An Analysis of Cultural Contents of

Indonesia’s Senior High School

ELT Textbooks:

An Intercultural Perspective

MA Work-in-progress Seminar

Muhammad Iwan Munandar

Chapter 1

Introduction

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

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

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?

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

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.

Chapter 2

Literature review

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

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

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

Intercultural approach to ELT (cont’d)

Factors in intercultural communication (Byram, 1997, 2003)

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

Textbook evaluation (cont’d)

Criteria for textbook evaluation (Byram, 1993)

Textbook evaluation (cont’d)

Textbooks and culture (Cortazzi & Jin, 2003)

Chapter 3

Methodology

• 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

Research design

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

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

What’s on your mind?

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

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and learning (pp. 197-219). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References (cont’d)

Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (2003). Cultural mirrors: materials and methods in the

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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

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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

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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.

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.

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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.

Thank you