Abstract
In today’s world, the English language is seen as the international language for its world-wide use in all aspects of life. The language thus becomes the medium in bridging communication gaps between countries by providing a common ground for communication. To cater to the need of human resources with intercultural communicative competence (ICC), the government in Indonesia has issued textbooks for English learning for middle school students. In Indonesian national curriculum, English language is first formally learned in middle school, where the students are at the age of shaping their own ideology and values, which could also come from learning. This study examines the English textbooks issued by the government by analyzing their cultural content. The cultural elements are examined and divided into three components using the framework from Yuen’s cultural elements, a modified version of Cortazzi and Jin’s cultural aspects by Tazeddin & Teimournezhad, and Gomez Rodriguez’s surface culture and deep culture. The results show that the cultural content is disproportionate, and it might lead to the failure of creating ICC learners as it dismisses other aspects and elements of culture that are important in nurturing ICC.
Highlights
In today’s globalized world, the English language has been deemed as the international language for its frequent use
As the goal of learning English in Indonesia proposed by the Ministry of Education and Culture is to let learners participate efficiently in the international communication scene, intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is very much needed by the learners
The cultural content in the books is arranged in an imbalance portion, and as a result, the textbooks are not suitable for the government's aim to create ICC learners
Summary
In today’s globalized world, the English language has been deemed as the international language for its frequent use. English speaking countries who use English as an international language This framework treats all forms of cultural content as different from each other— Tajeddin and Teimournezhad (2014) agree with the proposed idea by the Cortazzi&Jin with an addition to the theory. The topic of cultural content in English learning textbooks has been researched for quite sometimes. Munandar & Ulwiyah (2012) researched that Indonesian textbooks for the English language, using the 2006 Standard Contents of English stipulated by Indonesia’s National Agency for Education Standards, are good enough for the students to foster their interculturality. Rahmani argues that the books she researched are too heavy on target culture elements, claiming they will not be helpful either because they leave the learner with minimum exposure of Indonesian culture.
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