본 연구는 다인종/다문화사회로 급변하면서 한국사회에서 드러난 다문화교육의 요구를 <영어 I> 교과서가 잘 반영하고 있는지를 다문화주의적 관점에서 분석해 보기 위한 것이다. 이를 위해 제7차 개정 교육과정 고등학교 2학년 <영어Ⅰ> 교과서 5종을 택하여, 어느 문화가 그 주된 배경이 되는지를, 문화별, 권역별, 국가별로 살펴보았고, 삽화 인물이 인종별, 성별로 어떻게 분포되어 있는지를 분석하였다.
분석 결과, 본문의 배경이 되는 문화는 그 빈도가 보편문화와 영어권문화, 대조문화 순서로 나타났다. 그리고 국가적으로는 미국, 한국, 영국 순으로 많이 나타났고 외부원의 국가는 출현 빈도가 현저히 낮은 것으로 나타났다.
삽화에서는 인종별 출현 빈도가 백인, 황인, 흑인 순이었다. 백인이 총 인물 삽화의 절반에 가까운 비율을 보여 백인이 중심이 되었다. 황인에서 대부분을 차지하는 한국인의 출현 횟수를 제외한다면 황인과 흑인은 백인보다 현저히 낮은 빈도로 삽화에 등장하였다. 성별에서는, 남성이 여성보다 약 1.5배 더 많이 본문에 등장하여, 남성중심적이었다. 인종적, 성별 균형을 배려한 교과서도 있었으나, 대부분은 개선이 여지가 많이 남아 있었다.

The purpose of this study is to analyze tacit cultural assumptions in current High School English I textbooks from the perspective of multiculturalism. Five English I textbooks have been selected to answer the following two research questions: 1) When background cultures are classified on the basis of a slightly modified version of the Kachru-Crystal typology of English speakers into inner, outer, and expanding circles, which cultures are presented in the textbooks, and in what proportions? 2) Are people presented in balanced proportions in terms of human races and genders? The results of this study include the following: First, the textbooks most frequently presented these three types of culture: universal cultures, inner circle cultures, and sets of compared cultures. Since universal cultures were also mainly based on inner circle cultures, however, the latter can be said to have been highly emphasized while the outer circle countries were not covered sufficiently. A multiculturally desirable change seems to occur in introducing more diverse, minor cultural backgrounds.
As individual countries, the United States, Korea, and the United Kingdom were represented most frequently in the textbooks in the given order. In addition, L1 English-speaking countries and European countries appeared often in the contents, while countries that speak English as their second language were not mentioned prominently. This seems to remain an area where much improvement will be requested.
The race-and-gender analysis, secondly, showed that Caucasians were more often represented (about 50%) than Asians and blacks, but this turned out to be a significant improvement compared with previous textbooks. This positive change was particularly prominent in a couple of textbooks which made efforts to balance racial representations by having black people as main characters in reading texts. This positive change in racial proportions also had a similar repercussion in gender representation. Males appeared 1.5 times more often than females in average, but this figure stands for a significant improvement as well.

• 안성호(한양대학교) | Sung-Ho G Ahn 교신저자
• 염보라(한양대학교) | Bo Ra Youm 제1저자