College English Textbook Evaluation Before Its Application From The Perspective Of Intercultural Communicative Competence Development

With the diplomatic and economic exchanges among countries becomingincreasingly frequent, communication between peoples or groups from different culturalbackgrounds, namely intercultural communication, turns into an inevitable phenomenaand an urgent demand. How to do it successfully, or how to successfully achieve thecommunicative goals of both parties, is a hot research topic and an important task to besolved worldwide. In order to achieve successful communication, both parties involvedin an intercultural communication should be equipped with one indispensablecompetency, which is called the intercultural communicative competence.As international intercourse is developing and getting increasing attention, peoplepossessing this competence is in high demand, which has greatly promoted thesustained development of the goal of teaching English as a foreign language. Expertsand scholars committed in teaching English as a foreign language at home and abroadgenerally regard that the most important goal of teaching English as a foreign languagenowadays is to build up learners’ intercultural communicative competence. As animportant medium between language teaching and learning in classroom setting,textbook plays a major role in achieving teaching goals. Today’s textbook market isflooded with various English textbooks which makes it difficult for users to choose theone they need. How to choose right textbooks based on a scientific and effectiveevaluation of textbooks is a question that calls for urgent solution.The purpose of this study is to carry out a case study of evaluation of textbooksdesigned for non-English majors before textbook application. The evaluation laysparticular emphasis on the potential effect of textbook on development of collegestudents’ intercultural communicative competence as the ultimate goal of foreignlanguage teaching. The method used in this study is documentary study and case study.By means of documentary study, the author first explores the aspects in textbook whichmay affect the fundamental components (Knowledge, Attitude, and Skill) of learners’intercultural communicative competence (ICC) through textbook application, and howthese aspects could be examined and analyzed. Grounded on findings of previous exploration, the author then works out a check list composed of necessary questions forevaluation. By means of case study, the author carries out an evaluation of the studentbook1-3for the Integrated Course of the <College English> textbook series (2002)against that check list and corresponding methods for evaluation are provided forreader’s reference. The thesis attempts to provide some useful ideas for the imperativeestablishment of a textbook evaluation framework from the perspective of ICCdevelopment, and for institutions providing higher education to make preliminarychoice of appropriate English textbooks and to use textbook in a better way byappropriate material supplementation and adaptation.The study comes to the following conclusions:1) In terms of the Knowledgecomponent, subjective culture, communicative culture and family culture should beincluded in textbooks as three important categories of culture. In terms of the Attitudecomponent, comparison and contrast among different cultures as well as empathydevelopment should be reflected through texts and practices arrangement in textbooks.In terms of the Skill component, task-based teaching model proves to have positiveeffect on learners’ communicative competence, and tasks and practices arrangement inaccordance with this model should be reflected in textbooks.2) In the student’s book1-3for Integrated Course of <College English>(2002) textbook series, subjectiveculture and communicative culture account for a certain level of percentage individually,whereas percentage of family culture is too small. Content related to interculturalcomparison and communication is too little, which is an obvious disadvantage inimproving learners’ ICC. The percentage of tasks and practices designed forcommunicative competence is over50%, which has reached a balance with that of tasksand practices designed for grammatical competence and language skills to some degrees.3) In terms of influence of instructor’s appropriate instruction and activity of learners’autonomous learning on the final effects of textbook application, the author suggestsusers of this textbook series make necessary supplementation and adaptation to itaccording to their evaluation results and demand.