A Study Of Advance With English From The Perspective Of Intercultural Communication Competence Theory

As the understanding and integration of cultures, intercultural communication isworld-wide spread, English teaching not only aims to cultivate students’ English languageskills, but also requires students’ understanding of the culture embodied in the language,improving intercultural communication competence. Guided by the Senior High SchoolEnglish Curriculum Standard (2012), this research aims at evaluating the Advance withEnglish textbooks published by Yilin Press. This research which answers two questions:1. What intercultural features required in Senior High School English CurriculumStandard is included in Advance with English? Are there any deficiencies in the targettextbooks?2. After learning Advance with English, which dimensions improved the most instudents’intercultural communication competence cultivation?Guided by Byram’s intercultural communication competence mode, modules one tofive are analyzed to discuss what intercultural features are presented in Advance withEnglish. Meanwhile, in order to testify whether the textbooks are helpful in improvingstudents’ intercultural communication competence, a questionnaire survey is conducted to200students from the High School Attached to Hunan University. The results show that:1. The textbooks basically meet the requirement of Curriculum Standard2012inintercultural features, such as the intercultural knowledge in western countries, the values,the differences between China and western countries in life styles, etc. But there are stilldeficiencies. The following intercultural knowledge is limited: proverbs and allusions inEnglish, political and economic situations, mass media and so on.2. Advance with English textbooks can improve students’ intercultural attitude andintercultural knowledge to a large extent, while the cultivation of intercultural skills andawareness is limited.Finally, this research makes suggestions on how to present the intercultural featuresin textbook construction and how to improve students’ intercultural communicationcompetence. Textbooks can be added some intercultural knowledge. Textbooks can addmore pictures for better understanding in intercultural knowledge.