An Analysis Of The Cultural Contents Of English Textbooks For Senior High Schools

In 2014,the Ministry of Education in China proposed two major competences: national identity and international understanding.Teachers and learners need to be aware of the cultural versatility and to understand the importance of intercultural communicative competence(ICC).To be aware that textbook is the main carrier of culture and to use appropriate teaching methods is essential for teachers who undertake the task of developing ICC of learners.This study first adopts quantitative method to explore how these cultural contents are represented in the English textbooks for senior high school published by People's Education Press.Second,questionnaire survey was conducted with learners and teachers to investigate whether the cultural content in this set of English textbooks is effective in improving learners' intercultural communicative competence(ICC).Findings are as follows:(1)This set of textbooks focuses mostly on merging culture while least on international target culture.The data shows that the numbers of topics related with each regional culture are almost in balanced.But the number of topics relating with each culture is not in balanced.The number of topics related to merging and source culture keeps higher than that related to target and international target culture.There is no intentional interrelationship among different topics.Results show that most of the teachers and students hope that more international target culture is added to the textbook.(2)This set of textbooks aims to improve learners' idea culture in product culture,behavior culture and idea culture.The results of the survey show that most teachers and students think that more cultures about behaviors and ideas should be added to the textbook.(3)This set of English textbooks is effective in improving learners' intercultural communicative competence(ICC)perceived by learners and teachers.In the end,some suggestions are provided for teachers and textbook writers regards to the writing and using of the cultural contents in the textbook.Teachers should carry out intercultural activities and strengthen the usage of cultural elements in the language teaching process.Cultural contents in the textbook should reflect the specific needs of the learners.