A Comparative Study On Cultural Contents And Their Presentation In English Textbooks Of Senior High School Between China And Japan

Recent years has witnessed the increasing frequency of intercultural communication among different countries and the importance of cultural contents in foreign language education.One of the major tasks for English teaching is to develop language learners' intercultural communicative competence to make successful intercultural communication.China's English education overstresses language knowledge but overlooks the teaching of culture in our English textbooks,which is an important reason for China's English learners' poor intercultural communicative competence.Both China and Japan attach much importance to the development of English learners' intercultural communicative competence.There are differences in the selection and presentation of culture between China's and Japan's English textbooks of senior high school,though China's English Curriculum Standards for High School(version 2017)and Japan's Education Guiding Essentials for High School(version 2017)both emphasize the acquisition and comparison of cultural knowledge.It provides comparability for this study.Furthermore,the comparison between the two countries' English textbooks can provide implications for the selection and presentation of culture in China's senior high school English textbooks.On the basis of Martin Cortazzi and Lixian Jin's(1999)theory of cultural classification,common culture and comparative culture are added to the cultural types in the comparative analysis of English textbooks in the thesis.The comparison is between China's New Senior English for China Student's Book(hereinafter NSEFC)published by People's Education Press and Japan's All Aboard Series! English Communication(hereinafter All Aboard Series)published by Tokyo Shoseki from five cultural dimensions: source culture,target culture,international target culture,common culture and comparative culture.Under the framework,taking sentence as a unit,the thesis compares the cultural communication information in each cultural type.Besides,with the aid of tables and figures,the thesis compares the cultural presentation from the above five cultural dimensions.It is found that there are quite a few similarities and differences either in cultural contents or their presentation.In the selection of cultural contents,both NSEFC and All Aboard Series show universality,communicativeness,and attempt to avoid homogenization,but lack comparability in both series of English textbooks.As to the differences,China's English textbooks relatively pay little attention to synchronicity and national characteristics,while Japan's English textbooks lack cultural inclusiveness.In cultural presentation,diversity can be seen in both series of textbooks,while tables and figures perform a relatively crucial function in Japan's English textbooks.Making a comparative study of English textbooks from a cultural perspective is not only a critical reflection on the overstress on English language knowledge,but also an attempt to turn the focus to developing language learners' intercultural communicative competence in English as a Foreign Language(hereinafter EFL)education.The study advocates that the cultural contents and their presentation in China's English textbooks should think highly of Chinese national characteristics,the communicativeness of culture and civilization to develop language learners' intercultural communicative competence and to improve China's EFL education of senior high school.