An Investigation And Analysis Of The Cultural Content Of The Textbooks For Junior Middle Schools Published By Shanghai Education Press

In March 2014,the Ministry of Education of China issued a report entitled On Comprehensively Deepening the Curriculum Reform and Implementing the Basic Task of Setting High Moral Values and Cultivating Persons.This report shows that Cultural disposition is one of the important part of English Subject Core Competencies.Learning English is an important way to have intercultural communication,and the process of learning English is also a process of forming intercultural awareness and ability.Therefore language and culture have close relationship.In other words,Language is the main carrier of culture,and language learning is also a process of culture learning.English textbook is an important tool for language learning and teaching.In China,textbooks are used as major English learning resourse and as the main language input.So,the importance of English textbooks in English learning is self-evident.Based on the current textbook publishing model of more than one series of textbooks under the same syllabus for the same course in China,different versions of textbook have their own characters.It's necessary to analyze whether the cultural content of a certain version is suitable for English learning and teaching.Based on the status quo of cultural content analysis on EFL textbooks,this thesis mainly through literature analysis and questionnaire survey analyze the cultural content in the English textbook for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press.The cultural content in the English textbook for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press which were summarized in category,uses the culture classification combined with Risager's model and Cortazzi,M.and Jin,L.'s model.A questionnaire survey was conducted with teachers and students on their attitudes towards the textbook.The results indicate:(1)The textbook attaches more importance to the content of the Common Culture,and the Source Culture.However,according to the results of textbook analysis and survey of teachers and students,it can be found that the cultural content about Source Culture and Comparative Culture are insufficient.(2)This set of English textbook includes a wide range of cultural content and the topics of them reach the requirement of Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard(2011).(3)Interviewee teachers and most of the interviewed students hold positive attitudes toward the cultural content in the textbook,for they know the importance of the cultural content in the books.But there are still some students who don't even care about the cultural content in the textbook.Based on the research,some implications for the compilation of the textbook and teachers are given.First,the proportion of Comparative Culture and Source Culture in the textbook should be increased,and the cultural content need to be related to students' daliy life.Secondly,EFL teachers should develop their cultural teaching view.Thirdly,EFL teachers should have deeper understanding of the cultural content in the textbook and keep learning to enrich their own culture knowledge.Last but not least,EFL teachers should pay enough attention to the cultural content and find out the fittest way to teach different types of culture.