Textbook Evaluation Of Oxford English (Shenzhen Version) From The Perspective Of Cultivation Of Intercultural Communication Competence

With the economy developing, international communication become more and more frequent. Intercultural communication competence (ICC), which is a necessary condition for successful communication, plays an important role in it. Meanwhile, English Curriculum Standard (2011) for the compulsory education proposes the cultivation of student’s comprehensive ability of using language as the general goal of English teaching activities, and ICC is a part of it. Therefore, cultivating students’ICC is a significant mission of English education. On the other hand, English textbooks, as one of important tools for students to learn English, take this responsibility. This thesis makes an evaluation of Oxford English (Shenzhen Version) based on the requirements of Curriculum Standard (2011) and Byram’s ICC theory to investigate the effect of this set of textbook on cultivating students’ICC.In recent decades, the research of ICC and English textbooks both have attracted lots of scholars’attention. Combined two of them, some textbook research are from the view of ICC theory, and some research concentrate on cultural features contained in textbooks. However, most of research materials are English textbooks of senior high school and university. There are a few studies about intercultural factors in English textbooks of junior high school. Therefore, this thesis could enrich the research in this field.The author makes a detailed analysis and summary of intercultural factors containing in Oxford English (Shenzhen Version) from three perspectives—cultural knowledge, verbal factors and non-verbal factors, then according to Byram’s theoretical model of ICC makes a questionnaire survey from four dimensions—cntercultural awareness, intercultural attitude, intercultural skills and intercultural knowledge; in addition, makes a quiz paper for testing intercultural knowledge. Moreover,150 students in Shenzhen Haibin Middle School participate in this research. And the analysis of textbooks, questionnaires and quiz papers shows:Firstly, intercultural factors provided by these textbooks meet the requirements of Curriculum Standard (2011) from almost all aspects. For example, body language, addressing terms, the ways of greetings and farewells, geography, nature, festivals, customs, etc. Except those factors mentioned in the Curriculum Standard (2011), there are some expanding knowledge, such as idioms, proverbs, literature and so on. However, there are some deficiencies existing in these textbooks. For example, some cultural knowledge without detailed introduction, the antiquated contents of cultural knowledge and the lack of exercises for intercultural skills, etc.Secondly, to some extent, Oxford English (Shenzhen Version) is helpful for cultivating students’ ICC. After learning these textbooks, most students are acquainted with strong intercultural awareness and good intercultural attitude, on the contrary, they still have some deficiencies in both intercultural skills and knowledge aspects.In the end, based on the research findings, this thesis gives some suggestions from two perspectives—textbook compilation and teaching activities. Textbooks should not only take in a variety of intercultural knowledge, but also give it a detailed explanation, should delete some antiquated knowledge and add some innovative knowledge according to students’ interest, and should add more pictures to make textbooks more vivid. On the other hand, teachers could use the research findings as guide of their teaching activities and adjust their teaching contents.