An Analysis Of Cultural Content In New Standard English For Junior High School From The Intercultural Perspective

Nowadays, culture teaching is becoming increasingly important in English teaching. In 2011, the Ministry of Education issued English Curriculum Standards of Compulsory Education(2011 Edition), which emphasizes the significance of culture teaching and intercultural awareness. According to it, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press revised the 2012 edition of NSE for junior high school, a set of textbooks which is widely used in our country. For the realization of the cultural goals in English teaching, it is essential to analyze cultural content for junior high school from the intercultural perspective.First, the thesis briefly summarized the previous studies of intercultural teaching and textbook evaluations at home and abroad. Then, related theories were listed as the theoretical foundation of the study. Furthermore, cultural contents in NSE for junior high school were analyzed by using Byram's criterion of textbook evaluation. He classified cultural content into eight categories, including social group, history, geography, belief and so on. A questionnaire survey and interview were conducted in order to get information concerning the teachers' and students' cultural awareness and cultural expectations, and then the cultural content in NSE was analyzed. All data collected from questionnaires were analyzed through SPSS 20.0. In addition, classroom observation was carried out to learn about the present situation of culture teaching in junior high school's English class.The results of this study are listed as follows:Firstly, according to Byram's criterion of textbook evaluation, NSE covers all these eight categories' cultural content. But it has some disadvantages, for example, the proportions of different cultural elements are uneven. Most of cultural contents in NSE are concerned about national geography, history and life cycle, while neglecting other aspects.Secondly, teachers and students have relatively strong cultural awareness. They look forward to learning more about socialization, history as well as other cultural aspects. Besides, they desire to learn the cultural difference between Chinese and English.Generally speaking, not all users' cultural expectations are satisfied by this set of textbooks.Thirdly, though teachers and students have relatively strong cultural awareness, they fail to pay enough attention to culture teaching and learning in reality. The teachers fail to make full use of cultural content in NSE, and they still regard the teaching of language knowledge and skills as the primary task in reality.Based on the findings above, the author offered several suggestions for textbook compilers and English teachers respectively so as to improve the future culture teaching in junior high schools.