An Evalution Of The College English Textbook Series-New World Interactive English:Reading,Writing & Translating (Second Edition)-from The Perspective Of Intercultural Communicative Competence

With the rising of China’s international status and the frequent communication between different nations,the cultivation of intercultural communicative competence is becoming increasingly important in foreign language teaching classes.Teaching materials are the most vital tools in classes.Therefore,it is of practical significance to evaluate contents of intercultural communication in teaching materials,to improve the textbooks by using the theories of intercultural communication,and to make the teaching materials better serve the developmental needs of the country and the times.New World Interactive English:Reading,Writing&Translating(Second Edition)is a series of college English textbooks published in 2020.In the preface of the series,the authors point out that the textbooks include authentic contents around the world which could provide students a global perspective,and the series can cultivate students’ awareness of intercultural communication.Therefore,this study sought to evaluate the textbooks—New World Interactive English:Reading,Writing&Translating(Second Edition)—from the perspective of intercultural communicative competence in order to find out that to what extent the texts and exercises in the textbooks reflect the goal of cultivating students’ ICC and what are students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the textbooks in cultivating their ICC.This study consists of the internal and external evaluations.In the internal evaluation,an in-depth analysis was conducted to evaluate the texts and exercises in the textbooks based on Wang’s(2018)and Zhong et al.’s(2013)frameworks.In the external evaluation,questionnaires and interviews were employed to investigate the users’perceptions toward the textbooks.The results show that:(1)Nearly half of the total texts are interculturally-related,and nearly 90%of the total exercises help cultivating learners’intercultural communicative communication.(2)Students held positive attitudes toward the textbooks in general.Moreover,in general,there is no significant differences between different groups of students.Teachers did not have the awareness of teaching contents concerning ICC,while some activities designed for students in classes could cultivate their ICC.According to the results of the internal and external evaluations,the strengths and weaknesses of the target textbooks were pointed out,and the suggestions for the revision of the series were offered:(1)The number of the reading passages with Chinese culture should be increased.(2)The number of the reading passages concerning large culture,which may reinforce learners’ stereotypes toward certain countries or ethnics,should be reduced.(3)The exercises concerning attitude and awareness should be added,and the exercises concerning the skill dimension should not be overlooked.(4)The dimensions of ICC should be designed explicitly and systematically.This study provides suggestions for the revision of the textbooks and makes contributions for the series as to the improvement of the textbooks for better cultivating learners’ intercultural communicative competence.