A Culture-Based Approach to Business Chinese Teaching

Abstract

在全球化的時代，跨文化能力毫無疑問是商場成功的關鍵。因此，文化在商用中文學習上十分重要。僅管目前市面上的商用中文教材大多包含文化的介紹，內容卻十分貧乏。要激發學生的文化認知以達到流利的商務溝通，奠基於文化的商用中文教學設計不可或缺。 本文探討作者教授一群國際學生商用中文的經驗。這些具有不同文化背景的學生當時就讀於台灣北部的大學。在課堂上透過電影、文學、歌曲、廣告及新聞等文化素材，學生自我建構跨文化的商業知識。作者的教學模式除借鑒自專業英文的理論，並融入成人教學與建構主義的學理。因為商用中文學生以成人為主，學生將真實生活的經驗帶入課室，透過合作學習與互動，激發跨文化溝通的能力。 商業文化涵蓋不同層次，如國家文化、區域文化、公司文化、功能文化、行業文化及團隊文化。透過各種不同的學習任務、資源與學習活動，學生從輔助認知而積極攝取知識。最後從學習日誌的分析取得學生的回饋，可作為日後課程改進的依據。推廣商用中文學習的同時，建立文化資源資料庫已刻不容緩。

There is no denying that cross-cultural competency is the key to business success in this era of globalization. Correspondently, culture is an important component in business Chinese learning. However, even though most business Chinese textbooks contain some culture content, the input is rather limited. To enhance learners' cultural awareness so as to achieve fluency in business communication, a culture-based approach to business Chinese teaching is essential. This paper discusses the authors' experience in teaching business Chinese. The learners were a group of international students enrolled in undergraduate programs in northern Taiwan. The students were from diverse cultural backgrounds. In the training program, cultural products such as film, literature, song, advertisement, and newspaper in the target language were introduced to involve learners in constructing their cross-cultural business knowledge. The paper starts with a review of the principles borrowed from the study of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as well as the theories of andragogy and constructivism. Since business Chinese learners are adults, they bring to the second language classroom with their real world experience. Through cooperative learning and interaction, students enhance their cross-cultural competency autonomously. Business culture is composed of different layers: country culture, regional culture, company culture, functional culture, sector culture and team culture. Through various assigned tasks, learning resources and activities, teachers can facilitate learners to evolve from being aware to become active knowledge seekers. In this classroom research, reflective journals were used to get student feedback. To promote culture-based learning, there is a pressing need to establish a database of culture learning resources for business Chinese teaching and learning.