English

Abstract

This study focuses on specific elements of local and international cultures in two of the most widely used textbook collections for Catalan as a second language (CSL). Adapting a methodology used by Ramirez & Hall (1990), the study first gives quantitative analysis of the geographical references to Catalonia and the rest of the world in form of a large text (more than 50 words) or an image. The results show that Catalan culture is favored over international cultures, but that, in most cases, textbooks give a simplified view on both Catalan and international cultures. Catalonia and several other countries are often presented from a tourist-consumer point of view, without any substantial cultural information. Furthermore, the study suggests that textbooks avoid cultural comparisons therefore, giving little space for cultural understanding. The results presented in this paper form part of a wider research about the sociocultural models that current CSL textbooks transmit. Local and International Cultures in Catalan as a Second Language Textbooks 208 Local and International Cultures in Catalan as a Second Language Textbooks The aim of this article is to examine how local and international cultures are presented in textbooks designed for adult learners of Catalan as a second language (CSL). As its starting point, this study takes the view that the textbooks are never neutral (Apple, 1999) and that CSL textbooks give learners a biased version of a culture international and their host country’s culture. Since Canale and Swain’s (1980) model of communicative competence, cultural aspects have increasingly been incorporated to second language (L2) pedagogy. The relation between L2 learning and culture has been acknowledged in the works of Kramsch (1993), Byram (1997), and Moran (2001), among others. The increased emphasis on teaching culture in recent decades has led to the introduction of cultural elements in most textbooks (Santos, 2007). Several researches (Alptekin, 1993; Batteman & Mattos, 2006; Cortazzi & Jin, 1999; Ramirez & Hall, 1990; Risager, 1991; among others ) have analyzed the cultural component of second language textbooks. However, textbooks for learning Catalan as a second language have rarely been a subject of any kind of analysis, especially one that takes a sociocultural perspective. Statement of the problem This article is just an initial step in the direction of analyzing constructions of culture in CSL textbooks following the four dimensions of analyzing culture proposed by Byram & Esarte-Sarries (1991): • analysis at the micro-social level of the social identity of individuals, of their social environment, of their personality. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 209 • analysis at the macro-social level of socio-economic, geographic and historical representations. • analysis of the viewpoint taken by the author, either explicitly or implicitly. • analysis at the inter-cultural level of mutual representations and recognition by the nature and foreign cultures (p.180). In this paper, the focus will be on the macro-social level of socioeconomic, and more specifically on geographic representations that appear in textbooks. To this end, this study will try to answer the following research questions: 1. What type of representation of local and international culture appears in large texts and images that refer to a geographical reference? 2. What are the differences and similarities in representations of local and international cultures?