Content Analysis of Culture in ELT Reading Textbooks: Appropriacy and Inclusivity
Alkatheery, Eman R. . 2011
| This study aimed at examining the presentation of the cultures of Centre and Periphery countries in regional ELT textbooks. Four ELT regional reading textbooks named, Interactions/Mosaic reading series, were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed through content analysis research technique in order to investigate the assumption that Centre countries are favoured over Periphery countries. The recording units used in the study were: 'paragraph' and 'picture'. Byram's cultural checklist (1993) was used to collect and categorize the cultural content of Center and Periphery countries. However, pictures were simply classified under one of the following categories: Center countries, Periphery countries, and shared. The study data consisted of 670 paragraphs and 327 pictures. The study concluded that Interactions/Mosaic series contained cultural presentations of different countries from the world. The cultural content constitutes two thirds of the series. Centre countries occupied 29.11% of the series content, whereas Periphery countries occupied 32.69%. The administration of T-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference at the p<0.05 level between Periphery and Centre countries in the four ELT reading textbooks. Under picture analysis, the percentage of the presentation of Center countries is 37.31%; and the presentation of Periphery countries is 33.33%. The presentation of Centre and Periphery countries in pictures and paragraphs is quantitatively balanced. Paragraphs and pictures coded under Periphery Countries presented cultures from the Middle East, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, India, Puerto Rico, etc. The qualitative analysis showed that this series has followed Gray's (2002) description of new ELT global textbooks. The topics achieved neutrality, diversity and appropriacy. No stereotypical presentations or ideological content were detected in the series. |
نوع عمل المنشور
Master
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