Native Culture and Its Teaching Design in People’s Education Press (PEP) Middle School English Textbooks

Language and culture are inseparable, and English teaching should not be limited to knowledge transmission but also carry the mission of cultural exchange. The English curriculum has both instrumental and humanistic aspects. The English Curriculum Standards (2001) for the first time included cultural awareness as one of the curriculum standards, indicating that young students, as the successors of their country, should have an understanding of different cultures, especially their own culture. However, investigations have found that the proportion of native culture in current Chinese middle school English textbooks is relatively low, and cultural teaching is often neglected in actual English classes. This not only hinders the cultivation of students’ cross-cultural abilities but also hampers the further development of China as a culturally rich nation. This paper examines the content and proportion of native culture in the People’s Education Press (PEP) middle school English textbooks and proposes corresponding cultural teaching designs based on the textbook content. This aims to address the current neglect of cultural teaching in English education and provide theoretical references for textbook developers while offering practical teaching paradigms for English teachers on the frontlines.