A critical content analysis of English textbook for senior high school students in Indonesia

Urip Sulistiyo, Retno Wulan, Tubagus Zam Zam Al Arif, Dony Efriza, Kaspul Anwar

Abstract


Driven by sparse investigations on cultural content in a textbook in English as a foreign language context, this study aims to analyze the cultural information embedded in an English textbook for senior high school students in Indonesia. A critical content analysis was employed to analyze the textbook entitled “Pathway to English for SMA/MA Grade XI” in compliance with the cultural information cores from Adaskou et al. (1990). The findings showed that the textbook contains four main topics of cultural information infused in 14 reading texts, 20 pictures, 30 recordings, and seven cultural awareness texts. The reading texts provide equal information related to target culture (i.e., the culture belongs to English speaking countries) and local culture, but the pictures, recordings, and cultural awareness topics tend to inform the target culture information. Furthermore, the researchers found several weaknesses in the reading texts and pictures where the information provided was too general that they neither contain cultural information nor relevant to other information in the textbook. Meanwhile, all pictures were in white and black with less detail provided. The results suggested that teachers should adapt and balance the cultural information in the textbook with their local cultures or norms by finding other materials from various sources.

Keywords


critical content analysis; culture; English textbook; EFL

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adaskou, K., Britten, D., & Fahsi, B. (1990). Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco. ELT Journal, 44(1), 3-10.

Ahour, T., Towhidiyan, B., & Saeidi, M. (2014). The evaluation of “English Textbook 2” taught in Iranian high schools from teachers’ perspective. English Language Teaching, 7(3), 150-158.

Aliakbari, M. (2004). The place of culture in the Iranian ELT textbooks in high school level. [Paper presentation]. Proceedings of the 9th Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Cheonan-si, Korea. http://www.paaljapan.org/resources/proceedings/2004/Aliakbari.pdf

Alptekin, D. (1993). Target-language culture in EFL materials. ELT Journal, 47(2), 136–143.

Ayu, M., & Indrawati, R. (2018). EFL text-book evaluation: The analysis of tasks presented in English text-book. Teknosastik: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 16(1), 21-25.

Brown, D. H. (2001). Teaching by principle: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Longman.

Choudhury, M. H. (2013). Teaching culture in EFL: Implications, challenges and strategies. Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 13(1), 29-40.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education (5th ed). Routledge.

Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. X. (1999). Cultural mirrors: Materials and methods in the EFL classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed), Culture in second language teaching and learning (pp. 196-219). Cambridge University Press.

Creswell, W. J. (2012). Educational research planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed). Pearson Education.

Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2009). How to design and evaluate research in education. McGraw-Hill.

Gao, J. (2007). Teaching writing in Chinese universities: Finding an electric approach. ASIAN EFL Journal, 20(2), 285-297.

Ghafor, O. F. (2020). Exploring the perceptions of Kurdish EFL University students towards culture as the fifth language skill. Studies in English Language and Education, 7(1), 70-82.

Gómez, L. F. (2015). The cultural content in EFL textbooks and what teachers need to do about it. PROFILE: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 17(2), 167-187.

Graves, K. (2000). Designing language courses: A guide for teachers. Heinle Cengage.

Hutchinson, T., & Torres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315-328.

Jusuf, H. (2018). The models of checklist method in evaluating ELT textbooks. Journal Al-Lisan, 3(2), 17-35.

Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. (n.d.). Nama Kementerian/Departemen Pendidikan, nama menteri dan lama menjabat [Name of Ministry/Ministry of Education, name of minister and service period]. https://www.kemdikbud.go.id/main/tentang-kemdikbud/daftar-menteri-pendidikan

Kim, S., & Paek, J. (2015). An analysis of culture-related content in English textbooks. Linguistic Research, 32, 83–104.

Krippendorf, K. (2013). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage.

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.

Lin, B. (2006). Genre based teaching and Vygotskian in EFL: The case of university writing course. The Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 226-248.

Ljiljana, H. (2015, November 12). The importance of teaching culture to EFL students. ELT Rants, Reviews, and Reflections. https://eltrantsreviewsreflections.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/the-importance-of-teaching-culture-to-efl-students/

McGrath, I. (2002). Materials evaluation and design for language teaching. Edinburgh University Press.

McKay, S. L. (2004). Western culture and the teaching of English as an international language. Forum, 42(2), 10-15.

Nordlund, M. (2016). EFL textbooks for young learners: A comparative analysis of vocabulary. Education Inquiry, 7(1), 27764.

Oakes, J., & Saunders, M. (2004). Education’s most basic tools: Access to textbooks and instructional materials in California’s public schools. Teachers College Record, 106, 1967–1988.

Rahman, M. A. (2019). Teaching language through literature: George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” in the EFL classroom. Studies in English Language and Education, 6(1), 84-96.

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.

Singh, R., & Shaari, A. (2019). The analysis of higher-order thinking skills in English reading comprehension tests in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 15(1), 12-26.

Sitoresmi, W. E. (2017). A cultural content analysis of EFL textbooks-challenge series: 2, 3, and 4 [Unpublished master’s thesis] UIN Jakarta.

Song, H. (2013). Deconstruction of cultural dominance in Korean EFL textbooks. Intercultural Education, 24(4), 382-290.

Sulistiyo, U., Supiani, Kailani, A., & Lestariyana, R. P. D. (2020). Infusing moral content into primary school English textbooks: A critical discourse analysis. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 251-260.

Suryanto. (2014). Issues in teaching English in a cultural context: A case of Indonesia. Journal of English Literacy Education, 1(2), 75-83.

Zakaria, M. H., & Hashim, N. H. M. (2009). Local cultural aspects in the KBSM English language materials. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v8i1.16778

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 0 times
PDF - 0 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Print ISSN: 2355-2794, Online ISSN: 2461-0275

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


View Journal Stats