A Contrastive Study Of English Textbooks For Junior Middle Schools Between Mainland China And The Hong Kong Sar From The Perspective Of Intercultural Communication

Under the background of globalization,foreign language education has raised a higher demand for the foreign language proficiency of international talents.It is of extreme urgency to vigorously promote English language learners' intercultural awareness and heighten their intercultural communication competence.As a kind of curriculum resource,English textbooks should not only provide subject knowledge,but also incorporate activity themes,clues,and organizational guidance in intercultural communication for learners to boost the development of their intercultural communication competence.Although much importance is attached to students' intercultural communication awareness in English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2011 edition)(hereinafter referred to as CECS)and the Hong Kong SAR's English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide(Primary 1-Secondary 6)(2017 edition)(hereinafter referred to as KLA),there are obvious differences in its specific requirements in the respective curriculum standards as well as in the distributions of intercultural contents in English textbooks.Therefore,the comparative study on these two aspects can provide references for the mutual optimization of the two curriculum standards and for the rational layout of cultural contents of the two sets of junior middle school textbooks.This thesis takes the two sets of textbooks as research objects: Go For It!(2013 edition)(hereinafter referred to as GFI)published by People's Education Press,Longman Activate(the second edition)(hereinafter referred to as LA)compiled by American Thomson Publisher.Firstly,there is a comparison between CECS's and KLA's respective formulation backgrounds,frameworks and objectives in order to obtain their impacts on the cultural distributions in English textbooks.Secondly,the thesis makes a comparative study on the five cultural dimensions(source culture,target culture,international target culture,contrastive culture and other culture)distributed in the input and output sections of GFI and LA on the basis of Martin Cortazzi & Lixian Jin's cultural classification theory.At the same time,these cultural contents are divided into knowledge culture and communication culture,whose proportions are compared as well.Lastly,the thesis probes into the balance between the input and output of certain cultural dimension.By the comparison of the statistics,the research detects that there are similarities and differences in the two curriculum standards and in the intercultural contents' distributions in GFI and LA as follows:With regard to the curriculum standards,first,in the requirements for intercultural communication awareness,both CECS and KLA show the continuously updated,flexible and comprehensive characteristics.CECS focuses on the basic language application capability;KLA highlights the value orientation of the whole-person cultivation and the lifelong learning education.Second,both design the multi-angle hierarchical structures,while CECS's structure more directly guides learners to become aware of the importance of intercultural communication awareness.Third,both of them set the grading levels in the intercultural awareness' s objectives.CECS places the objectives in the two parts of “emotions and attitudes” and “cultural awareness”;KLA puts them in “values and attitudes”.Last,CECS underscores patriotism and cultural self-confidence much;KLA focuses on the development of its regional culture.As regards the distributions of the intercultural contents of GFI and LA,the results are as follows: firstly,the distributions of their five dimensions' cultures remain to be optimized in both the input and output sections.In the input sections,GFI centers on British and American cultures;LA gives priority to the Hong Kong SAR's regional culture.In the output sections,Chinese culture ranks first in GFI;other culture occupies the biggest share in LA.Secondly,both GFI and LA are dominated by knowledge culture.Thus,communication culture is seriously deficient,respectively 10.8% and 2.9% in GFI's input and output sections;1% and 3.7% in LA's two sections.Thirdly,the inputs and outputs of international target culture and other culture are comparatively balanced in GFI;while international target culture has a relatively balanced input and output in LA.However,there are wide gaps between the inputs and outputs of the remaining dimensions' cultures in both GFI and LA.Fourthly,LA has the high proportions of the Hong Kong SAR's regional culture in both the input(86.7%)and output sections(100%),indications are that LA embodies a strong sense of regional identity and rarely spreads traditional national culture.Based on the analysis of data statistics,this thesis compares the distributions of five dimensions' cultural contents,and digs out the proportions of communication culture in GFI and LA so as to offer pertinent references for the future reform direction for English curriculum standards,and for the further rational distribution of cultural contents in the two sets of English textbooks,which ultimately can promote the cultivation of talents in intercultural communication with patriotism and international vision.