interculturality in EFL textbook

1. An Analysis of Cultural Contents of
Indonesia’s Senior High School
ELT Textbooks:
An Intercultural Perspective
MA Work-in-progress Seminar
Muhammad Iwan Munandar

2. Chapter 1
Introduction

3. Rationale
• Systemic & schematic knowledge
• Influence of schemata on foreign language acquisition
• Culture-specific cognition vs. L2 schematic knolwedge
• English as an international language (EIL)
• Multicultural language; a language of intercultural
communication
• Questionable appropriacy of NS linguistic &
sociolinguistic norms in EFL context

4. Rationale (cont’d)
• ELT textbook
• Inform about the language
• Provide experience of the language in use
• Stimulate language use
• Help make discoveries about the language
• Important in language and culture learning
• Little is known about cultural contents of ELT textbooks
for Indonesian senior high school students

5. Research questions
1. What cultural contents are included in Indonesia’s
senior high school ELT textbooks?
2. How is cultural information integrated and explained in
the textbooks?
3. Are components of target culture, native culture or
international culture(s) adequately represented?
4. To what extent do the textbooks facilitate the
development of students’ intercultural awareness?

6. Significance of the Study
1. the prospective findings can add or expand literature
on how the notions of the relationship between
language and culture is explored
2. the prospective findings can throw new light on aspects
of the teaching and learning of culture in the context of
foreign language education
3. the prospective findings can be used to help determine
appropriate cultural themes or topics for ELT textbooks
in Indonesia

7. Limitations of the Study
1. This study will not attempt to evaluate Indonesia’s
senior high school ELT textbooks in terms of their
pedagogical approach or value.
2. This study focuses solely on cultural contents of the
textbooks rather than any other contents, issues or
topics.
3. This study cannot be generalized to ELT textbooks
used by Indonesian students in different levels of
education.

8. Chapter 2
Literature review

9. Indonesia’s socio-educational context of ELT
• Complex sociolinguistic situation
▫ Over 300 ethnic groups & 700 vernaculars
▫ Indonesian: the sole national language
▫ Linguistic battlefield
• English: first foreign language
• Gloomy picture of ELT
▫ Student’s low English skill
▫ Increasingly exam-oriented
▫ Only 5% of population is proficient in English

10. Culture in language education
• Language: an integral part of culture
▫ Language learning ↔ culture learning
• Cognizant of socio-cultural principles of appropriate
language use
• Visible & invisible culture
• Big C & little c culture
• Intercultural awareness: reflection of one’s own and the
other’s culture, understanding of and respect for the
cultures

11. Intercultural approach to ELT
• Intercultural communicative competence (ICC)
▫ vs. native speaker competence
• ELT
▫ Invalid NS competence based pedagogical model
▫ EIL reflects the rich linguistic & cultural diversity of today’s
English users
• Culture learning: the process of acquiring culture-specific
and culture-general knowledge, skills and
attitudes for effective communication with individuals
from other cultures

12. Intercultural approach to ELT (cont’d)
Factors in intercultural communication (Byram, 1997, 2003)

13. Textbook evaluation
• Byram’ and Cortazzi and Jin’s models
▫ Intercultural communication in the foreground
▫ Oriented to the development of ICC
▫ Inclusion of home (C1), target-language (C2) &
international culture (C3/4/5)
▫ Culture-specific & culture general; ‘Big C’ & ‘little c’ culture

14. Textbook evaluation (cont’d)
Criteria for textbook evaluation (Byram, 1993)

15. Textbook evaluation (cont’d)
Textbooks and culture (Cortazzi & Jin, 2003)

16. Chapter 3
Methodology

17. Research design
• Research purpose & questions → qualitative research
▫ Open-ended, non-numerical data analysed by non-statistical
methods
▫ Social, cultural & situational factors affect language
acquisition & use
▫ Cover contextual conditions & provide insights into the
context
• Case study: holistic, complex & dynamic nature of a
particular entity; systematic connections among
relevant features
• Emic & etic approach: insider’s & outsider’s view

18. Data collection
• 6 textbooks for grade 10, 11 & 12
▫ All parts of textbooks, e.g. readings, dialogues, exercises,
photos & cartoons/illustrations
• Elicitations techniques: the case investigator is the data
elicitation instrument
▫ The research purpose & questions, the case, investigator’s
preconceptions
• Coding: categorized according to recurring significant
variables, issues or themes

19. Data analysis
• Interpretative analysis
▫ Research outcome is the researcher's subjective
interpretation
• Iterative process
▫ Non-linear step in data collection, analysis & interpretation
depending on emergent results
• Triangulation
▫ Using multiple perspectives to interpret a single set
of data (theory triangulation)
▫ Cultural elements, textbook evaluation ↔ intercultural
perspective

20. What’s on your mind?

21. References
Alptekin, C. (1993). Target-language culture in EFL materials. ELT Journal,
47(2), 136-143.
Alptekin, C. (2002). Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT.
ELT Journal, 56(1), 57-64.
Byram, M. (1993). Language and culture learning: the need for integration In
M. Byram (Ed.), Germany: its representation in textbooks for teaching
German in Great Britain (pp. 13-18). Frankfurt: Georg-Eckert-Institut für
Internationale Sculbuchforschung.
Byram, M. (2003). On being ‘bicultural’ and ‘intercultural’. In G. Alfred, M.
Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Intercultural experience and education (pp. 50-
66). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Corbett, J. (2010). Intercultural language activities. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (2003). Cultural mirrors: materials and methods in the
EFL classrooms. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching
and learning (pp. 197-219). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

22. References (cont’d)
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (2003). Cultural mirrors: materials and methods in the
EFL classrooms. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching
and learning (pp. 197-219). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Davcheva, L., & Sercu, L. (2005). Culture in foreign language teaching
materials. In L. Sercu, E. Bandura, P. Castro, L. Davcheva, C. Laskaridou,
U. Lundgren & P. Ryan (Eds.), Foreign language teachers and intercultural
competence (pp. 90-109). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. .
Finegan, E. (2009). English. In B. Comrie (Ed.), The world's major languages
(pp. 59-85). New York: Routledge.
Honna, N. (2005). English as a multicultural language in Asia and intercultural
literacy. Intercultural Communication Studies, 14(2), 73-89.
Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a lingua franca: attitude and identity. New York:
Longman.
Kachru, Y., & Smith, L. E. (2008). Cultures, contexts, and world Englishes.
New York: Routledge.

23. References (cont’d)
Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: implications for international
communications and English language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McKay, S. L., & Bokhorst-Heng, W. D. (2008). International English in its
sociolinguistic contexts. New York: Routledge.
Nishida, H. (2005). Cultural schema theory. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.),
Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 401-417). California: :
SAGE Publications.
Saville-Troike, K. (2006). Introducing second language acquisition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sharifian, F. (2009). English as an international language. In F. Sharifian (Ed.),
English as an international language: perspectives and pedagogical issues
(pp. 1-20). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

24. Thank you