university courses, and is equivalent to China's first two years of college courses. Currently, students must choose their subjects from these courses , but according to the British Ministry of Education recently updated programme of reform, each of the subjects to students in the first year to four subjects, designed to provide students a wider scope of knowledge.

A-Level election is very important for students Section, and have the following two general principles :

1) professional objectives principle: A-Level the three subjects (or four subjects ) should focus on subjects that the students themselves want to study as undergraduate

and as professional career goals.

2) competency principle: A-Level performance choosing one or two subjects students are competent at.

A-Level and AS-Level： Grade A-Level AS A 10 5 B 8 4 C 6 3 D 4 2 E 2 1

The English believe that, with social competition o intense, it is

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impossible for one person to do everything. Only when students have a profound understanding of some aspect of an industry will they,find work. Most English students find a specialty related to their own interests hobby, and take it up as a lifetime goal. Therefore, England's specialty not only many, moreover classifies extremely carefully, for example ，some colleges and universities MBA specialty classifies to financial MBA, marketing MBA, international MBA, human resources MBA, transport MBA, clothing MBA and so on. The curriculum of each MBA is in considerable depth.

The English believe that, with social competition o intense, it is impossible for one person to do everything. Only when students have a profound understanding of some aspect of an industry will they,find work. Most English students find a specialty related to their own interests hobby, and take it up as a lifetime goal. Therefore, England's specialty not only many, moreover classifies extremely carefully, for example ，some colleges and universities MBA specialty classifies to financial MBA, marketing MBA, international MBA, human resources MBA, transport MBA, clothing MBA and so on. The curriculum of each MBA is in considerable depth.

Education in Intercultural Communication. To truly understand your own culture—no matter how you define it—requires personal knowledge of at least one other culture, one that is distinctly different from your own. In intercultural communication, we can understand other countries’ education setting and learn their advantages to improve our own. Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student.

Comparing the communicative strategies between Japanese and the American students:

1. More Japanese students stressed the importance of atonement.

2. The four most used strategies were statement of remorse, accounts, description of damage, and reparation which Japanese students used more than their American counterparts.

3. Secondary strategies include compensation and promise not to repeat offense, which were mainly used by Japanese students.

4. Japanese students offered elaborate types of promises not to repeat offense and were more open in their request of forgiveness.

5. Cultural differences in the use of apologies were evident in the following nuances:

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