7차개정 중학교 1학년 영어교과서에 나타난 다문화 콘텐츠 분석

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the cultural contents of Korean middle school English textbooks in the revised 7th national curriculum in terms of two multi-cultural perspectives: First, do the textbooks have the cultural contents of various countries? Second, do the contents properly focus on British & American culture, European culture, Other-region's culture, and Korean culture? For this analysis, randomly selected 5 Middle School English textbooks have been employed. Following are the results of the analysis: To begin with, overall multi-cultural factors have increased under the revised curriculum considering other precedent studies based on the previous curriculum. The multi-cultural content is one of the main changes of the revised curriculum, however, the results not only considerably vary in each textbook but some still focus on English-speaking countries, which goes against the new curriculum that the textbooks are supposed to embrace a wide range of non-English speaking countries. Plus, when it comes to the proportion of the four divided sections, apart from Korean culture, British & American culture and European culture are slightly higher than Other-region's, which seems to be an optimistic signal for multi-cultural society. In other words, the textbooks try to hold various cultural contents compared to old textbooks. Moreover, one of the 5 textbooks reflects very closely the Korean reality for multi-cultural family, on the other hand, some of which still contain lots of American & European culture in spite of the new curriculum. It is like to deprive learners of chances to experience many other cultures. Furthermore, if exposed to a certain culture continuously, they may well build up a certain cultural stereotype whether it is negative or positive. It is not easy for everyone to break down a prejudice as well as a major obstacle to have a world view. In addition, since a textbook conveys powerful images to learners, what is contained in it really does matter. What the revised curriculum wants is not for learners to be native-like but an inter-cultural speaker. In this respect, Get learners to be exposed to as various types of cultures as possible so that they can overcome the fixed ideas and depart from the standard patterns towards other races and cultures.