Abstract
The rise of world Englishes has challenged the emphasis on native-speaker accents and cultures in English language teaching. This study aimed to investigate the representation of world Englishes and cultures in three global language teaching textbooks, namely Interchange, English Result, and American English File. The textbooks were subjected to content analysis regarding their reference to Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles’ varieties and their associated cultural contents. Kachru (The alchemy of English: The spread functions and models of non-native Englishes. Oxford: Pergamon, 1986) notion of Concentric Circles, and the categorization proposed by Pfister and Borzelli (Unterrichtspraxis 10:102–108, 1977) functioned as a framework to see which aspects of each culture (social, personal, religion/arts/humanities, political systems and institutions, and environmental concerns) were addressed in these textbooks. Findings revealed that most of the references to the three circles and cultural elements embodied in the textbooks were toward Inner Circle countries in American English File. Furthermore, in Interchange and English Result series, reference to Outer and Expanding Circles’ varieties and cultural elements were comparatively more evident. However, all the three textbook series mostly represented Inner-Circle accents. These findings have implications for materials developers to adopt an EIL-aware approach and to avoid the sole representation of native speakers’ linguistic norms and cultures in ELT textbooks.
Highlights
The rise of globalization in conjunction with postcolonial trends has had a profound impact on the spread of English and English language teaching (ELT) in the world in the past two decades (Cameron & Galloway, 2019; Cogo & Dewey, 2012)
The first aim of the study was to explore how ELT textbooks differ in representing Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle countries’ cultures
As Inner Circle ELT textbooks are partly aimed to be utilized in the country of their origin, the cultural content is in harmony with the inside needs
Summary
The rise of globalization in conjunction with postcolonial trends has had a profound impact on the spread of English and English language teaching (ELT) in the world in the past two decades (Cameron & Galloway, 2019; Cogo & Dewey, 2012). As indicated by Chang (2006), English has been the dominant foreign language in the institutional curricula and foreign language teaching and learning systems. This global status of English has brought about a powerful textbook publishing market. The emergence of other intelligible varieties happened when Kachru (1986) described the diffusion of English in terms of three concentric circles: The Inner Circle, The Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle Kachru argued that these circles establish “three distinct types of speech fellowships of English, phases of the spread of the language, and particular characteristics of the uses of the language and of its acquisition and linguistic innovations” Kachru argued that these circles establish “three distinct types of speech fellowships of English, phases of the spread of the language, and particular characteristics of the uses of the language and of its acquisition and linguistic innovations” (p. 122)
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