Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

Karen Risager

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781783099542
• eBook ISBN: 9781783099573
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Teaching Language Arts
• Index: Social Sciences

This book presents a new and comprehensive framework for the analysis of representations of culture, society and the world in textbooks for foreign and second language learning. The framework is transferable to other kinds of learning materials and to other subjects. The framework distinguishes between five approaches: national studies, citizenship education studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. In a series of concrete analyses, the book illustrates how one can describe and uncover representations of the world in textbooks for English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. Each analysis is accompanied by suggestions of possible supplements and changes. The book points to the need for language learning materials to deal seriously with knowledge about the world, including its diversities and problems.

1Representations of the World

Introduction

With the present book, I want to contribute to theoretical reflections on cultural representations (sociocultural content) in foreign and second language learning, with special reference to textbooks and other learning materials. The focus is on different approaches to the analysis of representations of the world. Thus, the book will raise questions such as: What views of culture, society and the world guide the representations in textbooks? What parts of the world and what thematic areas do they deal with? What ideologies and emotions are reflected in their discourses? How do they deal with local and global power relations, problems and conflicts, and are there significant silences? The book also takes up questions of intercultural learning: What do textbooks invite us to do as students, teachers and citizens? How can textbooks be stepping stones for students’ further reflections on the world and perhaps for greater engagement in world issues?

An analysis of culture in language textbooks has to be specific about what theoretical approaches are drawn upon, and in the course of Chapters 3–7 five different approaches will be presented and illustrated: national studies, citizenship education studies, Cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. The analysis will include a study of six textbooks, one for each of the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto.

Cultural representations in language textbooks may exhibit a very large array of thematic areas, for example: everyday lives and identities of groups in society, cultural connotations of words and phrases, celebrities, gender roles, youth culture, pets, artists, literature and film, media and IT, sport, health, travelling, business and consumption, demographic patterns, regional accents, social and political conditions, environment, religions, history and geography, weather and climate, landscapes and wildlife. Some of these areas are language related: ‘cultural connotations of words and phrases’, ‘literature’ and ‘regional accents’, and indeed I want to stress that language is included in this study as a cultural and social practice and as an integral part of the wider cultural and social landscape (see Chapters 5 and 7 in particular). On the other hand, I will only deal briefly with language in a more specifically linguistic sense. As far as learning materials are concerned, linguistic aspects and aspects of language learning have already been extensively studied in relation to the elaboration of evaluation criteria and in the field of materials development (Harwood, 2010, 2014; Hutchinson & Torres, 1994; McGrath, 2002; Tomlinson, 2012; Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2010), some of it carried out within the framework of MATSDA – the Materials Development Association – based in the UK.

The word ‘world’ has many possible denotations according to context, for instance the world of literature, the Muslim world, the old world, the fourth world, the world of animals, the world of business, the world of art, my inner world. The field of language studies is characterised by a specific kind of image of the world, where the world, in the sense of the entire globe, is first and foremost seen as consisting of a number of different languages each with its own language area, and for some of these languages it is common to note that this language area constitutes a ‘world’ with its particular cultural identity: the English-speaking world, the French-speaking world, the Chinese-speaking world, the Spanish-speaking world. Furthermore, the expression ‘the English-speaking world’ is often ambiguous as it may also refer to people all over the world (the globe) who have some knowledge of English. This global extension of meaning is also sometimes seen for the other languages mentioned. Thus, looking at representations of the world in language learning materials also means looking at the geographical horizon attributed to the target language.

As can be seen, I use the term ‘world’ in a geographical sense, referring to the globe or the planet. This does not, however, just imply a view of the world as a physical or territorial place but also as spaces of global range, such as global media or global environmental movements (see Chapter 7 on transnational studies).

Representations of the World: A Focus on Knowledge

Focusing on representations of the world indicates a focus on knowledge. A basic educational tenet in the book is that knowledge of the world is important. But at the same time it must be maintained that knowledge is perspectival: It is socially situated and embedded in discourses, always seen and represented from somewhere and by some people with specific life histories, experiences and power positions (Foucault, 1976). Textbook knowledge, for example, is normally influenced by the perspective of a publishing company, perhaps in combination with a specific education system or institution and a specific curriculum. And when the textbook treats a certain phenomenon, for example the illness Ebola, it has to select among a multitude of different perspectives pertaining to different roles and agents: patients, health assistants, doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, the media industry, etc. (cf. Apple & Christian-Smith [1991b], who discuss the question of whose knowledge is represented in textbooks [in any subject]).

Knowledge is generally coloured by emotions (Ahmed, 2004). Knowledge about ‘Ebola’ will for most people be associated with fear and worry but also perhaps a wish for relief and social change. Knowledge about a very different topic such as ‘Canada’ may be associated with widely different emotions, but in a textbook for English as a foreign language aimed at young people, for example, the representations may privilege positive emotions, such as curiosity and a wish for adventure.

Knowledge does not only cover factually oriented knowledge. Knowledge can also take more implicit forms, and here I refer to the three dimensions of knowledge argued by Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe (2016): factual knowledge, epistemology and common sense. Where factual knowledge is explicit knowledge that is transmitted intentionally, epistemology is the ways of organising knowledge by means of more general concepts and frames of understanding, some of which may also be taught. Examples are concepts like ‘East’ and ‘West’, ‘North’ and ‘South’, ‘us’ and ‘them’, and here Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe refer to the work of Santos (2014) on ‘epistemologies of the South’. Common sense is knowledge that is seldom verbalised and more or less naturalised, i.e. felt as if it is natural, and here Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe refer to Billig’s (1991) work on common sense.

An example could be a textbook theme on the transatlantic slave trade. Factual knowledge would be constructed via discourses containing more or less precise information on dates, numbers and places. The discourses would spring from a certain perspective, for instance a modern European perspective. These discourses would be structured by knowledge of a more epistemological nature, for instance ideas about different parts of the world: European vs. non-European, Christian vs. non-Christian, white vs. black – ideas that are typically organised in value hierarchies: European over non-European, Christian over non-Christian, white over black. Finally, the theme would probably rest on a number of common-sense ideas, which would be difficult to detect because they are naturalised. One of these may be the (false) idea that slavery is a phenomenon of the past.

Thus, intercultural learning in the present volume focuses on the construction of knowledge. The construction of knowledge is both the building of a maximally coherent and factually oriented knowledge about culture, society and the world, the development of critical awareness of the epistemologies that guide and structure knowledge and, if possible, critical awareness of instances of common sense.

The age focus will be from 13+ to adults, not that I consider cultural representations irrelevant with regard to younger students, but because I want to focus on students who are able to understand that cultural representations (for example, the theme of sport and athletes) contain different perspectives and that these perspectives may change. Thus, Martyn Barrett states after the accomplishment of a large empirical investigation of children’s knowledge, beliefs and feelings about nations and national groups:

By 10 or 11 years of age, children produce much more detailed descriptions of the distinctive characteristics that are exhibited by the members of a large number of different out-groups, and these characteristics include not only typical physical features, clothing, language and habits, and also psychological and personality traits and sometimes political and religious beliefs as well. … By 10–12 years of age children readily concede that most people do not actually conform to these stereotypes. (Barrett, 2007: 192–193)

The foregrounding of knowledge may be characterised as ‘modernism in postmodernism’ (Risager, 2007). The field of culture pedagogy in the language subjects may be interpreted as a struggle between modernism and postmodernism. Modernism was predominant until some time in the 1980s and has to do with an emphasis on the content dimension in teaching and in textbooks. It stresses the importance of a realistic and coherent factual knowledge of cultural and social conditions in target language countries. From the 1980s onwards, a postmodern tendency emerged that gradually became more influential. It focuses on the individual students, their experiences, attitudes and emotions, their ability to understand and deal with the Other. It stresses the affective dimension rather than the cognitive or knowledge oriented. In relation to this struggle, I want to situate my position in the postmodern wing as I agree that one should not ignore students’ subjectivities, attitudes, emotions and engagement. But I also want to maintain that the knowledge dimension is important: It does matter what image of the world the learning materials present to us as readers and users. Learning materials are carriers of potential knowledge.

The above-mentioned network around Tomlinson and MATSDA has a different position. Tomlinson (2012) is clearly positioned in the postmodern wing as he stresses the importance of humanising the textbook, i.e. making it of more personal relevance and value to the human beings using it. Among the principles of materials development that he proposes, is ‘…a variety of [spoken and written] text types and genres in relation to topics, themes, events and locations likely to be meaningful to the target learners’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 346). He argues that: ‘Feeling enjoyment, pleasure and happiness, feeling empathy, being amused, being excited and being stimulated are most likely to influence acquisition positively but feeling annoyance, anger, fear, opposition and sadness is more useful than feeling nothing at all’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 347). Further, he proposes to ‘stimulate emotive responses through the use of music, song, literature, art, etc., through making use of controversial and provocative texts and through personalisation’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 348). Thus, Tomlinson very clearly stresses the affective dimension, but leaves the cognitive or knowledge dimension open. Thus, his approach does not imply a concern for the images of the world represented in learning materials. It should be said that this position may be related both to his foundation in the communicative approach and to the fact that his main field – the teaching of English as a foreign language – is indeed characterised by a very wide range of potential content both in terms of geographical reference and thematic orientation.

The Concept of Representation

The concept of representation has been much discussed in the fields of Cultural studies and postcolonial studies. One of the major proponents of Cultural studies, Stuart Hall (1997b), distinguishes between three approaches to representation: the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist.

In the reflective approach, representation is seen as a mirror of reality, as a direct and transparent relationship or imitation of reality. Relating this statement to the analysis of language textbooks, one can say that in the reflective approach, the representation of the target language country is a reflection of the reality out there. It gets authority from reality itself. Who has made the representation and under what circumstances is not important, as the meaning lies in reality itself. For example, ‘British life and institutions’ are just there to be described. Therefore, in this approach an analysis of the process of representation is not deemed to be necessary.

The intentional approach reduces representation to the intentions of its author. Taking the example of a language textbook, one can say that in this approach the author of the textbook becomes interesting: Who is the author? It is his or her view of the target language country that is present in the textbook. The representation gets its authority from the author (or the collective of authors and their context, such as a publishing company). The reception of those ...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Representations of the World
• 2 Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World
• 3 National Studies
• 4 Citizenship Education Studies
• 5 Cultural Studies
• 6 Postcolonial Studies
• 7 Transnational Studies
• 8 Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Textbooks Selected
• Appendix 2: Survey Corpus
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index