A Study On The Cultural Content Of The New Teaching Materials For High School English In The PEP Version From The Perspective Of The New Curriculum Standard

The English Curriculum Standards for General High Schools(2017 edition)(hereinafter referred to as The New Curriculum Standards)puts forward the overall goal of developing students' core competences of English,and cultivating students' cultural awareness is among one of these goals.English textbook,as the main tool for students to learn English culture and improve cultural awareness,is undoubtedly an important medium to achieve this goal.Based on the concept of The New Curriculum Standard,People's Education Press published the new version of high school English textbooks in 2019,which is largely used in high schools across our country.Therefore,it is particularly important to conduct a comprehensive analysis on the cultural contents of the new textbooks,which is the main contents of this research.The research attempts to solve the following problems:(1)What cultural contents do the the 2019 PEP English textbooks(compulsory)contain?What are the features of these cultural contents' distribution?(2)How do the cultural contents in the 2019 PEP English textbooks(compulsory)reflect the requirements of The New Curriculum Standard?(3)What are the attitudes of teachers and students toward the cultural contents in the 2019 PEP English textbooks(compulsory)?This research selects the 2019 PEP English textbooks(compulsory)as its research subjects,and combines qualitative research and quantitative research to evaluate the cultural contents in the new textbooks.In the stage of data collection,Text Analysis was employed combined with Questionnaire Survey and Interview Survey;in the stage of data analysis,both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed.Based on the analysis of the data,we found that:(1)Regarding the types of culture,the new textbooks contain all kinds of spiritual culture and material culture,which are distributed in each section of the textbooks;Regarding the regions of culture,the new textbooks contain all kinds of cultural regions,among which the proportion of Chinese culture has improved,and the proportion of comparative culture is the least.(2)The new textbooks mostly meet the requirements for the Content of Cultural knowledge in The New Curriculum Standard.However,there are few contents with similarities and differences between British and American people and Chinese people in their daily behaviors and manners of dealing with other people.(3)According to questionnaires and interviews,most teachers and students hold a positive attitude towards the cultural contents in the new textbooks,and believe that the cultural contents in the new textbooks can meet their teaching and learning requirements,but there are some aspects still need to be strengthened: Firstly,the contents of comparative cultural in the textbook should be increased.Secondly,the "new trend" culture which is more in line with the development of the times should be added;finally,the culture of British or American people's daily communication should be increased.There are still some limitations in this research.For example,the sample of interviewees is too small,but the findings of the research can provide a certain reference for the revision and improvement of cultural contents in this textbook,as well as some suggestions for the teaching of teachers and the learning of students.