Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media

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Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media

Vol. 6, 17 May 2023


Open Access | Article

Representations of Cultures and Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Competence in Chinese High School English Textbooks: A Longitudinal Comparative Study

Handi Gao 1
1 Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Longtou Sub-district, Dalian/Lv Shunkou District, Liaoning Province, 116000, China

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media, Vol. 6, 47-61
Published 17 May 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Handi Gao. Representations of Cultures and Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Competence in Chinese High School English Textbooks: A Longitudinal Comparative Study. LNEP (2023) Vol. 6: 47-61. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7048/6/20220141.

Abstract

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is becoming increasingly important with the ongoing globalization and researchers have emphasized the significance of cultivating such competence in English language teaching. As a major tool for language learning, textbooks play an important role in cultivating ICC in language classrooms. This study selected two versions of textbooks published by the same press to analyze and compare the cultural representations from the perspectives of the distribution of cultures, language activities, and cultural activities. Besides, the study also focuses on the links between textbook activities and the cultivation of ICC. It was found that the phenomenon of cultural imbalances, especially those dominated by the UK, the US and China, with the increase in the proportion of Chinese culture and a wider cultural coverage in the new edition. The results also revealed that the activities in the textbooks lack clear teaching objectives and that the ICC cultivation is superficial. This research mainly puts forward suggestions on the ICC cultivation in language teaching and the compilation of textbooks. In addition, it is also suggestive of the definition of intercultural communication and the arrangement of language classroom activities, etc.

Keywords

ELT textbooks, culture, intercultural communication competence, culture activities, longitudinal study

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 5
ISBN (Print)
978-1-915371-37-9
ISBN (Online)
978-1-915371-38-6
Published Date
17 May 2023
Series
Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
ISSN (Print)
2753-7048
ISSN (Online)
2753-7056
DOI
10.54254/2753-7048/6/20220141
Copyright
17 May 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated