Cultural Component in Chinese as a Foreign Languag...
One of the highlighted features of the VCE Chinese LCSstudy design is to incorporate a tangible strand of cultural component along with the language study.It is widely believed that cultural or linguistic background did have relevance to students’decisions to continue with their language studies(both inside and outside school)and the language students preferred to study.Acquiring the language facilitates them to be able to build strong connection with their family and own culture heritage(Lo Bianco and Aliani，2013).This factor can explain the strong presence of L1 learners and home speaker learners in school-level Chinese program but can hardly evoke resonance among genuine L2 students.Unlike L1 learners and home speaker learners，they cannot have easier access to an environment where Chinese is used as the primary medium language，nor has the possibility of receiving free and convenient tutoring from their family.In light of this situation，integrating cultural contents as essential segments of Chinese language acquisition process has the potential of creating a sense of belonging and ownership in L2 learners，and thus makes the learning less discouraging.Several studies(Moore et al.，1992;Byram and Morgan，1994;Moran，2001;Hofstede et al.，2010;Danison，2013)have suggested the same idea that for people who do not have direct family connection with China or Chinese community，to integrate cultural content is proved can improve the learning aspiration and reduce the hardness of learning language.
Chinese culture has been largely encoded into vocabulary and expressions and it is difficult to achieve high proficiency in any language without a concomitant awareness of the culture in which the language is used(Danison，2013).The learning behaviour of language acquisition is not only a pragmatics，but most definitely involves the socio-affective domain as well.Learners’own optimal level of cultural accommodation in a given setting(completely emulating the target culture norms，converging partly towards the culture，or resisting norms thoroughly to stay distant as an outsider)has a radical effect on their final achievement of language learning(Ishihara，1994).In addition，there is a growing consensus view in Chinese as a foreign language(CFL)classroom that culture(variously defined)is an integral part of CFL teaching and learning(Byram and Morgan，1994;Lange and Paige，2003).
The potential effect of bringing up the importance of cultural component in the VCE Chinese LCS resonates the expected outcome of the study design.Graduates of VCE Chinese LCSare expected to develop an understanding of the language，social structures，traditions and contemporary cultural practices of diverse Chinese-speaking communities.And their knowledge and study of the Chinese language can eventually develop into critical analytical skills of different aspects of the cultures of Chinese-speaking peoples and their communities，and gain insight into the connections between languages，cultures and societies.
As cultural is defined as the“software of the mind”，which provides a vivid description to the invisible aspect which underlies the visible aspect of culture(Danison，2013).Reflecting in the CFL classroom，students will undergo some kind of mental change in the progress of learning a new language(Byram and Morgan，1994).Thus，having sufficient exposure to the Chinese culture can help to form and shape the way of conducting and utilising Chinese language in a way that is distinctive from European language，and is an essential part to the success of fostering an ample amount of young Australian to graduate school with a very high degree of proficiency in Chinese language.Therefore，integrating cultural components in the VCE Chinese LCSis certainly a sensible approach to help L2 leaners to build connection with Chinese language，and to encourage their aspiration of learning Chinese.
However，the introduction of cultural contents attracts further discussions.Within the fixed contact hours，whether cultural contents are carefully integrated without compromising the expected language proficiency that student can achieve?Or，the added contents will take hours out from language learning?