| Language and culture are inseparable.As the main carrier of cultivating cultural awareness,English textbooks have attracted the attention of many textbook compilers and educators.At the present stage,English textbooks are still one of the most important channels to cultivate high school students’ cultural awareness.The selection and arrangement of cultural contents in textbooks are very important,because they are related to the cultivation of cultural awareness required by the core literacy of English subjects,helping to improve students’ cultural literacy and cultivate their cross-cultural communication ability.The English curriculum standard for senior high schools(2017)also clearly puts forward the cultivation of students’ cultural awareness and intercultural communication ability.Therefore,this study attempts to explore in this aspect,through the following research questions,to examine the selection and arrangement of cultural contents in the NSEFC compulsory textbooks and to what extent they meet the requirements of the new English curriculum standard for cultural contents:(1)Which cultural region do the selected cultural contents in each unit of the NSEFC compulsory textbooks 1-3 belong to? Source culture,target culture,international culture or neutral culture? What is the proportion of each region?(2)To what extent the cultural contents selected for each unit of the compulsory textbooks 1-3 meet the requirements of the new curriculum standard? What is the correspondence?(3)Do the NSEFC 1-3 meet the needs of teachers in cultural teaching?This study takes the New Senior English for China(NSEFC)as the main research material,and according to Cheng Xiaotang’s English textbook evaluation theory,carries out internal and external evaluation on the cultural regions and cultural contents involved in the textbooks.(1)Internal evaluation of textbooks.According to the classification of culture by Cortazzi&Jin,Tajeddin&Teimournezthad,this research make a statistical analysis of the cultural contents in the textbooks,and discuss whether the selection and arrangement of the cultural contents achieve the goal of cultivating students’ cultural awareness.(2)External evaluation of textbooks.Based on the Standard of English Curriculum for Senior High Schools issued by the Ministry of Education(2017 edition),the author analyzes the cultural contents in the textbooks,and adopts the method of interview to understand the view of teachers on the compulsory textbooks,so as to explore the degree of compatibility between the compulsory textbooks and the cultural requirements of the new curriculum standard,and to investigate whether the textbooks meet the need of teachers in the actual teaching process.The research findings are as follows:(1)From the perspective of cultural regional distribution,the compulsory textbooks contain the cultures of various regions,among which the source culture occupy the largest proportion,followed by target culture and neutral culture,while the international culture occupies the least proportion.(2)Textbooks included in the compulsory series meet the requirements of cultural knowledge content in the new curriculum standard,but there is less content about the similarities and differences between peoples in foreign countries and Chinese in terms of behavior and attitude towards peoples and things.(3)According to the interview results,the vast majority of teachers hold a positive attitude towards the selection and arrangement of cultural contents in the compulsory textbooks,and they believe that the cultural contents in this set of textbooks can basically meet the needs of actual teaching,but they still needs to be strengthened in the following aspects: First of all,the textbook can add some contents about cultural contrast to enable students to have a deeper understanding of cultural similarities and differences.Secondly,some requirements for the cultural contents of the compulsory textbooks(e.g.comparing expressions of idioms and colloquialisms commonly used in English and Chinese)are not fully represented in the textbooks.Finally,textbooks can add some "trendy" culture that fits the times,which is close to students’ real life and broaden their knowledge.At last,based on the above research conclusions,the author puts forward relevant suggestions for textbook compilers and teachers,and also points out the limitations and shortcomings of this study. |
