An Assessment Of Cross-cultural Reading Texts In New Standard English For Senior High School

Textbook is an important means to achieve the goal of English curriculum.At present,the research on textbooks mainly focuses on the compilation,evaluation and comparison,and the perspectives of textbook assessment include the overall structure,cultural content,and learners’ needs,etc.,while the assessment on intercultural communication competence is relatively rare.In order to meet the requirements of cultivating students’ intercultural communicative competence in the new era and enhance teachers’ overall understanding and command of the textbooks,this study,based on the relevant researches on the evaluation of commonly used textbook in China,aims to discuss the following two issues:(1)What are the characteristics of the selection of cultural types in intercultural reading texts of New Standard English?(2)What is the influence of the intercultural reading texts on students’ intercultural communication sensitivity?In this study,132 reading materials from New Standard English were selected as the study texts and statistically analyzed from three aspects: cultural region,cultural form and cultural elements.At the same time,high school students from three schools of different levels in Luzhou were selected as the survey objects to investigate,in the light of Huang Wenhong’s intercultural sensitivity scale,the influence of New Standard English on students’ intercultural communication sensitivity from the four dimensions of openness,empathy,communication confidence and respect for differences.It is found that the selection of intercultural reading texts of New Standard English is open and diverse.In terms of cultural region,attention has been paid to the culture of the target language while not neglecting the mother tongue culture,international culture and other cultures;in cultural form,the textbook attaches importance to spiritual culture,especially literature,art and other cultures with eternal values;in cultural elements,it plays a high value on cultural identity,national history,social life and other cultural elements,but pays less attention to social identity and social groups,and the proportion of material culture is relatively low.In terms of intercultural communication sensitivity,the textbook can promote students to respect cultural differences,maintain good openness,and have appropriate communication confidence and empathy to a certain extent.This study also puts forward three suggestions for the teaching of the textbook: teachers should create more intercultural situations for students to conduct intercultural communication,appropriately supplement students the intercultural elements that the textbook lacks,and actively guide students to establish the concept of intercultural communication.