The Incongruity between EFL Textbook Content and Rural and/or Lower Class

Students’ Reality

Do secondary EFL textbooks cater for rural and /or lower-class students?

If it were not the case, to what extent would the lack of meaningful, relevant and social background-related ELT activities, tasks, topics, situations and illustrations hinder these students’ language learning process?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Textbooks are not only a resource teachers use in the classroom but they perform different functions

A textbook is potentially

a teacher

a map

a resource

a trainer

an authority

a de-skiller

an ideology

The ideology presented in most, if not all, EFL textbooks is that of the hegemonic groups, which are those belonging to urban places and upper/upper-middle classes.

In an analysis carried out in Hong Kong, researchers concluded that “the representation of social class is somewhat biased” because “middle class lifestyles are taken as ideal. They are what people aspire to (Eva Lo, Shirley Lit and Fion Cheung)

Urban areas are also taken as ideal: “while rural place remains invisible in these books, urban location is clearly visible, adding to the impression that these books have an urban-centric focus. This invisibility might leave the reader vulnerable to stereotypes of rurality.” (Ayalon, Aram)

How do you think this affects the learning process of the Ss. that do not belong to

these groups?The lack of significant content in coursebooks may have an overwhelming influence on students’ motivation. If the teacher is to motivate pupils to learn, then the relevance has to be the red thread permeating activities. If pupils fail to see the relationship between the activity and the world in which they live, then the point of the activity is likely to be lost in them […] (Chambers 1999) Learning experiences must be relevant and meaningful for students if they are to remember them in future time. This is so because, as Jensen (1997) argues, the brain contracts meaning if what it perceives is relevant, connected to already existing materials and/or provokes some sort of emotion

THE STUDYSubjects:

Ss. from 4th and 5th form at the secondary school of El Cholar, Nqn and Ss. from a secondary school in Bº Nuevo, Gral Roca. They will be given a questionnaire.

Both groups’ teachers will be interviewed.

Materials:

Three EFL textbooks will be analysed to see whether their content actually idealizes one culture at the expense of the others. We will focus on:

Topics and situations

Activities and tasks

Illustrations

Examples taken from the textbooks

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACTIVITY

TOPIC

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES

Question 1

The examples of the topics/situations; illustrations and activities /tasks may show that these books take the upper/upper-middle urban lifestyle and culture as the norm leaving aside other social and geographical groups’ reality. Question 2

When students deal with materials that are meaningless and irrelevant to their socio-cultural or geographical background, their learning process is severely affected. This is so because their motivation decreases and the brain is unable to construct meaning from this kind of information.

It may be argued that the central problem lies in the manner in which this content is addressed and not in the topics, situations, activities, tasks and illustrations in themselves. That is why the role of the teacher is of great significance since it is in his/her hands the possibility of making the most of the materials and adapting them whenever necessary so that students see the relevance in them.

CONCLUSION

Finally, the issue of the lack of inclusion of rural and lower class groups’ socio-cultural aspects may be reasonably predictable, providing that there is brief or no mention of the Argentinean culture itself.

The End

By Vivy and Ani

Thank you !!!