earticle

영어

One of the primary objectives of English language learning is to facilitate communication among individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, making the integration of cultural knowledge a crucial component of English curricula worldwide. This paper presents the findings of a comparative study that examined the incorporation of cultural elements in two series of English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by Oxford University Press for two Chinese societies—Hong Kong and Shanghai—each with distinct historical contexts. Utilizing Moran’s 4P framework, the study aimed to compare the representation of local and other cultures, as well as the opportunities provided for learners to develop intercultural communicative competence. The results indicated a relatively balanced distribution of local and other cultures, though with a noticeable emphasis on American and British cultures. Additionally, the representation of cultural aspects was uneven, with “products” being the most frequently described and “perspectives” the least. This tendency to present cultural information as a fixed body of knowledge does not effectively foster intercultural communicative competence. The paper further explores how the differences between the two textbook series reflect the prevailing political and social ideologies within their respective local contexts.

중국어

英語學習的一個主要目標是促進來自不同文化背景的人有效交流。因此，文化知識的融入已成為許多國家英語課程的重要組成部分。本文通過比較研究，檢視由牛津大學出版社為兩個具有不同歷史背景的中國社會——香港和上海——出版的兩系列英語課本，分析文化元素的融入情況。研究利用Moran的4P框架，旨在比較課文中本土與外國文化的描繪，以及為學習者提供發展跨文化交際能力的機會。結果顯示，本土文化與外國文化的分佈相對平衡，但對英美文化的強調較為明顯。此外，Moran的4P框架顯示各要素的描述並不均衡，其中“產品”是最常被描述的，而“視角”則最少。這種將文化資訊呈現為固定知識體系的傾向，可能難以有效促進跨文化交際能力的培養。本文還探討了這兩套教材系列之間的差異如何反映當地的政治和社會意識形態。