Chapter one Introduction
1.1 Research background
It is now widely recognized that language learning and culture learning cannot beseparated in practice (Valdes, 1986; Robinson, 1989; Byram, 1989; Kramash, 1993)since it is now universally acknowledged that learning a foreign language is notsimply mastering the language itself but is more appropriately focusing on learning ameans of communication. As communication in real occurrence is seldom culture-free,traditional emphasis on purely linguistic aspects in EFL classrooms has now beenshifted to fostering Intercultural Communicative Competence (henceforth ICC) ofstudents. In America, for instance, the committee charged with designing the nationalstandards in foreign language Education declared a claim that the true content of thesecond language curriculum was not the vocabulary and grammar of the language, butthe culture through that language (Moore, 1996:595). In Britain, many documentsabout foreign language teaching show three broad goals: (1) the development ofcommunicative competence for use in situations the learner might expect to encounter;(2) the development of an awareness of the nature of language and language learning;(3) the development of insight into the foreign culture and positive attitudes towardforeign people (Byram, 1993:15). In China, Chinese Ministry of Education issued thenew Criteria for Senior High School English Curriculum in 2017. It “incorporateslanguage knowledge, language competence, learning strategies, affective aspects andcultural awareness” (the New Curriculum Criteria, 2017: 3), and clearly states that“Cultural awareness is the guarantee of appropriate use of language… and to fosterstudents’ intercultural communicative awareness and ability in their interculturalcommunication” (ibid: 4).
……………
1.2 Necessity of this research
Senior EFL teaching is conducted under one national syllabus--- Criteria forSenior High School English Curriculum in the Chinese educational system, and only afew series of textbooks are used in senior high schools all over the country. Textbooksare the kernels of materials available to teachers and learners in and out of classroom.Thus the content of textbooks is extremely crucial to the quality of EFL teaching, asany deficiency in the selection and design of textbook would lead to nationwide sideeffects. To avoid such bad effects textbooks, compilation should be carefullyconducted under the guidance of the New Syllabus of senior high school. What’smore, it is unlikely for Chinese students to access enough opportunities to havecontact with the target culture due to the confined EFL setting. Therefore, textbooksbecome a main available resource in language and culture learning/teaching.Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that fostering intercultural communicativecompetence is the ultimate goal of EFL teaching, so it calls for an overall evaluationof English textbooks from both linguistic and cultural aspects.While the number of studies on linguistic content evaluation of textbooks hasbeen becoming more and more increasing, there are few studies on evaluation of thecultural element in senior high English textbooks. To keep pace with the trend ofintercultural foreign language teaching and under the guidance of the requirements ofthe new syllabus, the present author embarks on an endeavor to evaluate the culturalcontent in Senior English for China (Revised) (hencefo，英语论文，英语毕业论文
|
