| The English Curriculum Standards for Ordinary Senior High Schools(2017 edition,2020revision)(hereinafter referred to as the New Curriculum Standards)emphasize that English curriculum for ordinary senior high schools should cultivate students’ cultural awareness,help students learn,understand and appreciate excellent Chinese and foreign cultures,cultivate Chinese feelings,and strengthen cultural confidence.Textbooks are the most important content and means for teachers to cultivate students’ cultural awareness.The most widely used textbooks are those published by People’s Education Press(hereinafter referred to as textbooks of PEP edition).Therefore,it is very necessary to compare and analyze the similarities and differences in the allocation and presentation of cultural content in the old(published in 2007)and new(published in 2019)textbooks of PEP edition based on the requirements of key competencies of English subject in the New Curriculum Standards to better understand and use the new textbooks.Based on the New Curriculum Standards and Cheng Xiaotang’s textbook evaluation theory,this study has compared and analyzed the allocation and presentation of the cultural content in the Pre-reading,Reading and Comprehending parts of the old textbooks with those in the Reading and Thinking part of the new textbooks on the basis of the comparison and analysis of the requirements on cultivation of cultural awareness in the Old and New Curriculum Standards and the arrangement of thematic contexts.Besides,teachers who have used both the old and new textbooks have been surveyed through questionnaire and interviewed.Together they aim to answer the following questions.1.What are the changes of the New Curriculum Standards on the cultivation of students’ cultural awareness compared with the Old Curriculum Standards?2.What are the similarities and differences between the old and new textbooks of PEP edition in terms of the allocation and presentation of cultural content?3.How do teachers use the new textbooks of PEP edition to cultivate students’ cultural awareness?The results show that compared with the Old Curriculum Standards,the New Curriculum Standards provide higher requirements on cultural awareness and lay more emphasis on the formation and development of students’ values and essential character.The new textbooks are more balanced in terms of the arrangement of thematic contexts and the allocation of cultural content by increasing the proportion of Man and Nature and highlighting the arrangement of thematic contexts from self to society to nature,and increasing the proportion of native culture and cultural practices to represent the requirements of the New Curriculum Standards to spread Chinese culture and to internalize cultural knowledge in practice.Besides,the new textbooks increase the weight of implicit presentation of cultural content,highlighting the output of culture;add multicultural discourses when the presentation form of“Discourse” is used to present cultural content explicitly,focusing more on allowing students to perceive culture through comparison and contrast;add new forms of implicit presentation including open questions to discuss and answer,poetry recitation,continuation writing after reading,and mind-maps,which are separate from the discourse and can cultivate students’ critical thinking,paying more attention to the combination with other key competencies.However,it is found combined with the interview that pictures used in the new textbooks are less rich than in the old textbooks and the cultural content presented through “Understanding of Culture” implicitly are still referred to by many teachers when the new textbooks are used to teach.Based on these results,suggestions are put forward for teachers from three aspects of integrating cultural resources of the textbooks,enhancing the cultural competencies of the teachers’ own and increasing students’ cultural participation so as to better use the new textbooks to cultivate students’ cultural awareness. |
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