THE INTEGRATION OF CULTURAL CONTENT IN EFL …

NEELLS Proceedings National English Education, Language, and Literature Seminar 2020

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THE INTEGRATION OF CULTURAL CONTENT IN EFL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS Dihliz Khalfi Masita, Sri Rachmajanti, Nur Mukminatien Universitas Negeri Malang [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract: Language and culture are intertwined in that the language is created by the culture, and the language will represent the existing culture so as to reflect the cultural values. This study aimed to investigate how the cultural contents are presented in the English textbook for the tenth graders, or to find out the cultural dimensions of the textbook in particular. Descriptive content analysis was used to analyze the textbook. Using the criteria for evaluating a textbook, the variables to be examined incorporated the dimensions of culture and the categories of culture. The results showed that this textbook has been dominated by the product dimension depicting the target culture, i.e. the Western culture. It is then recommended that the textbook also include the learners’ cultural background, their native culture. By doing so, the students would be exposed to both their native culture values for enhancing their identity and the target culture values for developing cross-cultural understanding. Keywords: Cultural content, English textbook, content analysis

INTRODUCTION

English has been widespread around the world and has evolved as an international language for

economic, social, and technological purposes. Therefore, many people want and have to learn English. Even English is one of the compulsory subjects in some countries including Indonesia. Teaching English is one of the most widely used ways to provide and develop students' competencies in communicating using the language. In order to be communicatively competent, Arslan (2016) requires that language users should be culturally equipped. Therefore, the teacher should include the target culture in language teaching.

Risager (2012) claims that language and culture cannot be separated as language practices are connected to other real-life cultural and social practices. Moran (2001) describes culture as an evolving way of life for a group of people, consisting of a common set of activities associated with a shared amount of goods, based on a shared set of perspectives on the environment and within particular social contexts. In addition, language, as defined by Wardhaugh (2002), is knowledge of principles and rules, and ways to speak and do things with words, sounds, and sentences, rather than simply knowledge of particular sounds, words, and sentences. Those definitions about culture and language are linked to each other meaning that the language is created by the culture and the language will adapt to the existing culture for that cultural value to be conveyed.

There are several reasons that make culture important to learn. First, culture is important because it creates the world in which we think we live. Second, culture is a bond that ties the people of a region or community together. It is that one common bond, which brings the people of a community together. Third, the cultural values help develop a sense of belonging, and a feeling of unity in the minds of the people of that particular culture. The last, culture is important because it creates assumptions about how the world operates, and those assumptions in turn drive a huge piece of our behavior.

Even though students are mandatory to learn the English language, the teachers should also make the learning process contain mostly with the culture of Indonesia in it. The 1945 Constitution Article 32 Paragraph 1 states that the government develops Indonesia's national culture in world civilization by ensuring people's freedom to preserve and develop their cultural values. This is one of the missions of Indonesia’s education to bring its unique culture to all stages of local and international communities through the instructional materials, one of which is a textbook. According to Samuel (2009), instructional materials refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during the teaching and learning process. Therefore, the Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture has produced English textbooks for junior and senior high levels of education in Indonesia on the bases of the methods, contents, procedures, and the systematic syllabus of the latest curriculum (Curriculum 2013). The birth of a new curriculum is usually accompanied by the release of a variety of

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textbooks. The problem is what culture should be taught and studied through the textbook is not explicitly considered in the instructional program. In this context, therefore, it is important to analyze the cultural content in the textbook to prevent cultural dominance and/ or bias, which has often been a problem in the ELT.

Although the government has published a list of adequate textbooks, the evaluation of textbooks is necessary to do since teachers show a reliance on textbooks in the classroom. Riemann (2009) states that some factors should be considered in evaluating textbooks’ effectiveness in presenting cultural content. Firstly, it refers to the alignment of the instructional objectives and results, the degree to which material is used to raise cultural awareness or involve students in a manner that encourages curiosity and a positive understanding of the target language and related communities. The second is presentation, which refers to how cultural material is used, omitted, or simplified. The third is practice, including general factors deciding how cultural material is balanced to take account for immediate, short-term considerations such as teaching skill, marketability, and relevance. From the three factors above, it can be concluded that when evaluating a textbook, the target culture and local culture should be balanced. In addition, the culture presented should at least be filtered as well as possible to increase the students' positive understanding of the local and international culture. Thus, this study was carried out to identify the cultural content of the English textbook used for the ten graders entitled The Pathway to English.

Henceforth, this study was designed to answer two research questions: (1) How are the cultural contents presented in the textbook “Pathway to English” for the tenth graders? and (2) Does the textbook meet the requirements of a good communicative English textbook in terms of the cultural contents?

METHOD

As the purpose of the study was to obtain specific and detailed information about the content of a

textbook, a content analysis was adopted. According to Ary (2010), content analysis focused on analyzing and interpreting recorded materials to learn about human behavior. The textbook was evaluated and analyzed based on the dimensions of culture (Moran, 2001), categories of culture (Cotazzi & Jin,1999), and supporting learning materials (BSNP, 2014). The source of the data is an English textbook entitled Pathway to English for the tenth graders published by Erlangga in 2013. The textbook contains 11 units in 248 pages with the following themes of the 2013 Curriculum for the tenth graders.

Table 1. The Themes of the Textbook

Chapter Theme Chapter Theme

1 All About Me 7 Describing People

2 Well Done! 8 Describing Places

3 Are You Okay? 9 It’s Missing!

4 I Will Improve My English 10 A Time in a Life 5 Congratulations! 11 A Long Time Ago…

6 I’ve Been There

The main instrument used in this study was an evaluation sheet. According to Cunningsworth

(1995), one of the main benefits of using the evaluation sheet was that it offered an economic and efficient way of ensuring that all related things were eligible for evaluation. Prior to usage, the sheet was validated to an expert of materials development, and then revised in the domains of the dimensions of practices and perspectives to avoid misunderstandings, and the selection of the cultural dimensions to be examined. According to Moran (2001), there are four dimensions, i.e., products, practices, perspectives, and persons. For this study, the dimensions selected were those which were suitable for the tenth graders’ core and basic competences. Table 2 displays the cultural phenomena represented in each unit in the textbook.


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Table 2. The Summary of the Four Dimensions of Culture

Dimensions Examples

Products 1. Places: buildings, cities 2. Art forms: music

Practices 1. Action 2. Interaction

Perspectives They represent the beliefs, values, and attitudes that underline the products and guide people’s behavior in the practice of culture. They can be explicit but often they are implicit, outside conscious awareness.

Persons They refer to individual members who embody the culture and its communities in unique ways. Personal identity and life history play key roles in the development of a cultural person.

Besides those domains, two other categories of culture by Cortazzi and Jin (1999) were adopted

in this study. The first is the native culture that refers to the original culture of the learners, which is the Indonesian culture, and the second one is the target culture referring to the Western culture, which can be Australia, United Kingdom, or America. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Research Question 1 How are the cultural contents presented in the Pathway to English textbook for the tenth graders?

The cultural contents of the Pathway to English for the tenth graders textbook are presented in five cultural elements: places/products, practices, perspectives, persons, and supporting learning materials through texts, pictures, and some activities. The explanation of the five elements is presented in the following description.

Places/Products

This point describes many elements of source and target culture that fit the category of products. Places and music are the sub-variables included in this element.

Source (Native/Indonesian) Culture Products

In Chapter 1, self-introduction is chosen as the main topic. There is a monologue text about someone’s personal information (page 22). This monologue is in the category of Indonesian culture products because the writer mentions towns such as Nganjuk, Semarang, and Seroja Dalam Street in the text to show that the person in the text is from Indonesia as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1 A monologue text about Elizabeth

In Chapter 3, the main topic is about paying attention and expressing sympathy in daily life. There is a conversation text between Arum and Yeni who talk about their holiday last month (page 59). This conversation is classified as an Indonesian product because they have a conversation about Karimunjawa, which refers to a famous beach in Jepara, Central Java.

In Chapter 4, expressing an intention is the main topic. A listening activity is presented at the beginning of the chapter. The first activity is in the form of a short message (page 74). This short message


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is categorized as Indonesian product because in the message the speaker or the writer mentions Borobudur Temple, which is one of the temples located in Yogyakarta, Central Java. In Chapter 6, the main topic is about activities in the past. A text in the form of an email is on page 119 presenting the writer’s holiday in North Sumatera. This text in the category of Indonesian products because the writer mentions many places in North Sumatera such as Toba Lake, Kuala Namu Airport in Medan, and Samosir Island.

In Chapter 7, the main topic is describing people. There is a listening activity in the form of a descriptive text that talks about Debby Putti (page 143). This text is classified as Indonesian products because the writer mentions some places in Indonesia such as Surabaya, and State Senior High School 71 Surabaya. In Chapter 8, the main topic is still about descriptive texts describing places. There are two pictures of Gedung Sate and Ampera Bridge (page 173). Those pictures in the category of Indonesian products because the two buildings are located in Indonesia. Gedung Sate is one of the public buildings in Bandung, while Ampera Bridge is a famous bridge in Palembang.

Chapter 10 presents a recount text. There is a short recount text telling about the writer’s holiday at Parangtritis beach (page 206). This text is in the category of Indonesian products because the writer describes Parangtritis beach, which is located at Yogyakarta, Central Java. Chapter 11 presents a narrative text about Batu Badaug (page 244). This text is in the category of Indonesian products because this text describes Tanimbar Island located in Maluku.

Target (Western) Culture Products

In Chapter 1, there is a text about someone who introduces herself to a friend through a pen pal (page 27). This text is in the category of Western products because the writer writes Gisborne, New Zealand as her address in the pen pal letter, which means that the letter is a Western letter, as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2 A pen pal letter

A dialog talking about hobbies (page 18) shows that one of the speakers talks about music by Kenny G. This dialog presents Western music products because Kenny G. is an American saxophonist. Also, at the beginning of Chapter 2, a listening activity (page 32) presents “Somewhere over the rainbow”, a song sung by Connie Talbot shows that it is one of Western music products because Connie Talbot is a singer from England.

Chapter 5 presents a congratulation letter from Bruce Atkinson to Belinda Asher (page 102). This is also an example of Western product because, in the text, the writer mentions New York, and Mountain State University, which is one of the universities in the United States. At the beginning of Chapter 7, there is a flyer describing a missing person (page 147). The flyer announces a missing person by including the person's features and their photos. It is included in the category of Western products since it happened in Washington DC, the capital of the USA.

Some pictures of wonders of the world in Chapter 8 (page 152) show the Big Ben in London, Stonehenge in England, and The Statue of Liberty in New York. Those pictures are all included as the Western wonders of the world, and so the pictures also part of Western products. Chapter 9 presents an announcement (page 184) about James Todd who is a candidate for a Bachelor of Science Degree. This announcement text took place at the Nichols State University, a university in Louisiana, US.


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Practices

This point describes many elements of source and target culture that fit in the category of practices. Actions and interactions are the sub-variables included in this category.

Source (Indonesian) Culture Practices

In Chapter 1, activity 30 (page 23) in the form of instruction is written for the students to introduce themselves in front of the class. This is categorized as Indonesian practices because the students here refer to Indonesian students who are assigned to introduce themselves. In Chapter 3, in activity 6, a dialog contains an activity about a holiday to Karimunjawa and the students are asked to practice it with their pairs (page 59). These are Indonesian practices since the dialog gives the reader information about Indonesian beautiful place, Karimunjawa. In Chapter 6, in activity 16, there is an interaction between Melania and Pipit through an email (page 119) which shows Indonesian practices because the email contains descriptions of some places in Indonesia, and it can increase students' knowledge of the beauty of the region in Indonesia.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document. A letter in the form of an email

In Chapter 8, in activity 27 (page 171), there is a text about Borobudur Temple, which requires the students to read it to their friends. This text is categorized as Indonesian practices because it can increase the students' knowledge about the historical buildings in Indonesia namely Borobudur Temple. In Chapter 9, in activity 3 (page 178), an announcement text about Garuda Indonesia, and the students need to read it aloud. This announcement text is in the category of Indonesian practices because the text contains Indonesian air transport, that can increase students' knowledge of aviation in Indonesia.

In Chapter 10, in activity 5 (page 193), there are some pictures of Indonesian famous people, and the students should find information about them through the internet or an encyclopedia. This picture is categorized as Indonesian practices because this text increases students' knowledge of the most influential figures in Indonesia. In Chapter 11, in activity 10, some pictures describe some famous stories from Indonesia, and the students are asked to discuss the answer to some questions (page 227). In short, Indonesian practices are presented to teach students to learn more about historical stories and buildings in Indonesia.

Target (Western) Culture Practices

In Chapter 1, in activity 35 (page 27), a task is given to the students to write a reply to a pen pal letter. This shows Western practices because it contains western action and interactions through a pen pal. In Chapter 2, in activity 25, a task asks the students to discuss the use of English compliments (page 49) Western practices containing Western actions.

In Chapter 4, in activity 25, the students are asked to compare the use of English in expressing intention/plan for daily activities (page 88). This activity is categorized as Western practices because it increases students’ knowledge on the use of English expressions. In Chapter 7, activity 7 asks the students


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to find the antonyms of some words and check the dictionary on how to pronounce it (page 134). It increases students’ knowledge on some English words used in an English-speaking context as seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4 A task to find some words in a dictionary

In Chapter 9, in the activity 20, the task asks the students to write an announcement text using topics provided and then present it in front of the class (page 186). This activity is categorized as Western practices because it contains an action that can improve students’ English skills. In Chapter 11, in activity 2, the students are asked to find a video clip of “Cinderella Stay Awhile”, which is sung by Michael Jackson (page 220). The Western practices contain activities that can improve students’ ability to make announcements using English vocabulary.

Perspectives

This part describes many elements of both source and target culture that fit the category of perspectives. Values, attitudes, and beliefs are the sub-variables included in this point.

Source (Indonesian) Culture Perspectives

In Chapter 3, in activity 10, there is a dialog between Nindy and Rafi (page 62). Nindy looks unwell because her sister lives in Yogyakarta, and recently there was a volcanic activity of Mount Merapi. Then Rafi said to Nindy to hope that her sister is okay, as seen in Figure 5. This activity is categorized as an Indonesian perspective because it shows an attitude towards the people who were exposed to the recent activity of Mount Merapi.

Figure 5 A dialog about Mount Merapi activity in Yogyakarta

In Chapter 6, in activity 8, there is a dialog talking about a flood that has occurred in Jakarta (page 113). The researcher puts this dialog in the category of Indonesian perspectives because the speaker shows an attitude towards the people who were hit by flooding in Indonesia. In Chapter 8, in activity 27, there is a descriptive text that describes the Borobudur temple. The writer also talked that Borobudur is a Hindu-Buddhist temple (page 171). Hindu-Buddhist here is categorized as an Indonesia belief because it shows that the Borobudur temple is a temple founded by Buddhists.

In Chapter 9, there is an announcement text (page 181) in activity 10. In the text, the Indonesian government declared the Special Public Holiday of the Birthday of Prophet Muhammad SAW. In Chapter 11, in activity 29, there is a narrative text about the legend of Senua Island from Riau (page 239). This narrative text is categorized as Indonesian perspectives because it contains values that teaches the students to not be arrogant and miserable people.


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Target (Western) Culture Perspectives

In Chapter 2, there is a short article, in activity 24, about John Sipe and Todd Welbourne (page 49). In the article, Sipe said that Welbourne was his proud high school dropout as seen in Figure 6. This text is categorized as Western perspectives because it shows Sipe’s attitudes towards his favorite student, Welbourne.

Figure 6 John Sipe and Todd Welbourne

In Chapter 5, in activity 11, a congratulations letter from Bruce Atkinson for Belinda Asher is introduced. Atkinson was congratulating Asher for her recent graduation from Mountain State University (page 102). This congratulation text is categorized as Western perspectives because it shows the writer’s attitudes towards her friend who just graduated from the Mountain State University. In Chapter 11, in activity 22, there is a narrative text about a poor kindhearted peasant from East Africa (page 235). This narrative text is categorized as Western perspectives because it has a moral value that teaches the students to be kindhearted.

Persons

This point describes many elements of source and target culture that fit the category of persons. Life history is the sub-variable included in this part.

Source (Indonesian) Culture Persons

In Chapter 10, there are two pictures of famous people: Ir. Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta (page 193) as seen in Figure 7. Both of them are two of the most influential people and have an important role in the country of Indonesia, a president and vice president at the beginning of Indonesian Independence in 1945.

Figure 7 Ir Soekarno & Muhammad Hatta

Target (Western) Culture Persons

In Chapter 6, there is a text in the form of a caption (page 123). In the first caption, it presents Prince William and his wife. In the second caption, it talks about Greg Silverman, the President of the Creative Development and Worldwide Production Warner Bros, as seen in Figure 8. This caption is


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categorized as Western persons because in the caption it mentions some history of Greg Silverman who is an American.

Figure 8 Greg Silverman

In Chapter 10, in the associating section (page 202), there is a recount text, which is talking about Steve Paul Jobs, the co-founder and the CEO of Apple Inc. This text introduces Western persons to the life history of Steve Paul Jobs, who is an American.

Supporting Learning Materials

Development of Insight on Diversity

This point describes the elements of the development of insight on the diversity found in the Pathway to English textbook for the tenth graders. Each element of the culture, which is the pictures, texts, and exercises, is mentioned with the following description. In the book, a cultural awareness section is provided, where this section teaches students the differences between Indonesian culture and English-native speaker culture in terms of communication. Not all chapters have a cultural awareness section. This section can be found on several pages such as that on pages 8, 37, 58, 97, 113, 125, and 152. This section is categorized as supporting learning materials because it teaches the students to appreciate the cultural diversity and complex society, which cover various cultural values, local, national, and global contexts.

Figure 9 Cultural Awareness

Several activities teach students to be aware of the potential and richness of the region in Indonesia. In Chapter 3, in activity 6, there is a dialog between Arum and Yeni, who talks about a vacation to Karimunjawa (page 59). In the dialog, Yeni shared the beauty of several beautiful spots in Karimunjawa. This dialog is categorized as supporting learning materials because it teaches students to be aware of the potential and richness of the region in Indonesia and encourages the promote it. In Chapter 8, in activity 29, there is a text describing Bali (page 172). The text describes how wonderful Bali is, which makes many tourists want to visit Bali. This text is categorized into supporting learning materials because it adds the students’ understanding of the national insight to develop a sense of love for the country.

According to all of those descriptions, the findings can be summarized as shown in Table 3.


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Table 3. The Amount Of The Cultural Element In Pathway To English For The Tenth Graders

Textbook

Culture Products Practices Perspectives Persons SLM Sum

i % i % i % i % i % i %

Indonesian 45 60% 19 51% 16 64% 2 22% 14 100% 96 60%

Western 30 40% 18 49% 9 36% 7 78% - 0% 64 40%

Sum 75 100% 37 100% 25 100% 9 100% 14 100% 160 100%

Notes: i : Items found SLM : Supporting Learning Materials

Research Question 2 Does the Pathway to English textbook meet the requirements of a good communicative book in terms of the cultural contents? Table 4 presents the detailed data of the score from each variable.

Table 4. The Score of Each Variable in the Textbook

No. Variables Percentages (%)

Category

1. Products 79 Good 2. Practices 81.25 Excellent 3. Perspectives 58.33 Good 4. Persons 62.5 Excellent 5. Supporting Learning

Materials 83.33

Excellent

Total Average 72.88 Good

Based on the results in Table 4, it can be concluded that the Pathway to English textbook is

categorized as a good book from its cultural content. The percentage was obtained from the number of scores per variable divided by the maximum score of each variable. In the aspect of products, it is obtained 79%, which means this aspect meets or reflects the criteria of a good communicative textbook. In the aspect of practices, it is obtained 81.25%, which means this aspect completely reflects the criteria of a good textbook. In the perspective aspect, it obtained 58.33%, which means this aspect reflects the criteria of a good communicative textbook. In the aspect of persons, it is obtained 62.5%, which means this aspect totally reflects the criteria of a good textbook. In the supporting learning materials aspect, it obtained 83.33%, which means this aspect reflects the criteria of a good textbook. The final result is obtained 72.88% which means the Pathway to English textbook for the tenth graders meet the criteria of a good textbook in terms of its cultural contents. CONCLUSIONS

The cultural content is derived from Cortazzi & Jin’s framework (1999), while the framework from

Moran is adopted to analyze how the cultures are represented in the textbook. Based on the findings, there

are two major points revealed. First, the cultural contents of the textbook are mostly presented in the product

dimension. Second, the source and target cultures are presented in an imbalanced portion. The source

culture is predominantly presented in the textbook compared to the target culture. Based on the two points

above, it can be concluded that cultural contents presented in the Pathway to English textbook for tenth are

imbalanced. However, although the distribution of cultural dimensions was imbalanced, this textbook

addressed all aspects of the core competencies and basic competencies suggested by the government.

Overall, Pathway to English textbook for tenth graders is classified as a good communicative textbook in

terms of its cultural contents.

Based on the result of the findings, suggestions are addressed to the book writers to add some

cultural contents related to the target culture and distribute the cultural contents equally in each chapter.

Second, it is suggested for the teachers to explore more target cultures since the textbook is dominated by


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the source cultures. Third, it is suggested for the next study to analyze all the cultures in the textbook since

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