A Tentative Study Of Culture Hegemony In College English Textbooks From The Perspective Of Critical Discourse Analysis

In English language teaching, the importance of cultural teaching is widely acknowledged. Western culture, especially the value from Britain and America influences university students'world view. With the approach of globalization, because of the dominated position of English, culture hegemony of Britain and America influences the ideology of university students unconsciously and even causes their blind worship toward western culture. It is in accordance with neither the cultivation target of college English teaching nor the actual need of intercultural communication. So as the direct source which represents cultural contents, the choice of cultural contents in textbooks is crucial.In this thesis, Critical Discourse Analysis is used as theoretical framework and 21st Century College English is selected as its research subject. From macroscopic aspect, by adopting content analysis, Byram's cultural classification criteria is used from the following eight categories:social identity and social group, social interaction, beliefs and behavior, social and political institutions, socialization and life cycle, national history, national geography, stereotypes and national identity. From the summary and analysis, it can be seen clearly that the arrangement of cultural contents in textbooks is focused on British and American culture, oriental culture especially Chinese culture is gravely insufficient, and the hidden western cultural hegemony is revealed. In the microscopic aspect, the text Inaugural Address is analyzed within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis from two aspects:classification and the employment of transformation to reveal implicit western ideology and to identify the representation of western cultural hegemony in the text.Based on the study, some instructions are given both to class teaching and textbook editors. In English class teaching, teachers should cultivate students'creative thinking and guide them to build up critical thinking awareness toward the text contents. Textbook editors should also realize the serious imbalance of cultural contents in textbooks and try to revise them in time.