ELT coursebooks As part of an exploratory study to answer the last of these questions, I questionnaire asked a number of teachers to complete a short questionnaire on the

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how teachers censor and adapt

This article takes as its starting point a small survey of teachers' attitudes to aspects of cultural content in ELT reading materials. The aim of this exploratory study was to elicit some of the salient issues in teachers' thinking about coursebook cultural content, and to suggest a possible di-rection for further investigation. The results of the survey identify a num-ber of areas where cultural content is often reshaped (or censored) by teachers. The article concludes by advocating the need to recognize the coursebook's status as cultural artefact, and suggests that critical en-gagement with cultural content makes both cross-cultural and educational sense.

Imttrodudtiom In Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (1948: 92), T. S. Eliot wrote: Even the humblest material artefact which is the product and the symbol of a particular civilisation, is an emissary of the culture out of which it comes.

While Eliot's comment was not made in reference to ELT materials, it provides those of us involved in language teaching with an appropriate point of departure for reflection. ELT materials produced in Britain and the United States for use in classrooms around the world are sources not only of grammar, lexis, and activities for language practice, but, like Levi's jeans and Coca Cola, commodities which are imbued with cultural promise. In the case of ELT coursebooks, it is the promise of entry into an international speech community which is represented in what tend to be very idealized terms.

The coursebook as ambassador

It is precisely the ambassadorial aspect of the ELT coursebook which has led to recent criticisms. Phillipson (1992: 60) sees the promotion of the British global coursebook as a government-backed enterprise with an economic and ideological agenda aimed ultimately at boosting commerce and the dissemination of ideas. Prodromou (1988) is also critical, but focuses more on what he sees as the alienating effects of such materials on students, and how they can produce a disengagement with learning. Neither have foreign governments or their state school employees been oblivious to the cultural content to be found in materials produced for global consumption. Thus, Moroccan teachers of English have expressed their concern about the danger of 'the erosion of belief in the ability of native culture and language to deal with the

at Memorial University of Newfoundland on July 31, 2014

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/

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modern world' (Hyde 1994: 296), while Saudi Arabia and China have gone to the extreme of producing materials with almost no references to English-speaking cultures.

Reshaping cultural Just as Coca Cola can be used in popular (if theologically unorthodox) content religious ceremonies in Central America, so too are coursebooks subject (at least in theory) to change in the language classroom. Thus, in Torres' study of the use of an ESP coursebook in several classrooms (in Hutchinson and Torres 1994: 325) it was noted that:

teachers and learners do not follow the textbook script. Most often teachers follow their own scripts by adapting or changing textbook-based tasks, adding new texts or deleting some, changing the management of the tasks, changing task inputs or expected outputs, and so on. Moreover, what is also clear from the study is that the teacher's planned task is reshaped and reinterpreted by the interaction of teacher and learners during the lesson.

Such reshaping and reinterpretation can be seen as a key element in the construction of new meanings and in the creation of the culture of the classroom. Apple (1992: 10) makes a similar point about the importance of the learners' role in this process, when he suggests that they too (as well as teachers) 'accept, reinterpret, and reject what counts as legitimate knowledge selectively'. But how does this happen? Do learners accept, reinterpret, and reject openly, or is this an internal and unspoken process? And what motivates teachers in the choices they make when they set about changing the coursebook? Clearly there are many questions to be answered.

ELT coursebooks As part of an exploratory study to answer the last of these questions, I

questionnaire asked a number of teachers to complete a short questionnaire on the cultural content of ELT reading materials (see Appendix 1). The survey was conducted in 1997, during the autumn term, at International House, Barcelona. The aim was to find out what teachers think about the cultural content in ELT coursebooks, and what they should do with material with which they do not feel comfortable.

The questionnaire was given to 20 teachers. Of this group, 8 were colleagues I felt would be prepared to co-operate in the survey, and the remaining 12 were practising teachers taking the UCLES/RSA Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults (DTEFLA) course in the school. Of the 12 who returned the questionnaire, 9 were women and 3 were men. Seven were experienced RSA DTEFLA teachers (each having between 10 and 20 years' experience), one was a recently certificated teacher with less than two years' experience, and four were RSA DTEFLA candidates currently studying in the school. All the teachers were native speakers of English, and most were from Britain. It is important to point out that my aim in this article is not to generalize from the results of such a small survey—rather, it is to suggest that this is an area of teacher thinking which merits further research, and also to

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Questionnaire: part H

Stereotypical representations

suggest that coursebook content can also be engaged with critically.

The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the first part dealt with coursebooks familiar to teachers from their own teaching, while the second part asked for their opinions on a piece of material from a well-known coursebook for beginners, The Cambridge English Course 1 (Swan and Walter 1984: 52, see Appendix 2). In the first part, the aim was to identify the range of topics teachers saw as presenting some kind of cultural problem in their classrooms, and to discover how this problematic content was addressed. The second part of the question-naire was designed to see if the teachers perceived what I considered to be a culturally-explicit piece of material in more or less the same way.

All teachers agreed that coursebooks contain cultural information, and that they had sometimes felt uncomfortable with the reading exercises. The general areas of concern which emerged were stereotypical representations, mainly of Britain, followed by irrelevant, outdated, and sexist content. I shall deal with the first of these in some depth, as this was the main area of concern.

Six of the 12 teachers referred to stereotypical representations of Britain, one referred to negative representations of others, and one to stereotypical representations of national groups in general. However, there was considerable variation in the reasons offered for the discomfort occasioned by such stereotypes, as a selection of their comments illustrates. Teacher A mentioned the 'cringe factor' involved in using certain types of material, and gave as an example the bowler-hatted representation of the 'typical Englishman' in Coursebook 1 (teachers are identified by letters and the coursebooks they mention by numbers). In similar vein, Teacher B cited the picture painted of British parenting in Coursebook 2. In answer to Question 4 she stated:

The text painted a very negative picture of British childrearing and compared it unfavourably with European parenting.

This teacher explained, on returning her questionnaire, that as someone who lived in Catalonia, and who was also a mother, she felt very unlike the stereotype represented in the coursebook, and for that reason she did not want to use the material.

Teacher C was less concerned about his own feelings than about the possible effect of such stereotypical representation on students:

/ think by accepting stereotypes of one group of people we accept all stereotypes of all people—some not so complimentary.

Other teachers mentioned the value system of their students as a factor influencing their approach to materials, where the portrayal of L2 culture could be seen as being at variance with LI cultural values. In the case of Teachers D and E, in particular, there was also a strong wish not to be associated with the way in which L2 culture was represented. These two teachers differ from Teachers A and B in that they seemed to

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be more concerned with the potentially alienating effect of the material on their students.

Commenting on Coursebook 4, Teacher D described the material as follows:

Text about pub culture in England, followed by vocab exercises to do with alcoholic drinks, how to order your drink, rounds, etc. (There are dozens of references to drink and pubs throughout the book.)

His answer to Question 4 outlines the reasons for his discomfort:

Was teaching in Cairo, group included number of women wearing hijab, also 2 young Al Azhar students. Material obviously irrelevant, inappropriate probably offensive to some. Constant references to alcohol seem to imply a culture obsessed with the stuff—didn't feel like having to defend this.

Teacher E answered Question 3 as follows:

The whole of Coursebook 5—the world seen from a jingoistic British point of view—old book—this is changing but often find similar examples.

He explained further in his answer to Question 4:

I'm a 'working-class' Midlander who along with many groups isn't represented. I don't want to teach my culture/or British culture as if it's superior to that of my students.

This teacher was alone in stating that as 'working-class' (his quotation marks) he felt unrepresented in coursebook material, and that the culture represented in the coursebook conveyed an implicit sense of superiority which he felt would have been perceptible to students. However, another teacher did point out that 'many coursebooks seem to have a very 'straight and middle-class attitude', and this was perceived by the teacher as being problematic.

Adapting the Of the 12 teachers consulted, six said they dropped material they felt coursebook uncomfortable with, and one teacher left this question unanswered. The remaining five said that they adapted material, or would now do so. Three respondents stated that as beginning teachers they had used the materials as suggested in the coursebook, but that experience had given them the confidence to drop materials or adapt them.

Adaptation involved different approaches. Teacher D dropped the material on alcohol he had felt uncomfortable with, but retained the functional language the text was designed to teach—a procedure he described as adaptation in his answer to Question 5.

Teacher D:

[I] changed the situation from pub to school cafeteria—found a tape with similar language that didn't mention alcohol.

The ELT coursebook as cultural artefact: how teachers censor and adapt 277

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Teachers C, E, and G all adapted the material by using it, but not as the coursebobk suggested.

Teacher C:

It was a long time ago. I think I followed it up by asking if stereotypes were true reflection (sic) of a people/culture.

Teacher E:

Told them it was stereotypical/laughed about it—got them to tell me why/their point of view.

Teacher G, unhappy about the sexism of the material she had to use: / did it, but made a joke of the whole thing.

At least half the teachers (in an admittedly very small survey) dealt with what they considered to be inappropriate cultural material by censor-ship, by which I mean complete abandonment of the material. The question is why? Is it easier to censor than to adapt? Or do language teachers see the cultural content as merely incidental, and always secondary to linguistic aims? Hyde (1994), writing about the Moroccan situation, argues against censorship and suggests that, however well intentioned, it robs students of the ability to defend themselves against the 'possibly harmful concepts and pressures' (ibid.: 302) exerted by coursebook cultural content. He advocates a more educational and cross-cultural approach to language teaching:

To be able to select, accept, or reject ideas, concepts, and pressures, especially those emanating from other and dominant cultures, people have to be equipped with a good knowlege of their own culture and history. This provides the bedrock upon which to judge (ibid.: 303).

The teachers in the Barcelona survey are all working in the private sector. It is possible that, as a consequence of their training and the context in which they work, they see themselves as technicists rather than educators, that is, as being essentially specialists trained to develop language skills only. Pennycook (1994) suggests that the commercializa-tion of ELT has had precisely this effect on teachers' percepcommercializa-tions of themselves, and that it serves to perpetuate the notion of language teaching practices as value free.

Questionnaire: Whatever the Barcelona teachers' views of the precise nature of their

part 2 roles as language teachers, a majority of them rejected the material from

The Cambridge English Course as inappropriate for their language classrooms.

Of the three teachers who said they would use the material, two saw it as 'light-hearted' and 'humorous', while the third (Teacher E) disliked it, but felt it could be used to provoke discussion by allowing students to bring their own cultural perspective to bear on one aspect of the material:

The stereotypical view of father/daughter relationships, adolescent behaviour, Tories are preferable to parents etc [is] a bit irksome. On

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another level, this kind of material can be used to discuss stereotypes themselves from Catalan perspective i.e. PP/ERC (both political parties). Stereotypes exist, but can be made relevant to students' experiences. Students may/may not agree—our job shouldn't be to judge them!

The remaining nine teachers said they would not use it for a variety of reasons:

It seems to be showing British teenagers to be deceitful/drunken, etc. (and many are) but having it in a book like this condones the behaviour. There are better ways to teach the Past Simple.

V. stereotypical presentation of British men, parent/child relationship.

It's v culture specific—lying teenagers, sex before marriage, disobe-dience to parents...

It's embarrassing and unnecessary to use this context to teach the language. I dislike the image of boy/girl and father/daughter relation-ships it contains.

Represents a (mercifully) tiny sector of British society—outdated—

ridicules British parenting—The 'kissy-cuddly' bit would either be inappropriate, of no interest, or acutely incomprehensible to most groups of learners.

A very liberal attitude to childrearing—especially of girls—unthinkable in many cultures where girls wouldn't be allowed out unsupervised.

Sexist crap—why didn't she want more?

Analysis of The teachers in this survey are clearly aware of cultural content in ELT

questionnaires reading materials. The questionnaire dealt only with those aspects of cultural content which made them feel uncomfortable, and elicited responses to a piece of material which has been modified in the new

edition of The Cambridge English Course (Frank no longer wants more,

but June still lies).

The rationale behind a focus on material that made teachers feel uncomfortable was that such material is noticeable, in a way that other material might not be. The questionnaires show that teachers were concerned mainly with stereotypical representations, especially of L2 cultures, sexist attitudes, relevance or comprehensibility of cultural material to their students, combined with a wish not to offend students' cultural sensibilities, and the fact that behaviour which could be seen as reprehensible was implicitly condoned in the way it was presented in the coursebook.

However, we cannot deduce what these teachers think about cultural content which meets with their approval, or to what extent they agree with Kramsch's (1993: 1) view that

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Critical engagement: one

way forward!?

Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them.

To answer these questions, and to find out more about how coursebook material is mediated by teachers, how learners respond to cultural content, and how this content is made sense of in the dynamic interaction of the co-produced lesson (see Allwright 1981, 1991), it would be necessary to widen the area of investigation to include learners' voices on how they perceive the cultural content of the coursebooks they are using, and to observe and analyse classroom interactions.

Given that teachers tend to be overworked and underpaid, the ready-made nature of global coursebook material means that its days are far from over. There are indeed many excellent coursebooks on the market. But such material, by its very nature, will vary in its appropriateness, and consequently tend to be limited in its effectiveness. In an attempt to maximize the effectiveness of the coursebooks they use, at least half the teachers in the Barcelona survey opted for censorship. Clearly, certain topics will be taboo in some educational contexts, and remain inappropriate for discussion in the language classroom. However, another option suggested in the survey, and one which I believe we need to explore further, is that of critical engagement with the coursebook as a cultural artefact and bearer of messages.

In much ELT material, it has been argued, the student is positioned 'at the receiving end of a virtually one-way flow of information' (Alptekin and Alptekin 1984: 15). Although students complete comprehension tasks on reading and listening texts, there is often little opportunity for them to respond to or challenge the information they receive from the perspective of their own culture.

In a survey of 300 Greek students, Prodromou (1992) asked What should language teaching be about? and concluded from their answers that there 'is quite a strong association in learners' minds between learning a language and learning about the people who speak that language' (ibid.: 46). He goes on to advocate a cross-cultural approach, where students are encouraged to make comparisons between their own culture and those represented in the coursebook. In fact, such an approach to language teaching is currently being advocated by the Council of Europe's Educational Committee/Council for Cultural Co-operation.

This could involve devising tasks which allowed students to question the content of material and actively elicited responses based on LI value systems. Activities of the kind proposed by Wallace (1992), for example, to help students read more critically, would encourage greater engagement with texts and the cultures which produce them. Wallace

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suggests moving away from an approach to comprehension based on 'finding the right answer'—or at least going beyond this—to one aimed at raising awareness of alternative ways of writing about a topic. As a point of departure, she suggests using the framework devised by Kress (1989) in Wallace (1992) as a way of encouraging students to interrogate the text:

(1) Why is this topic being written about? (2) How is the topic being written about?

(3) What other ways of writing about the topic are there? (ibid.: 71).

Clearly teachers will have to consider the appropriateness of such critical practices to their particular educational context. However, by engaging with the coursebook as a bearer of messages, and encouraging our students to view materials as more than linguistic objects, we are, as well as developing their language skills, allowing students to voice their own opinions, and reverse the one-way flow of information. It is at this point, I would suggest, that the global coursebook can become a useful instrument for provoking cultural debate and, concomitantly, a genuine educational tool.

Received June 1999

Acknowledgement

The publisher and author would like to thank Cambridge University Press for permission to reproduce page 52 from Swan, M. and C. Walter:

The Cambridge English Course (Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 1984).

References

AJlwright, D. 1981. 'What do we want teaching

materials for?' ELT Journal 36/1: 5-18.

AJlwright, D. 1991. "The death of the method'.

CRILE Working Paper 10. Centre for Research in Education, University of Lancaster.

Alptekin, C. and M. Alptekin. 1984. 'The question of culture: EFL teaching in non-English

speak-ing countries'. ELT Journal 38/1: 14-0.

Apple, M. 1992. 'The text and cultural polities'.

Educational Researcher 21: 4-11.

Eliot, T. S. 1948. Notes towards the Definition of Culture. London: Faber and Faber.

Kress, G. 1989. Linguistic Processes in Socio-cultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hutchinson, T. and E. Torres. 1994. 'The textbook

as agent of change'. ELT Journal 48/4: 315-27.

Hyde, M. 1994. 'The teaching of English in

Morocco: the place of culture'. ELT Journal

48/4: 295-305.

Kramsch, C. 1993. Context and Culture in Lan-guage Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pennycook, A. 1994. The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. New York: Longman.

Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Prodromou, L. 1988. 'English as cultural action'.

ELT Journal 42/2: 73-83.

Prodromou, L. 1992. 'What culture? Which culture? Cross-cultural factors in language

learning'. ELT Journal 46/1: 39-50.

Swan, M. and C. Walter. 1984. The Cambridge English Course. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press.

Wallace, C. 1992. 'Critical literacy awareness in the EFL classroom' in N. Fairclough (ed.).

Critical Language Awareness. London: Long-man.

The author

John Gray teaches at Queen's University, Belfast on the CELTA, DELTA, and MA in ELT programmes. He is currently working towards a PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London. His research interests include cultural issues in ELT materials, and teacher training and development.

Email: tetl@qub.ac.uk

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Cultural content in ELT reading materials.

1. Do you agree that all coursebooks contain cultural information?

Yes No Continue if you answered Yes

2. Have you ever felt uncomfortable with the cultural content of a reading exercise in a coursebook?

Yes No

3. What was the coursebook, and what was the reading text about?

4. Why were you uncomfortable?

5. What did you do?

a) use it as the coursebook suggested b) drop it altogether

c) adapt it in some way

If c) briefly explain what you did.

6. Look at the attached page from the old Cambridge English course. i. In your opinion, what is this text teaching?

ii. Would you use it?

iii. Say what you think of the cultural content. In one or two sentences.

7. How many years have you been teaching?

Thank you for your thoughts and your help.

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Appendix 2

Danced till half past one

• Match the present and past forms of these irregular verbs.

go tell get can do come hear {ijral«?) have say know ^ i T could went neard said told came had did got knew

A Close your book and listen to the dialogue- See how much you can remember. Then read the dialogue and the text. Ask your teacher about new words.

FATHER What time did you come home last night, then. June?

JUNE Oh, I don't know. About half past twelve. I think. FATHER Hall past twelve? I didn't hear you. JUNE. Well. 1 came in quietly. I didn't wanl to wake you

up.

FATHER You didn't go to thai damned disco, did you? JUNE Disco, Daddy? Oh. no. You know t don't like

loud music. No, I went to a tolk concert with Alice and Mary. It was very good. There was one singer...

FATHER Why did you come back so late? The concert didn't go on till midnight, did it? JUNE No. but we went to Alice's place and had

coffee, and then we started talking about politics, you know. Alice's boyfriend - he's the President o) ihe Students" Union Conservative Club...

Find the differences. Example:

OR: Jtvu. 60C0C

•fr Ask some other students what they did either yesterday or at the weekend. Ask as many questions as possible. Examples:

'What time did you get up yesterday?' 'Did you come to school by bus?' 'Did you have a bath?' 'What did you have for breakfast?'

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