A Case Study Of Multicultural Curriculum Development In Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Of Sichuan Province

In the situation of national education in the new era, this research aims at exploring the necessity, rationality and feasibility of the multicultural curriculum development of "English for Cultural Tourism" in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province.Multicultural curriculum has been the focus of some western scholars since 1980s, and since then great achievements have been made in a series of thorough research. Spurred by the diversification of global education and the in-depth development of curriculum reform in Chinese basic education, multicultural curriculum has also become a key item in Chinese curriculum research field. Gradually, curriculum research in China has veered from the initial introduction of foreign achievements to the trend of analyzing and solving practical problems emerging in curriculum enhancements, and demonstrates a complexion of curriculum localization under the guidance of multicultural education and the principles of "the Pattern of Diversity in Unity of the Chinese Nation".Based on the theoretical foundation of philosophy, psychology, sociology, linguistics and multicultural education, this research does a case study on the curriculum development of "English for Cultural Tourism" in Tibetan cultural background in view of the current English education, the natural & humanistic resources and ethnic features in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture from the general perspectives involved in curriculum development, such as needs analysis, goals-making, selection and organization of curriculum materials, development of teaching materials, classroom teaching practice and curriculum evaluation, etc.. Combined with the author's two-year personal teaching practice, this thesis employs a series of instruments, such as field investigation, questionnaire survey, classroom observation and interview to collect a large quantity of first-hand data for theoretical analysis and empirical study with the purpose of demonstrating the necessity, rationality and feasibility of the curriculum development of "English for Cultural Tourism" in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Inspired by the case study, the author attempts to explore the ideas and modes of multicultural curriculum development with an orientation to putting forward some constructive theoretical suggestions and providing a concept scheme and a practical case for foreign language curriculum reform in Chinese minority areas.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One is an introduction which briefly states the background, contents, methods as well as the significance of the research. Chapter Two reviews the development of multicultural curriculum studies at home and abroad after a straightforward introduction of multicultural education, and points out the national trend of localization in multicultural curriculum construction. Chapter Three, Four and Five are the core of the thesis. Chapter Three mainly explains the practical background of the curriculum development of "English for Cultural Tourism" in the perspective of needs analysis to demonstrate its necessity. Chapter Four is devoted to the theoretical argument in philosophy, psychology, sociology, linguistics and multicultural education with the delineation of principles to be followed in the curriculum development to prove its rationality. Chapter Five focuses on the general design of "English for Cultural Tourism" as a local multicultural curriculum. Many issues, such as setting curriculum goals and objectives, selecting contents, developing teaching materials, making teaching plans, choosing teaching approaches and evaluating curriculum are involved to expose its feasibility. Chapter Six comes to the conclusion that it is necessary, rational and feasible to develop "English for Cultural Tourism" in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. Reflecting on the case study, the author holds that multicultural curriculum in minority areas should be explored as local curriculum under the guidance of the academic ideas of "multicultural education", "dialogue" and "localization" in an overall consideration of learners, societal needs and ethnic features by the cooperation of local educational organizations with colleges or scientific research institutions to advance the local economic and educational development.