Cultural Content in Junior Middle School English Textbooks: A Comparative Study of China and Japan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53797/aspen.v5i1.6.2025Keywords:
cultural representation, English textbooks, comparative analysis, China, JapanAbstract
This study presents a comparative analysis of cultural representation in junior middle school English textbooks from China (Go for it!) and Japan (NEW CROWN). Drawing on Cortazzi and Jin’s tripartite framework of culture—local, international, and target—the research examines how cultural elements are embedded in word lists, illustrations, dialogues, and passages. The findings reveal clear contrasts between the two series: Go for it! emphasizes Chinese local culture and integrates target culture largely through modern pop references, while offering limited exposure to international culture. In contrast, NEW CROWN adopts a more balanced approach, presenting a wider range of local, international, and target cultural content, often reinforced through continuity across grades and multimodal presentation. These differences reflect broader educational orientations, with China prioritizing cultural identity and communicative practice, and Japan promoting intercultural awareness and global perspectives. The study argues that future textbook development in China would benefit from increasing the depth and diversity of international cultural content, while also pairing cultural passages with illustrative support to enhance comprehension. Overall, the research underscores the role of textbooks as vehicles for cultural transmission and calls for a more integrated approach to cultivating intercultural competence in English language education.
Downloads
References
Adamson, B. (2001). English with Chinese Characteristics: China's New Curriculum. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 21(2), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2001.10600192
Apple, M. W. (1993). The politics of official knowledge: Does a national curriculum make sense?. Teachers college record, 95(2), 222-241.
Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M. (Eds.). (2014). Comparative education research: Approaches and methods (Vol. 19). Springer.
Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching: A course in second language acquisition. Pearson.
Byram, M., & Risager, K. (1999). Language teachers, politics and cultures. Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence (Multilingual Matters). Multilingual Matters.
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1999). Cultural mirrors: Materials and methods in the EFL classroom. na.
Englishes, 19(2), 148-159.
Carney, R. N., & Levin, J. R. (2002). Pictorial illustrations still improve students' learning from text. Educational psychology review, 14, 5-26.
Doyle, W. (1989). The subject matters: Classroom activity in math and social studies.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. (No Title).
Glenberg, A. M., Gutierrez, T., Levin, J. R., Japuntich, S., & Kaschak, M. P. (2004). Activity and imagined activity can enhance young children's reading comprehension. Journal of educational psychology, 96(3), 424.
Guan, C. L. (2011). Taile “wenhua” dingyi yu daxue wenhua jianshe [Taylor "Culture" Concept and University Culture Building]. Jiazhi Gongcheng [Value Engineering], (06), 319-320. doi:10.14018/j.cnki.cn13-1085/n.2011.06.052.
Hino, N. (1988). Nationalism and English as an international language: The history of English textbooks in Japan. World Englishes, 7(3), 309-314.
Hu, W. Z. (1998). Yingjie kuawenhua jiaoji yanjiu de xin jumian—Pingjie zuijin chuban de san ben kuawenhua jiaojixue zhuozuo [Welcoming a new phase in intercultural communication research: A review of three recently published works on intercultural communication]. Waiguoyu (Shanghai Waiyu Daxue Xuebao) [Foreign Languages (Journal of Shanghai International Studies University)], (04), 75-77.
Jacquette, D. (2002). Ontology. Acumen Publishing.
Johnson, C. I., & Mayer, R. E. (2009). A testing effect with multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 621.
Kachru, B. B., Quirk, R., & Widdowson, H. G. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism. World Englishes. Critical Concepts in Linguistics, 241-270.
Kitamura, Y., Liu, J., & Hong, M. S. (2022). Education in East Asia: Changing School Education in China, Japan, and Korea. In World education patterns in the global north: The ebb of global forces and the flow of contextual imperatives (pp. 149-168). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford university press.
Mayer, R. E. (2014). Incorporating motivation into multimedia learning. Learning and instruction, 29, 171-173.
McKay, S. L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language: Rethinking goals and perspectives (pp. 6-7). New York: Oxford University Press.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2017). The content analysis guidebook. sage.
O'Hear, A., & Royal Institute of Philosophy. (2009). Epistemology. Cambridge University Press.
Pan, M. X., & Zhu, Y. (2022). Researching English language textbooks: A systematic review in the Chinese context (1964–2021). Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 7(1), 30.
Patterson, D. (2007). The Internationalization of Japan’s Junior High School English Textbooks: Defining Japanese Identity in an Age of Globalization (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sheffield).
Pashmforoosh, R., & Babaii, E. (2015). Whose culture and how far? Culture presentation in current business English textbook series. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 26(3), 216-236.
Paivio, A. (1990). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. Oxford university press.
Sadeghi, K., & Sepahi, Z. (2018). Cultural content of three EFL textbooks: teachers’ and learners’ cultural preferences and cultural themes of textbooks. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 13(3), 222-245.
Savignon, S. J. (2002). Communicative language teaching: Linguistic theory and classroom practice, interpreting communicative language teaching. New Haven: Yale University Press [in English], 6, 7.
Schiefele, U. (1999). Interest and learning from text. Scientific studies of reading, 3(3), 257-279.
Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture-Endorsed EFL textbook: a critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383-397.
Silverman, D. (2024). Interpreting qualitative data.
Teo, P., & Zhu, J. (2018). A multimodal analysis of affect and attitude education in China’s English textbooks. Multimodal Communication, 7(1), 20170014.
Tylor, E. B. (1871). Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom (Vol. 2). J. Murray.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2011). Discourse, knowledge, power and politics. Critical discourse studies in context and cognition, 43, 27-65.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies. sage.
Xiang, R., & Yenika-Agbaw, V. (2021). EFL textbooks, culture and power: a critical content analysis of EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 42(4), 327-341.
Yuen, K. M. (2011). The representation of foreign cultures in English textbooks. ELT journal, 65(4), 458-466.
Zheng, S. M., Ou, X. Y., He, Y. Y., & Feng, X. F., (2021).Gaozhong yingyu jiaocai zhong yuedu bufen de wenhua neirong fenxi—yi xin ren jiao ban bixiu wei li [Analysis of cultural content in the reading section of high school English textbooks: A case study of the new People's Education Edition required courses]. ENGLISH OF CAMPUS (41), 220-221.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ruxin Wang
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
