Cultural Representation and Intercultural Interaction in National English Textbook

Anda Roofi Kusumaningrum, Suparno Suparno, Dewi Rochsantiningsih

Abstract


The role of English as Foreign Language in education context not only aims to make students become more communicative, but also provide cultural knowledge, since language and culture have an inseparable relationship. The present study aims to investigate the presence of cultural content in the Senior High School English textbook entitled “Bahasa Inggris” for grade X, published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. Drawing on Yuen (2011) and Song (2013) theoretical frameworks, the study attempts to reveal how culture is represented and what intercultural interaction is presented in textbook. Employing qualitative content analysis, the study showed that the presence of cultural diversity among Indonesian culture, British/American culture, and Non-English speaking countries' culture is unbalanced, in which the majority of representation belongs to Indonesian culture. While the cultures of other countries are rarely presented. Although the textbooks provide the material of intercultural communication, the proportion is limited. Thus, the textbook creators need to enrich not only the material about Indonesian culture, but also the culture of other countries to help students become aware of the cultural diversity and prepare them to face cultural experience. Furthermore, the intercultural interaction embedded in textbook tends to be underrepresented. This shortage however can be supplemented with supplementary materials provided by teachers which consist of a variety of intercultural interaction. This is the way to encourage the student’s understanding and establish intercultural awareness which is important to improve their cultural knowledge.

References


Abid, N., & Moalla, A. (2019). The promotion of the good intercultural speaker through intercultural contacts in a Tunisian EFL textbook. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(1), 37-49. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2019.1676765

Awayed-Bishara, M. (2015). Analyzing the cultural content of materials used for teaching English to high school speakers of Arabic in Israel. Discourse & Society, 26(5), 1-26. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926515581154

Bennet, J., Bennet, M., & Allen, W. (2003). Developing intercultural competence in the language classroom. In D. L. Lange & R. M. Paige (Eds.), Culture as the core: Perspectives in second language learning. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Bose, P., & Gao, X. (2022). Cultural representations in Indian English Language Teaching textbooks. SAGE Open, 12(1), 1-11. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221082102

Byram, M. (2013). Foreign language teaching and intercultural citizenship. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 1(3), 53-62. Retrieved from https://ijltr.urmia.ac.ir/article_20433.html

Canale, G. (2016). (Re)Searching culture in foreign language textbooks, or the politics of hide and seek. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 29(2), 225-243. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2016.1144764

Davidson, R., & Liu, Y. (2018). Reaching the world outside: Cultural representation and perceptions of global citizenship in Japanese elementary school English textbooks. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 33(1), 32-49. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2018.1560460

Dinh, T. N., & Sharifian, F. (2017). Vietnamese cultural conceptualisations in the

locally developed English textbook: A case study of ‘Lunar New Year’/‘Tet’. Asian Englishes, 19(2), 148-159. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2017.1279763

Drisko, J. W., & Maschi, T. (2016). Content analysis: Pocket guides to social work research methods. USA: Oxford University Press.

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

Lee, J. F., & Li, X. (2019). Cultural representation in English language textbooks: A comparison of textbooks used in mainland China and Hong Kong. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 28(4), 605-623. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2019.1681495

Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Liu, Y., Zhang, L. J., & May, S. (2021). Dominance of Anglo-American cultural representations in university English textbooks in China: A corpus linguistics analysis. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 35(1), 83-101. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1941077

Moran, P. (2001). Language-and-culture. In Teaching culture: Perspective in practice. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Parlindungan, F., Rifai, I., & Safriani, A. (2018). The representation of Indonesian cultural diversity in middle school English textbooks. Indonesian journal of applied linguistics, 8(2), 289-302. doi:https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v8i2.13276

Paterson, B. (2004). Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.

Sadeghi, K., & Sepahi, Z. (2017). Cultural content of three EFL textbooks: Teachers’ and learners’ cultural preferences and cultural themes of textbooks. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 13(3), 222-245. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2017.1417128

Saemee, K., & Ra, J. J. (2021). Teachers’ perceptions of cultural content in English language textbooks used in multicultural classrooms at a Thai primary school. Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 14(2), 227-241. doi:https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0061

Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2001). Intercultural communication: A discourse approach (2nd ed.). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Scollon, R., Scollon, S., & Jones, R. (2012). Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. (3rd ed.). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and culture-endorsed EFL textbook: A critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383-397. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2019.1548102

Shin, J., Eslami, Z. R., & Chen, W. (2011). Presentation of local and international culture in current international English-language teaching textbooks. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 24(3), 253-268. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2011.614694

Song, H. (2013). Deconstruction of cultural dominance in Korean EFL textbooks. Intercultural Education, 24(4), 382-390. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2013.809248

Tajeddin, Z., & Teimournezhad, S. (2014). Exploring the hidden agenda in the representation of culture in international and localised ELT textbooks. The Language Learning Journal, 43(2), 180-193. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2013.869942

Widodo, H. P. (2016). Language policy in practice: Reframing the English language curriculum in the Indonesian secondary education sector. In Kirkpatrick, R. (Ed.), English language education policy in Asia. New York: Springer.

Yuen, K. (2011). The representation of foreign cultures in English textbooks. ELT Journal, 65(4), 458-466. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccq089


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.