현행 중학교 3학년 영어 교과서의 문화 내용 분석

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore cultural aspects of third year middle school English textbooks on the 2015 revised national curriculum. For the research, nine out of thirteen textbooks were randomly selected, and the reading texts and cultural sections were analyzed according to three categories: cultural subjects, cultural types, and cultural backgrounds. The findings of the study are as follows: First, the analysis of cultural subjects showed that the English textbooks covered 'daily lives of people from various cultures' more than any other cultural subjects, which is the same as the previous studies. Second, in terms of cultural types, 'spiritual culture' took up the highest percentile. In the cultural sections, it is followed by 'behavior culture' and 'material culture' respectively, and the three cultural types appeared evenly. Meanwhile, in reading texts 'spiritual culture' accounted for nearly half of the total. Third, the analysis of cultural backgrounds revealed that 'cultural comparison' occupied 50 percent of the cultural sections, and 'universal culture' was the most addressed in the reading texts. 'Non-English culture' accounted for 20.0% in the reading texts, which is higher than in previous studies. Based on the above findings, following suggestions can be made: English textbooks deal less with 'Korean culture' and 'English culture': therefore, teachers should provide authentic supplementary materials, such as media, to diversify cultural contents of the textbooks. The findings could be a helpful reference when teaching culture in English class and developing new English textbooks in the future. In addition, it is expected that the suggestions for the further studies could be given.