Comparative Analysis Of The Cultural Contents Of Secondary English Textbooks In China And Singapore

The English textbook is an essential basis of language teaching,and its presentation of cultural contents,which is regarded as a hidden curriculum,has a critical influence on the development of students’ cultural awareness.As the end of the “Nine-year Compulsory Education” in China,secondary cultural teaching is a connecting link between the preceding primary education and the following further study.Therefore,the study on the cultural contents of secondary English textbooks is of great significance to further develop cultural teaching in China.In this study,two sets of secondary English textbooks,Go for it(GFI)and Step Ahead(SA),widely used in China and Singapore,are selected as research subjects.According to a Japanese scholar,Kawano Madoka’s presentation form(1987)of cultural contents,the present study selects four cultural presentations as the analysis unit,and encodes them based on the theories of Kachru(1985),Cortazzi & Jin(1999),Zhang(2007),Chao(2011)from cultural regions and Niu’s(2002)five categories from cultural themes.Meanwhile,it also examines whether GFI meets the requirements of New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior Middle Schools(Experimental Version)(New English Curriculum 2011),which was issued by the Education Ministry of China in 2011.Three questions are settled by content analysis and comparative analysis.(1)What are the similarities and differences in GFI and SA from the perspectives of cultural themes and cultural regions through the overall analysis of cultural contents under four cultural presentation types(discourses,illustrations,phrases and notes)?(2)Compared with SA,what are the characteristics of the cultural contents in GFI under each presentation type?(3)Does GFI meet the requirements of cultural awareness proposed in New English Curriculum 2011? If not,what and how it should be improved.The major findings of this study are as follows:(1)From the perspective of cultural themes,GFI and SA both focus on Spiritual Culture and Behavioral Culture,while Social Culture receives the least attention.There are three main differences reflected in the two sets.First,GFI puts more emphasis on the family structure(internal)and the connection between countries(external),while SA is more inclined to the external of families and internal of countries;second,GFI pays more attention to communication in Behavioral Culture,while SA is dominated by Spiritual Culture;third,in the construction of Perceptual Culture,SA is more systematic than GFI.From the perspective of cultural regions,both GFI and SA series have a heavy reliance on the introduction of the culture of the USA & UK,World Culture,and local culture,while Comparative Culture is far from sufficient in two sets.Three main differences are found in cultural regions.First,SA seldom introduces other cultures that belong to the Outer Circle,while in GFI,other cultures from the Expanding Circle are frequently referred to except for the Chinese culture;second,GFI is more likely to choose the big countries in the Expanding Circle.However,SA not only introduces these countries but also presents several small nations’ culture according to the topic of each unit;third,the culture of the USA has the higher frequency in GFI,whereas in SA,the culture of the UK has the larger proportion of use of the Inner Circle Culture.(2)In the presentation of discourses,it is found that GFI provides less original authentic and diversified reading passages with authors’ information from domestic and foreign countries for Chinese secondary students compared with SA.In the presentation of illustrations,GFI adopts drawings for scene-setting in dialogue teaching,and there are more illustrations in GFI that show the uncertainty of nationality.Besides,GFI lacks specific units for picture study.In the presentation of phrases,GFI not only has less amount and types of phrases due to students’ English proficiency but also lacks Further Reading part,compared with SA.Besides,there are many fictional phrases in GFI which do not have practical significance in secondary language teaching.In the presentation of notes,GFI mostly places notes in the textbook’s additional section,Notes on the Text.It is found that Notes on the Text pays more attention to the analysis of grammar rather than the introduction of culture.Besides,compared with the culture of the USA & UK,Chinese culture is seldom mentioned in this section.(3)GFI largely achieves the requirement proposed in the latest Ministry guidelines on New English Curriculum 2011,while several aspects should be improved.First,more common affectionate forms of address,farewell,ways of compliments,and responds to others’ compliments in English should be expounded.Second,more cultural contents about the geographical position,history,common plants,natural phenomena of English speaking countries should be provided.Third,illustrations with similar information of communicative behaviors should be replaced by expressive illustrations,and GFI should change the figure painting style to connect different English names with virtual characters through a combination of dialogues and illustrations.Fourth,more expressive photographs about dress code and food in English speaking countries should be supplemented.Based on the findings of this study,the author offers suggestions to Chinese textbook editors and front-line teachers,hoping that it could contribute to the revision of textbooks and secondary English teaching from the perspective of cultural contents.