Evaluation On The Cultural Content Of Advanced English (FLTRP) From The Perspective Of Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism, which appears in1990s in America, advocates the promotion ofdifferent culture equality, mutual penetration between different ethnic groups. Under thisframework, multicultural education develops and demands that education should carry outin a multicultural context and that learners coming from different cultures should respectother cultures. Therefore, at the background of multiculturalism and multiculturaleducation, the English language teaching should initiate and implement multiculturaleducation.Based on Byram’s criterion on examining the cultural contents of textbooks and thefour levels of materials organization proposed by Buttjes&Byram, this thesis putsforward a new evaluation model to analyze and evaluate Advanced English (RevisedEdition, edited by Zhang Hanxi) Book I and Book II published by Foreign LanguageTeaching and Research Press.The research results contain four main parts. First, in the aspect of macro culture,compilers of Advanced English chooses typical historical events for the texts’ materialsand most of matters in the textbooks happened between the1960s and1980s. Most ofthese materials describe and reflect the western capital politics and its disadvantages.Second, in the aspect of micro culture, most of characters in these two textbooks aremiddle-aged white males. There are various different sites of cultural activities, such asfamily, school, communities, ships and other public occasions and their proportions arenearly same. Third, in the intercultural level analysis, the results show that the text culturalthemes cover a wide range. These different cultural themes provide different cultures tolearners so that these materials complete the main goal of cultivating learners’ interculturalcommunication competence. In addition, all the materials bases on real events andpublished in world well-known journals or radio stations or books and its aim is todescribe and comment the historical events. Its materials have the high reliability. Fourth,in the international level analysis, this thesis studies the writer’s nationalities. Most writersin Advanced English are Americans and the proportion is70%who live and learn inAmerica.The result of this thesis could give some suggestions to users and compilers of thesetextbooks too.