An Evaluation Of English Textbooks For Junior Middle Schools Published By Shanghai Education Press: Under The Goal Of Cultivating Intercultural Communication Competence

In April 2022,the Ministry of Education officially released The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)(New Curriculum Standards for short),which is a summary of the experience for the past ten years of compulsory education curriculum practice and is a further improvement and revision of The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 Edition).The New Curriculum Standards clearly put forward the goal of English courses is to cultivate students’ key competencies,and cultural awareness is one of the four elements of key competencies,which reflects the value orientation.It is obvious that our state is paying more attention to the teaching of culture in English education.Intercultural communication competence is an important part of cultural awareness,so it is very important to cultivate students’ cultural awareness,help them deepen their understanding of Chinese and foreign culture,and improve their appreciation of good culture.Textbooks are the main materials for teachers’ teaching and students’ learning,and they play a certain role in the cultivation of students’ intercultural communication competence.Therefore,this study makes an evaluation of the English textbooks for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press,aiming to judge whether these textbooks can help develop students’ intercultural communication competence.This study is to explore three research questions:(1)Based on the theory of cultural classification from Niu Xinsheng,what specific intercultural contents are included in the current English textbooks for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press(grades 7-9,six books in total)?(2)What are the strengths and weaknesses of the intercultural contents in this set of textbooks in developing students’ intercultural communication competence?(3)Based on the existing intercultural design and intercultural teaching contents of this set of textbooks,what strategies and measures should teachers adopt in their teaching practice to improve students’ intercultural communication competence?In order to answer the above research questions,this study conducted both internal and external evaluations on the English textbooks for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press.In terms of internal evaluation,this study made a text analysis of the textbooks based on the 13 new requirements of cultural knowledge proposed in the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 edition)and the theory of cultural classification from Professor Niu Xinsheng.In terms of external evaluation,this study investigated the users of the textbooks: for students,on the one hand,the Byram’s model of intercultural communication competence is used as the theoretical basis,and a questionnaire is made from four dimensions: knowledge,attitude,skill,and critical cultural awareness.On the other hand,students were given an intercultural knowledge test.The accuracy rate of each question and the overall accuracy rate of all the questions are calculated to judge the actual mastery of intercultural knowledge of students.For teachers,this study carried out some interviews for teachers who use the textbooks in order to know their feelings and gather their suggestions.The study found that:(1)The English textbooks for junior middle schools published by Shanghai Education Press contain certain cross-cultural contents.According to the theory of cultural classification from Niu Xinsheng,the set of textbooks contain four different types of culture,including material culture,spiritual and conceptual culture,social culture and behavioral culture.The contents related to spiritual and conceptual culture,social culture and behavioral culture are abundant,but material culture is comparatively lacking.According to the 13 new requirements of the New Curriculum Standards for cultural knowledge,this set of textbooks have sufficient contents in Article 3,Article 7,Article 9 and Article 13,while other aspects of culture,such as Chinese and foreign table manners and people’s opinions and ways of managing money,are slightly lacking.(2)This set of textbooks have a certain role in developing students’ intercultural communication competence,but they did not achieve a balance in different dimensions.The textbooks have a significant role in developing students’ intercultural communication competence in their attitude and awareness,but they exert a limited influence in students’ knowledge and skills.The set of textbooks cover a certain amount of intercultural contents,but students do not grasp it solidly.(3)In the teaching practice,teachers can adopt various strategies and ways to develop students’ intercultural communication competence,such as expanding cultural knowledge when giving lessons,holding English cultural corner activities in class and intercultural knowledge competitions.Finally,given the current shortcoming of this set of textbooks,this study offers some suggestions for the revision and the way how teachers use the textbooks.On the one hand,the textbooks should be appropriately supplemented with the cultural contents required by the New Curriculum Standards,and the cultural knowledge in reading texts that is not required by the New Curriculum Standards should be appropriately reduced.According to the theory of cultural classification from Niu Xinsheng,this set of textbooks should also be appropriately supplemented with contents related to material culture as well as some cultural topics that are lacking in different types of culture.On the other hand,teachers should be flexible in handling texts in the textbooks to make up for its own shortcomings.