In conclusion, language and culture have close relationship with each other. So in language teaching, the teaching of culture is necessary and indispensable.
3. Studies on Comparative Analysis in English Textbooks
In the last section, the close relationship between language and culture is discussed, which shows that in language teaching, culture teaching is indispensable. Textbook is an important tool for students to learn a course well and for teachers to teach well. Therefore, culture teaching is closely related to the selection and configuration of cultural contents in textbooks. Thus, the analysis of cultural contents in English textbooks has great value in culture teaching.
Many researchers have been done concerning the evaluation or analysis of English textbooks. For example, Ren Lina (2013:1) has made deep analysis and contrast between the Oxford English textbook and the New Standard English textbook used in the primary language teaching mainly from the following aspects: the arrangement and compilation of the materials, teaching philosophy embodied in the materials, the purpose and aims of the textbook. Then she points out the advantages and disadvantages of these two textbooks and raises her advice of teaching.
Besides, many masters’ theses take the evaluation of English textbooks as their research subject. Some of them make a comparative analysis between Go For It and other kind of textbooks for middle school.
Tang Liwei (2005:1) also chooses Go For it for his research. On the basis of inquiring into the evolution of English syllabuses in the junior high school and analyzing the change of the guiding ideology of compiling the teaching materials, he takes different Grade-One English teaching materials as research objects and compares their contents and structures from the angles of knowledge, psychology, morality and culture to make a close analysis of their characteristics. By means of the theoretical analysis of the teaching materials and the practical investigation into them, he probes into the characteristics of the English experimental teaching materials published in 2003 in order to make some suggestions about the use of the new experimental teaching materials.