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

1. Introduction

 With the development of globalization, communication between countries is becoming more and more frequent. English, as a global language, has become an important tool for promoting communication between countries. In China, English has become an indispensable course in schools. The ultimate goal for Chinese students to learn English is to use it in real communication. 

In order to achieve the goal of using English to communicate with the outside world, only acquiring the language knowledge and skills seems to be not enough. Hammerly (1982) once claimed that the foreign language learners who want to communicate with native speakers, must get a sense of the world view native speakers have of themselves and their own country. That is to say, knowing well about the culture plays a significant role in successful communication with foreigners for cultural differences may lead to misunderstanding or incomprehension. Cross-cultural awareness is considerably important in successful worldwide communication. Thus culture leaning cannot be separated from language learning. 

Because of the importance of culture learning, culture teaching has received much more attention in EFL classes in China under the background of new curriculum reform. Cultivating students’ cultural awareness is set as one of the five general objectives of English learning in the new Standard of English Curriculum. “The curriculum should also serve students’ all-round development, providing them with opportunities to establish both national spirit and an awareness of and respect for cultural differences, broaden their horizons and enrich their life experience and take part in cultural life” is mentioned in the Nature of the Standard of English Curriculum part. 

 English textbooks which are compiled according to the standard of curriculum thus become a significant source for students to learn more about foreign culture. Although in the modern world, there are various ways for students to learn the culture worldwide, like the Internet, television and newspapers, textbooks are still a better source as the cultural content can be discussed and explained in detail with the help of teachers. Thus the cultural content that has been chosen to be compiled into the textbooks affect students’ culture learning to some extent. The cultural content involved in the English textbooks usually contains both native culture and foreign culture. Ritlyyova (2009) contented that students improve their perception of foreign culture and their own culture by gaining awareness of a foreign language. Kramsch (1993) suggested that studying a culture is meant to be more than receiving information. It is important that the student should analyze his or her native culture, thus the process of studying target-language culture embraces studying of the native culture of the student. That is to say learning foreign culture helps students to become conscious of their own cultural identity. Besides, learning native culture presented by another language is important because in cross-cultural communication, we often find it difficult to explain our culture in another language. By learning the expression of our culture in English, we can help the outside world know better about China and spread our culture at the same time.