Study On Cultural Themes In New College English Integrated Course (Second Edition)

English culture interpretation has great significance for college students to learn English, and have a profound impact on improving the comprehensive quality of college students. Culture teaching has aroused widespread concerns among teachers and students, and the demand for developing culture teaching has become increasingly great. College English Curriculum Requirements was formally published in 2007 to standardize college students' English learning. It clarifies the important role of the college English course in college student integrated education. To be specific, college English is a compulsory basic course for college students. College students can improve their overall quality by taking this course, thus meeting requirements for future work and study. The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is to develop students' comprehensive ability to use language. In order to promote the improvement of students' English proficiency and enhance the comprehensive cultural accomplishment, teachers and students need a shared platform to jointly discuss about how to learn. Textbooks, as a bridge connecting students and teachers, are undoubtedly an important constituting part of the platform. Therefore, content selection and distribution in textbooks should be in consistent with cultural demands of the vast majority of students and teachers. A case study is made of New College English Integrated Course (Second Edition) to explore related issues of cultural theme selection and evaluation of college English textbooks.In this thesis, the qualitative and quantitative, theories and practice research methods are adopted to the study. Byram's theory on 8 categorization of cultural themes is chosen to study and evaluate the cultural theme distribution in New College English Integrated Course (Second Edition). A questionnaire survey is made among students and teachers. And survey results are fully analyzed to evaluate cultural themes in the textbooks. Meanwhile, the author also investigates the popularity degrees, most wanted genres, cultural expectations of both students and teachers for cultural themes in textbooks, with the focus being placed on preferences of students and teachers to 8 cultural themes. On the basis of evaluations and feedback on the use of the textbooks, recommendations are given for cultural theme selection and distribution in future textbook compilation. Moreover, strategies of promoting culture teaching are put forward based on an analysis of questionnaire survey results of students, so as to provide a reference for future culture teaching.