Socio cultural content in global and local ESL textbooks in Serbia - a critical approach

1. INTRODUCTION

This research project is based on socio cultural analysis of content in selected global and local English as a second language (ESL) textbooks which are mainly used in secondary school education in Serbia. One reason for this study lays in part in fact that textbook continues to be an indispensable object in second language classroom and that the teachers and students rely heavily on textbooks (especially on what is called student’s book). The analysis of socio cultural content in second language textbooks has been a part of many investigations throughout the world, especially in the field of ESL. These analyses frequently show that realities presented in textbooks often reflect the world views of the author and the publisher following the criteria of the economic and social elites and not of the majority of students. Moreover, the massive presence of globally produced ESL textbooks, fighting for a new market in a “third world country” as Serbia, has diminished the position of local publishers who are now struggling to survive sometimes by accommodating its textbooks to look more and more like the global ones. Through the analysis of texts from a corpus of selected locally and globally produced textbooks used for secondary school education this study will try to show how the elements of target, local and international cultures are presented, and in which way the representation of these cultures has been put into discourse. More importantly, this study will try to give a critical view on globally on locally produced textbooks paying special attention to the differences and similarities in the treatment of culture in selected textbooks. Through the analysis of texts from selected corpus of textbooks this study will try to show how the concept of culture changed throughout the years and how culture in today’s textbooks is more and more market related. This study takes a stance that applied linguistics, including critical approaches does not sufficiently recognize economic part of culture and base their criticism mainly on representations of gender, ethnicity or nationality (Block, Gray and Holborow, 2012).

2. PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC INTEREST IN THE TOPIC

This study was initiated mostly because of my personal dissatisfaction with the treatment of socio cultural content in ESL textbooks in general. In my country (Serbia) from the beginning of the “transition” period there has been a certain chaos in publishing and purchasing ESL textbooks for primary and secondary school education.

Most of the global publishers (Oxford University Press, Cambridge, Longman,

MacMillan, etc.) are present in Serbia’s ESL market as well as a few local ones. However, the

policy and the criteria for choosing a textbook are not very well established. To illustrate: there are only 4 locally produced ESL textbooks for the first year of secondary school education and 23 global textbooks by various publishers. How these textbooks are evaluated and come to be the ones that enter the classroom is a question of language policy which seems to be a bit of a mystery. The fact remains that ESL publishing in Serbia as everywhere else is a big business in which big companies make profit without actually knowing or caring for the reality and needs of students and their specific local environment. This study will also try to enlighten this part of the problem. Furthermore, the interest for this research came also as a lack of personal in depth knowledge of how socio cultural material has been dealt with in locally produced textbooks, as I generally used only globally produced ones for my own classes. After reading an investigation from Basabe (2006) in which he compared socio cultural content in Argentinean local and global textbooks I decided to try and do similar research in Serbian context. This study is also a fruit of personal interest in latest developments in applied linguistics concerning the subject of globalization, class and neoliberal discourses in textbooks and it was inspired primarily by the works of David Block (2012) and John Gray (2010,2012).

3. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

This project has as its main objective to show how the socio cultural reality is being represented in selected corpus of textbooks, which culture(s) occupy the most space and what are the relations between cultures represented in selected texts. Using the content analysis for interpretation of data this project will also try to detect in which way the most commonly used topics have been put into discourse and if there is a difference in treatment of these topics in globally and locally produced textbooks. To this end the study will try to answer the following research questions: 1) Which cultures appear in selected texts? 2) What is the relation between cultures? 3) How are the main topics in texts put into discourse? 4) What are the differences and similarities in globally and locally produced textbooks in representing culture?

4. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

4.1. Critical pedagogy This research forms part of the tradition of critical pedagogy, which puts learning and teaching into their social, political and economic context and explores the implications of power relations and ideology on educational activities. Critical pedagogy requires a political commitment in order to build more egalitarian, just and ethical educational environment (Canagarajah, 2005). Critical pedagogy in second language learning and teaching is closely related to other critical currents that have appeared in recent decades in the field of applied linguistics, such as Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001), Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989), Studies of Critical Discourse (Van Dijk, 2008), Critical English for Academic Purposes (Benesch, 2001) or Critical Writing (Canagarajah, 1993) among others. All these critical approaches derive from the fact that we live in a world where our circumstances are influenced by class, race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic and geopolitical situations (Canagarajah, 2005). Critical approaches have, in part, been influenced by a European school of philosophers such is Frankfurt School with philosophers such as Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, and in part by the thought of Michel Foucault and Paolo Freire among others. One of the fundamental aspects of all critical research is “taking a skeptical eye toward assumptions, ideas that have become ‘naturalized’, notions that are no longer questioned” (Pennycook, 2001:7). That is to say, critical researchers do not view the world as a static and preconceived reality, but try to question the representations of the world that are accepted as ‘common sense’ which usually coincide with the interest of political, economical and social elites. Van Dijk (2008:6) considers that critical perspectives have to meet one or more of the following criteria in which domination is considered to be abuse of power by a social group: •

relations of domination are studied primarily from the perspective of, and in interest of the dominated group;

•

the experiences of (members of) dominated groups are also used as evidence to evaluate dominant discourse;

•

it can be shown that the discursive actions of the dominant group are illegitimate;

•

viable alternatives to the dominant discourses can be formulated that are consistent with the interest of the dominated groups.

It should be noted that Critical Pedagogy in L2 as the other critical currents associated with linguistics is not in any case a method or a set of ideas. It is an attitude towards research, or

if you will, a way of thinking and doing. Critical Pedagogy believes that social scientific research is never neutral but is always conditioned by values, biases or intentions of researchers. For this matter, critical researchers adopt an overtly ideological position in order to carry out a transformation in the field that they are studying. According to Van Dijk (2008), critical (discourse) studies “have many different methods of study depending on the aims of investigation, the nature of the data studied, the interests and the qualifications of the researcher and other parameters of the research context” (Van Dijk, 2008: 2).

4.2 Critical studies and second language textbooks In the 1970s and 1980s critically oriented studies of second language textbooks were mainly centered on gender bias and sexism (Hartman and Judd 1978; Porreca 1984; among others). As Shardakova and Pavlenko (2004) explain many analysis have showed that since 1990s the things towards treating gender issues have changed, although there are some textbooks in which still traces of gender bias could be found. In the 1980s other researchers in the field of second language textbooks have tried to analyze other types of bias. Studies like the one Auerbach and Burgess did in 1985 conclude that the socioeconomic reality represented in textbooks is far away from the students’ own reality. Auerbach and Burgess (1985) analyzed the “hidden curriculum” in survival course books for immigrants in the United States through a study of representations of situations related to housing, health and work. These two authors explained that the textbooks analyzed did not take into account the socioeconomic reality of the immigrant students and that the only reality represented belonged to the values, culture and economic status of the American middle class. Moreover, they concluded that these course books were preparing students to take submissive roles in the society and that they reinforced hierarchic relations through the exclusion of concepts such as conflict and the possibilities for development of tools for critical thinking. In their opinion, “students are often portrayed as incompetent and addressed like children” (Auerbach and Burgess, 1985: 486). Dendrinos (1992) finds in international textbooks for teaching English as a second language exaggerated presence of young, white males that belong to upper middle class. Moreover, according to this author the textbooks have a tendency to present the ideal world similar to the one we find in the world of advertising. Phillipson (1992) goes even further in seeing the globally produced textbooks for English as a foreign language as government-backed

enterprises to promote Western culture (especially British) with a very well defined ideological and economical agenda. Risager (1991) examined textbooks for English as a second language used in Scandinavian countries although her conclusions can be extended to the textbooks in whole Europe (Cortazzi and Jin, 1999). According to Risager the characters in the textbooks are usually middle classed young people represented as isolated individuals (instead of members of families, for example) that are often tourists. They participate in trivial conversations that are mainly related to free time and consuming. What’s more, these characters seldom express any feelings or real opinions and they never find themselves facing social, philosophical or ethical problems. Canagarajah was also one of the authors who explored the socio cultural side of textbooks especially in the local environment. In one of his articles (1993) he explores how Tamil students from Sri Lanka fight against Western values that appear in textbooks for English as a second language produced in the United States. Tamil students demonstrate their discomfort against some of the representations of established Western values (such as consumerism, social mobility or mercantilism) that they perceive alienated from their own culture by annotations and drawings on the margins of the pages in textbooks. Canagarajah concludes that textbooks for English as a foreign language should include portraits of reality closer to students’ own and to include discourses important for lives of students and their social, economic and political situation. Kubota (2002) centers his study on textbooks for English as a second language in Japan and explains that dominant discourse in these textbooks in past decades has been one of promotion of Western values mixed with Japanese national discourse. Cook (2003) analyses selected textbooks for teaching English, French and Italian as a second language in the 1990s. He finds the situations and topics that appear in the textbooks analyzed to be infantile and idealized. Cook argues that the characters in textbooks seem to be “lively young people with no cares in the world or plans for the future except tomorrow’s party” (Cook, 2003: 277). As he opposes the infantile treatment of adult L2 learners, he also opposes the “native speakers’ language” and instead offers the view in which the language used should be based on speech of L2 students. Kinginger (2004) reports that the implied audience of most manuals for French as a second language in the United States are members of the middle class, which could be discriminatory to working class students. She also suggests that the picture of the bucolic world that appears in textbooks prevents students to develop linguistic resources to solve real life interactions that could at times be quite complicated.

Shardakova and Pavlenko (2004) have analysed identity options in second language Russian textbooks for the students in the United States. A part from the exaggerated simplification concerning reality and identities represented in the textbooks they have analysed, the authors have warned about the dangers of stereotypes used in textbooks like for example the one in which the Russians are fascinated with the North American technological superiority or the supposed social and gender equality that exists in the USA. The authors try to demonstrate how in a number of occasions the textbooks show the superiority of American visitor and his culture over Russians and their culture. Instead of portraying an idealized world these authors suggest that the textbooks should pay more attention on cultural misunderstandings which can be beneficial for students to learn how to negotiate meanings in the environments that sometimes can be hostile to them. Taki (2008) has analyzed hidden ideologies in global and local textbooks for English as a second language used in Iran. Concerning global textbooks, the author asserts that they represent reality which promotes Western economy and consumer society. On the other hand, the omission of certain topics from the locally produced textbooks could be the legacy of the norms and standards of the post-revolutionary era in Iran. Perhaps the most significant discovery from the locally produced textbooks is the complete lack of dialogues between opposite sex. Gray (2010) centers his analysis on representations of the world of work in English as a second language textbooks produced for a global market. He affirms that the representations of the world of work which appear in these textbooks (mobility, freedom of choice, individualism, and work as an “intense realization of the self”) coincide with the values and practices of neoliberalism (phase in capitalism characterized by neoliberal ideology). The negative practices (job insecurity, stress…) which bring the strategies of neoliberalism do not form part of the textbooks analyzed. Instead, loosing ones job is presented as a life opportunity. Gray (2010) like many other authors before him emphasizes that the world of work (and the world in general) represented in textbooks for teaching English as a second language is seen from a highly idealized point of view. He concludes his article stating that the textbooks can be seen as cultural artifacts made by a culture which produces them which is in this case “a commercial culture of a powerful global industry” (Gray, 2010). The analysis of Gulliver (2010) is centered on textbooks addressed to immigrants arriving in Canada. His study showed that the stories of immigrants that appear in these textbooks tend to represented Canada as a promised land for the newcomers. The stories of immigrants he analyzed tend to follow similar narrative structures: upon his arrival to Canada the immigrant first experiences a period of economical struggle, social exclusion and personal battle. However, after

the period of struggle always comes a period of economical benefit where the immigrant, as a rule, economically triumphs. His economical triumph is attributed to his good character and hard work. According to Gulliver (2010) these stories do not portray the actual reality of the newcomer but are examples of Canada’s migratory policy and the ways of its legitimization. In his latest analysis of global ESL textbooks, Gray (2012) concentrates on topic of celebrities whose excessive use in global textbooks is seen as a direct link to neoliberalism. ESL industry uses the so-called aspirational content which focuses on “spectacular personal and professional success, celebrity lifestyles, cosmopolitanism and travel” assuming that this content is something students would most likely to identify with. According to this author, neoliberalism changed society which has moved from “one of the producers to one of the consumers […] in which the wealth concomitant with celebrity is fetishised” (Gray, 2012:96). He also asserts that the concept of celebrity used in textbooks has changed drastically in ESL industry from 1990s onwards. Before 1990s celebrities were used to describe their personal characters or their line of work, but after 1990s the focus of attention has turned onto their wealth (Gray, 2012:99). These studies mentioned above are only a part of a much bigger bibliography on critical studies centered on analysis of textbooks for foreign languages. However, what the majority of them have in common is that they suggest that the representations of reality given in second language textbooks tend to be idealized and simplified which can be counterproductive for students that can not find representations of reality closer to the ones more common to them. Moreover, some of the studies show that the manuals serve as artifacts to certain ideologies that legitimize discourses and practices of political, social and economical elites.

4.3 Approaches to second language teaching: the treatment of culture According to Risager (1998), there are four approaches to foreign language teaching: 1) the foreign –cultural approach, 2) the intercultural approach, 3) the multicultural approach, and 4) the transcultural approach. All four approaches have been more or less successfully introduced in foreign language curriculums, especially in ESL.

4.3.1. Foreign-cultural approach Although Risager (1998) states that it has been loosing ground since 1980s, this approach based on teaching only target language culture is still very much present in ESL textbooks. This approach, which is sometimes also called mono-cultural approach, does not take learner’s own culture into account nor relations target culture has with learner’s or other cultures. In the case of ESL, culture is represented through British or American cultures and their way of life, very often ignoring the wider spectrum of cultures which form part of their cultures as well.

4.3.2. Intercultural approach According to Byram (2000), a person who has intercultural competence is able to mediate between cultures, which means understanding his own and other cultures and being able to interpret cultures not only by looking at one’s own but at the other culture as well. Intercultural approach gained a lot of influence in ESL academic circles and there were attempts to implement it more significantly in ESL curriculums. However, the implementation of intercultural approach was basically left in hands of local textbook producers, as they came from the source culture and were able to make intercultural comparisons. On the other hand, globally produced ESL textbooks in many cases did not go much further from stereotyped representations of folklore culture like popular festivities or food related topics. The problem with the implementation of intercultural approach lies again in fact that most of the students and teachers use global textbooks which are not planned for each country in particular and whose focus is on the target language culture where cultural comparisons are almost always let for the teachers and students to settle in questions like: “And in your country, what do you do?”

4.3.3.Multicultural approach Multicultural approach rests upon a concept of culture that reflects the fact that several cultures may coexist within the boundaries of one and the same society or state (Risager 1998). The examples of multicultural approach in global textbooks exist in usually very simplified descriptions of people, their cultures, practices and perspectives. The representation of cultures is often connected with tourism and upper-middle class people going on expensive journeys. Almost everywhere it is combined with transcultural approach which represents more global way of seeing the world.

4.3.4.Going Global With the globalization new ESL textbooks have become more transcultural. The idea of transcultural approach is that the World has become a global village, where different cultures are connected with the same ways of life, practices and values. Belonging to one and the same global market students of ESL are thought how to become cosmopolitan members of the new World. The transcultural approach focuses on the life of individuals and groups in contexts characterized by more or less the same cultural and linguistic complexity: television channels, the city street, the multicultural classroom, the supermarket – situations where target language is used, but in such a way that learners also become aware of other languages being used (Risager 1998). According to Block and Cameron (2002), on the surface there are (still) many different languages

(and cultures, my comment), but under the banner of ‘effective communication’, they all become vehicles for the expression of similar values and the enactment of similar subjectivities.

4.3.5. Current situation Since 1990s many above mentioned authors have critically approached the issue of ESL materials making, publishing and using. There is still an ongoing debate over issues such as globalization and language teaching, linguistic imperialism of English as a global language, the influence of local vs. global on learning and teaching processes, the influence of neoliberal ideology on ESL materials, etc. However, globally and locally produced ESL textbooks somehow do not pay sufficient attention to the suggestions that critical authors give. As this study will try to show, it seems that textbooks currently used in ESL classrooms still fail to represent the world closer to students realities and more importantly try to reinforce certain world views and present them as normal and acceptable without even giving a chance of hearing different views or different voices. It also seems that the textbook for second language learning has turned into a commodity whose linguistic and cultural purpose has succumbed purely to the laws of market and above all that it is loosing its pedagogical credibility.

5. METHODOLOGY

The main research paradigm used for this Research Project derives from critical theory and other critical approaches mentioned above. General postulate of all these approaches is that social sciences should bring about social or political change. As explained by Pennycook (2008:169) critical applied linguistics should […] connect the local conditions of language to broader social formations, drawing connections between classrooms, conversations, textbooks, tests or translations or issues of gender, class, sexuality, race, ethnicity, culture, identity, politics, ideology or discourse.

Research method used for this study combine quantitative and qualitative approach which is also known as a mixed method. Mixed methods are nowadays becoming more and more accepted in the field of applied linguistics especially in studies dealing with textbooks. Various studies have been written during the last decade dedicated to textbook analysis which combined both methods (Basabe 2006; Gray, 2010; Taki 2010; among others).

Given the fact that the objects of the analysis for this Research Project were globally and locally produced textbooks for English as a second language, at the beginning of the Project we firstly had to define the corpus. We have decided to choose textbooks which are mostly used in secondary school education in Serbia, three from the local and two from the global publishers. The global textbooks chosen for this project were the ones that are in a frequent use. For the purpose of obtaining information on which textbooks are the most popular we have contacted the representatives of Oxford University Press and MacMillan from Serbia and they gave us a list of their best selling textbooks. The two textbooks selected for this analysis came on the top of these lists. As for the local publishers, in Serbia there is only one official state publisher of second language textbooks for secondary level education. Two of three textbooks analyzed come from this publisher. The other one is a private publisher whose books are used in private schools, but as already mentioned has 50 years of experience in writing and publishing second language textbooks which means that their textbooks reach a lot of students. The textbooks chosen are for A2-B2 levels of language competence, although some locally produced textbook do not state it (they have been written prior to the CEFR’s existence). We have decided to analyze three locally produced textbooks because they are not so big in format as the global ones and because they could give a wider view on how locally produced textbooks treat socio cultural issues in texts. Locally produced textbooks were also interesting for the analysis as they have been written in a period of twenty years so the changing in the treatment of culture was more visible. The textbooks used for this analysis were the following: •

New Headway Upper Intermediate, Oxford University Press. A global textbook largely used in majority of secondary schools in Serbia both private and public. Level B2, according to CEFR.

•

Inside Out Intermediate, MacMillan. A global textbook used in secondary education mostly in public schools. Level B1, according to CEFR.

•

Engleski jezik za III razred gimnazije, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva. A locally produced textbook for the third grade secondary education. This textbook was chosen because it is one of the widely used locally produced textbooks in secondary schools.

•

English forum. Institut za strane jezike. A locally produced textbook used in private schools. Its publisher has a fifty year reputation in publishing second language materials. Level B2 according to CEFR.

•

Improving English za I razred srednje škole. Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva. A locally produced textbook for first year of secondary education English courses. Level A2 according to CEFR.

After defining the corpus we began with the collection of data. The process began with choosing a certain number of categories which helped us answer the research questions. For the purpose of this study we adapted the research tools used by Basabe (2006) in his study of globally and locally produced textbooks in Argentina. We counted all the texts used for reading and listening activities that were larger than 50 words. We discarded smaller texts because of the lack of substantial information. The quantitative data was later classified according to the following categories: •

Target culture. Into this category we placed all the texts that were related to AngloAmerican culture. We decided which text were to enter this category according to certain cultural descriptors such as personal names, names of places, accents (in listening activities), or obvious cultural descriptors such as texts that talk about people, history, geography, art or the institutions coming from target culture countries. For example: the text about Monty Python’s Flying Circus, was placed into category target culture.

•

Source culture. Into this category we placed all texts related to source (Serbian) culture also according to the above mentioned cultural descriptors.

•

International culture. Into this category we placed all texts that talk about aspects of international culture, including texts about manners in different culture, festivity celebrations, food related customs, texts about universally known artists like Michelangelo, scientist like Einstein or football players like Pele.

•

Target culture/international culture relationship. Into this category we placed all the texts in which there was some relation between target and international culture including texts about people from England that went to work abroad, fell in love abroad, emails from friends from target and other countries…

•

Target culture/source culture relationship. This category included the texts in which we found a relationship between target and source culture.

•

Source culture/international culture relationship. This category included texts in which we found relationship between source and international cultures.

•

No cultural reference. This category included texts with universal topics in which no specific culture, people, places or names were mentioned. For example: texts about changes in the world of work, about environment, new technologies, etc.

•

Ambiguous reference. Into this category we placed all “suspicious” texts that were for some reason problematic to classify. Usually they were texts in which it was not possible to decide where the subjects come from. For example: a text about a man who survived a plunge over Niagara Falls. It does not state from where this man came from so we could not decide in which category to place this text although it takes place in a target culture country.

After placing each text into its category according to cultural reference we also decided on a number of categories which best described topics in texts used in the corpus selected for this analysis. Decision whether a topic of a text would belong to a certain category was made after reading (or listening) a text and then making a brief description of a text (see Annex 2). After reading all texts we decided on 17 categories as follows:

1. Personal information. Into this category we placed all texts which include personal information, information about families, stories about personal achievement or other, physical description of a character, states of mind or individual concerns such as aging. 2. Cultural information. Into this category we placed all texts which include information about festivals, social rituals, manners, customs, geography, politics, culture with a big C, including biographies of writers, scientists, etc. 3. Journeys/tourism. Into this category we placed all texts which include information about journeys and travel, letters from (or to) friends explaining a journey, informational texts about tourism in general, etc. 4. Literature. We decided to create a special category for literary texts, because we noticed that with local publishers literature stands out as an important topic. It includes extracts from literature, literary reviews and dialogues about books, short stories written by unknown authors, etc. 5. Work. This category includes texts that talk about professional information, type and condition of work, stories about careers, job perspective, writing CV’s, job announcements, job interviews, etc. 6. Environment. This category includes texts about weather conditions and topics related to saving the planetd such as pollution, climate and climate change, pets and stories about wild and domestic animals, etc. 7. Entertainment. Into this category we placed surveys, quizzes, texts about TV and film, pop music, horoscope, etc.

8. Celebrities. We decided to make a special category with this title in order to see how much attention and space is given to rich and famous people and how they are put into wider context of a unit. 9. Consumer oriented topics. This category includes texts dedicated to big companies such are Starbucks Coffee, Apple or Coca Cola, texts about shopping, paying taxes or buying properties. 10. Free time. Includes texts about how people spend free time, usually are dialogues in which friends agree to meet to do some leisure activity together. 11. Health. Includes texts about health related issues, dialogues in hospitals, etc. 12. Technology and science. Includes texts about technology such as texts about emailing, skype and other uses of new technologies. 13. Food. Texts related to food, eating habits, etc. 14. Values. Stories about friendship, differences between being rich or poor. 15. Everyday life. This category includes texts that talked about daily routines. 16. News. This category includes brief news reports, people listening or making comments on latest news. 17. Crime. This category includes texts about real or fictional crimes. We have also created a category called ‘Others’ for the reason of clarity in the tables representing results. Topics such as Food, Everyday life, Values, Health and Crime had very little texts so they were placed into this category. After counting all texts related to certain cultures and placing them into categories according to their content, we began qualitative analysis of the results. We have paid particular attention to texts which topics occupied more space. In this part of the analysis this study was inspired by all the studies which dealt with textbooks and used content analysis of texts from selected corpus of textbooks such as: Basabe (2006); Gray (2010); Shardakova and Pavlenko (2004); Taki (2010), etc. Although slightly different in approaches, all these studies used qualitative analysis of texts that followed the lines of critical pedagogy.

6. RESULTS

6.1 Cultural references

As it can seen in tables 6.1 and 6.2, the great majority of cultural references refer to target culture. In global textbooks the percentage of texts referring to target culture (74%) is even larger than in local textbooks (65%).

Table 6.1: Cultural references in local textbooks.

CATEGORIES Target culture Source culture International culture No cultural reference Target culture - source culture relationship Target culture- international culture relationship Source culture - international culture relationship Ambiguous reference TOTAL TEXTS

Engleski jezik za III razred gimnazije Texts % 27 71,1 0 0 4 10,5 3 7,89

Improving TOTAL English Forum English Texts % Texts % Texts % 41 68,3 25 55,56 93 65 0 0 1 2,22 1 0,7 4 6,67 7 15,6 15 10,5 10 16,7 10 22,22 23 16,1

2

5,26

1

1,67

0

0

3

2,1

1

2,63

4

6,67

1

2,22

6

4,2

1 0 38

2,63 0 100,01

0 0 60

0 0 100,1

1 0 45

2,22 0 97,82

2 0 143

1,4 0 100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Table 6.2: Cultural references in global textbooks.

CATEGORIES Target culture Source culture International culture No cultural reference Target culture - source culture relationship Target culture- international culture relationship Source culture - international culture relationship Ambiguous reference TOTAL TEXTS

New Headway Upper Intermediate Texts % 68 71,6 0 0 6 6,3 3 3,2

New Inside out Intermediate TOTAL Texts % Texts % 66 76,7 134 74 0 0 0 0 6 7 12 6,6 9 10,5 12 6,6

0

0

0

0

0

0

16

16,8

4

4,6

20

11,1

0 2 95

0 2,1 100

0 1 86

0 1,2 100

0 3 181

0 1,7 100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) The second most frequent category in local textbooks is no cultural reference (16,1% of total texts) while in global textbooks this category is significantly inferior (6,6%). On the other

hand, the second most frequent category in global textbooks is target culture/international culture relationship (11,1%), which has a very small presence in local textbooks (4,2%), as it can be seen in tables 6.1 and 6.2. Texts which refer to international culture represent a percentage of 10,5% in local textbooks and a 6,6% in global textbooks of all texts recorded. Source culture and source culture/target culture and source/international culture relationship are categories which are mentioned only in locally produced textbooks, but their percentage is drastically small, as it can be seen in table 6.1. There is just one text out of 143 in all three volumes of locally produced textbooks analyzed dedicated to source culture which represent a percentage of only 0,7% of all texts recorded in local textbooks, three texts dedicated to source culture/target culture relationship (2,1%) and two texts dedicated to source culture/international culture relationship (1,4%). Ambiguous references only appear in global textbooks and took 1,7% percentage of all texts counted in these 2 textbooks. As it can be seen in table 6.1 and 6.2, and in the rest of the tables following, the total percentage in some textbooks is not exactly 100%. This is because we decided only to use one or two decimals when counting the percentages in order to simplify the tables.

6.2 Topics: target culture

As mentioned above the great majority of texts in all texbooks are dedicated to target culture. As can be seen in table 6.3 texts dedicated to target culture were represented in local textbooks through topics belonging to 12 categories (including the category others), while in global textbooks were represented through topics belonging to 13 categories (including the category others), as can be seen in table 6.4.

Table 6.3: Topics in local textbooks dedicated to target culture.

CATEGORIES Personal information Cultural information Literature Journeys/tourism Entertainment Work Free time

Engleski za III razred gimnazije Texts % 2 7.4 12 44.4 9 33.3 0 0 2 7.4 0 0 1 3.7

Improving English Texts % 0 0 8 32 3 12 2 8 0 0 0 0 3 12

English Forum Texts % 7 17,07 6 14,63 2 4,88 7 17,07 0 0 6 14,63 0 0

TOTAL Texts % 9 9,7 26 28 14 15 9 9,7 2 2,2 6 6,5 4 4,3

Celebrities Consumer oriented Environment Technology and science Others TOTAL TEXTS

0 0 0

0 0 0

2 0 4

8 0 16

1 3 3

2,439 7,32 7,32

3 3 7

3,2 3,2 7,5

0 1 27

0 3.7 99.9

0 3 25

0 12 100

3 3 41

7,32 7,32 99,99

3 7 93

3,2 7,5 100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006)

Table 6.4: Topics in global textbooks dedicated to target culture.

CATEGORIES Personal information Cultural information Literature Journeys/tourism Entertainment Work Free time Celebrities Consumer oriented Environment Technology and science News Others TOTAL TEXTS

New Headway Upper New Inside Out Intermediate Intermediate TOTAL Texts % Texts % Texts % 20 29.4 24 36.3 44 32,8 2 2.9 1 1.51 3 2,2 4 5.9 5 7.6 9 6,7 11 16.17 3 4.54 14 10,4 4 5.9 10 15.1 14 10,4 4 5.9 6 9.09 10 7,5 4 5.9 6 9.09 10 7,5 5 7.3 2 3.03 7 5,2 6 8.8 0 0 6 4,5 0 0 1 1.51 1 0,7 1 1.5 4 5.9 3 4.5 68 99.57

3 2 3 66

4.54 3.03 4.54 99.88

4 6 6 134

3 4,5 4,5 99,9

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Personal information is the most common topic in texts dedicated to target culture in two globally produced textbooks. On the other hand, in locally produced textbooks target culture is most commonly represented through texts that fall into category cultural information. Literature is another important topic in local textbooks, especially in one edition (Engleski za III razred gimnazije). The category which follows is journeys/tourism with significant presence in both global and local textbooks. The other categories such as entertainment, work, free time, etc. have slightly lower presence especially in locally produced textbooks. The category entertainment, for example, has a much bigger presence in globally produced textbooks. Together with category celebrities it counts for 21 out of 134 texts, whereas in locally produced textbooks these 2 categories have only 5 out of 93 texts. Work is a topic in 10 text of globally produced textbook,

whereas it appears in 5 texts in just one volume of locally produced textbooks. Free time is also a category with significantly larger presence in globally produced textbooks with 10 out of 134 texts, while in locally textbooks there are only 4 of out 93 texts which refer to free time, as it can be seen in tables 6.3 and 6.4. Categories such as news and technology and science did not have significant presence in neither global nor local textbooks. Category environment, on the other hand, had a larger presence in local (7.5%) than in global (0.7%) textbooks. Category ‘Others’, as explained above, contained texts which were represented by a very small number of texts in all volumes analyzed.

6.3. Topics in texts dedicated to international culture There are only 27 texts in all textbooks that fall into category international culture (15 in local textbooks and 12 in global textbooks). The main topic in both locally and globally produced textbooks is this time cultural information. From tables 6.5 and 6.6 we can see that the only other category with any significance when the number of texts is in question is entertainment with four texts in total, two in locally and two in globally produced textbooks. Table 6.5: Topics: international culture in local textbooks. Engleski za III Improving English Forum TOTAL razred gimnazije English CATEGORIES Texts % Texts % Texts % Texts % Personal information 1 25 0 0 0 0 1 6,7 Cultural information 2 50 5 71.4 1 25 8 53,3 Literature 1 25 0 0 0 0 1 6,7 Entertainment 0 0 1 14.3 1 25 2 13,3 Free time 0 0 0 0 1 25 1 6,7 Consumer oriented 0 0 0 0 1 25 1 6,7 Environment 0 0 1 14.3 0 0 1 6,7 TOTAL 4 100 7 100 4 100 15 100,1

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Table 6.6: Topics: international culture in global textbooks.

CATEGORIES Cultural information Journeys/ tourism Entertainment Celebrities

New Headway Upper Intermediate Texts % 4 66.6 0 0 1 16.6 1 16.6

New Inside Out Intermediate Texts % 3 50 1 16.6 1 16.6 0 0

TOTAL Texts 7 1 2 1

% 58,3 8,3 16,7 8,3

News TOTAL TEXTS

0 6

0 99.8

1 6

16.6 99.8

1 12

8,3 99,9

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006)

6.4 Topics in texts dedicated to target culture in relationship to others

Texts dedicated to target culture in relation to other cultures are scarce. There are 26 texts in all textbooks dedicated to target culture-international culture relationship. The majority of these texts are in globally produced textbooks (20) whereas there are just six texts dedicated to relations between other cultures and target culture in locally produced textbooks as it can be seen from tables 6.7 and 6.8. The topic with most texts is journeys/tourism with 10 texts all in global textbooks.

Table 6.7: Topics: target culture/international culture relationship in local textbooks. Engleski za III razred gimnazije CATEGORIES Texts % Personal information 1 100 Cultural information 0 0 Work 0 0 Environment 0 0 TOTAL TEXTS 1 100

Improving English Texts % 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 100 1 100

English Forum Texts % 2 50 1 25 1 25 0 0 4 100

TOTAL Texts % 3 50 1 16,7 1 16,7 1 16,7 6 100,1

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Table 6.8: Topics: target culture/international culture relationship in global textbooks. New Headway Upper Intermediate CATEGORIES Texts % Personal information 6 37.5 Journeys/tourism 8 50 Work 1 6.25 Consumer oriented 1 6.25 Others 0 0 TOTAL TEXTS 16 100

New Inside Out Intermediate Texts % 0 0 2 50 0 0 0 0 2 50 4 100

TOTAL Texts 6 10 1 1 2 20

% 30 50 5 5 10 100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) As for the texts dedicated to target culture-source culture relationship and source culture/international culture relationship there is a total of five texts all from locally produced

textbooks. As their presence is on anecdotic level (no table was drawn because of the small number of texts) we can conclude that the authors of locally produced textbooks did not see the necessity of introducing texts that would cover these relationships.

6.5. Topics in texts with no cultural reference

There are only 34 texts in which there was no mention of any culture (22 in local textbooks and 12 in global textbooks). Environment is the most common topic in local textbooks as it can be seen in table 6.9, while personal information is the most common topic in global textbooks, as it can be seen in table 6.10.

Table 6.9: Topics: no cultural reference in local textbooks

CATEGORIES Personal information Literature Journeys/tourism Work Consumer oriented Environment Technology and science Others TOTAL TEXTS

Engleski za III razred gimnazije Texts % 0 -0 -0 -1 33.3 0 --

English Forum Texts % 1 11.1 1 11.1 1 11.1 1 11.1 1 11.1

Improving English Texts % 1 10 2 20 0 --0 -0

TOTAL Texts 2 3 1 2 1

% 9,1 13,7 4,5 9,1 4,5

0

--

6

60

1

11.1

7

31,8

1 1 3

33.3 33.3 99.9

0 1 10

-10

2 1 9

22.2 11.1 99.9

3 3 22

13,7 13,7 100,1

100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Table 6.10: Topics: no cultural reference in global textbooks.

CATEGORIES Personal information Entertainment Others TOTAL TEXTS

New Headway Upper Intermediate Texts % 2 66.6 1 33.3 0 -3 99.9

New Inside Out Intermediate Texts % 6 66.6 2 22.2 1 11.1 9 99.9

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) 6. 6. Topics in reading passages

TOTAL Texts 8 3 1 12

% 66,6 25 8,3 99,9

Apart from counting topics according to the culture we have also taken the opportunity to count topics in reading passages. Texts used for reading are usually larger (often two pages large) and with more information about cultures, worldviews, values, etc. As it can be seen from tables 6.11 and 6.12, in total of 129 texts dedicated to the practice of reading skills we found slight differences in the choice of topic in globally and locally produced textbooks as it was the case in overall texts. Cultural information prevails in local whereas personal information still occupies the most part of texts for reading activities. Entertainment and celebrities appear in significant number of texts dedicated to reading in globally produced textbook whereas literary texts have more space in local ones.

Table 6.11: Topics in reading passages in local textbooks.

CATEGORIES Personal information Cultural information Literature Journeys/tourism Entertainment Work Free time Celebrities Consumer oriented Environment Technology and science Others TOTAL TEXTS

Engleski za III razred gimnazije Texts % 4 12.1 15 45.5 8 24.2 0 0 2 6.06 1 3.03 1 3.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 33

3.03 3.03 99.98

Improving English Texts % 0 0 10 32.3 4 12.9 2 6.5 1 3.2 0 0 2 6.06 2 6.06 0 0 8 24.2 0 2 31

English Forum Texts % 3 17.6 3 17.6 1 5.9 1 5.9 0 0 2 11.8 0 0 0 0 1 5.9 1 5.9

0 6.5 97.7

3 2 17

TOTAL Texts 7 28 13 3 3 3 3 2 1 9

% 8,6 34,6 16,1 3,7 3,7 3,7 3,7 2,5 1,3 11,1

4 5 81

4,9 6,1 100

17.6 11.8 100

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006) Table 6.12: Topics in reading passages in global textbooks.

CATEGORIES Personal information Cultural information Literature Journeys/tourism Entertainment

New Headway New Inside Out Upper Intermediate Intermediate Texts % Texts % 4 25 10 31.3 1 6.25 1 3.1 1 6.25 5 15.6 1 6.25 2 6.3 2 12.5 7 21.9

TOTAL Texts 14 2 6 3 9

% 29,2 4,2 12,5 6,25 18,75

Work Free time Celebrities Consumer oriented Technology and science News Others Total

0 0 3 2

0 0 18.75 12.5

2 1 0 0

6.3 3.1 0 0

2 1 3 2

4,2 2,1 6,25 4,2

0 1 1 16

0 6.25 6.25 100

1 1 2 32

3.1 3.1 3.1 96.9

1 2 3 48

2,1 4,2 6,25 100,2

Source: prepared by Petanović based on Basabe (2006)

7. DISCUSSION From the quantitative results it was possible to get a first look on how the cultures and relations between them are represented. We have found that target culture is the most represented in all textbooks. It was surprising, though, to find such a high percentage of target culture related texts in locally produced textbooks. It was also surprising to find source culture almost invisible. We also found differences in representations in some of the locally and globally produced textbooks. These differences lie primarily in the treatment of culture in ESL textbooks through time. The ‘oldest’ textbooks treat culture as a part of the intellectual legacy whereas the ‘newest’ textbooks treat it more as a consumer culture.

7.1 Culture in local textbooks

Target culture is by far the most represented in all textbooks. However, there are some major differences in a way target culture is presented in some of the local and global textbooks. Firstly, two local publishers mainly see culture as “intellectual or artistic activity” (Williams, 1976: 12) as they have chosen to present target culture largely through topics concerning cultural information. Textbook Engleski za III razred gimnazije, published in 1993, primarily treats culture with a big C: almost all texts in this textbook are excerpts from literary works from (mostly) British authors such as R. Dahl, C. Dickens, G.B. Shaw, D.H. Lawrence or Jerome K. Jerome. There are biographies of Henry Moore, Charles Dickens and Bertrand Russell, interview with a director of Victoria&Albert Museum in London, texts about typical British customs like carol singing or fox hunting. American culture is represented through stories about Native Americans, a poem by Ogden Nash and a song from the opera Porgy and Bess. It has a total of 38 texts, majority of which are dedicated to reading activities. This textbook is by the look of it

different from the others as it does not follow the line of communicative approach which could explain its interest in “high culture”. As Claire Kramsch (1996) explains it was not so long ago that modern languages were thought through universally recognized literary works. According to this author it was because these works “ensured a certain cosmopolitan view of the world” (Kramsch, 1996) especially for the educated elite. Teaching languages through literature and “high art” was teaching learners to correspond with certain aesthetic and cultural criteria which was appropriate to the then elite. From the 70s onwards, education was not only meant for elite, and new, more pragmatic ways to language teaching began to appear (ibid: 4). Apart from the fact that this textbook does not have any large full color photographs (it is all white-and black) it also lacks texts dedicated to celebrities, lifestyles or issues of social responsibility (like saving the planet, climate changes or recycling). Other cultures and relationships between them are in this textbook represented in eight texts. They are mainly short texts (dialogue between a woman and a passport officer when crossing a border, a telephone conversation in which someone from England is phoning Serbia, a short text about an Indian child prodigy). Тhe information about other cultures (including source culture) is very scarce. However, in one larger text dedicated to Native Americans we were given a stereotyped portray of their culture as we can see from the example below: The Native American is not a savage, blood-thirsty Redskin. This is a false stereotype, for he is not violent in nature. (Grba, 1993:61)

However, this outdated and naïve view on Native Americans, was on the next page confronted with sayings of Native American chiefs. On page 63 we can read: Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved, was it “wild” for us. (ibid: 63).

The other local textbook, Improving English, by the same publisher in 2007, also places the accent on target culture, once again especially British: there are texts about British tea, British football, British daily routines, behavior in Great Britain or English humor. American culture is this time represented with a text about Amish people. This textbook does not include so many literary texts (just three out of 25) but it does include texts with references to general culture like texts about Albert Einstein or history of football. Texts concerning climate or environmental issues or texts about different animal species occupy a substantial number of pages as well. Like in previous textbook topics concerning consumerism, work or travel are not the ones on the top of the list. There are two texts concerning celebrities and they are both sportsmen (David Beckham

and Michael Jordan). The focus of these texts is on sporting achievements of these men and not their money. Wealth and fame is not in any way represented as an undisputable way of life. There are no ‘experts’ giving us advices about our job, clothes or health. There are no ‘authentic’ texts such as advertisements, newspaper excerpts or instructional manuals. This is also a local textbook with most texts dedicated to international culture (seven out of 45). They are mostly texts connected to general culture, like previously mentioned texts about Albert Einstein or history of football. The cultural comparisons appear in text that talks about New Year’s celebrations in which examples of celebrations in different countries (three from target and two from non-target countries) are given. However, these comparisons are bland and information we get about these traditions looks like the one given to the tourists. This textbook, unlike the other locally produced ones, dedicates one whole (large) text to source culture. Interestingly enough, it is a text about Serbia’s natural beauty and holiday resorts. Although it tries to serve a purpose of cultural comparisons (it is found in unit called Holiday destinations) this text is nothing more than a tourist pamphlet where all the good sides of passing a nice holiday were mentioned. However, this is the only textbook in which we can see intent to connect international, target and local cultures and in that way make the content closer to students’ own reality. The most recent local textbook was published in 2008 by a private publisher and is used exclusively in private schools. As it was mentioned earlier it was taken into consideration for this study because its publisher has more than 50 years experience in second language textbooks’ publishing. The textbook under title English Forum does not put emphasis on culture with a big C, nor cultural information in general, but is more in line with communicative approach and tries to give a representation of culture as part of everyday life. From the choice of topics, texts and situations which authors presume would be important for future learners’ communicative competence in today’s real world we can see the reality represented in these textbooks. 68,3% of all texts in this textbook are dedicated to target culture. Unlike previously mentioned local textbooks where the accent was on cultural information and above all literature, in this one target culture is presented to us in texts dedicated to more pragmatic issues. This could be seen in the choice of “authentic” texts. There are various advertisements, holiday brochures, letters of complaint and CV’s as models of authentic language. Instead of extracts from literature we have book reviews and plot summaries. There are also texts dedicated to “lifestyle” like the ones about stress and phobias and how to cope with them. From table 6.3 we can see that this textbook makes an emphasis on work and consumer oriented topics just as it pays attention to journeys and tourism which was not the case with two previously mentioned textbooks. It is especially

interesting to see how these three topics are dealt with as it links this textbook to other two globally produced ones. Previously mentioned local textbooks almost do not pay attention to these topics (work and consume oriented topics have zero texts, journeys/tourism only two). But in English Forum work and consumer oriented topics represent 21,95% of all texts, even more than the two most exploited topic which are personal information and journeys/tourism. Together with topics related to journeys/tourism these categories make up to almost 40% of the content in all texts. Textbook has two units dedicated to work called Jobs/CV and Job interviews. In text Who needs exams? in unit dedicated to education two men are talking about their different experiences with education and work. The first one is a former university professor who got laid off. He explains how during his whole life he studied hard, finished his PhD, and had a good job. However, as he explains: The university reduced teaching staff and I lost my job. I’m 53 now and thinking of retraining. You’ll never too old to learn. (Babović and Čamagić, 2008: 29)

The other man was not interested in learning at all. He did not finish any school but:

When the internet appeared, I made friends with some people who were interested in this new revolutionary technology. We made a decision to take a loan from the bank and that’s how it all started. Today, I’m managing director of one of the biggest companies in Europe. (ibid:29).

These examples are very similar to the way the work is treated in some other (especially global) textbooks. In Gray’s 2010 study there are examples of what Castells (2000 as cited in Gray 2010) calls self-programmable labor. Self-programmable labor, together with generic labor is a part of new capitalist economy. According to Castells, self- programmable labor has the ability to retrain itself (Castells, 2000). It is a work which has to adapt itself “to new tasks, new processes and new sources of information…” (Castells, 2000). University professor in the example above does not seem to have problem with it at all. The other man, who made a huge success without formal education, is also an example of these new forms of work as he is not only self-programmable but completely self-made. In this textbook we have other examples of new capitalist practices when it comes to world of work. For example: the choice of “personal qualities” in job announcements for people looking for a job are as follows: “ready to work in shifts, risk-taker, ready to work under pressure ambitious, team-player, ready to work flexible hours” (Babović and Čamagić, 2008: 44). These personal qualities are not questioned but taken for granted as qualities which we are bound to posses if we want to succeed in the world of work today. In the next unit called “Job

interviews” these same “qualities” appear once more. In a listening activity a girl explains how her job interview went. She says to her friend: They wanted me to tell them if I could work under pressure and I said I could but I don’t think they believed me. (Babović and Čamagić, 2008:51).

Later on, in another listening activity a man called Paul Markinson gives recommendations as how to prepare yourself for the job interview. He says: […] everything you do or say creates an image. This includes everything from your appearance to how you speak or shake hands. Be positive in your contacts with others, smile, show interest and be enthusiastic. (ibid: 77).

This textbook also dedicated two whole units to advertising (one is called ‘Ads&Advertising’ the other ‘Yellow Pages’). It is somehow considered, by the authors of this textbook, that advertising is a significant topic and learning how to comment on TV advertisements and talk about advertising in general is important for an average Serbian English language learner’ communicative competence. The activity proposed for practice of vocabulary goes like this: A: Have you seen the new Fiat ad? It’s absolutely amazed/amazing! B: The one with George Clooney? I can’t believe your liked it? I was so puzzled/puzzling at first. At the very beginning I didn’t realize it was a commercial for a car…(ibid: 89).

Through these two units, in various activities, students get to answer questions about how they feel about advertising. Questions vary from treatment of sexism in commercials to saying out load your favorite slogan or saying what your favorite or most boring commercial is. Interestingly enough, there was one question concerning source culture. The students were asked whether advertisements can tell the ideals of a nation and what do advertisements in our country tell us about our ideals? Advertisements are in this question positioned as cultural artifact, they are not seen only as transmitters of messages related to buying certain things but as reflections of particular culture or a nation. International culture is in this textbook represented by four short texts without any significant information about different countries or cultures. On the contrary, international culture is represented through short news about celebrities like film star Keifer Sutherland or tennis player Martina Hingis. More substantial information we get from a text for practicing reading comprehension in unit called Culture shock. Three people (from Germany, England and USA) comment on their lives in Argentina. Their impression about Argentineans is that they have “laid-

back attitude”(Babović and Čamagić, 2008:118), and are trying “to have fun” (ibid.). The most difficult thing for David from England is “the red tape”, because David was “used to finishing things smoothly back home” (ibid:18). Argentineans are also “terrible drivers” (ibid.) but “they respect their meal times and don’t believe in rushing” (ibid.). The stereotyped portray of people from Argentina would not be such a problem if the textbook would offer any kind of comparisons coming from the other side. In this way, with the voices only coming from people far away from the culture they describe (and are in 100% cases people coming from target culture or Western Europe), we get nothing but one-sided stereotyped picture.

7.1 Culture in global textbooks

Global textbook (sometimes referred to as course book) is a textbook not written for learners of particular culture but for learners anywhere in the world (Tomlinson, 2011). They are produced by prestigious publishers mostly from Great Britain and are consumed by learners throughout the world in private schools, but also in formal education (Gray, 2010). What is also characteristic of globally produced textbook is that it is a prize commodity that forms part of a big business of textbook publishing and therefore succumbs to regulations by their publishers (ibid: 716). These regulations lead to a constricted selection of topics “and a highly selective representational repertoire they deploy in construction of mainly benign versions of a globalizing world” (ibid: 716). One of the reasons for this is perhaps because the authors of these textbooks want “to cater for everybody and end up engaging nobody” (Tomlinson, 2003). One characteristic of these textbooks is that they see culture as “a particular way of life” (Williams, 1976: ixv). Just as in textbook English Forum, culture is no longer seen as intellectual or artistic activity but as part of wider realm of everyday life. As it can be seen from table 6.4, global textbooks pay almost no attention to cultural information or literature. The other characteristic of these textbooks, is that being global in nature, they represent globalization issues which can be seen in various examples across texts. Globalization is according to Appadurai (1990, 1996), a complex process which he divided into five categories, or scapes: (1) ethnoscapes or flows of people (ex. migrants, asylum seekers, exiles, tourists); (2) technoscapes or flows of technology (ex. hardware components, technical know-how): financescapes or flows of money (e.g. national stock exchanges, commodity speculations) ; (4) mediascapes or flows of information (newspapers, magazines, satellite television channels, websites) and (5) ideoscapes or flows of ideas (e.g. human rights, environmentalism, free trade movements, fear of terrorism).

The topic which occupied most space in global textbooks is personal information. This category is mainly dedicated to short dialogues between friends talking about relationships or free time activities like throwing a party. Most of these dialogues share some trivial information. For example, there are many dialogues similar to this one: Rose: Are you doing anything tonight? Megan: No, why? Rose: I’m going to see a new Bond film. Do you fancy coming? (Kay and Jones, 2009: 38)

Still, from experiences of the characters and their personal stories we can learn a little bit more about their way of life. We find out that they are mostly British (almost all the accents in listening activities in both textbooks are British, names of places are mainly British as well), that they are young (although there are texts dedicated to the older generations), that they like to travel (for business or pleasure) and that they do not seem to have significant financial problems. That the representations of everyday culture is of an upper-middle class could be seen from the texts dedicated to work and journeys that together with entertainment follow the category personal information in number of texts. As mentioned above, it can be seen that most of the characters from these textbooks do not have any significant financial difficulties in life. On the contrary it seems that one of the main preoccupations in their lives is earning more money. In one listening activity when talking about future plans young man working in the (London’s) City says:

In the next few years I’m going to be even more successful. I hope that I’ll be earning twice what I’m earning now. I’ve set myself this goal. Before I’m 25 I’ll have made a million. (Soars and Soars, 1998: 44).

From a much larger text Listen to Us (ibid: 50) we can see not only the expectations of young people (all British) but also what are the values this textbook implies. Accounting manager Alex Williams explains:

There is no such thing as a job for life these days…A lot of my friends are changing their jobs to boost their career prospects…I hope that in my working life I’ll have several careers. (ibid: 50).

Similarly to the representations of the world of work in locally produced English Forum, here again we have an example of self-programmable labor (Gray, 2010). As this author explains analyzing this same text for the purpose of his analysis: “…although employment market is seen as precarious, this state of affairs accords with Alex’s own inclinations” (Gray, 2010:725).

Sometimes work and travel come together as we see from various examples from New Headway where we find British people going away to work in another country. This part of young people’s lives, connected with Appadurai’s (1996) first flow – ethnoscape or movement of people, is a characteristic of living in a globalized world. However, globalization as presented in these textbooks is seen from a point of view of the Western newcomer. The information about the places they have moved to is very scarce and sometimes even stereotyped. For example, a girl called Kirsty who moved to Tokyo for work, apart from saying that Tokyo has big buildings and a lot of shopping malls, says: “…it’s so clean. No litter on the streets, or anything” (Soars and Soars, 1998: 9). Ian who moved to Chile where he lives for four years says nothing about the country, its people or culture only that he still doesn’t speak Spanish well enough and that the city in which he lives looks nicer now because municipal beach in his words: “has been much improved” (Soars and Soars, 1998: 11). A little bit more of information we get from 11 year old Thomas who moved from Boston to South Korea because his father and brother are officers in the U.S army. He says that Seoul: “is place where there are million PC rooms where you can play tons of internet games” (ibid: 12). He also adds: “people here don’t always smile at strangers as we do back in the US.” He explains that most homes in Seoul don’t have radiators and he also mentions some typical Korean food. Tourism is another way of getting to know what kind of information these textbooks offer about other countries and cultures. Much the same as the migrant workers, the pleasure travelers do not give us any substantial information about the countries they are going to. That excursions to Australia, New Zealand or Far East cost a lost of money is somehow taken for granted, although some of those young travelers tend to sleep in cheap hostels and use public transport. From Tommy Willis, a backpacker through Asia, we find that has been to Vietnam, Hong King, South Korea and Japan. The only thing we learn from him is that he had diarrhea, that he’s been mugged and pick pocketed and that he met a lot of really great people (Soars and Soars, 1998: 17). From Conrad and his round the world journey we find out from his friends. Similarly to Tommy Willis he has traveled through Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and South America. The only thing his friends inform us is how beautiful the nature on the photographs is (Kay and Jones, 2009: 70). Suzy, on the other hand, went on a wind surfing trip to Egypt, but one day when there was no wind, she decided to visit a nearby monastery. She complained about heat, a crowded mini van, and a tourist guide who gave information in five languages. Finally, she concluded that it was a lovely trip and that she would do it again. However, as she explains: “Next time I would hire a car and do it in my own time.” (Kay and Jones, 2009: 73). The other very common way of portraying places people in these textbooks go to is through postcards or e-mails to friends.

Helen, for example, is delighted with Jamaica’s beeches (Kay and Jones, 2009: 85) and Paul and Pam liked their stay in 3 star hotel where “kids loved indoor pool and jacuzzi” (Soars and Soars, 1998: 115) Entertainment is another big topic in both collections of global textbooks. Together with category celebrities they represent a significant amount of texts, as we have seen in the results. Entertainment industry (TV, cinema, printed and internet media) together with their main exponents – celebrities, i.e. rich and famous people who very often belong to the same industry occupies significant space in global ESL textbooks. From protagonists of the TV sitcom Friends (mentioned in both textbooks), various film and music stars have found place in texts which serve the purpose of learning English language. Not only John Travolta, Tom Hanks, Spice Girls, Paris Hilton, Carla Bruni or Vanessa Paradis but also Roman Abramovitch, Princess Diana, John Kennedy J.R or Jamie Oliver (the cook) have occupied pages and pages of content. Jamie Oliver, for example, has served New Headway authors as an example of a man who made a big success. The story of this cook who became famous almost like a pop star appears in the unit under the title Making it Big. Jamie’s story somehow goes hand in hand with other stories of other successful working people that appear in this textbook. He finished only two years of catering college but “was spotted by a TV producer when he was 21, and his life changed” (Soars and Soars, 1998: 54). Women celebrities are, on the other hand, usually there to give their advice to young women. Vanessa Paradis and Carla Bruni give us their opinion on how to get dressed (Kay and Jones, 2009: 104) and one of the Spice Girls tells her story about her eating habits (ibid: 44). It seems that ESL publishers consider this content to be “aspirational” for learners, which beside celebrities also includes stories of personal and professional success, cosmopolitanism and travel (Gray, 2012). Aspirational brand, according to Cambridge Online Dictionary, is usually something that people believe is of good quality and that it will make them successful if they own it. Publishing houses and writers, just as many teachers, agree that this content could serve a purpose of boosting learners’ motivation (Gray, 2012).

8. CONCLUSIONS

8.1. General conclusions

There is no doubt that textbooks are very important in ESL classrooms. School curriculums for ESL are sometimes based solely on these textbooks. Teachers may have their different opinions

about their usefulness and quality but nevertheless almost all of them could not imagine working without them. Students pass hours and hours in front of them, in classroom and outside. ESL textbooks are very often unquestionably attributed with “qualities of excellence, authority and validity” (Richards, 1993) given the fact that the majority of teachers usually believe that the people behind the textbooks are working for the benefit of all included in the process of language teaching and learning. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case especially when it comes to commercial textbooks. Reality represented in these well designed, full colored magazine-like (Richards, 1993:43) commodities can be often restricted by the regulations of the publishers whose main purpose is to sell well. ESL textbooks which form part of a global ESL business could also be transmitters of certain ideologies. From the 70s onwards many critical authors have criticized content of ESL textbooks on basis of gender, race and ethnicity and more recently textbooks are being analyzed from more economical perspective. Critical studies discovered, among other, that textbooks represent simplified and idealized world, of usually upper-middle class whose characters enter into trivial communication acts. This study whose focus was on socio cultural representations of culture in global and local textbooks used in Serbian secondary education discovered much the same problems although it also detected some differences when it comes to socio cultural reality represented in textbooks. Two of the locally produced textbooks represented culture mainly as an intellectual and artistic activity through topics related to literature, art and cultural information in general. The avoidance of more pragmatic issues could lie in fact that these two textbooks followed the earlier approaches to language teaching who treated culture mainly as culture with a big C. In these two textbooks we have also seen that target culture was given much more space than other cultures but that the texts dedicated to international culture or relationships between cultures, although sometimes bland and stereotypical, did not represent the world from a point of view of a Western tourist or a business migrant. Instead, some attempts of cultural comparisons were made. One of the shortcomings of these textbooks is the missed opportunity to introduce more texts comparing source and target or source and international cultures in this way making a learning context closer to students’ own reality. In our opinion, despite the other obvious shortcomings like emphasis only on target culture’s literature and art, these textbooks with certain adaptations could serve the purpose of educational material in secondary school context. One local and two globally produced textbooks showed certain similarities in representing culture. Unlike the two above mentioned local textbooks, these textbooks paid attention to personal information, followed by travel, work and entertainment. The culture in these textbooks is seen in more pragmatic way as a part of everyday life. Characters represented in these

textbooks are those of upper-middle class who engage in trivial conversations with their friends, but are also interested in success and wealth which go together with a certain lifestyle. We have detected that these three textbooks showed examples of neoliberal working practices like selfprogrammable work or emphasizing “personal qualities” needed for successful entering the job market. Success and wealth were also described in various texts about celebrities whose way of life is connected with what is called aspirational content. Aspirational content refers to the commodities or the way of life which is (economically) unreachable to people and according to the ESL writers and publishers could be motivating for ESL learners (Gray, 2012) We have also detected that some characteristics of globalization like mobility were restricted only to the members of target culture. In texts dedicated to travel there is little or no space for cultural comparisons or substantial information about countries or places other that the one-sided comments from Western workers or tourists. As mentioned above, global textbooks are made to cater to a bigger audience throughout the world; people from different cultures, with various interests. Global ESL market is a big business whose interest is to promote English language but also a certain way of life. Because of their restricted content, these textbooks, in our opinion, should be examined more closely before entering in formal secondary school education. The decisions of the state institutions which decide on quality and suitability of these textbooks should be transparent and open to an academic and public debate.

8.2 Project limitations and future research lines

Studies of textbooks of this kind (content analysis, critical discourse analysis, etc.) have their obvious limitations. Firstly, the results are not generalizable to the wider extent of textbooks and could be applied only to the selected corpus. Secondly, they are limited by the author’s subjectivity. And finally, real impact of these studies can not be seen through interaction in classroom. However, more and more studies using similar methodology detect similar problems in ESL textbooks. Many above mentioned critical authors raised important questions that should form part of future investigations. That these kinds of studies have their limits should not be an excuse not to treat socio cultural content in textbooks. By analyzing not only didactical side of textbooks we should to try to make them better for everyone in educational process of second language learning and teaching. Certainly, these limits should be taken into consideration and these studies could serve as an initial part of larger and more in depth studies that should include

all participants in the process of textbook creating, publishing and using: publishers, authors, teachers and students

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