A study on the intercultural contents in the course book english 10, 11, 12

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN
THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2017


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN
THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)
Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D.

Nghệ An, 2017


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the intercultural contents of the course
books English 10, 11, 12” is the result of my own work. The data and findings
discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been submitted
to any university or institution.
Nghệ An, August 2017
Author’s signature

Nguyễn Văn Luân

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude and
sincere appreciation to my supervisors, Dr. Tran Ba Tien, for his intensive revisions,
patient guidance, encouragement, insightful suggestions and kind support throughout
my research.
Secondly, I truly wish to thank Prof. Ngo Dinh Phuong, Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen,
Dr Nguyen Gia Viet who gave me some precious guidance at the beginning of my
research. I would also like to thank the teachers of English at High Schools at Nong
Cong where my interview and my questionnaires were carried out for their willingness
to answer all my questions.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are due to my dear family and my friends
who always stand for me with their consideration and encouragements.

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ABTRACT

My study aims are to get the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in
the course books English 10,11,12 and how the intercultural contents presented in the
coursebooks as seen from the EIL perspective.
The study adopts the qualitative ethnographic method with interpretive
orientation combined with a survey, making use of triangulation methods of data
collections: questionnaires, document reviews and interviews. The study shows that
EIL and the teaching of EIL seemed still connected with the native-English-speaking
cultures in some ways. In addition, in the context under investigation Vietnamese
teachers perceived English as a language used for intercultural communication. With
such perceptions of EIL, the teachers at high schools approached the establishment of
a sphere of interculturality in the classroom from different perspectives. In general,
they aimed to mediate the course books to overcome what they considered as
shortcomings in the cultural contents of the textbooks: the course books present a
picture of cultures rather Western centric, which does not reflect a diversified use of
EIL nowadays. However, under the structural and functional constraint of the
textbooks, culture was treated as a means of reinforcement or development skills
rather than a priority in the EIL classroom. The study suggests practical implications to
the issue of language and culture education in the context of high schools at Nong
Cong of Thanh Hoa province.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................. i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………….…ii
ABTRACT.................................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... vii

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF CHARTS ..................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1. Rationale ............................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the study.................................................................................................. 2
1.3.The significance of the study ................................................................................. 3
1.4.The organization of the thesis................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 5
2.1. English as an international language .................................................................... 5
2.2. Characteristics of EIL ........................................................................................... 7
2.3. Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching .................................................... 8
2.3.1. Definition of culture .......................................................................................... 8
2.3.2. Definition of interculture ................................................................................... 9
2.3.3. The relationship between language and culture ................................................ 9
2.4. Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education ................................................ 10
2.5. Culture contents in EIL materials ....................................................................... 12
2.5.1. Source culture in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on source culture
................................................................................................................................... 15
2.5.2. Target cultures in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on target culture
................................................................................................................................... 17
2.5.3. Textbooks with international target culture..................................................... 20
2.6. Culture teaching .................................................................................................. 20
2.6.1. An overview of culture teaching ..................................................................... 20
2.6.2. Culture teaching as seen from the perspectives of the teacher, the text books and
the students ................................................................................................................ 23

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2.6.3. The use of English as an International language in Viet Nam ........................ 23

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................. 30
3.1. Research Methods .............................................................................................. 30
3.1.1. Triangulation ................................................................................................... 30
3.1.2. Building an audit trail ...................................................................................... 31
3.1.3. Member checking ............................................................................................ 31
3.2. Data collection tools ........................................................................................... 31
3.2.1 Document review .............................................................................................. 31
3.2.2. Questionnaires ................................................................................................. 32
3.2.3 Ethnographic in-depth interviews..................................................................... 32
3.3. Participants ......................................................................................................... 33
3.4. Description of the content analysis card ............................................................. 33
3.5. Applying the content analysis card..................................................................... 33
3.6. Procedures of the study ...................................................................................... 33
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 33
4.1. Document review ................................................................................................ 36
4.2. The teachers’perceptions of cultural contents in EIL and EIL teaching. ........... 38
4.3. The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching and their evaluation toward
culture in the EIL classroom...................................................................................... 39
4.3.1. The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching.................................. 39
4.3.2. The teachers’ evaluation toward culture in the English language classroom . 41
4.4. The teachers’ evaluation towards the cultural contents in the course books ..... 45
4.5. Culture teaching and learning in the classroom ................................................. 49
4.6. Culturally oriented contents in the course books ............................................... 50
4.7. Cultural representation in the course books ....................................................... 51
4.8. Cultural distribution in the text books ................................................................ 52
4.8.1. Vietnamese culture in the text books .............................................................. 52
4.8.2. International culture in the course books ........................................................ 54
4.8.3. Target culture in the course books................................................................... 55
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .................................... 57
5.1. Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 57

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5.2. Implications ........................................................................................................ 58
5.3. Recommendations. ............................................................................................. 59
5.4. Limitations of the study. ..................................................................................... 61
5.5. Suggestions for further research ......................................................................... 61
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 62
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................ 66
APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................ 70
APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................ 71
APPENDIX 4 ............................................................................................................ 72
APPENDIX 5 ............................................................................................................ 73

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations

Full phrases

1. ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

2. CLT

Communicative Language Teaching

3. EFL

English as a Foreign Language

4. EIL

English as an International Language

5. ELF

English as a Lingua Franca

6. ELT

English Language Teaching

7. ESL

English as a Second Language

8. FLT

Foreign Language Teaching

9. MOET

Ministry of Education and Training

10. SLA

Second Language Acquisition

11. TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

12. WTO

World Trade Organization

13. WEs

World Englishes

14. FDI

Foreign Direct Investment

15. VC

Vietnamese Culture

16. IC

International Culture

17. TC

Target Culture

18. OC

Other Contents

vii


LIST OF TABLES
Tables
Table 1.1
Table 1.2
Table 1.3
Table 4.1
Table 4.2
Table 4.3
Table 4.4
Table 4.5

Table 4.6

Table 4.7
Table 4.8
Table 4.9
Table 4.10
Table 4.11
Table4.12
Table 4.13
Table 4.14
Table 4.15

Content
Total FDI in Vietnam from 2011 to 2016;
( />Sources of Vietnam’s FDI in 2016
10 countries and areas leading in FDI in Vietnam in 2017
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs collected)
The structure of each unit in the textbook English 10, 11, 12
Units and Themes in the textbook 10
Units and Themes in the textbook 11
Units and Themes in the textbook 12
What culture to talk about in cross-cultural communication
(Some participants circled more than one choice in their
questionnaire)
Priority in teaching and learning communication (Some
participants circled more than one choice in their
questionnaire)
The teachers’cultural preference in classroom (Some
participants circled more than one choice in their
questionnaire)
T he teachers’ thought about the students’ cultural
preference in the classroom
The teachers’ evaluation towards the cultural contents in the
course books
Frequency and percentage of the cultural contents related to
the whole contents of the text books English 10,11,12.
Frequency and percentage of Anglo-Saxon culture and nonAnglo-Saxon culture in the course books English 10,11,12
Frequency and percentage of three types of cultures in the
course books English.10,11,12
Frequency and percentage of Vietnamese culture in the
course books English10,11,12

Frequency and percentage of International culture in the
course books English 10,11,12
Frequency and percentage of the Target culture in the course
books English 10,11,12

viii

Page
26
27
28
35
36
36
37
38

40

41
41
45
50
51
51
52
53
54

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHART
List of figures
Figure
Figure 1

Content
Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used

Page
7

Figure 2

Target culture in EIL teaching

24

Figure 3

Source culture in EIL teaching
International target culture in EIL teaching

25

Figure 4

25

The dialogue between Vietnamese teacher, Anglo-American
Figure 5

target culture textbook and Vietnamese students

48

Content

Page

List of chart
chart
Chart 1

The teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the
course books English 10,11,12

ix

47


Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In the trend of globalization in the world nowadays, English has become an
international language in cross-culture communications between not only native
speakers and non-native speakers but between non-native speakers and non-native
speakers.
Observing intercultural communication in English between people from different
background, we could see culture-shocks tend to occur due to culture rather than due

to language competence. For example, an American or any Western tourist come to
Vietnam may be shocked to hear a resident ask him/her personal questions: “How old
are you?”, “Are you married?”, “How much is your salary?”, and so on. Language
competence seems not to help anything in this kind of dissatisfaction or shock whether
the communicator has a low or high level of English. That is to say that it is important
to include culture teaching in language teaching but it seems that culture has not
received an adequate treatment in many ways: textbooks, teaching methods and so on.
In the circumstance of English as an International Language, it has new features and
the spread and development of English into an international language has also given
rise to several implications in the teaching of this language in terms of curriculum
design, material development and teaching methodology. To do this, it would be
necessary first to understand how cultural aspects could be treated in the EIL
classroom, including in the EIL course books.
During the pass decade, Vietnam has been an attractive land for foreign direct
investment (FDI). The notable point is whether any foreign country invests in
Vietnam, English is the language required by the owners when recruiting employers.
To work for FDI projects or joint venture companies, staffs are required to have a good
English competence whether the owner or the partner is from native-English or nonnative-English country. English is a common communication means between

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Vietnamese employees and non-native English partners such as Korea, Japan, China
and so on. It is one among reasons that English is considered as an international
language, especially in the integrating period.
On the ground of arguments, EIL course books should reflect a wide range of cultural
contexts and intercultural elements. However, in fact, course books often used to be
teaching materials in Vietnam tend to be biased towards a particular country, usually
America or UK. Alptekin (1993) and Phillipson (cited in Kim, 2002) criticize course
books authors who transmit the values and beliefs of their own English – speaking

countries and thus they are devoid of comparative insight and critical perspectives.
The set of English 10,11,12 by The group of authors Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi
Xuan Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Do Tuan Minh, Hang Quoc Tuan are popularly used in
most high schools in Vietnam. The course books have published from 2005. It
includes three levels: Students at grade 10,11,12 with 16 units for each level. Each
unit is organized by a set pattern of skills: Reading, speaking, listening, writing and
Language focus. It covers a wide range of topics which includes social expressions and
relationships, activities and entertainment, food and health, education and careers,
friendship and love, and etc.
These themes recur in all the three sets with progressively difficult levels. As a teacher
at a high school, I see that, the course books are the ones which attract the most
students. Therefore, I would like to choose these books to investigate the cultural
contents and to find out whether they are biased to any countries and satisfies teachers
using them or not..
1.2. Aims of the study
The present research is to study the teachers’ evaluation towards the
inercultural contents and analyse the intercultural contents of the set of course books
English 10, 11, 12 , additionally, the researcher wants to figure out whether or not it
provides students with adequate intercultural instruction in EIL context and how they
could teach interculture in the context of EIL classrooms at high schools at Nong Cong

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of Thanh Hoa where the researcher is teaching. Accordingly, the study was designed
to find answers to the following overarching research questions:
1. What is the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the course books
English 10,11,12?
2. How are the intercultural contents presented in the coursebooks as seen from the
EIL (English as an international language) perspective?

1.3.

The significance of the study

Practically, this study is carried out with the hope that the findings of this research
will be very useful for all the people concerned, including the researcher, the teachers,
the syllabus designers and the students of at high schools at Nong Cong, Thanh Hoa
province in particular and those in Vietnam in general, the researcher hopes to give
implications for curriculum and material development as well as teaching
methodology at as well as other high schools in Vietnam from the findings.
Theoretically, the research will make a partly contribution to the field of intercultural
communication materials in language teaching. To another extent, the researcher hopes
that the study will encourage educators to concern more the choice of language
materials regarding cultural content and culture learning/teaching.
1.4.

The organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides the background to the study, the statement of the
problems, the aims and the significance and the outline of the study.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents the theories on EIL (English as an international
language) including characteristics of EIL, rationale for culture teaching in EIL
teaching, cultural content in EIL materials as well as an overview of culture teaching.
It also reviews EIL situation in Vietnam.

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Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research methods, data collection and the

subjects of the study.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, describes the teaching context and teaching
materials, discusses the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the course
books English 10,11,12 and analyse the intercultural contents presented in the
coursebooks as seen from the EIL perspective and EIL teaching and the culture
teaching and learning in the context studies.
Chapter 5, Conclusions, Implications and Suggestions offers the overview of major
findings and interpretation, the implications for curriculum and material development,
teaching methodology, professional development and suggestions for further studies.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2 consists of six sub-sections. The first section introduces the perspective of
English as an international language. The second section states characteristics of EIL.
The third section gives rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching. The forth section
reports kinds of culture contents in EIL materials. And the fifth section reviews culture
teaching and culture learning through course books.
2.1. English as an international language
The term English as an international language (EIL) is first introduced by Smith
(1976) as a replacement of the terms ESL and EFL. He defines EIL as “one which is
used by people of different nations to communicate with one another.” (1976, p.38).
This perspective has gained more support in recent years. Mauranen (2003, p.513)
describes the special status of EIL as “a vehicle spoken by people who do not share a
native language.” Crystal (1997, p.2) explain that English achieves that status because
it is “recognized in every country.” It has spread to every corner of the world and has
become the property of all people using it, including both non-native and nativeEnglish-speakers.
The domination of English globally is undeniable and the first cause of this

domination, according to many scholars, is the historical role as a colonial power. In
the nineteenth century, the British Empire ruled one-third of the world and as it was
said that the sun never set on her land. The waves of English–speaking immigrants to
other lands helped to spread English. The second reason is the rising of America as a
powerful country in economy in the twentieth century also strengthened the status of
English as the language for communication in every country including the mass media,
entertainment, transport and so on.
Nowadays, English is the language of diplomacy and international communications,
business, tourism, education, science, computer technology, media and Internet.

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English is a compulsory in schools in many countries such as Vietnam, China,
Thailand, etc. Over 85-90% of academic research papers being published in English on
a global level (Ammon, 2006; Hamel, 2007 cited in Carey, 2009). 80% information of
the world electronically stored is in English. Approximately 85% of international
organizations make English an official language. About 85% of the world film market
is controlled by the United States in the mid-1990s (Crystal, 1997).
With the spread of English globally, the non-native speakers in the world is estimated
to outnumber the native speaker. Graddol (1999, p.92) claims that the balance between
native and non-native speakers will change dramatically within the next 50 years and
the number of English speakers as their second language will grow from 235 million
to around 462 million. This seems to be in line with suggestion drawn from Kachru’s
diagram (1989, cited in Crystal, 1997). He classifies the English-speaking population
in the world into three concentric circles: Inner Circle, Outer Circle and Expanding
Circle.
The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the
world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England
carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle

thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions
where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of
the Caribbean territories. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as
high as 380 million
The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which
spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In
these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca
between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary,
national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This
circle includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, nonAnglophone South Africa, the Philippines and others. The total number of English
speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.

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Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical
or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of
international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population
not categorized above, including territories such as China, Russia, Japan, nonAnglophone Europe (especially

the Netherlands and Nordic

countries), South

Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most
difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited
purposes, usually in a business context. The estimates of these users range from 100
million to one billion. The three circles of Englishes are represented in the figure
below:

Figure1: Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used
It can be seen that English has no longer been the sole property of sovereigns
which owns it as a native language. It is also the language of non-native speakers who
use it regardless its purposes of using. Thus, it is an international language.
2.2. Characteristics of EIL

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On the perspective of EIL, Smith (1997) suggests English now has more new
characteristics. Firstly, English is the property of every nation in the world that uses it.
That is to say its ownership has become denationalized. Second, the cultural norms of
native speakers are not standards that learners of English as an international language
have to conform and forms of non-native English should be got positive attitudes by
English-native speakers. Finally, learners of EIL should be encouraged to
communicate their ideas and cultures to others as well as taught to expect and accept
differences not only in the language spoken by different countries but also in their own
culture. It is the educational goal of English teaching.
McKay (2002) draw conclusions from Kachru’s three circles of world Englishes and it
seems to be in line with Smith’s assertions. She elaborates characteristics of EIL
regarding the relationship of an international language and culture:
 As an international language, English is used both in a global sense for
international communication between countries and in a local sense as a
language of wider communication within multilingual society.
 As it is an international language, the use of English is no longer
connected to the culture of Inner Circle countries.
 As an international language in a local sense, English becomes embedded
in the culture of the country in which it is used.
 As English is an international language in a global sense, one of its

primary functions is to enable speakers to share with others their ideas and
culture.
(p.12)
These features of English as an international language have led significant changes for
learning and teaching English. Many scholars such as Kramsch and Sullivan (1996),
McKay (2002), Alptekin (2002), have recently given suggestions and implications for
this issue in terms of pedagogy, teaching material development and curriculum design.
2.3. Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching
2.3.1. Definition of culture

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Culture is believed one of the most complicated word and extremely difficult to
define. Many scholars try to give their own definition of this term.
Kramsch (1998, p.127) gives one definition of this word which is accepted and quoted
by many scholars. According to him, culture is “membership in a discourse
community that shares a common social space and history, and a common system of
standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting”.
Levine and Adelman (1993) suggest that culture consists of two parts like of an
iceberg. The part above the water surface refers to things visible namely geography,
history, food or any product of a system. The part under the water is composed of
behaviour, attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions, communication styles, etc. The
hidden-underwater-part seizes a big proportion of the iceberg that means a lot in
communication. However, it is invisible and is not commonly aware. At the same way,
Stapleton (2000) names two parts of culture overt culture and covert culture and
Hinkel (2001) classifies culture into visible and invisible culture.
The current study adopts this definition as it is related to foreign language
education.
2.3.2. Definition of interculture.

Interculture is interaction between one or more culture (Collins English
dictionary)
Interculture describes communities in which there is a deep understading and respect
for all cultures. Intercultural communication focuses on the mutual exchange of ideas
and cultural norms and the development of deep relationship. In an intercultural
society, no one is left unchanged because every one learn from one another and grow
together.
2.3.3. The relationship between language and culture
More and more researches believe that there is a close relationship between
language and culture and this relationship is inseparable.

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Brown (2000, p.177) claims that “A language is part of a culture, and a culture is part
of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one can not separate the two
without losing the significance of either language or culture”.
Fishman on several occasions (1985, 1991, 1996, cited in Risager, 2006, p.12) has
asserted three “links” between language and culture: “language as a part of culture,
language as an index of culture, and language as symbolic of culture”. He draws
attention to the fact that language and culture are “intimately associated” with each
other.
Similarly, Kramsch (1998, p.3) also suggests three connections: “language expresses
cultural reality; language embodies cultural reality; language symbolizes cultural
reality”. Kramsch says that words express facts, ideas, event and attitudes, viewpoints
as well as beliefs of those who utter. Thus, “language expresses cultural reality”. In
terms of the second connection, she explains that “members of community or social
group … also create experience through language. They give meaning to it through the
medium they choose to communicate with one another … Through all its verbal and
non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality”. Regarding to the third point,

she interprets language as a system of signs having itself a cultural value and speakers
through using language identifies themselves and others.
In short, it seems that language and culture has an inseparable connection. This leads
many scholars to concern teaching culture in teaching language more and more.
2.4. Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education.
Although the close relationship between language and culture seems apparent,
there are two conflict perspectives that teaching EIL could be free from culture or
wealthy of culture. Some researcher like Gonzalez (1995, cited in McKay, 2002, p.84)
argues teaching because English is “uprooted from its culture”, then teaching EIL
means teaching English for specific purpose and can be culture-free.
Nonetheless, this perspective has to counter a lot of objection from many scholars and
researchers such as Valdes (1986), Byram and Morgan (1994), Kramsch (1998).

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Byram and Morgan (1994), McKay (2002). Valdes (1986, p.121) says “it is virtually
impossible to teach a language without teaching cultural content”. Similarly, Byram
and Morgan (1994, vii) claim that “Since language and culture are inseparable, we can
not be teachers of language without being teachers of culture – or vice versa”. While
Kramsch (1998) confirms the inextricable connection between language and culture
and affirms teaching language must involve teaching culture. McKay (2003) also
contends that culture influences language teaching linguistically and pedagogically.
Linguistically, culture has an effect on the semantic, pragmatic and discourse level of
the language. Pedagogically, it influences the choice of the language materials because
cultural content of the language materials and the cultural basis of teaching should be
taken into account before making any decision.
Such researches as Brutt-Griffler (1998), Brown (1990), Kim (2002), Pulveness (2003,
2004), also strongly dispute the viewpoint of free-culture English teaching. Brown and
Pulverness interpret that the fear of cultural bumps and the commercialization of the

materials is the only excuse for culture-free teaching materials. Pulveness (2003)
confirms that due to the undeniable growth of EIL, language teaching programs must
include cultural content and culture-free-English teaching is inadequate.
Recently, the concept of integrating culture in language teaching and learning is
widely recognized. Genc and Bada (2005, p.74, cited in Le, 2005, p.9) list the benefits
of teaching culture in language teaching, which are supported by evidence from other
studies on culture teaching:

Studying culture makes the study of a foreign language meaningful
and it gives the learner a reason to study it.

Learning culture would help the learner relate the abstract sounds and
forms of a language to real people and places.

Since learners like culturally-based activities, learning culture gives
them good motivation.

Learning culture helps to develop “understanding and tolerance
towards other ways of life” and more insight into the learner’s culture.

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
Learning culture helps to implement general education: learning about
the geography, history of the target cultures.


Learning culture helps to realize the educational aim: educating



Global citizens how to behave inter-culturally.

(p.9)

Though these scholars and researchers do not mention benefits of integration of
teaching culture in EIL teaching explicitly, what listed well fits for the EIL
characterizations which Smith (1976) and McKay (2002) suggest.
2.5. Culture contents in EIL materials
The aim of teaching culture in teaching EIL is to raise the students’ culture
awareness by making them aware of how their own culture differs from other cultures
(McKay, 2002). And teaching materials primarily including textbooks are efficient
tools to do that. EIL and EFL/ESL textbooks should reflect a wide range of culture
contexts and include intercultural elements. Thus, culture contents in EIL textbooks
get a lot of concern of researchers.
Byram (1994) states a list of criteria for textbook evaluation focusing on culture
contents so that evaluation how culture is treated in textbook is easier:

Social identity and social groups: groups within the nation-state which
are the basis for other than national identity, including social class, regional
identity, ethnic minority, professional identity, and which illustrate the
complexity of individuals’ social identities and of a national society (NB
the issue of national identity is dealt with under “stereotypes”);

Social interaction: conventions of verbal and non-verbal behavior in
social interaction at different levels of familiarity, as outsider and insider
within social groups;

Belief and behavior: routine and taken-for-granted actions within a

social group _national or sub-national_ and the moral and religious beliefs
which are embodied within them; secondly, routines of behavior taken from
daily life which are not seen as significant markers of the identity of the
group;

Socio-political institutions: institutions of the state_ and the values and
meanings they embody_ which characterize the state and its citizens and
which constitute a framework for ordinary, routine life within the national

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and sub-national groups; provision for health-care, for law and order, for
social security, for local government, etc.;

Socialization and the life-cycle: institutions of socialization_ families,
schools, employment, religion, military service _ and the ceremonies which
mark passage through stages of social life; representation of divergent
practices in different social groups as well as national auto-stereotypes of
expectations and shared interpretations;

National history: periods and events, historical and contemporary,
which are significant in the constitution of the nation and its identity_ both
actually significant and, not necessarily identical, perceived as such by its
members;

National geography: geographical factors within the national
boundaries which are significant in member’ perceptions of their country;
other factors which are information (known but not significant to members)
essential to outsiders in intercultural communication (NB national

boundaries, and changes in them, are part of “national history”);

National cultural heritage: cultural artifacts perceived to be emblems
and embodiments of national culture from past and present; in particular
those which are “known” to members of the nation _ e.g. Shakespeare in
Britain, the Impressionists in France, Wagner in Germany _ through their
inclusion in curricula of formal education; and also contemporary classics,
not all of which have reached the school curriculum and some of which
may be transient but significant, created by television and other media _e.g.
Truffaut’s films in France, Agatha Christie in Britain, Biermann’s songs in
Germany;

Stereotypes and national identity: for example, German and English
notions of what is “typically” German and British national identity; the
origins of these notions _ historical and contemporary _ and comparisons
among them; symbols of national identities and stereotypes and their
meanings, e.g. famous monuments and people. (p.51-52)
Huhn (cited in Le, 2005,) also suggests criteria to make basis for evaluating the
treatment of cultural contents in textbooks:

Factual accuracy and contemporanity of information in cultural studies
– a priori point which raises immediately the question of keeping books up
to date

The avoidance / relativisation of stereotypes by making pupils
conscious of them

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
The presentation of a realistic picture, not one which implies the
foreign society is problem-free

Treedom from, or at least the questioning of, ideological tendencies in
the material – pupils should not be encouraged to accept the dominant
image of society, whether foreign or their own, but rather to question it,
partly through comparison

The comparative dimension further requires that phenomena be
presented in their structural, functional contexts rather than presented as
isolated facts, and of significance for the view taken of the appropriate
model of cultural analysis

The sixth and seventh criteria are concerned with the presentation of
historical material: its relevance to understanding contemporary society
should be explicit and where presented through personalities it should be
made clear that they are products of their age. (p.14)
However, investigations conducted by Stapleton (2000), Pulveness (2004), Cortazzi
and Zin (1999), etc. reveal some dissatisfaction regarding teaching materials and
teaching methodology.
Many researches contend that culture is treated superficially in textbooks. Stapleton
(2000) states that ‘covert culture’ information is rarely covered in textbooks. Kramsch
(1996) points out that culture is not treated equally in comparison with language forms
and functions in textbooks. It is not the priority of book writers. Pulveness (2003,
2004) also realizes that and adds that authentic materials in textbooks are employed
simply to facilitate the development of language skills irrespective of culture context.
He criticizes that culture teaching is only something as “now write about your
country” or the fact textbooks often represent information but do not require learners
to response to it “in terms of their own experience or integrating it into new structures

of thought and feeling”. At most, in textbooks, learners need only “comment on
superficial differences at the level of observational behaviors”. What is more, the
selection of a lot of incidental cultural information is quite arbitrary.
For commercial reasons, material design seldom includes the learner’s cultural identity
as part of the learning process. According to Pulveness (2004), materials need to
provide more than a token acknowledgement of cultural identity and address the kind

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