Evaluation of the Cultural Aspects in the University English Textbook, New Era Mingde College English - Integrated Coursebook 1

Abstract

New Era Mingde College English is the first set of general college English textbooks compiled under the background of the construction of courses with morality cultivation in China. This study employed content analysis and corpus analysis to explore the representation of different types of culture in the textbook, New Era Mingde College English- Integrated Coursebook 1, and to explore whether the cultural representation follows the requirements of the construction of courses with morality cultivation. Data analysis was conducted based on the two classifications of cultures focusing on the countries and forms of cultural representation. The results mainly indicated that 1) though the target culture was the most dominant, the percentage of Chinese culture was greatly improved compared with previous studies, and the international culture was represented the least in the examined textbooks; 2)As for cultural categories, the representation of cultural persons was the most, followed by cultural communities and products, and cultural perspectives and practices were represented the least in of textbook; 3)The cultural content of this textbook generally followed the requirements of textbook compilation under the construction of courses with morality cultivation. Based on the findings, suggestions for further study and the construction of English textbooks in the future were put forward.