Cross- perspective Evaluation of The Culture Component of Algerian Secondary School English Textbooks: Critical pedagogy and English as a Lingua Franca

Abstract


 This study aimed at evaluating the culture component of the Algerian secondary school textbooks, from two imbricated theoretical perspectives: critical pedagogy and the modern orientation of teaching English as a lingua franca . .More specifically, it aimed at finding out whether the culture component of the Algerian secondary school textbooks, on one hand, equip learners with an adequate level of critical awareness that would enable them to develop as whole citizens capable of challenging the status quo and acting positively upon their social reality to improve it. On the other hand, it aimed at finding out whether the same component of the same textbooks foster in learners an adequate level of cross-cultural awareness that would enable them to develop as multicultural individuals capable of mediating between their mother tongue culture and other cultures. A checklist-based analysis of the three textbooks currently in use was cross-compared to a student and a teacher questionnaires . The students’ questionnaire was designed and implemented to thirty six first year university students of English at Mohammed Seddik Benyahia University, Jijel who recived a secondary school education based on the textbooks in question. As for the teachers’ questionnaire, it was s designed and administered to 78 secondary school teachers in the province of Jijel, Algeria. The checklist-evaluation has shown that the culture component of these textbooks lacks the potential to foster in learners a critical awareness about their social reality and is too poor to develop a relevant cross-cultural awareness.However, a cross-comparisson of these results with teachers’ and students’ responses found that the two aspects in question enjoyed a relatively high level of satisfaction among the respondents.This is most probably due to the influence of the discourse on the competency-based approach, especially in the case of the teachers, and the ignorance of the real scope of the critical approach to intercultural competence, especially in the case of the students.