Abstract
This study investigated the representation of sociocultural identities in six textbooks selected from Top Notch and Summit series, to assess their potential to promote intercultural communicative competence in the learners. Ting-Toomey’s identity negotiation theory and Scollon and Scollon’s (2001) discourse system structure were used to assess the identity representations and the structure of discourses in the books. Identity representations were analyzed in terms of the four primary elements of cultural, ethnic, gender and personal identities, to determine the extent to which the books could foster communication between members of various identity groups. In the analysis of discourse structures, the study investigated primarily the politeness and face strategies used in the conversations and further the particular ideology they perpetuated, as a clue to their potential to promote the learners’ pragmatic competence for intercultural communication. Concerning identity representations in the books, different results were found for the two series. Top Notch , addressing beginner to intermediate level students, proved considerate of diversity in the sociocultural identities it presented and providing information about the values of different cultures and the customs and traditions of various nations it tried to set the bases of interculturality within its audience. Summit , on the other hand, addressing higher intermediate and advanced learners, had a unilateral approach in its identity presentations, depicting principally European and American nationalities and the cultural values of individualism typically associated with them. Nevertheless, where the discourse structures in the books were concerned, both the two series were identical in their exclusive focus upon the utilitarian ideology of discourse and its related politeness and face strategies. This was found as a pitfall in the books, limiting the students’ range of discursive resources, which they require for successful intercultural communication in different contexts. The study concluded with subsequent recommendations for improving the content of the textbooks as well as some implications for further research.
Highlights
The intimate association between language and culture poses a significant question for the applied linguists and materials developers to solve: What is the culture that students should acquire along with the language? Response to this question is undoubtedly significant, leastwise as it determines the content of the textbooks used in language classrooms
To answer the four questions proposed as the basis of this study, illustrations and reading passages and conversations were analyzed in five language textbooks selected from Top Notch and Summit series, for the diversity of sociocultural identities they addressed and the scope of discourse systems they covered
The middle/upper middle class was the only social group invoked in Top Notch, the cultural values of individualism, typically associated with this group, were not the only ones addressed in the books
Summary
The intimate association between language and culture poses a significant question for the applied linguists and materials developers to solve: What is the culture that students should acquire along with the language? Response to this question is undoubtedly significant, leastwise as it determines the content of the textbooks used in language classrooms. In deciding on the particular culture to be presented in language textbooks, the main guiding factor is undoubtedly the objective underlying language instruction courses, which presumably is the very goal learners are pursuing in acquiring the language This objective is generally determined according to the global changes that necessitate the knowledge of an international language. The more inclusive a book was in defining its circle of the sociocultural identities and the more realistically it depicted their values, the more appropriate it was deemed as a means of enhancing the learners’ communicative competence (Shardakova & Pavlenko, 2004;) Such cultural representation, it was assumed, could give the learners a frame of reference to interpret the information in the target language and to empathize with the target people in their communications with them. In today’s world, where modern technology has removed the walls between nations, competence in communication with native speakers of English is no longer sufficient, when as Cook (2002) indicates, nonnative
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