Untitled Document

The use of 'authentic texts' has been one of the most important criteria acknowledged by writers of textbooks for foreign language teaching. In recent years, many scholars in language education have questioned conventional beliefs in 'authenticity'. Some claim that the concept of authenticity is an 'illusion' for classroom teaching. This paper, first of all, reviews recent discussions on authenticity in foreign language education. On the basis of the review, it looks at authenticity from a perspective that takes intercultural communicative competence as a point of departure. In this connection, it addresses four fundamental issues of authenticity for textbook writing in countries where English is taught as a foreign or second language, namely mutual representations, intention and interpretation, diachrony and synchrony and principles of contrivance. To illustrate the perspective, the paper will then examines the influence of the concept of authenticity on ELT textbook writing in China as represented in recent literature about College English¹ teaching. College English², the most widely-used ELT textbook series, is used as the focus of analysis in broad terms in accordance with the four dimensions identified.

Descriptors: Authentic material; cultural authenticity; intercultural authenticity; literary realism; intercultural representation; intention and interpretation; diachrony and synchrony; contrivance; College English; textbook writing criteria; culture of learning; contemporaneity; gradability of authentic material; interdisciplinary and multicultural team of writers.

The issue of authenticity in language teaching materials is one with a substantial history and development. Proponents of using authentic materials, defined as the 'real' language created by native speakers of that language in pursuit of communicative outcomes (Little, Devitt, & Singleton, 1989), believe that the stamp of using authentic materials in foreign language education ensures a direct relationship to educational objectives. The enthusiasm for using authentic materials in foreign language textbooks has become intensified with the increasing popularity of the communicative orientation to language teaching in the last few decades because, from the communicative language teaching perspective, students need to constantly refer to the contextually appropriate ways native speakers actually put the target language in use. In response to this orientation, many English language textbooks have been written, particularly in the 1980s, with the claim of using authentic materials (for examples, Abbs and Freebairn, 1980; Grellet, 1981; Walter, 1982; Cook, 1983; Forrester, 1984; Ellis and Ellis 1987 and Schinke-Llano, 1989). There have also been studies into the methodology and effects of using authentic texts on EFL/ESL learners. ELT professionals (e.g. Morton, 1999; Peacock, 1997; Morrison, 1989; Swaffar, 1985 and Zhu, 1984) have experimented with practical methods to teach English courses with authentic texts of various types and levels and they show overall positive outcomes both with respect to motivating learners in learning the target language and in terms of developing in them communicative competence.

In recent years, however, many scholars have questioned the concept of authenticity for classroom teaching. Widdowson (1979) makes a distinction between two types of instances of language use: genuine texts and authenticity. While genuineness of a text is defined as the quality of the text, authenticity refers to the congruence between the intention of the text producer and the interpretation of the reader or hearer. Without a high degree of relating the text to the reader or hearer, authenticity of the text cannot be said to have been realised. Since Widdowson's review of the notion of authenticity, Nostrand (1989) notes that the discussion has passed beyond the perspective of the 'direct relationship' as presented above to a concern about 'cultural authenticity', that is, the congruence of the intention of the text producer (a native speaker) and the interpretation of the reader or hearer (other native speakers) "through a shared knowledge of conventions" (Widdowson, 1979: 166). In order to achieve cultural authenticity, foreign language teachers thus have to design a methodology that would help establish the conditions to guide learners to an awareness of the communicative conventions of native speakers, linguistic or rhetorical, operating in genuine discourse.

In response to this theoretical insight, some textbook writers such as Cook (1983); Swan and Walter (1985) and Soars and Soars (1986) made clear efforts in their textbooks in meeting the culturally appropriate conditions for cultural authenticity. The difficulty of creating these conditions, however, is immense. Clarke (1989) critically reviewed these textbooks and stated that materials cannot be claimed to be truly communicative for the simple fact that they are mass-produced for mass sales in the world. Kramsch (1993) likewise reviewed both the communicative proficiency approach and the discourse analysis approach to using authentic materials in language teaching and concluded that a learner's difficulty of understanding cultural codes embedded in authentic materials "stems from the difficulty of viewing the world from another perspective" (p. 188). Based on the work on discourse analysis and pragmatics, Widdowson (1990: 44) concludes that "authenticity of language in the classroom is bound to be, to some extent, an illusion" because language learners cannot authenticate the discourse for meanings can only be achieved by 'human agency'. In a more recent article, Widdowson (1998), thus, argues against using authentic texts in a classroom as he states that it is impossible for a language classroom to provide the contextual conditions for authentic language data to be authenticated by the learners. The discussions on cultural authenticity apparently lead to a negation of a central idea advocated by proponents of the communicative language teaching approach.

The development of the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) approach to teaching a foreign or second language gives rise to a third perspective in using authentic materials in textbooks. In principle, Byram and Esarte-Sarries (1991:180) point out that the content of a textbook needs to be realistic and the culture should be presented in a textbook as "it is lived and talked about by people who are credible and recognisable as real human beings". Both Risager (1991) and Byram and Esarte-Sarries (1991) take the traditions of 'literary realism' as their starting point and argue that the universe represented in textbooks should be balanced and comprehensive as the images of the cultures under study become 'real'. On the basis of criteria of realism and their research findings, Byram and Esarte-Sarries (ibid.) propose four dimensions of textbook analysis:

analysis at the micro-social level of the social identity of individuals, of their social environment, of their personality.
analysis at the macro-social level of socio-economic, geographic and historical representations.
analysis of the viewpoint taken by the author, either explicitly or implicitly.
analysis at the intercultural level of mutual representations and recognition by the nature and foreign cultures.

While all four dimensions are clearly fundamental in textbook analysis with a view to cultural studies teaching, the most important development of this model for textbook writing is their proposal for mutual representations at the intercultural level. This implies a great broadening of the notion of authentic materials as they need to include representations of both the target and native cultures. From this perspective, textbook writers should aim at depicting cultures from both an observer's and an informant's perspectives (cf. Byram, 1991). In other words, textbooks should demonstrate how the target culture is perceived by its own people and other people including the people representing the learners' own society and how the learners' own native culture is perceived by people of the target culture and their own. Authentic materials at the intercultural level, thus, would not only include those texts produced by native speakers as traditionally defined3 but also those written or spoken by people who use the language as a lingua franca in pursuit of a communicative outcome. When authentic materials are viewed in such a perspective the cultures represented in textbooks can be made genuinely comparable and the people truly recognisable and credible. Authentic materials defined as such are more likely to develop students' alternative perspectives to view the world, i.e. to make them 'intercultural speakers' (Byram, 1997 and Kramsch, 1998).

As the focus of our discussion is on the notion of using authentic texts in language education, clearly, the criteria of realism presented above need to be further explored in order to address all crucial dimensions, including the thorny issues discussed by scholars studying cultural authenticity, and to establish a model more operationalisable for materials development. We identify four fundamental issues of authenticity from an intercultural perspective. First of all, we wish to restate that the intercultural model takes mutual representations in textbooks as the most salient feature as mutual perceptions of the social identities of the interlocutors are determining factors in intercultural interactions (cf. Byram, 1997: 31). This practically means that in text selection, as mentioned above, textbook writers should not only have eyes on materials created by native speakers but also on those by people who use the language as a lingua franca, including, of course, those by the people of learners¡¯ own culture. The intercultural perspective on authenticity encourages constant comparison and contrast of cultures. In materials writing, this may mean selection of two or even more texts on the same issue by people from different cultural background. In designing exercises, learners should also be invited to think or comment interculturally whenever the need arises.

The second fundamental issue that a textbook has to address is the context of authentic texts, which is found the thorniest by language education researchers such as Widdowson (1998) and Kramsch (1993). Widdowson argues strongly that the 'real' intention of an authentic text is difficult for language learners to identify because common classrooms cannot provide the authentic context intended by the authentic text producer. In an earlier discussion, on the other hand, Widdowson (1979: 169) points out that the intentions of "authentic language producers are accessible to interpretation because they are conveyed by reference to sets of communicative conventions", linguistic or pragmatic. This earlier argument, in the author's opinion, is worth pursuing as this entails that meaningful comparisons can be made between the 'real' intentions of authentic discourse and the interpretations language learners would come up with. Once an authentic text is selected, therefore, an important task for textbook writers is to identify the 'real' intention of the written or spoken discourse (see the Discussion section for suggestions on how this task could be effectively tackled). The identified intention should be put in the teacher's book for his/her disposal. their understanding of the shared linguistic and rhetorical conventions of the target language.

It is important to note, however, that the identification of the 'real' intention by conventional clues is not merely to present the intention to students. From the intercultural perspective, the student's interpretation of the intention of the authentic language producer is as important as the 'real' intention of the producers because meaningful comparisons between the intended meaning and the meaning interpreted by learners will enable them to establish a relationship between their own and the target culture(s), to mediate differences and ultimately to develop a third perspective (Kramsch, 1993) or to undergo a process of 'tertiary socialisation' desired for intercultural communication (cf. Byram, 1997). For cultural studies teaching, therefore, one of the primary tasks should be the comparison of the 'real' intentions identified according to communicative conventions with learners' interpretations at the discourse level. To this end, as Kramsch (1998: 30) argues, teachers should be encouraged to see themselves as "brokers of cultures of all kinds", rather than as transmitters of cultural knowledge.

The third issue, balancing of diachrony and synchrony and image representation, is related to the first three dimensions for textbook analysis by Byram and Esarte-Sarries (1991): namely representations at the micro-social and macro-social levels and the viewpoint of the textbook writer. By balancing diachrony and synchrony, the author means the selection from authentic sources from both angles: texts that show the historical development of the language and the culture and texts reflecting the language and culture of the contemporary societies. Some scholars such as Huhn (cited in Byram, 1989) put 'contemporaneity of information' at the top of their criteria for dealing with the textbook content and Kane (1991) states that selection of texts mainly from outdated sources causes a reduction of authenticity and projects an inaccurate picture of a modern society. For cultural studies teaching, contemporary language data from authentic sources are essential because, as quoted before, in order for the content of a textbook to be realistic the culture should be presented as "it is lived and talked about by people who are credible and recognisable as real human beings" (Byram and Esarte-Sarries, 1991:180). On the other hand, an understanding of the historical development of a society is a prerequisite of the understanding of it contemporary culture. Intercultural skills, knowledge and attitude as defined by Byram (1997) regard the historical development of nations and cultures as relevant for the learner's perception of the cultural reality of a nation is built at the macro-social level upon its socio-economic, geographic and historical representations. In textbook writing, in our view, while the focus should be on the up-to-date authentic discourse as source materials, they need to be complemented with texts which depict historical events and facts and which are produced by past as well as contemporary, 'native' as well as 'non-native' authors and speakers. Here again a comparative approach to representing historical events and figures is entailed as historical facts are interpreted differently depending on sociocultural backgrounds and philosophical viewpoints of the people who create the texts.

By balancing image representations, we refer both to representative personalities portrayed in the textbook, for example, their social and geographic identities and material environment, and to the viewpoint of writers. The first implication of portraying representative individuals with social and geographical identities is that stereotypical representations are necessary in writing textbooks as they are starting points for teaching cultural studies. It is important to note, however, that stereotypical representations need to be simultaneously challenged in the textbook. It is risky to leave stereotypes for 'later questioning' as learners may never have a chance to question them, even if the challenge exists in later texts. The second implication of the notion of representative personalities is the need for a statistical study to identify, for example, the dominant groups of the societies in question, so that the individuals in textbooks appear in some approximate relationship to reality (Byram and Esarte-Sarries, 1991). The concept of 'realism', difficult though it may be in the abstract, also raises in the practice of establishing a degree of representativeness the issue of potential 'bias' in the philosophy of language teaching education which the textbook writers might have. For example, in textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language used in the former East Germany, the over-representation of the working class was clearly determined on ideological grounds, and textbook contents are value-laden wherever they are produced in the world (Byram, 1997: 22-29). Indeed all language teaching is politically determined (Byram and Risager, 1999), but the condition of 'realism' acts as an important check on political bias since the development of tertiary socialisation is dependent inter alia on materials that show a high degree of openness to otherness and adopt a reflective and critical approach to representing cultures and peoples.

It is self-evident that the content of texts is often contrived or adapted in accordance with the need to personalise, individualise or localise it (cf. McDonough and Shaw, 1993). The need for contrivance is thus either pedagogical (personalisation and individualisation) or political (localisation), or both. Even in textbooks which claim to use authentic materials, many in fact show clear pedagogical contrivance by adapting authentic texts or using scripted or semi-scripted texts (cf. Clarke, 1989). Cambridge English Course by Swan and Walter (1985) is an example of these textbooks and it contains adapted materials as well as authentic texts that are 'undoctored'. In his recent discussion on authenticity, Widdowson (1998: 715) states (he calls this a new 'slogan' for selecting textbook materials) that "the appropriate language for learning is language that can be appropriated (contrived) for learning" (our parenthesis). Just as Widdowson argues this point for language, we can argue an analogous point for content, i.e. that what is important is that the content can be contrived by textbook writers in order that it can be approriated for learning by learners. We think that the contrivance of authentic texts is necessary in broad terms because an intercultural perspective takes as prerequisites for curriculum planning both the learning context (the learners) and the geo-political context (the local conditions) (cf. Byram, 1997: 79-86). On the other hand, in textbook writing, arbitrary adaptation could affect the overall quality for developing learners¡¯ discourse competence because authentic texts keep "all the savour, stench and rough edges of life beyond the school walls". (Little, Devitt and Singleton, 1989: 6). We would therefore suggest that contrivance be done by following three basic principles: 1) grading authentic texts and/or the tasks to deal with the texts to avoid arbitrary adaptation as far as possible; and 2) categorising selected texts by theme; and 3) adapting texts by a multicultural and interdisciplinary team of writers rather than by an individual.

ELT professionals such as McDonough and Shaw (1993) list various reasons for adaptation but the most outstanding reasons are apparently concerned with the difficulty level of authentic texts in terms of grammar, vocabulary and concepts for language learners. It is certainly true that many authentic texts can be difficult to language learners, particularly beginners. Many of these scholars, however, seem to overlook the fact that some authentic materials can be as simple in terms of language as this:

¡°Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty. Here is the family. Mother, father, Dick and Jane live in the green-and-white house. They are happy. See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. ..." (an excerpt from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel quoted in Widdowson, 1998: 714).

This text contains only simple sentences in simple present tense and it could easily fit into a programme for beginners. This example suggests that it is possible that difficulty in terms of language could be sidestepped by careful selection and grading of authentic texts4.

To interpret and justify the notion of categorising authentic materials by theme, we draw upon schema theory. Rumelhart (1980) defines a schema as 'a data structure for representing the generic concepts in memory' which include those 'underlying objects, situations, events, sequences of events, actions and sequences of actions.' (p. 34). Schema theory is discussed enthusiastically by ELT professionals, particularly researchers of ESL/EFL reading (Carrel, 1984). The thematic reading approach, the practice that makes learners read more than one text of the same or similar theme, is based on schema theory and has been recently adopted by many textbook writers (e.g.: Baker-Gonzalez and Blau, 1995 and McGrath, 1995). This approach is often claimed to be effective in facilitating understanding of authentic texts because repeated access to the same or similar theme helps activate learners' background knowledge of the text being read (Carrel, 1984 and Devine, Carrel and Eskey, 1987). Our suggestion of categorising authentic texts by themes is based on research in thematic reading and is intended precisely to facilitate the process of reading authentic texts of similar themes. The last step of contrivance, adapting authentic texts by an interdisciplinary team of writers with multicultural backgrounds, makes it particularly important for textbook series to be written by a team of writers and used on a large scale. This will be taken up again in the last section.

It is our hope that the discussion above provides a new angle to view the issue of authenticity in materials writing. The four dimensions raised could be taken as fundamental issues of intercultural authenticity, a notion that we wish to define as the presence of 'realist' representations of cultures, including the target culture and learner's own, at micro-social and macro-social levels and the opportunity for learners to develop their own understanding of the intentions of text producers and the relationships between texts thus creating a mediated interpretation of texts embracing the intentions of the text producers and the perceptions of learners.

In the pages that follow, we shall illustrate the fundamental issues of intercultural authenticity through a general analysis of the contents of College English textbooks most-widely used in China. College English specialists and textbook writers, like many ELT professionals in the world, show keen interests in the issue of authenticity in foreign language teaching. In his discussion of College English teaching methodology, Guo (1995) states that authenticity of texts is the core of and the key to the communicative language teaching approach, which is claimed to be adopted by College English educators (Han, Lu and Dong, 1995). In recent years, writers of major College English textbooks all claim that only authentic texts are included in their textbooks. Zhai (1986), chief editor of the Intensive Reading booklets (the focus of our analysis)⁵ for Band 1 and Band 2 courses⁶ of the College English series, states that all texts of his booklets were selected from authentic sources and some of them were adapted according to pedagogical needs. In her review article, Dong (1992), general editor of the entire College English series (54 booklets), furthers Zhai's claim with the comment that these authentic texts provide not only adequate linguistic knowledge but ample background information about the culture(s) of the target language for learners to acquire. Although neither of the authors gives an explicit definition of authentic materials the examples given in their papers and the historical review of text selection in Dong (1992) implicitly define authentic texts as those written or produced in Western countries, particularly in Britain and the United States. This is made explicit by Liu (1987), chief editor of the Reading booklets for Band 1 to Band 2 (counterparts of the Intensive Reading booklets of the College English series) of the New English Course series (1992, published by the Qinghua University Press), who declares that the texts of the New English Course series "come from books, magazines and audio materials published predominantly in the United Kingdom and the United States in recent years. Therefore, these (texts) reflect the features of contemporary British English and American English and their cultures." (p. 21, our translation). The third widely used series, Modern English (1990, published by the China Higher Education Press), makes a similar statement in its preface. Apparently, these textbook writers view authentic language data in the first perspective as presented in the introduction, that is, the use of authentic materials in foreign language education makes certain a direct relationship to educational objectives.

According to the given references (many of them are incompletely documented⁷) of the four Intensive Reading booklets of the College English series⁸, the most widely-used textbook in China, one can see that the great majority of texts originate from sources such as newspapers, journals, magazines, encyclopaedias, novels and short story books, written by English native speakers and published in the United States and the United Kingdom. A further look at these booklets reveals that many of the texts come directly from ESL/EFL textbooks predominantly compiled by British or American textbook writers. These include Progressive Reading Series (1976) edited by Virginia. F. Allen, Washington D.C.; Reading Skill Builder (1973) by Reader¡¯s Digest Services, Inc.; BBC Modern English (1981) Hugh Corrigan (publisher not given); Perspectives--An Intermediate Reader edited by L. Fox (year of publishing and publisher not given) and New Horizon in English edited by L. Mellgren and M. Walker (year of publishing and publisher not given). This analysis suggests that the editors of the Intensive Reading booklets take all materials as authentic as long as they come from foreign sources, including textbooks.

In addition to the passion of using authentic materials as defined above, the criteria writers of College English textbooks have so far followed most closely are the three 'basic principles' of text selection stipulated in College English Syllabus (1985), that is, texts selected should be interesting, informative and enlightening. In their reflections of the text selection processes and writing principles of their individual textbooks, Dong (1986, 1992 and 1997), Liu (1986), Liu and Zhao (1997), and Zhai (1986) all claim that their teams of writers made every effort to ensure that these three principles are reflected in the textbooks. It is interesting to note that writers of major College English textbooks such as Liu (1987) and Dong (1992) interpret the second principle--selecting 'informative' texts--as a principle of choosing materials for cultural studies teaching, What are the features of these culturally informative texts? How are different cultures and people represented in these texts? What classroom tasks are designed in these textbooks to help learner exploit the texts? These are the issues we will review from the intercultural perspective in the following pages.

As mentioned above, an intercultural approach requires textbook writers to compare different cultures of the world, particularly the culture(s) of the target language and learner's native culture by reciprocal representations, including stereotypes. Representations at this level are crucial in that foreign language learners should learn how to interpret the world from alternative perspectives so that their existing framework of culture-specific references is reviewed, challenged and extended. Before learners engage with complex cultural phenomena they should be made aware of auto- and hetero-stereotypes of the target cultural groups and those of their own national social group (Byram, Morgan et al., 1994). Without awareness of this dimension, textbook writers tend to adopt the target-culture-only approach, seeking to explain the culture(s) of the target language while neglecting the equally important task of enabling learners to explore their own culture and selves. The target-culture-only approach is exactly the one adopted by College English textbook writers. In all the intensive reading booklets of the three series, there exists little evidence of addressing the need to represent their own cultures and selves.

The neglect of intercultural representations can be further illustrated by the fact that a rare text selected from the Time magazine which depicts how Chongqing, one of the largest cities in China, is seen by an American journalist was chosen unadapted for Book 2 in the first edition of New English Course published in 1986 but was missing from its second edition published in 1992. According to our research⁹, some textbook writers are not enthusiastic about intercultural representations as they fear that the students may not be interested in them, particularly the texts about their own culture. Our work suggests that this fear or assumption is not grounded. Feng (2000) conducted a survey among 73 students taking College English in 1998. One of the purposes of the survey was to compare the students' interests in different knowledge areas for cultural studies with their estimation of the cultural contents in their textbooks. In this study, he found that, of the forty-five knowledge areas grouped by three levels (micro-social level, macro-social level and intercultural level), the ten areas at the intercultural level were clearly ranked higher than the areas at the other two levels by the student respondents. A comparison of the cultural knowledge areas perceived by the students as important showed that these do not correspond well with their estimates of the actual cultural content in their textbooks. There was a striking mismatch in the contrast between the importance of the cultural knowledge areas at the intercultural level perceived by students and the actual treatment of these areas in College English textbooks.

With ever-increasing crosscultural communication in today's world, Kramsch (1998) states that "the responsibility of the language teacher is to teach culture as it is mediated through language" (31). This strongly suggests that, in classroom situations, authentic texts should be exploited through negotiations or open comparisons between the meaning 'intended' and the meaning(s) interpreted. These comparisons have to be made with different classroom tasks that aim at finding the communicative purpose at the discourse level. Writers of reading textbooks, for example, should realise that when reading an article on a historical event the learner, while struggling to understand linguistic conventions of the target language, wants to know how people from another culture describe and view this event; when reading stories or texts on social phenomena of a different culture s/he seeks a better understanding of the culture and its people in question and, perhaps also, enjoyment. To this end, classroom tasks should include those that help learners identify writers' intended purposes as well as those that enable them to understand and familiarise themselves with linguistic conventions. A discourse reading approach, defined in the College English Syllabus (1985) as reading texts 'holistically' for meaning as opposed to reading at the sentence level for form, was clearly meant in this direction.

In Intensive Reading of College English, the numerous language points listed in the teacher's book and long lists of vocabulary and expressions¹⁰ and the list of 'words to drill' right after the text in the student's book clearly suggests a vocabulary-and-grammar-oriented approach to reading rather than the desired discourse reading approach. The mini-passage for 'reading aloud and memorising' following the 'words to drill' list further delays the tasks for discourse reading. In fact, even in the reading comprehension questions following the vocabulary and grammar exercises in each text, there are very few that show evidence of discourse reading. It is apparent that the discourse reading approach, though encouraged in the syllabus, is not reflected in the textbook and the chance for learners to mediate intentions and interpretations is missed. It should be pointed out that the comments made here on vocabulary and grammar exercises do not suggest that they should be ignored or less important in College English teaching. On the contrary, the vocabulary-and-grammar-oriented approach, usually called the intensive reading model, is particularly important in the Chinese context because this model is institutionalised as part of a Chinese culture of learning (cf. Cortazzi & Jin 1996). This model, however, should not remain undeveloped (ibid.) as it affects learners' natural reading behaviour and consequently their competence in dealing with authentic language.

Because of the second criterion - selecting culturally informative texts (Liu, 1987 and Dong, 1992) - most College English textbooks cover a wide range of cultural themes. Of the 80 major readings in the four Intensive Reading booklets of College English, 25 could belong to the broad theme of general science, 13 to fiction stories, 9 to value concepts, 8 to lifestyles, 10 to history and biography, 8 to education and 7 to social problems (Of course, even broad themes are not always mutually exclusive (cf, Feng, 2000)). There is no apparent lack of historical representations of the American and British cultures, even though historical events and figures are not systematically presented and, as indicated in the section - Intercultural Representation, none of them is crossculturally examined. In fact, history is embedded as knowledge in many texts throughout the four booklets.

What is clearly missing is the representations of the contemporary cultures and peoples of the target language. Our examination of the references given in the Intensive Reading booklets, the focus of our analysis, of the College English series suggests that the writers made little effort in representing the contemporary social dimensions of the societies in question. Many texts, as mentioned before, were direct selections from ESL/EFL textbooks published in the 1960s and 1970s in Britain and the United States. Some of these texts may have already been quite 'old' when they were selected two or three decades ago by those textbook writers. The latest selection that is found in the four Intensive Reading booklets is an adapted article titled "Lady hermits who are down but not out" published in 1983. The selection of texts mainly from outdated sources causes a reduction of authenticity and projects an inaccurate picture of a modern society (Kane 1991). In this respect, the writers of New English Course made some clear efforts. Liu (1987) claims that they exerted their utmost to avoid texts which were out-of-date and to select those that would give learners the latest information. Although her Reading booklets do not contain source references at all, the texts show evidence of relatively higher contemporaneity

One of the reasons for the lack of contemporaneity of genuine texts in Intensive Reading of College English seems to stem from one of the considerations Dong (1992) takes in selecting materials. She states that "the chosen texts should be smooth and elegant in language and style and should be worth reading a hundred times" (p. 24, our translation). Though Dong (1997) showed awareness of the importance of contemporaneity in text selection, she only planned to replace some texts in the revised version of the Extensive Reading booklets with source materials contemporary. She explained that according to some surveys 'most teachers' prefer keeping the texts for Intensive Reading as they have gained experience in teaching them in the past years. The teachers think that the texts were written by world famous authors and, thus, they have strong 'teachability and learnability'. Indeed, the revised edition of the Intensive Reading booklets keeps all the text materials which were used for over a decade. In this changing and 'information explosion' age, however, texts, no matter how well they are written, may become less linguistically and culturally authentic as languages are under constant reformation and change in response to rapid socio-political and economic changes. From a sociolinguistic point of view, if the content of a textbook remains unchanged for a decade both the content and language would become outmoded and the learners would not be able to get from the textbook the real images of the contemporary culture(s) and the authentic language the people speak.

We have argued before that foreign language education is always context-dependent. The way cultures, including the target culture(s) and learners' own, are represented in a textbook depends mainly upon three factors: writers' awareness and understanding of cultural studies teaching in foreign language education, their educational philosophy and the political needs for education. These three aspects are reflected in the four Intensive Reading booklets in the following manner. As cultural studies teaching is taken by many textbook writers (Dong, 1992 and Liu and Zhao, 1997) as transmission of knowledge, naturally their textbooks, both in the student's book and the teacher's book, contain plenty of background information about the countries of the target cultures, from stereotypes of these peoples and their customs and traditions, important historical figures and events, to biographies of the authors of the selected texts. As the content for intensive reading is unit-based, a character presented could appear in one text and this makes it impossible for learners to explore in depth the images and events represented. What learners could attain by the end of the programme would be anecdotal and stereotypical information that could hardly be tested in real situations.

The second factor for image representations is the writers' viewpoints and in College English textbook writing this is mainly demonstrated as Sixiang xing (ideological concerns) (cf. Feng 1998). College English textbook writers and commentators such as Dong (1986, 1992 and 1997), Liu (1987) and Liu and Zhao (1997) and Hou and Zhao (1994) agree that in learning a foreign language learners should be ideologically educated ("Jiaoshu Yuren", Dong, 1986: 22). A careful look at the contents of the first four Intensive Reading booklets reveals that the self-imposed criterion of Jiaoshu Yuren led to the selection of texts which embody values and morals of learners' own culture. For example, the chosen texts include more texts on values such as patriotism, self-esteem, bravery, interpersonal relationship and attitudes towards work, all of which were clearly intended to strike a sympathetic chord in Chinese learners, but fewer on topics such as privacy, democracy and individualism which may show differences or contrasts in value and political concepts. The contents of most College English textbooks are, therefore, clearly laden with Chinese values. In addition, preferences of some writers for 'aged' materials (for example, Dong, 1986), as shown in the preceding section, clearly make the images represented obsolete.

Furthermore, the editors apparently selected more texts which depict the negative side than the positive side of the British and American societies. There are, for example, many representations of social problems such as crimes, racism, sexism, social stratification, the city poor and disrespect for the aged, but the number of texts representing positive images of the two countries is not as large. Learners would therefore be exposed to an unbalanced and incomplete image of the cultures under study. In textbook writing, however, the notions, balance and comprehensiveness, should be taken as one of the principal guidelines of cultural representations by foreign language educationists such as Byram, Esarte-Sarries and Taylor (1991) and Risager (1991).

As the section on fundamental issues argues, though adaptation and amendment of authentic texts lessens authenticity of a text as discourse, contrivance is unavoidable for pedagogical and political reasons. In contrivance, however, writers should first consider the options of grading authentic texts according to learners' language proficiency level as against the level of text difficulty in terms of vocabulary and grammar, grading the tasks to deal with these authentic texts in a classroom situation, and categorising texts by their broad themes. All the College English textbooks analysed in this paper have made clear efforts in this respect. By the given information after each text in the Intensive Reading booklets of College English, for example, most texts in Book 1 and Book 2 of are adapted, abridged or excerpted from a longer discourse. As the course progresses adaptation gradually lessons and in Book 4 quite a number of texts are directly 'taken' from authentic sources. Thematically, each Intensive Reading booklet contains ten units and each unit has two reading texts with the same or similar subject matter. The thematic approach adopted in New English Course and Modern English is even more apparent as each unit of the reading booklets of these two textbook series contains at least three texts of the same topic.

Many College English textbook writers and commentators such as Cai (1997), Zhang (1997) and Li (1997) have shown keen awareness of the negative effects of arbitrary adaptation of authentic texts in textbook writing. Cai (1997) reviewed some adapted texts in the Intensive Reading booklets and identified some cases he considers unacceptable. For example, in the fourth text titled "My first job" of the second booklet, Cai noted, the adapted text has the sentence, "The school was a red house with big windows.", as the description of the school, whereas the original text pictures the school as "a dreary, gabled Victorian house of red brick with big staring sash windows." The adaptation, he comments, was clearly done to avoid the words which are not within the confine of the vocabulary inventory of the College English syllabus. None the less, the author's original meaning is altered, the cultural flavour is lost, and with it the potential for developing cultural competence. Another example shows a case of inappropriate abridgement. The ninth lesson of Book 4 is entitled "Journey West" adapted from a sketch entitled "How the West Won Us" by Jim Doherty in the December-January 1976-1977 issue of National Wildlife magazine. The last paragraph was completely cut out, apparently again out of concern about vocabulary and, perhaps, length of the text as well. However, Cai (ibid.) observes, it is the last paragraph that the writer establishes solid rapport with his readers. That paragraph is the final "touch that brings a work of art to life" (p. 27, author's translation). The price of the abridgement exceeds that of keeping it intact. Zhang (1997) and Li (1997) as textbook writers share Cai's feeling, stating that a textbook writer should consider its absolute necessity before any adaptation is done.

The significant role played by textbooks is undeniable in foreign language education. This is particular true with College English for the obvious reason that a textbook series written for this programme such as College English contains hundreds of texts for reading and listening practice and it could be used by millions of college students for many years. Therefore, constant efforts should be made in College English textbook writing with a view to developing both theories and methodology. The discussion above has shown that the current understanding of authenticity held by many College English textbook writers needs to be re-examined taking into account its theoretical and pedagogical implications. Admittedly, it is a daunting task to satisfactorily address all the issues of authenticity in a foreign language textbook. However, in compiling textbooks, if the four fundamental issues discussed above are addressed, materials writers are more likely to produce textbooks which could help learners to eventually deal with communicative tasks in authentic situations. The arguments presented in this paper can be put in a more constructive fashion by considering what practical measures could be taken to achieve a high degree of intercultural authenticity. These measures, to be suggested with the Chinese context in mind, may include:

College English textbook writers have become more and more aware of various dimensions of authenticity. Zhang (1997), chief editor of Extensive Reading booklets of the College English series, reports that, during the recent revision of these booklets, his team strongly felt that arbitrary adaptation of authentic texts by deleting the vocabulary not stipulated in the syllabus is problematic as this would devalue the style and flavour of the genuine texts. Therefore, they decided, on the one hand, to take measures to help learners overcome vocabulary obstacles and, on the other hand, to select more contemporary materials so as to raise the motivation level of learners. In a similar manner, Li (1997), chief editor of Focus Listening of the College English series, states that one of her team's principles in revising the listening booklets was to press close to real life, which in her case means that the contents selected should not only be interesting but also realistic, reflecting the contemporary lifestyles and the latest information. Clearly, the perceptions shown by these writers about authenticity still stay at the-target-culture(s)-only level. It is our hope that this paper will lead to vigorous discussions on the issues of intercultural authenticity and a practical model which addresses the fundamental issues for foreign language textbook writing will come into existence.

Baker-Gonzalez, J. and E. K. Blau (1995) Building understanding: A thematic approach to reading comprehension Addison-Wesley Pub.

Byram, M. S. (1989) Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. S. (1991). Teaching culture and language: Towards an integrated model. In D. Buttjes & M. Byram (Eds.) Mediating languages and cultures (pp. 17¨C30). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. & Esarte-Sarries, V. (1991). Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching.Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Byram, M., Esarte-Sarries, V. and Taylor, S (1991) Cultural Studies and Language Learning: A Research Report, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M., Morgan, C. and colleagues (1994). Teaching-and-learning Language-and-culture. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. and Risager, K. (1999) Language teachers, politics and cultures. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Cai, J. G. (1997). Some considerations on material selection for 21st century College English textbooks. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of Foreign Language World) 65, 1, 26¨C30.

Carrel, P. L. (1984) Schema theory and ESL reading: Classroom implications and applications. Modern Language Journal, 68, 332-343.

College English Syllabus Revision Team (1985). College English Syllabus: Applicable to undergraduates of science and engineering. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Cook, V. J. (1983). English for life Book 3, Living with people. Oxford: Pergamon.

Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996). Culture of learning: Language classrooms in China. In M. Coleman (Ed.), Society and the language classroom (pp. 169¨C206). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Devine, J. P. L. Carrel and D. E. Eskey (Eds.) (1987). Research in reading in English as a second language. Washington D. C.: TESOL.

Dong, Y. F. (1986). The guiding principles in compiling College English (the trial copy). Wai Yu Jie (Journal of Foreign Language World) 23, 2, 20-24.

Dong, Y. F. (1992). College English Teaching-What we've done and what we're looking forward to. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of Foreign Language World), 47, 3, 23-26.

Dong, Y. F. (1997). Revising College English for advancing the College English education onto a new stage. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of Foreign Language World), 66, 2, 19-21.

Dong, Y. F., et al. (Eds.) 1997. College English (a series of 54 booklets). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.

Ellis, M. and Ellis, P. (1987). Counterpoint, Book 4, Intermediate. London: Nelson.

Feng, A.W. (1998) A Canon, a Norm and an Attitude: Ideological Dimension of Foreign Language Education in China. Chicago, IL: Central Library. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Ed 426 746).

Feng, A.W. (2000) The Veiled Syllabus - Cultural Dimensions in College English Education. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, UK.

Feng, Y. Z. (1988). College English teaching in China. In L. Y. Li, R. X. Zhong & L. Liu (Eds.) A History of English Language Teaching in China (pp. 542¨C83). Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.

Grellet, F. (1981). Developing reading skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Guo, J. K. (1995). Improve classroom teaching and raise CET to a new plateau. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of Foreign Language World) 57, 1, 50-53.

Han, Qishun, Lu, Ci and Dong, Yafeng (1995) Fully implement the syllabus and improve teaching quality. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World) 57/1: 44-49.

Hou, G. X. and Zhao, C. X. (1994) A tentative discussion on New English Course. Daixue Waiyu Jiaoxue Yanjiu (Foreign Language Teaching), Vol. 19: 34-36.

Kane, L. (1991). The acquisition of cultural competence: an ethnographic framework for cultural studies curricula. In D. Buttjes & M. S. Byram (Eds.) Mediating languages and cultures (pp. 239¨C47). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kramsch, C. (1998). The privilege of the intercultural speaker. In Byram, M. and M. Fleming (eds.) Language learning in intercultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Li, H. Q. (1997). On the revision and improvement of the listening course of College English. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World) 68, 4, 16-17.

Little, D., Devitt, S. & Singleton, D. (1989). Learning Foreign Languages from Authentic Texts: Theory and Practice. Dublin: Authentik.

Liu, P. M. et al. (1994) New English Course( Second Edition ). Beijing: Qing Hua University Press.

Liu, P. M. (1987) Guiding principles and features of New English Course. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World) 24/1: 21-23.

Liu, P. M. and Zhao, J. P. (1997). Discussion on the theoretical issues of revising College English textbooks. In, Hou, Y. and Lu, Z. (eds.) Qinhua Waiyu Jiaoyu Luncong (Working papers of foreign language education in Qinhua), 69-76.

McDonough, J. and C. Shaw (1993). Materials and methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

McGrath, J. L. (1995) Building strategies for college reading: A text with thematic reader Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall

McGraw-Hill International Edition (1996) The Interactions and Mosaic Program (English Language Series). New York, etc.: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Morrison, B. (1989). Using news broadcasts for authentic listening comprehension. ELT Journal, 43, 1, 14-18.

Morton, R. (1999). Abstracts as authentic material for EAP classes. ELT Journal, Vol. 53/3: 177-182.

Nostrand, H. L. (1989). Authentic texts and cultural authenticity: An editorial. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 49-52.

Parrott, M. (1993). Tasks for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Peacock, M. (1997). The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners. ELT Journal, 51, 2, 144-54.

Risager, K. (1991). Cultural references in European textbooks: an evaluation of recent tendencies. In Buttjes, D. and Byram, M. (eds.) Mediating Languages and Cultures, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 181-192.

Rumelhart, D.E. (1980). Schemata: the building blocks of cognition. In R. J. Spiro et al. (eds.), Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schinke-Llano, L. (1989). Time ¨C We the people. Loncohnwood, Illinois: National Textbook Company.

Soars, J. and Soars, L. (1986). Headway, Student's Book, Intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Swaffar, J. K. (1985). Reading authentic texts in a foreign language: a cognitive model. Modern Language Journal, 69, 1, 15-34.

Swan, M. and Walter, C. (1985). The Cambridge English course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Walter, C. (1982) Authentic reading: a course in reading skills for upper intermediate students. Cambridge and New York : Cambridge University Press.

Wang, D. M. & Xia, G. Z. (1997). A brief introduction to the intensive-reading course in the revised edition of College English. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World), 68, 4, 5-8.

Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Widdowson, H. G. (1979). Explorations in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Aspects of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Widdowson, H. G. (1994). The ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 28/2: 377-388.

Widdowson, H. G. (1998). Context, community, and authentic language. TESOL Quarterly, 32/4: 705-716.

Zhai, X. J. (1986). Intensive reading course of College English. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World), 23, 4, 25-28.

Zhang, G. S. (1991). The development of social cultural ability and college English teaching. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World), 41, 2, 36-38.

Zhang, Y. Q. (1997). Guiding principles and concrete methods in revising the extensive-reading course of College English. Wai Yu Jie (Journal of the Foreign Language World), 68, 4, 12-15.

* Note: In this bibliography, if the title of a journal is given in Chinese pinyin, the articles in this journal are always written in Chinese, even though the titles of the articles are given in English.

INTERCULTURAL AUTHENTICITY

----A New Angle for Content Analysis