An Analysis Of Cultural Content In New Standard English（2019）textbooks For Senior High School

Language and culture are inextricably linked.Language is not only the carrier of culture but also an important tool for cultural transmission,while culture influences the development of language.In modern foreign language teaching,the importance of cultural teaching has also been increasingly emphasized.In the English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2017,it is clearly stated that students’ core competence should be cultivated,with particular emphasis on cultivating students’ cultural awareness and intercultural communication skills.According to the latest curriculum standards,various publishers embark on revising English textbooks.Among them,the newly revised 2019 edition of the New Standard English for senior high school by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press has been widely used in our country.The question of whether the cultural contents contained in it can meet the learning needs of teachers and students is worth exploring.This study focuses on the 2019 edition of the New Standard English for senior high schools to analyze the cultural contents it contains based on Cheng’s textbook evaluation theory.The main questions explored in this study are:（1）What cultural contents are included in the New Standard English（2019）? What are the characteristics of their selection and distribution?（2）What are the students’ attitudes toward the cultural content in the New Standard English（2019）?（3）What are the teachers’ evaluations of the cultural content in the New Standard English（2019）? Based on the above research questions,this study adopts a combination of internal and external evaluations to evaluate the cultural contents in the textbooks.The internal evaluation can be divided into two parts: firstly,the selection characteristics of cultural themes in the reading discourses were analyzed based on Byram’s textbook evaluation criteria;secondly,the distribution characteristics of the cultural contents in terms of grade and section were analyzed.The external evaluation is conducted in the form of questionnaires and interviews to investigate students’ attitudes and teachers’ evaluations of the cultural contents of this set of textbooks.The results of the study show that（1）The cultural contents in this set of textbooks cover the eight cultural categories in Byram’s evaluation criteria: social identity and social groups,social interaction,belief and behavior,social and political institution,socialization and the life cycle,national history,national geography,stereotypes and national identity.However,there is an imbalance in the proportion of different cultural categories.The cultural contents mainly concentrate on national history,socialization and life circle,while not paying enough attention to the other six aspects.The distribution characteristics of cultural contents are mainly as follows: in terms of section distribution,the cultural contents in the textbook are mainly gathered in the reading and using language sections.In terms of grade distribution,the study found that the number of cultural contents generally increased with grade level.The depth and difficulty of the cultural contents also gradually increased,which matched students’ cognitive development and learning needs.（2）The majority of students are satisfied with the cultural contents in the textbooks and can give a certain importance to cultural learning.And students also raised some expectations for enriching the cultural content,such as updating the cultural contents promptly and adding excellent Chinese cultural content,etc.（3）Most of the teachers thought the cultural contents in this set of textbooks could basically meet the needs of teaching.At the same time,teachers also pointed out some problems: the cultural contents in textbooks are relatively scattered and the connection between them is not strong;due to the limitation of time and energy,the cultural teaching process is hindered,and so on.Based on the above findings,this study offers some useful insights into the development of cultural content in textbooks and cultural teaching,intending to make better use of textbooks to develop students’ cultural awareness and intercultural communication skills.