ERIC Number: EJ1388113
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Sep
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-1688
EISSN: EISSN-1477-0954
Representation of Cultures and Communities in a Global ELT Textbook: A Diachronic Content Analysis
Keles, Ufuk; Yazan, Bedrettin
Language Teaching Research, v27 n5 p1325-1346 Sep 2023
This study examines the representation of cultures and communities in the world across five editions of New Headway elementary level textbook (NHE). It conducts a diachronic content analysis to explore how the representation of cultures and communities has evolved in NHE across five editions since its first edition's publication in 1993. Adapting Kachru's model of concentric circles for data analysis, we utilized Yuen's adaptation of ACTFL's (1996) standards for language teaching via the categories of persons, perspectives, products, and practices. Our findings mainly indicate that the Inner Circle has maintained its dominance in NHE's content over five editions. We found that there was an imbalance favoring European cultures against non-European cultures in the Expanding Circle. On the other hand, Expanding Circle/Non-European and Outer Circle are underrepresented with around 10% of the textbook content. These findings show that NHE's cultural focus is on the Western, European, and Anglo-American world of English-speaking communities. Such an imbalance in representation of world cultures leads us to conclude that NHE's writers do not sufficiently raise English learners' global cultural consciousness since there has been little engagement with multicultural view of English language varieties. We invite teachers, learners, and material developers to critically approach, analyse, revise, and/or adapt textbook content as discursive constructions which shape the imagination of cultures and communities.
Descriptors: Textbooks, Content Analysis, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Global Approach, Developing Nations, Developed Nations, Native Speakers, Cultural Awareness, Elementary School Students, Diachronic Linguistics, National Standards, Disproportionate Representation, Language Variation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Information Analyses
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A