温小霞
廉江市实验学校，湛江 中国
中文摘要
《中国老师来了》是BBC拍摄的纪录片，共三集。此纪录片在世界范围内，引起了广泛的关注。它呈现出中英两国之间完全不同的教学模式，而孰优孰劣难以分辨。本论文拟从跨文化交际的层面对此纪录片进行分析。
关键词：《中国老师来了》;教学模式;跨文化交际
An Intercultural Communication Analysis of BBC Documentary: Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School
Postgraduate: Wen Xiaoxia Grade: 2018 Major Field of Study: English Teaching
Abstract in English
The 3-episode BBC documentary, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School has attracted wide attention around the world. It shows us the completely different teaching styles between the UK and China. It is hard to say which one is better. In the thesis, I am going to analyze it from the perspective of intercultural communication.
Keywords: Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, teaching style, intercultural communication
Introduction
A BBC documentary called “Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School” has sparked a heated debate across China and the UK. This documentary focused on Bohunt School in Hampshire, southwest of London, where five Chinese teachers were recruited to teach 50 ninth-graders for a month using the same teaching methods they apply in China (China Daily, 2015). In the first episode, the clash of cultural differences was intense. The demanding Chinese teachers and their traditional Chinese way of teaching terrified the British kids, even the school headmaster of Bohunt School. In the second episode, class disciplines are the greatest headache of the Chinese teachers. While in the last episode, the Chinese teachers work out various approaches to deal with the “trouble students” and also win the support from their parents. As a result, the students under the Chinese teaching style beat the other students from Bohunt School in the final exam who are taught with the British teaching style.
Despite the conflicts between the Chinese teachers and the students in terms of long hours, rigid discipline and traditional Chinese teaching style, Chinese teachers won in the end with higher average scores in the tested three subjects: Maths, Science and Mandarin. The experiment was conducted to uncover the truth why Chinese students top the OECD/Pisa global league table and why British students lag three years behind in Maths.
Literature Review
Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds (Yang jie, 2000).
In the following part, I am going to illustrate the barries of intercultual communication, including ethnocentrism, stereotypes, prejudice, langague and nonverbal communication.
First, it is quite normal to have the values of your community in which you are brought up. Ethnocentrism is a belief in the centrality of one’s own culture. It often involes judging aspects of another culture by the standards of one’s own. Bernett (1993:30) defines ethnocentrism as “assuming that the worldview of one’s culture is central to all reality”.
Second, as an extension of ethnocentrism, stereotypes are one of the obvious barriers to intercultural communication. Stereotypes can be either positive or negative and as (Barna, 1997) points out they help us to “make sense” of the world by categorizing and classifying people and situations we encounter. We may revert to stereotyping, for example, when we are overseas and are faced with people and situations we are not accustomed to.
Third, like stereotypes, prejudice can be either positive or negative although it is generally referred to as “the unfair, biased, or intolerant attitudes or opinions towards another person or group” (Samovar and Porter, 1991:281). Prejudice can take many forms,ranging from those that are almost impossible to detect (unintentional) to those that are clearly blatant (intentional).
The fourth and fifth factors are language and nonverbal communication.Language is one of the most obvious barriers to intercultural communication. Nonverbal communication is a communication without words. Messages are sent through gestures, proximity, eye contact, expectations regarding time and so on.
In the documentray, the British kids think it is no need for them to study English grammar. They even think there is no word like “swum”, but it actually has. This is ethnocentrism. They think Chinese students study for 12 hours every day with lots of homework without any fun. This is stereotypes and prejudice. In fact, Chinese students may have more passion in study than the British students. Chinese teachers teach British students maths, science and Mandarin in English. Misunderstanding cannot be avoided, like the statement that “children should follow their parents”. British students misinterpret it as “parents are always right”.
As we know, communication can be divided into three categories in terms of the context: interpersonal communication, group communication and public communication. For public communication, it aims for persuading, informing or entertaining. Teaching is a typical kind of public communication. Intercultural communication happens when the two sides come from different cultures. In the documentary, at the very beginning, the Chinese teachers failed to have a good intercultural communcation with the students. The main cause of this may lie in a lack of good relationship between them. I mean that the teachers can’t build an audience-centered relationship in class. To solve this intercultural communication problem in teaching, three questions should be taken into consideration. The first one is “who is the audience?” Then comes “what is the occasion?” And the last one is “what are my interests and experiences?” These three questions could be applied to search for proper topics when giving a lesson in class.
The British Students in Chinese School
Who is the audience? It is the 50 Bohunt Year 9 students. The Bohunt School is a successful secondary school located in Hampshire. However, with differences in culture and the impact of cultural conflict, the British students in Chinese School just could not act as the Chinese teachers said.
First of all, the rigid discipline in Chinese School caused rebellion rather than conformity among students. The students refused to follow the rules. They played with their phones, talked with classmates in class, brought kettle to make tea and even skipped classes, which caused s sense of disappointment of the Chinese teachers. However, from the perspective of intercultural communication, neither side should be blamed since the trigger for the class chaos was the underlying difference between Chinese and British cultural values.
In episode 2, the Chinese teacher gave a lesson on Confucius philosophy, in which she taught the students that “children should follow their parents”. This has caused completely one-sided disagreement among the students. They think parents are not always right and they should be themselves. Individualism is what they concern, instead of collectivism which we Chinese see it as a basic quality for students.
The British students grow up in a British environment, so we cannot expect them to be obedient as Chinese students. When they break the rules in class, teachers should wait and be patient until they are aware of their improper manners. When they express their own opinions, teachers should show respect towards them and communicate with them in a more relaxing way. It is OK for both sides holding different opinions. No one is right and also no one is wrong. It is just a point of view.
The Teaching Environment in Bohunt School
What is the occasion? It is the teaching environment in Bohunt School. As Chinese teachers, they are used to push students so hard in order to get good grades in the exam so that they can enter a good high school, a good university and find a good job in the future. While the teaching in Bohunt School, they focus on all-round education. Students develop themselves according to their interests.
In the third episode, many students in Chinese School were on the verge of collapse. One of them said, “Competing with others is just not a healthy lifestyle.” But competition is a normal thing for Chinese students. There is a famous Chinese saying, “Studying can help you change your destiny.” But in British, in Bohunt School, nothing is more important than the students’ happiness in school. They divide students into different classes according to their ability, and then teach them in different ways based on different syllabus. They do not set a standard for all students, but allowing them to develop themselves in different fields.
When the students fail to meet the challenge in P.E. class, the Bohunt School’s P.E. teacher just encourages them that it’s OK to try their best and there is no need to feel sorry about themselves. In China, when coming across the same thing, Chinese teacher will encourage them to do it better next time and never give up, which may give the students some pressure.
In China, teachers have the power over the students. Teachers are the authority, and students respect their teachers. But in Bohunt School, students like questioning teachers, challenging teachers and so on. In their eyes, everyone is equal on matter what situation it is. In school, they also want to do what they like to do. It is their choice to live what kind of life they want.
The students’ number also quite different. In Chinese School, there are 50 students in a class, while in other Bohunt classes, it is much smaller. So many students in a classroom leads to many problems accordingly. Some students in the back do not pay attention to the teachers. Students are more easily disturbed in class. It is not easy for the teacher to handle the whole class while teaching. And there are fewer interaction between the teachers and students. Teachers always stand in front of the class and just keep talking and talking.
The time in school is also not the same. In general, the studying time for the British students in Chinese School may be as twice as that of the students in Bohunt School. In Chinese School, students have more classes every day. They need to take notes as many as possible. They also have P.E. test, while P.E. class is a time for fun for the other students in Bohunt School. What’s more, they have two hours self-studying time every day. It is used to reinforce what they have learnt that day and ask questions about the knowledge which is not so clear to them.
The teaching evironment is quite different from that in China, from the teaching content, school time, teaching mothods and etc. Therefore, teaching in Bohunt School cannot be just the same as in China. It should be adjusted a little bit for the adaptation to the students in British.
Respect and Love
When comes to a speech topic, we should ask “what are my interests and experiences?” Without doubt, teaching is the interest of teachers. As for the experiences of teaching, respect and love come first. The respect mentioned here is mutual respect between teachers and students. Only in this way can the teachers build a harmonious relationship with students. When the teachers set up some rules for the class, students should follow them. If the both sides fail to reach an agreement, students should communicate with teachers after class rather than ignoring the rules or breaking the rules. This is basic respect to the teachers. As teachers, it is their responsibility to assist the students to learn new knowledge. They are required to strive to help students achieve their goals as possible as they can do. But in the other hand, teachers should also respect students’ interest and carry out teaching plans according to the students’ likes and dislikes. In this way, teaching can be effective and influential.
When the student Luck was punished to stand outside the classroom, the Chinese maths teacher came to him and talked with him in a friendly way. He said, “You are smart. You have to learn to be smarter. You never know what you will do in the future. You might regret. You are potential. You can be much better.” This communication seems common but change Luck’s attitude towards study. He becomes more confident and more active in class.
In order to improve the relationship with the British students, the Chinese teachers come up with many ideas. They teach them how to make dumplings, how to perform Chinese traditional fan dances, how to make paper cutting, etc. During these activities, the students can feel that the teachers are not so serious as usual, but like a family to them. This is love from the bottom of the teachers’ heart. We can also call it as a sense of responsibility of teachers. They love students and they do whatever they can do to attract students’ attention so as to carry out their teaching task smoothly later in class.
Conclusion
In the age of globalization, I believe education could become globalized as well. In this thesis, we analyze the difference between Chinese and British teaching philosophy. Although the Chinese teaching style helps students get higher grades at the final exam. It doesn’t mean that the Chinese teaching style is beyond the British one. But the two countries should learn from each other and adapt it to one’s education system. For instance, Chinese education system needs to pay more attention to students’ practical experiences, independent research skill and critical evaluation ability. On the other hand, British education system could consider raising students’ level in maths or science by guiding them to develop certain learning skills and reinforce their abilities through more practices,
Bibliography
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