Intercultural Communication Competence Enrichment Through Chinese Food Culture in Chinese as a Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is an essential component of language learning; naturally, learning Chinese culture is inseparable from the Chinese learning process. Chinese culture is extensive and profound, as scholars have increasingly paid attention to its role in Chinese teaching. There are several types of Chinese culture, among which food culture is a significant feature: “Fashion is in Europe, living is in America, but the food is in China” (Lin, 2000). Indeed, Chinese food culture has developed since ancient times, is rooted in daily life, and is a cultural content that learners love to hear and learn. This article uses “intercultural communicative competence”, and “Chinese food culture” as the keywords, based on Byram's ICC model. Through the method of content analysis, research from five articles and related Chinese books were used to find out about the Chinese food culture suitable for teaching in CFL classrooms. Aims to integrate food culture into Chinese as a foreign language teaching (CFLT) to help teachers better conduct classroom teaching and put forward the corresponding teaching methods and suggestions for Chinese food culture teaching. The article also discusses the food culture background and the Chinese expressions derived from such culture with a teaching perspective. In this sense, the status of cultural teaching in language teaching cannot be ignored, and CFLT must be conducted from a cross-cultural perspective. Undoubtedly, this article puts forward higher requirements for the teachers; as it involves food culture, it hopes to enlighten future teaching practices.