A Study on the Effectiveness of Integrating Chinese Culture into Chinese Language Instruction: A Case Study from an Activity Theory Perspective

There is unprecedented growth in the teaching and learning of the Chinese language across the world. From the perspective of second language learners, effective language acquisition and expertise in the target language depends on the efficiency of the language acquisition process and the successful integration into the selected foreign language. As per the existing knowledge, the success of second language acquisition depends on the effective integration of culture into the teaching-learning process. The absence of a host language culture can isolate the language learner from acquiring the authentic scope and employment of the foreign language. Therefore, this study focuses on identifying challenges in integrating Chinese culture into foreign language acquisition at prominent Sri Lankan universities that offer specialised Chinese language degree programs. Furthermore, the study uses Activity theory in the Chinese cultural integration to get effective results on the research phenomena. Structured Surveys were conducted focusing on 60 students enrolled in both special and general Chinese language degree programs at the Universities of Kelaniya and Sabaragamuwa in Sri Lanka. Additionally, interviews were conducted with two groups: 10 Chinese language learners from both universities and 2 local lecturers, along with 2 native Chinese lecturers responsible for delivering lectures on the ‘Chinese Culture’ subject course at these universities. As per the major findings of the study, there were many reasons that resulted in the gap in the integration of Chinese culture into language acquisition. These reasons are the absence of a standardised curriculum, unclear scope and depth of course content, unstructured teaching methodologies, and inadequacies in the professionalism and applicability of culture-related teaching materials. In response to these challenges, the study offers recommendations, including curriculum and course content improvements related to Chinese culture, optimisation of teaching methods, effective utilisation of teaching materials, enhancement of teaching approaches, and the strengthening of lecturers’ cultural knowledge.