Abstract

English, as a global language, is used as a very important tool in cross-cultural communication. Thus culture teaching plays an important role in English teaching. English textbooks have become an important resource for students to gain cultural knowledge. Analyzing the multicultural content in English textbooks can reflect the condition of culture teaching to some extent. 

This thesis tries to make a case study of the choice of multicultural content in junior high school English textbooks. The thesis first classifies the cultural content in Go For It (2013) into four categories: native culture, inner circle culture, outer circle culture and expanding circle culture. Then detailed analysis from different perspectives like quantity, theme and the textbook blocks occur of the four types of cultural content is shown. 

The results show that in general the allocation of multicultural content in this set of books is reasonable with various themes and forms and culture comparison is taken into consideration. There is abundant native cultural content but the diversity of Chinese culture can’t be shown to a large extent. Inner circle culture plays a dominant role in which American culture is paid too much attention resulting in the ignorance of the culture of other English-speaking countries. Outer circle cultural content is limited in quantity. Many countries in the expanding circle are involved but most of their cultures are not described in detail. At last, the thesis puts forward some suggestions for English teachers on dealing with the multicultural content in English textbooks.

Keywords: junior high school English textbooks, language, cultural content

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

2.1 Definition of Culture-2

2.2 Classification of Culture in English-speaking Countries-2

2.3 Function of English textbooks-3

2.4 Studies on Cultural Content in EFL textbooks-3

3. Investigation into Multicultural Content in Go For It-5

3.1 Research Objectives-5

3.2 Research Method-5

3.3 Analysis of the multicultural content from different perspectives-6

3.3.1 Analysis of overall allocation of the four types of cultural content-6

3.3.2 Analysis of native cultural content-7

3.3.3 Analysis of inner circle cultural content-9

3.3.4 Analysis of outer circle cultural content-11

3.3.5 Analysis of expanding circle cultural content-12

4. Conclusion-13

4.1 Findings-13

4.2 Suggestions for English Teachers-14

References-15

Appendix-16