Textbook Evaluation : Cultural Ponderation in New Prospects
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Date
2014
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
The inseparability of language and culture and the increasing role of English as a global
language become the focal reasons of investigation in the field of foreign and second
language instruction. The present study is an attempt to explore the cultural content of an
in-use and the recently published English language secondary school book entitled New
Prospects. It aims to examine and identify the different aspects and types of culture which
are packaged in the prescribed course book. It also deals with determining whether the
representation of a variety of cultures in the textbook reflect the status of English as an
international medium of communication. The content of the teaching material is analyzed
and evaluated based on the theoretical framework advocated by Byram et al (1993). The
frequencies and occurrences of cultural elements which are sorted out from Byram ‘s
checklist are in turn classified and categorized according to Martin Cortazzi and Lixian
Jin’s theoretical framework ( 1999) which refer to three types of cultures: source culture ,
target culture , and the world culture. The findings make it clear that the course book
addresses various cultural aspects about big ‘C’ culture and small ‘c’ culture which also
correspond to different cultures; the native culture, the target culture and the world culture
(C1, C2, C3… etc.). In other words, the obtained data revealed that there is a balance in the
portrayal of the national, target and international cultures in the school book.
Consequently, this is potentially beneficial in the sense that it permits language learners to
develop necessary skills for communicating adequately in different situations.
Description
54p.:ill;30cm.(+cd)
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Language and Communication