1 Research Background

This section discusses the demand for interdisciplinary talent cultivation under the framework of New Liberal Arts, emphasizing the importance of foreign language communication skills, domain-specific knowledge, international communication capabilities, and cross-cultural management competencies. It highlights the inadequacies of existing specialized foreign language textbooks in constructing cross-cultural contexts and the impact of these shortcomings on nurturing professionals with international communication competence and global competency. Additionally, it points out the lack of research on cultural representation in specialized foreign language textbooks, particularly the lag in studies on non-English language materials. Finally, the study proposes to employ the analytical framework developed by Zhang Hong and Li Xiaonan to examine the implicit cultural representation methods in Business French textbooks.

2 Research Design

This chapter elaborates on the research design for studying implicit cultural representation in specialized foreign language textbooks. The research questions focus on the types of implicitly presented cultures, their presentation methods, and the integration of language, culture, and business. The analytical framework examines three dimensions: cultural content, implicit presentation methods, and the fusion of the three elements. Two Business French textbooks published in France were selected as research subjects—one targeting intermediate-to-advanced learners and the other for beginners. For data collection, implicit cultural representations in the textbooks were systematically categorized and recorded, including cultural types, presentation methods, and exercise design, to reveal the mechanisms integrating language, culture, and business.

3 Research Findings

This section explores the implicit cultural representation methods in specialized foreign language textbooks. The findings reveal that target-language cultural content dominates, accounting for approximately 50%, followed by native culture, while international culture constitutes less than 10%. Implicit cultural representation primarily relies on images and cultural expression exercises, with high frequency and intensity in image usage. Cultural expression and comprehension exercises also play significant roles. The two textbooks differ in the切入点 and implementation stages of cultural expression exercises: Advanced Business French integrates them mainly into language output activities, whereas Business French Course emphasizes topic introduction. The textbooks reflect communicative teaching principles by embedding cultural content into business communication tasks, using multicultural expression and comprehension exercises to guide learners in understanding commercial traditions and norms, thereby enhancing business communication skills.

4 Research Discussion

This chapter discusses the study of implicit cultural representation in specialized foreign language textbooks. The findings indicate that the two textbooks offer valuable insights in task authenticity and progressive exercise design. By employing authentic task-driven approaches, the textbooks achieve three-dimensional integration of language, culture, and business, emphasizing that language learning should simulate real workplace scenarios to cultivate learners' cross-cultural communication and problem-solving skills. Communicative task exercises and case studies serve as typical design models, helping learners simultaneously improve business decision-making and cultural adaptability during language training. The exercise designs are tailored to learners' cognitive characteristics and language proficiency at different stages, adopting differentiated approaches to organically integrate language, culture, and business. However, the textbooks exhibit shortcomings in presenting international perspectives and guiding cross-cultural competencies. Cultural content heavily focuses on the target language, with insufficient representation of international cultures and an imbalanced reflection of business practices across Francophone regions. Output tasks predominantly feature role-plays, emphasizing language proficiency and business communication skills while offering limited cross-cultural communication development. The textbooks should incorporate specific behavioral anchors to enhance the practicality of cross-cultural competency training.

5 Recommendations for Specialized Foreign Language Textbook Development

This chapter proposes three recommendations for compiling specialized foreign language textbooks. First, it suggests designing task-based activities set in authentic business scenarios to achieve three-dimensional integration of linguistic knowledge, business knowledge, and cultural knowledge, thereby improving learners' cross-cultural communication skills. Second, it recommends applying multimodal resources in a graded manner based on learners' language proficiency and teaching objectives to implicitly infuse cultural content, progressing from cultural identification to cultural interpretation. Lastly, it advises expanding multicultural perspectives by systematically incorporating business cultural elements from China's major trading partners, guiding learners to anticipate cultural conflicts and acquire adaptive communication strategies, fostering globally competent professionals.

6 Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the analysis of implicit cultural representation in the two Business French textbooks, highlighting their strengths in integrating target-language culture and achieving three-dimensional fusion while noting their limitations in constructing international perspectives and cross-cultural orientation. Recommendations for improving textbook development include authentic scenario-driven tasks, graded multimodal resource application, and multicultural perspective building. Future research should focus on learners' perceptions and acceptance of implicit cultural representation, as well as designing evaluation systems to measure the impact of implicit representation on cross-cultural competency development.