A Study On Culture Elements In Senior High New Standard English Textbooks In "The Belt And Road Initiative" Context

Nowadays,“the Belt and Road Initiative”(Short as BRI,known as The Silk Road Economic Belt or 21st-century Maritime Silk Road)has officially been proposed,which has also posted new requirements on the cultivation of foreign language talents in China.Although the countries along the BRI do not all speak English as their official language,English,served as lingua franca for business,plays a crucial part in the BRI for communication.Master English is an effective way for Chinese students to engage trade and culture exchange in related fields in the BRI range.Since the use of language is influenced by culture,to study foreign and Chinese culture elements in English textbooks,especially the relationship between culture elements and the BRI,is very important.Meanwhile,China as a host country of the BRI proposal,it also requires Chinese students to develop English competency to introduce Chinese culture to the world.Therefore,besides textbooks analysis,another purpose of this thesis is to explore whether high school English textbooks can exert the function to deliver diverse cultures in the world to Chinese students or not,broaden the cultural visions of high school students,and help them perceptualize and appreciate other country’s diverse cultures along the BRI,and lay the talents with multicultural consciousness for the contribution to the BRI.In this thesis,the following questions are to be explored:1)How do foreign and Chinese culture elements in New Standard English(NSE)textbooks(2013)distribute? What is the percentage of each?2)What are the differences between culture elements in NSE textbooks and the BRI context?3)Whether the Chinese culture elements in NSE textbooks can influence the spread of Chinese culture by students in English in the BRI context?In this thesis,according to Byram’s eight textbook evaluation criteria(1993),which include social identity and social groups,social interaction,belief and behavior,social and political institution,socialization and life cycle,national history,national geography and stereotypes and national identity,a detailed analysis of the culture elements in the five compulsory English textbooks is made.Besides,this thesis compares the culture elements in five compulsory senior high English textbooks of NSE with the five civilization systems along the BRI,which includes Chinese civilization,Western Euro-America civilization,Arab civilization and India civilization,and Russia and Eastern Europe civilization.Through this comparison,differences between the culture elements displayed in NSE textbooks and theelements along the BRI can be studied.For this research,textbooks analysis,literature review and questionnaire are the research methods.The research results indicate that in the five compulsory NSE textbooks,Chinese culture elements account for 27% of the whole topic while foreign culture elements account for 73%.Both Chinese and foreign culture elements covered such fields as life,society,science,education,history,music and festivals.Although the BRI covered a large range of culture systems,culture elements in NSE textbooks,however,mainly focus on introducing Western Euro-America culture;lacking the introduction of world cultures,especially cultures of the neighbor countries along the BRI.Regions like middle Asia and west Asia’s culture elements in the BRI context have not been covered in NSE textbooks.By analyzing NSE culture elements based on the eight criteria given by Byram,this thesis finds that the distribution of culture elements in textbooks is reasonable,students and teachers favor social life related subject.The results of questionnaires show that students and teachers have high cultural awareness,but there are few cultural studies in actual teaching activities.While Chinese culture elements covered such fields as education,science,history,and geography,the proportion of it in NSE textbooks is very low;students have difficulties in expressing Chinese culture in English.Based on the research,the thesis finds that there is a great difference between the culture elements covered in the current NSE textbooks and the elements displayed along the BRI.It is clear that in the process of senior high school English teaching,cultural awareness has been brought to both teachers’ and students’ attention,but only consciousness is far from enough,culture teaching should be put into practice in the BRI context.Finally,it is hoped that this thesis can provide an effective reference for the future teaching materials compilation and the cultivation of students’ multicultural cognitive ability.