Cultural Content Materials in English Textbooks for Fourth Grade Elementary Schools

Abstract

Language and culture are closely related, where language not only functions as a means of communication but also as a medium to communicate cultural values while maintaining cultural identity. Learning a language is the same as learning a culture. Like the spread of language, English is currently an international language important for cross-cultural communication. Therefore, language proficiency is essential for national progress and global competitiveness. One of the ways to improve intercultural communicative competence is by infusing culture in English textbooks, which helps students learn the language and understand cultural diversity. In addition, infusing culture in textbooks can also help students to be aware of their cultural identity. Cortazzi & Jin (1999) said a good textbook should include source culture, target culture, and international culture. This study examines the representation of cultural content in a fourth-grade elementary school student textbook entitled ‘My Next Words.’ The book is published by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia and consists of 12 units with 133 pages. This study used content analysis that focuses on visual and textual artifacts. Furthermore, data was collected using the document analysis method and then identified based on three cultural categories using a framework from Schreier (2012). The results show that three categories of culture were included in this textbook with different frequencies of references. Source culture is more dominant than target culture and international culture. In addition, the textbook included cultural content that represents both the source and international cultures. This shows that the textbook contains diverse cultures in visual and textual forms. Diverse cultural values can help students have a broader understanding of cultural diversity. In addition, the emphasis on source culture in textbooks can be helpful to increase students' cultural awareness. It is expected that students will better understand their own culture and country and become more conscious of loving their culture and country as part of their own identity after studying the current English textbooks.