| Popular culture has imperceptibly become part of teenagers’ daily life,gradually exerting a powerful influence on their lifestyles and values.At present,popular culture close to students’ life has been a significant resource for English language teaching.There are some studies on popular culture in middle school English education.However,few of them are conducted on the contents of popular culture in teaching materials.This research analyzes the contents of popular culture in English textbooks Go for it! and then investigates teachers’ and students’ perceptions of popular culture in textbooks and the current situation of teaching popular culture.In terms of the triangular relationship between textbooks,teachers,and students,the research questions include:(1)What are the proportion,topic distribution,and presentation of the popular culture in Go for it! ?(2)How do teachers and students perceive the popular culture in English textbooks?(3)How do teachers teach the popular culture in English textbooks and what are the problems?In order to answer the questions above,this study first makes a statistical analysis of the popular culture in textbooks Go for it!.Then,the study employs the methods of questionnaire surveys,classroom observation,and interviews to explore students’ understanding and teachers’ perceptions and teaching of the popular culture.The participants of the study are 110 students in Grade 8 and Grade 9 from an experimental middle school and 70 teachers from five middle schools in Hangzhou.The results are analyzed and concluded as follows.Firstly,the proportion of popular culture contents increases from Book 1 to Book 5 and the presentation of popular culture is reasonable,but the topics are unevenly distributed.Secondly,teachers are aware of the significance of popular culture for students’ English learning,but nearly half of them have not attached great importance to the value of popular culture in textbooks.Students think the textbooks do not provide detailed information about the involved contents of popular culture.Both the teachers and the students are unsatisfied with the contents of popular culture which are a bit outdated and inconsistent with students’ daily life.Finally,in the process of teaching popular culture,teachers try to connect popular culture with students’ life,use visual aids like pictures and videos,and provide relevant background knowledge to arouse students’ interest and encourage them to express their ideas.However,teachers do not adopt various methods to help students explore the deeper understanding of popular culture,and they do not fully realize the value of teaching popular culture.In light of the major findings,this research provides some implications for the compilation of English textbooks and the teaching of popular culture. |
