Comparative Analysis Of The Cultural Contents In Senior High School English Textbooks-Look Ahead And English In Mind

With the continuous progression of globalization,the exchange between various countries is on the rise,and the cross-cultural communication between China and other countries has become increasingly frequent.More and more scholars and educators begin to realize the important role of culture in the English learning.As the major medium of learning,the importance of textbooks in English class is self-evident.In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have made a comparison between different versions of English textbooks and the old and new versions of the same textbooks.More attention is paid to textbooks of ELTRP and PEP which are widely used in primary and secondary schools of China,but the original foreign textbooks introduced by foreign language schools are ignored.Based on Byram’s theory of cultural content category and Cheng Xiaotang’s theory of evaluation of English teaching materials,this study intends to make a comparative study of the cultural contents in two editions of textbooks,Look Ahead and English in Mind,in terms of internal and external evaluation.This study mainly discusses the following two questions: first,the distribution of cultural contents in Look Ahead and English in Mind;secondly,the evaluation of teachers and students on the cultural contents in textbooks.From the perspective of internal evaluation,this paper compares,analyzes and evaluates the cultural contents distribution of Look Ahead and English in Mind by using the theory of Byram’s cultural content category.Next,both teachers and students of Chengdu Foreign Languages School and Chengdu Shude Foreign Languages School are invited to state their evaluation of cultural contents in these two versions from the angle of external evaluation.Through the comparative study of the cultural contents in the two versions,this study shows that: first,the cultural contents in the two editions of textbooks are rich,covering a variety of cultural categories,but the distribution of cultural contents is unbalanced.Besides,Look Ahead pays more attention to the culture comparison and loses sight of national history,while the cultural contents in English in Mind don’t demonstrate stereotypes and national identity in varied nations.Secondly,the questionnaires for teachers and students reflect that the cultural contents in Look Ahead are more popular than those in English in Mind,but its timeliness needs to be enhanced.On the basis of the results of this research,the author renders detailed suggestions.For the English teachers,they should increase the content of culture comparison in class reasonably and cultivate students’ awareness of cultural equality consciously;add more Chinese culture so as to increase students’ native cultural identity;supply relevant materials or replace the texts with weak timeliness to enhance students’ interest.For the textbook compilers,it is advisable for them to arrange the cultural contents and proportion appropriately.