A CULTURE SHIFT: THE COMPARISON BETWEEN CULTURAL CONTENTS OF THE

TEXTBOOKS OF THE 2006 CURRICULUM AND THE 2013 CURRICULUM

Ihsan Nur Iman Faris

Indonesia University of Education

Ihsannif@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

In Indonesia, building students’ characters based on the codes of the acceptable culture has become one

of the objectives of education. This notion is applied to all subjects, including English. One of the

variables influencing how students learn culture is the textbook used. This research aims at portraying

the cultural contents contained in the English textbooks developed based on different curriculums. This

research was a qualitative research employing textual analysis method. The data of this research were

collected from the reading passages in Englishs textbooks of 2006 curriculum and 2013 curriculum for

senior high school. The cultural contents in the textbooks were categorized into the source culture, the

target culture, and the international culture. Moreover, in order to reveal how the cultures are portrayed,

the cultural contents were also categorized into the aesthetic sense, the sociological sense, the semantic

sense, and the pragmatic sense. The findings show that from 88 cultural contents found in the textbook of

2006 curriculum, 71.59% are the target culture, 18.18% are the source culture, and 10.23% are the

international culture, portrayed by the aesthetic sense (32.95%), the sociological sense (44.32%), the

semantic sense (9.09%) and the pragmatic sense (13.64%). On the other hand, from 98 cultural contents

found in the textbooks of 2013 curriculum, the target culture comprises 35.71%, the source culture

comprises 37.76% and the international culture comprises 26.53% of the total cultural contents found in

the textbooks, portrayed by the aesthetic sense (18.37%), the sociological sense (57.14%), the semantic

sense (11.22%), and the pragmatic sense (13.27%). The textbooks of 2013 curriculum can be seen more

suitable for students’ character building since it contains more source culture. Moreover, it can be said

that the different curriculum can trigger the difference in cultural contents of the textbook used.

Keywords: culture shift, types of culture, four senses of culture, English textbooks.

INTRODUCTION

Building students‟ characters based on the codes of the acceptable culture has become one of the

objectives of the education in Indonesia. This notion is applied to all subjects, including English. Hence,

albeit the inseparability of language and (the native) culture (Kramsch, 1998), the teaching of English in

Indonesia ideally should imbue the portrayals of local culture. A textbook as one of the mostly-used

teaching media can carry cultural contents (McGrath, 2002). Plethora of investigations on what and how

cultures are portrayed in English textbooks have been conducted. However, the investigation on English

textbooks for senior high school in Indonesia is still limited.

Textbooks play an important role to provide valuable inputs in exposing students to new cultural

expressions and diversity of cultures (Lund, 2006). Textbooks are ideology in the way they reflect a

worldview of cultural system and a social construction to learners and teachers which indirectly influence

their view of culture (Aliakbari, 2004). Since the spread of certain language through textbooks can

influence language learners‟ attitude, the decision on choosing an English textbook should take the

cultural contents issue into consideration. As Philipson (1992) warns, the target culture can threat the

existence of local culture if the spread is not controlled and filtered. In Indonesia, the objective of national

education is set based on the cultural value and ideology of the nation and applied in all school subjects

including English. One of the efforts of the government to achieve this objective is by regulating 2013

curriculum giving more concern on character building than the previous curriculum. Hence, the textbooks

supporting the teaching of English should also encourage students to behave according to the codes and

standard of appropriateness of the source culture. As the curriculum has been changed, the portrayal of

the source culture in English textbooks should also change. This research is geared toward answering the

following research questions.

1. What cultures are represented in the 2006 curriculum and 2013 curriculum English textbooks?

2. How are the cultures represented in the 2006 curriculum and 2013 curriculum English textbooks?

Based on Cortazzi and Jin (1999) the materials in a textbook culturally are categorized into the

source culture, the target culture, and the international culture. The source culture materials refer to

materials presenting language learners‟ own culture. The aims of the source culture materials are

accommodating learners‟ need to talk about their culture with visitors and helping learners to be more

aware of their own cultural identity. The target culture materials refer to materials presenting the culture

of English native speakers‟ countries which are The United States, The United Kingdom, Australia,

Canada, and New Zealand. The aim of the target culture materials usually is exposing users to the cultural

contexts of the target language. International culture materials refer to materials presenting a wide variety

of culture in countries where English is used as a second or foreign language. The aims of the

international culture materials are raising users‟ intercultural awareness and making users familiar with

various socio-cultural contexts.

Culture in the textbook can also be categorized based on the four senses of culture framework,

categorizing culture into the aesthetic sense, the sociological sense, the semantic sense, and the pragmatic

(sociolinguistic) sense (Adaskou, Britten & Fahsi, 1990). The aesthetic sense of culture can be perceived

as the tip of an iceberg or the big “C” of culture referring to the media, the cinema, music, and literature.

The sociological sense of culture can be perceived as the bottom of an iceberg or the small “c” of culture

referring to the organization and nature of family, home life, of interpersonal relations, material

conditions, work and leisure, custom, and institutions. The semantic sense of culture refers to the

conceptual system embodied in the language and, according to the Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis, conditioning

all our perceptions and our thought process. Many semantics areas (e.g., food, clothes, institutions) are

culturally distinctive because they relate to a particular way of life. The last, the pragmatic sense (or

sociolinguistic) refers to the background knowledge, social skills, and paralinguistic skills that, in

addition to mastery of the language code, make possible successful communication.

As English nowadays is considered as an international language or a lingua franca enabling non-

native speakers to describe their own norms and culture (McKay, 2003), English speakers nowadays do

not only confront the culture of American or British people. Many non-native speakers use English to

communicate among their own community and with other non-native speakers. Hence, the teaching of the

target language culture only is not sufficient to accommodate communicative competence of English as

an international language. The source culture should also be taught compatible with English. Gass &

Selinker (2008) explained that the success of the target culture acquisition is determined by social

distance referring to the equality of the social status of each culture and psychological distance referring

to the attitude of individuals toward the target language learned. Positive attitudes toward the target

language learning will enhance learners‟ understanding of the target language and promote intercultural

understanding. On the other hand, if learners feel alienated from the target language and culture, the

language learning process will be certainly hindered. Furthermore, including more source culture contents

is beneficial since it can make learners feel engaged as if the contents are part of their experience

(Sahiruddin, 2013). However, it does not mean the target culture and the international culture should not

be presented. Peterson and Coltrane (2003) suggested the teaching of culture be carried out in the non-

judgmental way where the distinction among the source culture, the target culture, and the international

culture do not clash with each other. Therefore, it can be stated that the purpose of teaching culture other

than the source culture is to aid the learning process of the target language and to create inter-cultural

understanding where learners can behave accordingly in various socio-cultural situations. The spirit of

integrating various cultures in English teaching and encouraging cultural understanding should be

reflected by the balanced proportion of culture in a textbook.

Research investigating the portrayal of cultural contents in English textbooks have been

conducted in some countries. Most of the findings are in line with Kachru and Smith (2008) stating that

American and British culture are the „favorite‟ to be represented in English textbooks. Matsuda (2003)

found that western characters were predominant in the English textbooks in Japan. The findings that the

target culture are predominant were also reported by Abdullah and Chandran (2009) investigating English

textbooks in Malaysia. Those scholars suggested that characters representing different cultures should be

included more. On the other hand, different findings were reported by Elgar (2012) investigating the

English textbooks in Brunei and Hermawan and Noerkhasanah (2012) investigating the English textbooks

in Indonesia. They found more source culture contents in the textbooks they investigated.

Although it has been reported that English textbooks in Indonesia contain more source culture,

the enrichment of reports of investigation of cultural contents in English textbooks in Indonesia still need

to be conducted. Firstly, it is because the investigation on cultural contents of English textbooks

developed based on the 2013 curriculum is still limited. Secondly, the previous research has not

investigated the cultural contents of English textbooks for senior high school level due to the different

samples taken.

METHODOLOGY

This research generally is descriptive qualitative research attempting to “investigate quality of

relationships, activities, situations, or materials” (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012, p.426). This research

involved selecting text, determining the unit to be coded, developing content categories, and analyzing

data. Thus, the method used in this research is categorized into content analysis (Frey, et al, 1999. The data were categorized based on the types of culture in language materials by Cortazzi & Jin (1999)

and the framework of four senses of culture proposed by Adaskou, Britten, and Fahsi (1990).

The data of the research mainly were in the form of reading passages taken from the Textbooks

developed based on the 2006 curriculum and the 2013 curriculum. The reading passages were chosen

since they have high possibility to contain cultural values (Adaskou, Britten & Fahsi, 1990). The data

were collected by selecting the reading passages available in each unit of the textbooks. One Textbook for

senior high school developed based on 2006 curriculum and two Textbooks for senior high school

developed based on 2013 curriculum were taken as samples. The 2006 curriculum-based English

textbook was designed to be used for two semester, while each 2013 curriculum-based English textbook

was designed for one semester. Hence, two 2013 curriculum textbooks were taken to balance the

proportion.

Data analyses were divided into three main steps. Firstly, in order to reveal what cultures are

represented in the English textbooks, the contents in the reading passages were categorized into the

source culture, the target culture, the international culture, or culture neutral (Cortazzi and Jin, 1999). The

source culture refers to Indonesian culture. The target culture refers to British, American, Canadian,

Australian, and New Zealand cultures or the culture belong to The Inner Circle countries (Kachru, 1992

in Jenkins, 2009), and the international culture refers to cultures which do not belong to the source culture

and the target culture. Culture neutral contents are contents in the English textbook which do not refer to

any culture, such as scientific explanation. Secondly, in order to reveal how the cultures are represented in

the English textbooks, the cultural contents found in the reading passages were categorized into the

aesthetic sense, the sociological sense, the semantic sense, or the pragmatic sense (Adaskou, Britten &

Fahsi, 1990). Thirdly, the cultural contents found were presented in percentages then the comparison

between the percentages of cultural content in the English textbooks developed by the 2006 curriculum

and the 2013 curriculum were compared and discussed qualitatively.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The findings related to cultural contents analysis of the English textbooks are summarized and

presented into two categories: what cultures are represented in the English textbook based on the

categorization proposed by Cortazzi and Jin (1999) and how the cultures are represented in the English

textbooks based on the four senses of culture framework proposed by Adaskou, Britten, and Fahsi (1990).

The result of the investigation is shown as follows.

The Frequency of Cultural Contents Distinctive Occurrences in the 2006 Curriculum-Based Textbook

Category

of Culture

The Aesthetic

Sense

The Sociological

Sense

The

Semantic

Sense

The

Pragmatic

Sense

Total

The Source

Culture 6 10 0 0 16 (18.18%)

The Target

Culture 20 24 7 12 63 (71.59%)

The International

Culture 3 5 1 0 9 (10.23%)

Total 29 (32.95%) 39 (44.32%) 8 (9.09%) 12 (13.64%) 88 (100%)

The Frequency of Cultural Contents Distinctive Occurrences in the 2013 Curriculum-Based Textbook

Category

of Culture

The Aesthetic

Sense

The

Sociological

Sense

The

Semantic

Sense

The

Pragmatic

Sense

Total

The Source Culture 7 25 3 2

37

(37.76%)

The Target Culture 6 16 4 9

35

(35.71%)

The International

Culture 5 15 4 2

26

(26.53%)

Total 18 (18.37%) 56 (57.14%) 11 (11.22%) 13 (13.27%) 98 (100%)

Types of Culture in the Textbooks According to the data shown, the cultures represented in the 2006 curriculum English textbook

and the 2013 curriculum English textbooks are the target culture, the source culture, and the international

culture. In the 2006 curriculum English textbook, the target culture representation significantly

outnumbers the source culture and the international culture. The number of the reading passages

containing the target culture contents is more than a half of the total reading passages. There is a tendency

that the learners are not familiar with the target language cultural context. Some of the target culture

contents may even be contradictive with learners‟ local values. When the content is not practical for the

learners, the possibility of negative psychological distance to occur is high (Gass & Selinker, 2008). As

familiar contents can make students more engaged to learn (Sahiruddin, 2013), including more source

culture contents is more beneficial.

The higher tendency of students‟ engagement is possessed by the 2013 curriculum textbooks

since the number of the source cultures are predominant compared to the target culture contents and the

international culture contents. However, the number of the other categories of culture, the target culture

and the international culture, could be considered sufficient. It can be inferred that the proportion of

cultural contents in the 2013 curriculum textbooks is more balanced than the 2006 curriculum textbook.

Since textbooks can influence students‟ point of view toward certain culture (Aliakbari, 2004), the 2013

curriculum textbooks can lead students to view the source culture positively as the context of English use.

Relevant to this finding, Elgar (2012) found that the point of view shaping is the main reason of

predominant representation of the source culture in the English textbooks in Brunei Darussalam. It is

reported that the government of Brunei Darussalam tries to detach the influence of British ideology in

their country and promote Brunei Darussalam‟s Islamic culture.

In terms of functioning as the input of intercultural language learning (Lund, 2006), the 2013

curriculum English textbooks have the tendency to be more effective than the 2006 curriculum English

textbook due to the more-balanced proportion of culture categories. Although the source culture is

prioritized in the 2013 curriculum, the target culture and the international culture contents are still

presented fairly. It can be inferred from thes range between the most frequent category and the least

frequent category which is only 11 in the 2013 curriculum English textbooks, while the range between the

most-frequent category and the least-frequent category in the 2006 curriculum English textbook is 54.

Representations of Culture in the Textbooks

Cultural contents in the 2006 curriculum English textbook and the 2013 curriculum English

textbooks generally are represented by the aesthetic sense, the sociological sense, the semantic sense, and

the pragmatic sense. Both the 2006 curriculum and the 2013 curriculum English textbooks share the same

order of frequency. The sociological sense was found predominant in representing culture in both the

2006 curriculum and the 2013 curriculum English textbooks, followed by the aesthetic sense, the

pragmatic sense, and the last, the semantic sense. The predominant representation of the sociological

sense in the textbook is seen appropriate since culture as the way of life is related to the use of the target

language in the real social context. The sociological sense representation in English textbook can enhance

learners‟ “language awareness component” of learning and improve the language proficiency of learners

(Byram, 1991 cf. Hinkel, 1999). Although both the 2006 curriculum English textbook and the 2013

curriculum English textbooks represent the sociological sense predominantly, there is a crucial difference

between two sociological representations. In the 2006 curriculum English textbook, the sociological

context of English use mostly is represented by the target culture, while in the 2013 curriculum English

textbooks the sociological context mostly is represented by the source culture. Hence, the tendency to

enable students to use English in local context is more effective in the 2013 curriculum English textbooks.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

This research found that the cultural contents of the 2006 English textbook and the 2013 English

textbooks are different in numbers. The cultural content analysis reveals that the 2013 English textbooks

contain more source culture than the 2006 English textbook, and both textbooks represent culture

predominantly in the sociological sense. Since more source culture is contained by the 2013 curriculum

English textbooks, character building and the notion of English as an international language are more

accommodated by the 2013 curriculum English textbooks. It is suggested that research investigating

cultural contents in other teaching media be conducted.

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