An Analysis Of Senior High School English Textbook From The Perspective Of Education For International Understanding

Education of International Understanding(EIU)has been officially quoted in the State Outline of Education Reform and Development Project(2010-2020)in China.The English course is one of the important ways to implement EIU.New Senior English for China Student's Book(NSEC)is an English textbook extensively used in high schools across China.Therefore studying its EIU function is of great significance to the implementation of EIU in the country.Research methods include literature review,textual analysis,questionnaires,interviews.It is consulting a large number of documents and materials on CNKI and relevant databases,analyzing and untangling pertinent researches of the analysis of senior high school English textbook from the perspective of EIU that lay a solid foundation for the thesis.The thesis analyzes and discusses 70 discourses from NSEC compulsory 1 to elective 7 textbooks.Two sorts of questionnaires are distributed and collected to 100 senior high school students to investigate students' evaluations of NSEC's EIU function and International Understanding abilities.What's more,four senior high school English teachers are interviewed about their views and practices on the infiltration of EIU in English curriculum.The thesis focuses on the following questions.1.What is the quantitative distribution and presentation of discourses with the EIU function in NSEC? 2.How do teachers and students evaluate the EIU function of NSEC? 3.After using NSEC,what is the overall level of students' international understanding ability? Are there any differences in international understanding ability of students with high,middle and low English proficiency?Here are the conclusions: 1.There are a large number of EIU discourses with a wide distribution range of themes,but a big gap in the proportion of 3 themes.There is also uneven distribution of sub-theme discourses.The distributions of “International Issue” and“International Culture” discourses vary considerably in various volumes,while few“International Uniting” discourses are found.The ratios of sub-theme discourses of“International Issue” are greatly different.Each sub-theme of “International Culture” isinvolved,but the ratios of relevant discourses differ from each other;the proportion of objective culture is large.NSEC involves only 1 sub-theme of “International Uniting”.EIU discourses are dominated by Chinese,American and British cultures,and a country's mainstream culture.The layout of EIU discourses is scattered.2.Teachers believe that the EIU function of NSEC is incomplete.The knowledge of international understanding is scattered.The foreign cultures beyond American and British cultures are neglected.Students also consider the EIU function is imperfect,especially too few “International Uniting”.3.After using NSEC,the international understanding ability of senior high school students in Pinghe County,Zhangzhou City,Fujian Province is at a medium level.There is no difference in the international understanding abilities of students at different levels.Finally,on the basis of the above conclusions,some advice is made on textbook compilation,English teaching and the ways of improving high school students' international understanding abilities from the perspective of EIU.Such suggestions includes a balance of various EIU thematic discourses,increasing the contents of subjective culture;to add the number of countries involved and sub-cultural contents to achieve multicultural coexistence;to have a systematic arrangement of EIU discourses;encouraging teachers to make flexible use of textbooks and supplement alternative international understanding knowledge;promoting students to acquire international understanding knowledge proactively in their life and study.