Target Culture Aspects in Indonesian Senior High School English Textbooks: An Analysis of Bahasa Inggris X and Smart 10
Abstract
Teaching culture is inseparable in any language teaching/learning. In second/foreign language teaching, the target culture knowledge is incorporated in the textbooks and related teaching materials to help students develop cross-cultural understanding and communicate effectively across different cultures. This study examined and compared the representation of the target cultural aspects in the Indonesian English textbooks for senior high school, Bahasa Inggris X, published by the Ministry of Education, and Smart 10, published by a private publisher. The study applied content analysis by using the descriptive approach. Data were gathered from the reading passages in every unit of the two textbooks, and Dweik and Al Sayyed's (2015) twelve cultural categories were used as the analytical framework. The findings indicate that the content of these two books has a more or less similar amount of the target cultures’ values and perspectives. Based on all target culture aspects combined, the aspect of the personal name appears most frequently in the books, while the economy aspect occurs least frequently. It is hoped that the findings of the study will enlighten the relevant parties, such as course book authors/editors/illustrators, English teachers/educators, students, and future researchers, to consider more varieties of the target cultural contents in the material design of the textbooks.
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