Compulsory English Textbook Evaluation Based on Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence (Icc) in Alignment with Chinese English Curriculum Standard (Cecs) Educational Policy
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Abstract
This study aims to investigate the alignment of the intercultural component of Byram’s (1997) Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and Chinese English Curriculum Standards (CECS, 2022). ICC represents the international intercultural perspective, and CECS represents the Chinese intercultural perspective. This study answers 3 Objectives based on 3 research questions: 1. To conduct how compulsory English textbooks incorporate the intercultural dimensions of Byram’s ICC framework. 2.To evaluate the alignment between compulsory English textbooks and the intercultural elements of the CECS educational policy. 3.To systematically examine the representation of knowledge, attitudes, and intercultural skills in textbooks and assess their alignment with CECS intercultural goals.
There are five dimensions of ICC: Knowledge, Intercultural Attitudes, Skills of interpreting and relating, Skills of discovery and interaction, and Critical Cultural Awareness. There are four dimensions of CECS: linguistic competence, cultural awareness, thinking capacity, and learning ability.
Content analysis method of qualitative research is adopted, using ICC dimensions and CECS as the initial coding templates, 465 contents in 12 English textbooks were encoded and allocated separately, and frequency and percentage statistics were performed in all dimensions. The key finding of this article is: The data reveals that the two frameworks have a high overlap in the knowledge base (ICC-Knowledge/CECS-Cultural Awareness), while the critical dimension (ICC-Critical Cultural Awareness/CECS-Learning Ability) has a significant weakening.
The conclusion of this study is to obtain three results by 12 books on content analysis of the 5 dimensions of ICC and four dimensions of CECS: Height Alignment, Moderate alignment and Low alignment.
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References
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