Table 1. Findings with Regard to the Representation of Intercultural Approach in the Course books
It is well-known that foreign language education is a cultural education in a sense; therefore, it is of great importance for language learners to learn native and international cultural elements along with the target culture items and to develop their communication skills at the international level. The current study explores what target, native, and foreign culturespecific elements are represented and whether intercultural approach is followed to present these elements in the selected EFL coursebooks. To this end, thirteen English 9th, 10th, and 11th grades coursebooks approved by the Ministry of Education of Turkey were examined in the context of intercultural approach. Employing descriptive content analysis method, we determined native, target and international cultural elements under fourteen categories. The results of the study revealed that the use of intercultural approach was quite restricted in the selected EFL coursebooks. Only four out of thirteen books were identified as having the most basic characteristics of intercultural approach. Based on the findings of the study, we also made some recommendations for the culture-specific elements that are missing in the coursebooks.
It goes without saying that foreign language education inevitably requires explicit or implicit culture teaching. However, the question is what culture refers to in a foreign language learning context. Is it related to local, target or international elements of culture? Before trying to provide some responses to these questions, it will be appropriate to define the concept of “culture”. Culture has various definitions depending on the context the term is used. Anthropologists and sociologists have defined culture from different perspectives. For instance, British anthropologist Edward Taylor defines it in his book, ‘Primitive Culture’, published in 1871 as 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Likewise, sociologists relate culture to human beings' behaviour, beliefs, feelings, thoughts and everything acquired as social beings. Based on these perspectives, culture is defined as in the followings;
"Culture: learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day-to-day living patterns. These patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism" (Damen, 1987, p. 367).
"Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them" (Lederach, 1995, p. 9).
"A culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society" (Linton, 1945, p. 32).
As it is obvious from the cited definitions above, the concepts such as shared human patterns, shared knowledge, shared elements, social interaction, and learned behaviour are all associated with the concept of culture. This being the case, it can be inferred that culture has some common characteristics and functions which involve everything human beings share. Ten characteristics of culture are identified as a) dress and appearance; b) a sense of self or space; c) beliefs and attitudes; d) communication and language; e) food and feeding habits; f) time and time consciousness; g) relationships; h) mental processing and learning defined by how people organize and process information; i) work habits and practices; and j) values and norms (Harris et al., 2004 as cited in Colbert, 2010, pp. 17-18). These characteristics indicate that culture is a collaboration of common behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, language, clothing, relationships, habits, values, and so on. In line with these characteristics, different functions of culture for both individual and group exist as well. For example, it is stated that culture provides solutions and traditional interpretations for complex and certain situations. It shapes personality and distinguishes man from animal. It can also help people maintain social relationships and enhance cooperation among the group members.
As Herron et al. (2000) put it, such a broad concept can be described in terms of the so-called small-c culture and big- C culture. Small-c culture refers to a wide variety of aspects, such as norms and values, behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, patterns of interaction, politeness, customs, traditions, rituals, and so on. Although many aspects of small-c culture can be easily learned and understood, some hidden characteristics of small-c culture are not so easy to grasp. These aspects can be understood or realized only when compared with another culture. This may sometimes lead to misunderstanding and communication breakdown among the speakers. On the other hand, big-C culture is easier to study and grasp since it is related to factual knowledge regarding a specific society and its literature, music, dance, painting, sculpture, theatre, and film (Chlopek, 2008). Due to the unpredictable nature of particular components of small-c culture, speakers may have difficulty in understanding other speakers who have different culture, which may lead to confusion no matter how fluent they are in the language they are communicating. For this reason, for a successful communication, speakers of a given foreign language are expected to be competent enough in understanding the target culture as well as the foreign language itself. Then, questions such as whether target culture is included, how it is dealt with, and what sort of cultural elements should be focused in foreign language education are attached importance in culture research.
The inclusion of culture specific elements in foreign language education in general and English Language Teaching (ELT) in specific has been debated for years. Different ideas have arisen so far about what cultural elements should be integrated into the lessons and how to include them. As Bayyurt (2006) states, two major opinions exist as to the inclusion of culture in ELT. The first one defends culture-free curriculum for the sake of preserving cultural identity of foreign language learners. On the other hand, the second opinion supports the integration of target culture since they assert that language and culture cannot be separated. Brown (2000), for instance, explains this inseparability as follows;
“Language is a part of a culture, and culture is a part of the language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. The acquisition of a second language, except for specialized, instrumental acquisition (as may be the case, say, in acquisition of reading knowledge of a language for examining scientific texts), is also the acquisition of a second culture” (pp. 189-190).
However, researchers supporting the second view differ in which culture to include in foreign language classes. Some believe that target cultural elements should be taught together with the language due to the holistic view emphasizing the inseparability of language and culture. Some other scholars (Kramsch, 1993; Peterson & Coltrane, 2003) are in the idea of inclusion of local culture in foreign language lessons as well. For example, Alptekin (1993) states that local-language culture elements should also be included in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials. The idea behind this view is that “the transition from familiar to unfamiliar schematic data should not necessarily be thought of as moving from the learner's native culture to the culture of the native speaker of English” (p. 142). Similarly, McKay (2003) focuses on the importance of the involvement of local-language culture elements in English as International Language (EIL) classrooms.
Research on the place of culture in foreign language teaching usually concentrates on two dimensions. As the first dimension, scholars (Atay et al., 2009; Aydemir & Mede, 2014; Bayyurt, 2006; Genç & Bada, 2005; Gönen & Sağlam, 2012; Karabinar & Güler, 2012; Karatepe & Yılmaz, 2018; Larzén-Östermark, 2008; Önalan, 2005; Sarıçoban & Çalışkan, 2011; Sercu et al., 2005; Stapleton, 2000) investigate the attitudes of students and teachers towards culture teaching, learning and integration. Regarding the second research tendency, some other scholars (Aliakbari, 2004; Çakır, 2010; Çetinkaya, 2008; Ekmekçi, 2014; Rajabi & Ketabi, 2012; Ulum & Bada, 2016; Weninger & Kiss, 2013) dwell on the analysis of course books in terms of culture specific elements. Most of the studies in the first category reveal that the learners and teachers participating in the studies are aware of the importance of culture; however, they don't feel satisfied with the amount and method of culture learning and teaching in the classrooms. Regarding the second group of research, studies dealing with course book analysis report that target and local culture specific elements are usually available in the course books, but some are criticized for including too much target culture while some argue that there should be much more target culture specific elements in the course books. As seen in the studies in both dimensions, target and local culture specific elements have been main research issues in the recent literature; however, the integration of interculture specific elements into the course materials and the studies focusing on intercultural aspect of culture learning and teaching seem to be ignored. It is thought that this issue needs to be highlighted in todays' context where there is a shift from communicative competence to intercultural communicative competence.
The concept of 'competence' was introduced to linguistic discourse with Chomsky's influential study ‘Aspects of the Theory of Syntax’ (1964) and usually used as a part of dichotomy of competence and per formance. Competence is defined as speakers and listeners' knowledge of language and performance is the actual use of language in real situations. The distinction between competence and performance is thought to have sound basis in the distinction between langue and parole by Saussure. As communicative view gained support, Hymes's concept of communicative competence which is regarded as broader and more realistic became popular.
Communicative competence refers to a language learner's both grammatical knowledge (phonology, morphology, syntax) and knowledge regarding the appropriate use of language in social context. Hymes (1972) explains this as follows;
“…a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their accomplishment by others” (p. 277).
As it is clear from Hymes's explanation, communicative competence is to be able to use grammatical competence or knowledge in various communicative situations. Subsequent to Hymes's communicative competence, different researchers (Widdowson, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983) have contributed to the idea from different perspectives. Different models on communicative competence have been developed by the researchers. The most recent one has been explained in the document of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) by the Council of Europe (2001). In CEFR, communicative competence has three components; linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, and pragmatic competence. Linguistic competence refers to some sub-components such as lexical, grammatical, semantic, phonological, orthographic, and orthoepic competence, which makes CEFR different from other alternative models of communicative competence. Sociolinguistic competence is related to 'the knowledge and skills required to deal with the social dimension of language use' (p. 118). Linguistic markers of social relations, politeness, dialect, register differences, etc., are specific issues in which sociolinguistic competence requires. The third component, pragmatic competence, refers to the learner's knowledge of the principles about discourse, communicative functions and design.
The communicative competence models developed by Hymes (1972), Canale and Swain (1980) and Canale (1983) all influenced language teaching, learning and curriculum design practices. Particularly communicative approach and its underlying principles were based on the ideas behind communicative competence. Given the components of communicative competence, it is quite clear that target culture transmission in language teaching and learning process is inevitable. In other words, learning and teaching a second or foreign language is more than training learners in terms of different components of competence. It requires transmission of cultural knowledge as well. As Alptekin (2002) puts it, 'learning a foreign language becomes a kind of enculturation, where one acquires new cultural frames of reference and a new world view, reflecting those of the target language culture and its speakers' (p. 58). However, Alptekin (2002) also questions the concept of 'native speakership' since the number of people who are speaking English as a second language outnumbers the native speakers of English. This international status of English language requires revising some practices of communicative competence especially in foreign language classrooms. Bayyurt (2006) asserts that the aim of ELT is now 'the development of the learners' intercultural communicative competence in the English language to enable them to cope with issues that are related to the wider use of English in local and international contexts within the 'global village' (p. 234). This inter culturality has also been emphasized in the new communicative competence model provided in CEFR, which influences almost all language learning and teaching curricula in the world. CEFR, in this way, encourages individuals to learn more languages and thus, to welcome new cultural experiences. Then, it can be argued that the primary aim of intercultural communicative competence is to enhance, as stated by Marczak (2010), learners' awareness of cultural variety and their ability to apply this awareness to cross cultural contexts. In addition, intercultural communicative competence enables learners to explore target culture and their own culture as well as other cultures in the world providing the opportunity to compare and contrast.
The idea that teaching and learning only target culture specific elements during foreign language education does not find support anymore especially in today's world where non-native speakers of English constitute the majority. The current century requires learners to be intercultural communicators. Therefore, foreign language education should provide learners with a thorough and systematic intercultural training. This systematic culture training should cover not only cultures of English speaking countries, but also world cultures. In addition, target culture training should not be ignored as well. With all these in mind, these three aspects of culture training can be called Intercultural Approach, which helps learners foster intercultural communication skills, reduce intolerance and prejudice against other cultures and countries in the World.
Chlopek (2008) suggests three general stages for successful intercultural training in EFL classes. In stage 1, the focus is on students' own culture. The primary objective of this stage is to be able to raise students' awareness about local culture elements and make them realize their own culture as part of the World culture. Thus, they are expected to view cultures from a different perspective and perceive local culture specific elements at the conscious level. The author also provides some invaluable activities for the first stage of the implementation of Intercultural Approach. The stage 2 aims to introduce students the target culture by making them compare and contrast to their own. Having gained a new perspective to view culture in the first stage, students are expected to evaluate the target culture specific elements from an objective point of view. At this stage, students learn cultures of the countries in Kachru's (1992) Inner Circle Model which includes the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where English acts as a first or native language. In stage 3, students are presented different cultures from the World. Subsequent to the previous two stages in which students are assumed to have learned how to view and evaluate both native- and target-culture specific elements, stage 3 introduces students all cultures from intercultural perspective. All of the stages are followed by some additional activities from different sources.
As Chlopek (2008) puts it, intercultural approach is not free of some drawbacks. Motivational and attitudinal problems may arise as some students might not be willing to learn foreign cultures or there may be some stereotyped views and prejudices (p. 18). In addition, the teachers who will implement the intercultural approach should be knowledgeable enough about various cultures which can place an additional burden on them.
The selection of cultural content for foreign language Course books with its all aspects including texts, images, customs, traditions, clothing, etc. is of primary importance. As stated by Arıkan (2005, 2008), course books have the power of changing students' opinions and beliefs on many socio-cultural issues, such as gender, popular culture, religion, social class, etc. Research on the analyses of course books in terms of target and local culture-specific elements reveals findings, which indicate availability, frequency, types, and quality of local or target culture specific elements. Regarding the place of culture in EFL materials, Alptekin (1993) develops a general framework stating that EFL materials should include both native- and target-language culture as well as intercultural elements; however there should be smooth transition from one's native culture to target or international culture. In another study, Gray (2000) mentions some findings from the questionnaire conducted for teachers about cultural content. It is stated that ELT course books can serve as cultural artefact, which help learners to think more critically and they can be good sources for cross-cultural approach.
As for the frequency of culture-specific expressions in foreign language teaching, Çakır (2010), for instance, analyses some selected course books from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades and finds out that most of the teaching activities do not contain sufficient cultural elements in the course books. Likewise, Aliakbari (2004) reports similar findings about the lack of target culture-specific elements upon analyzing four course books used in Iran. In another study conducted in Iranian context, Rajabi and Ketabi (2012) having examined four English course books report that the cultural orientation of the books is based on the source cultures and there is no comparative examples found between target and local cultures. As for the methods determining cultural elements in the course books, Weninger and Kiss (2013) criticize the current approaches to the analysis of culture in foreign language course books and suggest semiotic approach which 'examines texts, images, and tasks as merely engendering particular meanings in the act of semiosis' (p. 694). They argue that texts, images, and tasks may not reflect the actual cultural content at first sight, but the activities and the ways of implementation can help researchers uncover the true cultural content in the materials.
As implied in the aforementioned studies, some researchers report the lack of target culture-specific elements in the foreign language course books while some emphasise the need for local culture integration into the course books. However, few studies attempt to analyse course books from intercultural points of view seeking whether the course books hold an intercultural view while presenting cultures in the materials. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the course books published for 9th, 10th, and 11th graders in Turkey to find out whether they have been designed in accordance with the principles of intercultural approach. Including some suggestions for course book writers for integration of intercultural elements as well as target and native culture, the study is believed to fill the gap in the current literature.
In an attempt to analyse the course books in terms of the representation of intercultural approach, the current study aims to answer the following research questions;
This study employs descriptive content analysis which is one of the case study methods. Content analysis is defined by Krippendorff (2013) as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use” (p. 24). In this study, the case is decided to be thirteen 9th, 10th, and 11th grades course books approved by the Turkish Ministry of National Education (See the list of course books in Appendix 1) The course books were randomly selected from Educational Informatics Network (EBA) in which all digital copies were available at http://www.eba.gov.tr.
Data were collected through content analysis method. First, all course books were analyzed by two researchers and all culture-specific elements were noted down in primary scanning. Secondly, two teachers of English working at a state high school and using some of the selected course books were asked to analyse the books again. Later, two lists were compared and contrasted together with the teachers. Subsequent to the second analysis, some categories that go with the found elements were determined. As a last step, all cultural elements were categorized as native, target and foreign culture-specific element.
The identified culture-specific elements were qualitatively analyzed and put into categories. At the end of the analysis, 14 categories were determined, such as traditional clothes, popular cities, lifestyles, dances, authors, artists, customs and traditions, cuisine, festivals, great leaders, natural beauty, religious tourism, scientists, and well-known buildings.
The analysis of culture-specific elements in thirteen Course books revealed that the use of intercultural approach was quite restricted. Three stages of intercultural approach were employed in the categories of Artists/Celebrities, Traditions/Customs, Great Leaders, and Well-known buildings only in four of the selected books. Table 1 below shows the categories, native-, target-, and foreign culture-specific elements as well as the course books with unit and page numbers.
Table 1. Findings with Regard to the Representation of Intercultural Approach in the Course books
It should be noted in Table 1 that native culture here refers to Turkish culture as the coursebooks are used in the EFL context in Turkey. In addition, target culture as another heading is used as a reference to English speaking countries such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand which are identified as inner circle countries by Kachru (1992). Foreign culture refers to the world culture and it covers all cultures associated with the rest of the countries in the world. As presented in the table below, the books which hold intercultural view towards culture teaching are Sunshine English, Yes You Can B1.1, Progress Preparatory Class, and Silver Lining. All elements are presented in these books from familiar to unfamiliar in three stages with supplementary activities. For example, in the category of well-known buildings, as a native culture specific element. The Maiden's Castle which is on the small island in Mersin is presented in the book Silver Lining. It is thought that most of the students already know about the castle, but it will be a good opportunity for the students who do not know about it. After this first stage, students are presented Bodiam Castle from England which constitutes the second stage of the intercultural approach. In the last stage, Mont Saint Michel Castle from France is presented and students get the chance of comparing and contrasting between cultural elements in different cultures. This systematic culture training also helps students be aware of the existence of different cultures in the world.
The analysis of selected thirteen books also indicated that some of the course books included only two stages of intercultural approach. Some of them had examples of native and target culture while some had from target and foreign cultures or native and foreign cultures. That does not mean that these course books or the analyzed units are not based on the principles of intercultural approach; however, it can be stated that intercultural approach is partly represented and missing one stage can be tolerated by the teachers themselves.
As indicated in Table 2, in some units of the course books such as Teen wise, Yes You Can B1.1., Progress Preparatory Class, Silver Lining and English Course the culture-specific elements are presented through only two stages. For example, in the category of Artists/Celebrities, as target culture-specific element Hollywood is presented while Bolly wood is for the foreign culture-specific element as the third stage. However, Yeşilçam could have been presented in the same unit as a native culture element to prepare students for unfamiliar or less familiar content. Likewise, in the category of Scientists/Innovators, John Nash as a target culture-, and Maria Curie as a foreign culture-specific element are presented in the book, but native culture specific element is missing in the unit. As a suggestion, Aziz Sancar, a Turkish Nobel winner and molecular biologist, could have been presented for the first stage, which would probably foster students' motivation to learn cultural elements in the unit.
Table 2. Culture-specific Elements Presented Only through Two Stages
Apart from the findings which fully or partly represent intercultural approach in the course books, the study also uncovered a lot of culture-specific elements belonging to only one stage. Some of the findings in different categories are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. Culture-specific Elements Presented through One Stage
The findings are not limited to the ones presented in Table 3 and they are selected from the identified elements representing each category from different course books. As seen in the table, there are plenty of culture-specific elements in different course books which have been analyzed; however, these elements are not presented in a systematic way that can support intercultural approach. For most of the categories, a lot of native, target, and foreign culture-specific elements can be integrated. The course books adopting intercultural approach to some or great extent were found Sunshine English, Progress Preparatory Class, Silver Lining, Yes You Can, and English Course. Some suggestions can be made for the missing stages in the course books, which will be main focus of the discussion section below.
Detailed analysis of the findings shows that the Course books approved and suggested for 9th, 10th, and 11th graders by the Ministry of Education in Turkey are rich in terms of culture-specific elements. However, the way of the presentation of these elements and the relationships between native, target, and foreign cultural aspects are not reflected effectively in most of the course books. Although culture-specific elements referring to the three stages of intercultural approach are available in most of the course books, they are preferred to be presented in different units independent from each other. It is suggested that course book writers add some culture-specific elements for the missing ones or the teachers who use these books in the classes compensate for these units through various activities promoting intercultural approach.
Based on the findings of the current study, it is possible to make some suggestions for a more effective representation of intercultural approach in the selected course books. For instance, in the category of Artists/Celebrities, Sunshine English for 11th graders presents Jim Carrey in Unit 4 as a target culture-specific element. However, the Unit could have included Kemal Sunal, a well known comedian in Turkey, as a target culture-specific element prior to Jim Carey and as a foreign culture specific element Aamir Khan, who is a famous Indian film actor, director, filmmaker could have been integrated. For the same category as another suggestion, Cüneyt Arkın, Johnny Depp, and Jackie Chan can be included for three stages of intercultural approach. As another example, Yes You Can B1.1 presents William Shakespeare in Unit 8 as a target culture-specific element. Before introducing Shakespeare, for instance, Gazali or Fuzuli as a native culture- and Dante as a foreign culture-specific element can be easily integrated in the same unit. Likewise, in the category of cuisine, Turkish coffee is presented in Unit 6 of Progress Preparatory Class. Americano and Cappuccino can be also included as target and foreign culture-specific elements respectively. As exemplified here, it is possible to give more examples for each category to provide students with more effective culture teaching.
All in all, as stated earlier, the primary aim of intercultural approach is to prepare students for 'the wider use of English in local and international contexts within the global village' (Bayyurt, 2006, p. 234). For this reason, it is crucial for Course book writers and foreign language teachers to include as many culture-specific elements as possible covering three stages of intercultural approach. In the light of the findings of the present study, it can be inferred that the course books are not that insufficient in terms of cultural elements contrary to the findings of the studies by Çakır, (2010); Aliekbari, (2004); Rejabi and Ketabi, (2012). However, they need to be redesigned to include the elements in a more systematic way employing basic principles of intercultural approach.
The study is limited to thirteen course books (Progress Preparatory Class Student's Book, Yes You Can A2.1 Student's Book, Yes You Can A2. 2 Student's Book, Yes You Can A2.3 Student's Book, Yes You Can B1.1 Student's Book, Yes You Can B1.2 Student's Book, Yes You Can B2.1 Student's Book, English A1.1 Student's Book, Teen wise 9 Student's Book, English Course Student's Book, Sunshine English 11 Student's Book, Silver Lining 10 Student's Book, Silver Lining 11 Student's Book) approved by the Turkish Ministry of Education. In addition, the current study tries to uncover native, target, and intercultural elements only in these course books prepared by the Turkish Ministry of Education and published on www.eba.gov.tr. It does not include the course books prepared by private publishing companies.
This study explored what native, target, and foreign culture specific elements are available in the selected EFL course books written for 9th, 10th, and 11th grades in Turkey. The questions whether the selected course books follow the principles of intercultural approach or not and what suggestions can be made to fill the missing cultural elements were also responded in the study. The analysis of the thirteen course books approved by the Ministry of Education revealed that the course books, such as Sunshine English, Progress Preparatory Class, Silver Lining, Yes You Can, and English Course adopted intercultural approach to some or a great extent. These course books were found to have culture-specific examples representing three stages of intercultural approach. It was also reported that the course books approved and suggested for 9th, 10th, and 11th graders by the Ministry of Education in Turkey were rich in terms of culture-specific elements. However, the way of the presentation of these elements and the relationships between native, target, and foreign cultural aspects are not reflected effectively in most of the course books.
Based on the main findings of the study, it can be stated that the selected course book rarely follow the principles of intercultural approach which emphasizes presentation of culture-specific elements through three stages in a systematic way. It is thought that following the principles of intercultural approach while designing the course books will probably raise learners' awareness of native, target as well as foreign culture-specific elements. As foreign language education is a cultural education in a sense, it is of great importance for language learners to learn all these culture specific elements and to develop their communication skills at the international level.
Last but not least, it is hoped that the findings of the current study will pave the way for more efficient culture teaching in foreign language classes. Course book authors and foreign language teachers as primary actors in helping students receive more efficient cultural training are thought to contribute a lot for enhancing intercultural communicative competence of language learners.