| Cultural keywords are words that are closely related to social and cultural life and can reflect changes in social and cultural patterns,so the study of cultural keywords is an important means of studying the coding of ideological information.At present,there are few domestic studies on cultural keywords,and they are rarely designed into the field of textbook research.Related domestic studies would analyze texts from multiple semantic sets such as family,life,work,etc.But usually only 1-2 words are studied under each semantic set.This study uses four editions of junior high school English textbooks(1978,1994,2001 and 2012 editions)as the source of the corpus since the reform and opening up 40 years ago,and builds the corpus of junior high school English textbooks of People’s Education Press(abbreviated as PEP in the following parts).The corpus is studied through Sinclair’s extended unit of meaning model to analyze the cultural keywords in the semantic set of "family" which is made up of four words,FAMILY,HOME,PARENTS and CARE.The extended unit of meaning model includes four research perspectives: collocation,colligation,semantic preference and semantic prosody,which can realize the co-selection of words,syntax,semantics and pragmatic functions.This study specifically answers three questions:(1)What are the distribution frequencies of cultural keywords of “family” in the four versions of PEP English textbooks?(2)What are the features and implications of cultural keywords of“family” from the perspective of extended units of meaning in the four sets of PEP English textbooks?(3)What are the features of presentation of HOME among four sets of textbooks?The study found that(1)First,HOME has always had the largest share of the four cultural keywords,but its share in the overall has been decreasing.Second,the sum of the four cultural keywords has an increasing share in the four editions of the textbook,implying that the family is gaining importance in the textbook.(2)There are many similarities and differences of features and implications of cultural keyword of “family” among four sets of textbooks.For FAMILY,the context is constantly expanding and deepening,and the concept of family is becoming much fuller and richer.For HOME,the image of home is constantly expanding and diversifying.From being limited to the main character’s house,then friends,charities,to finally animals’ habitats,the concept is diverse,while the quality of the content is also rising,which can contribute to the shaping of children’s intellectual abilities and moral ethics.For PARENTS,each version is full of content and has a different focus,either including parents’ behaviors or interactions between parents and children.However,it is suggested to combine the two features in the latter versions to complete the contents.For CARE,the form of appearance is mainly “take care of”,and the objects are constantly changing,summarized as family members,the vulnerable,animals and the caregivers themselves,which combines the ideas of personal and social orientation to promote their overall development.(3)The presentation of HOME in four editions shows the progress and improvement in all aspects of the time.First,the teaching materials tend to contain more various cultural information.Besides,with the development of teaching theories,the curriculum standards are becoming more comprehensive for students,focusing on four language skills and thinking patterns.The use of pedagogy is also more flexible and varied. |
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