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| 論文名稱 | Multiculturalism or Mono-Culturalism?: A Study on The Norton Reader (13th editions) |
| 研討會開始日期 | 2014-06-13 |
| 研討會結束日期 | 2014-06-13 |
| 所有作者 | Yi-jou Lo |
| 作者順序 | 第一作者 |
| 通訊作者 | 否 |
| 研討會名稱 | 2014 Symposium of English Education and Studies |
| 是否具有對外公開徵稿及審稿制度 | 是 |
| 研討會舉行之國家 | NATTWN-中華民國 |
| 研討會舉行之城市 | 高雄 |
| 發表年份 | 2014 |
| 所屬計劃案 | 校內整合型 |
| 可公開文檔 |
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| 可公開文檔 | |
| 可公開文檔 |
[摘要] :
In EFL learning, textbooks are deemed as “the most common source of curriculum content used in the classroom” (Gay 2000: 112). As far as advanced reading textbooks for college based EFL learners are concerned, The Norton Reader should be put on the top-three list. Ever since 1965 when the first edition of The Norton Reader was published, thousands of essays have been included and introduced. The Norton Reader provides dozens of topics demonstrating and depicting diversities of cultures. Take the latest, the 13th edition as an example. 95 papers are divided into 14 different sections classified from people, education, writing style, philosophy and so on. The huge collection of papers seemingly portrays The Norton Reader as a textbook containing “the plurality of the ways of life” (Parekh 1986: 2627). However, whether the number of papers is equivalent to multicultural perspectives should be questionable. Authors’ background and scopes of papers may offer possible criteria for multicultural perspectives.
This paper contemplates the 14 sections (95 papers) in the 13th edition of The Norton Reader with the focus on two aspects: each author’s background (especially nationality) and the connection between these 14 sections as the (or false) embodiment of diverse cultures.
The results are twofold:
1. Despite The Norton Reader proudly announced that they had “American, Canadian, African, Indian, English, and Caribbean writers” (p. xx), yet, more than two-thirds of the essays are finished by Americans (some are migrants). The Norton Reader thus is quite Americanized.
2. Among the 14 sections, every section collects more than half essays with American authors except the section of Album of Styles. In sections as “Personal Account”, “Portraits of People” and “Nature and Environment” only papers by Americans are selected.
It is thus rational to conclude that, instead of being objective enough to illustrate multicultural aspects, that The Norton Reader as a textbook for multicultural pedagogy can be very questionable.
