Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW
268 speaker makes this model a constraint in relation to EIL. He, then, argues for the need of a
new pedagogic model which would accommodate the case of English as an international and intercultural communication that is characterized by these criteria:
1. Successful bilinguals with intercultural insights and knowledge should serve as
pedagogic models in English as an international language EIL rather than the monolingual native speaker.
2. Intercultural communicative competence should be developed among EIL learners by
equipping them with linguistic and cultural behaviour which will enable them to communicate effectively with others, and also by equipping them with an awareness
of difference, and with strategies for coping with such difference. 3.
The EIL pedagogy should be one of global appropriacy and local appropriation, in that it should prepare learners ‗to be both global and local speakers of English and to
feel at home in both international and national cultures.‘
4. Instructional materials and activities should involve local and international contexts
that are familiar and relevant to language learners‘ lives. 5.
Instructional materials and activities should have suitable discourse samples pertaining to native and nonnative speaker interactions. Discourse displaying
exclusive native speaker use should be kept to a minimum, as it is chiefly irrelevant for many learners in terms of potential use in authentic settings.
3.3 Issue and Consideration 3; What Culture Content Should Be Presented
The culture content of the textbook and teaching materials is essential to consider for they can be seen as ideology Cortazzi and Jin, 1999, in the sense that they reflect a
worldview or cultural system, a social construction that may be imposed on teachers and students and that indirectly constructs their view of a culture. Valdes 1990. cited in Baker
2003 shares the same account that every lesson is about something and that something is cultural. Therefore it can be assumed that the exposure to the certain textbooks and teaching
materials can be understood as the exposure of particular culture content. Furthermore, the various culture contents brought by various textbooks and teaching materials means the more
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW
269 opportunity are presented for the students to experience, encounter and interact to various
cultures which in turn will facilitate their intercultural competence building. Cortazzi and Jin 1999 propose three patterns in English textbooks and teaching
materials reflecting cultures : 1.
source culture materials, which draw on the learners own culture as content 2.
target culture materials, which use the culture of a country where English is spoken as an L1
3. international target culture materials, which use a great variety of cultures in English-
and non-English-speaking countries around the world Each of the pattern present their benefits and disadvantages related to the role and
contribution of culture to the teaching learning process, the achievement of students‘ goal in learning English and the building of st
udents‘ intercultural competence. Source culture materials
refer to materials which its content focus on learners‘ own culture. Related to the teaching learning process, this material shows its significant
contribution. It seems that the involvement of the students will be higher since the topic is familiar to and is in the immediate environment of the students. Besides, the teachers, who
come from the source culture, share, at least, the same access and resources to cultural information. McKay 2002 points out that this will help the teachers to secure their
problematic position and role, especially those whose students‘ culture background view the teacher as the single provider of communication. This materials are usually designed to help
students become aware of and able to communicate their own cultural identity by using English. This implies a supply of context for learning and using English.
Yet, Cortazzi and Jin 1999 states that even though the students are provided the context and opportunity to communicate in English, but they can only communicate within
their cultural frameworks because they have not encountered cultural alternatives and are therefore likely to carry their home culture with them in their use of English. In such material,
the students see member of their own culture, in their own context, who are not different from themselves, except that they all speak English. They have limited contact and direct
encounter with different culture form and context which require different communicative cultural strategy. Further, the students experience limited culture reflection; a process
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW
270 involves the students in an objective and subjective reflection of their culture and the culture
of others and choose their own meanings that best reflect their personal perspectives. They are only exposed to their own culture system, therefore, have little opportunity to engage in
intercultural negotiation with another culture. The negotiation where they identify and confirm their own cultural identity, or to ascertain its similarities and differences with that of
another cultural group.
Target Culture
– Textbook and teaching materials can also based themselves on target culture; the culture of the country where English is spoken as the first language. Since
the topic presents a kind of new and unfamiliar information about the English-speaking cultures, the students may be interested in learning more. For students whose one of the
goal of learning English is preparing themselves to encounter activities involving English- speaking people, this content culture brings such a significant contribution.
Yet, McKay 2002 argues that some of this kind of materials are largely irrelevant or uninteresting. To some extent this may present cultural conflict for the students. The portray
of the member of target cultural group along with their ideas, lifestyle, norm and values may lead to culture homogenization. This can be counter-productive since students who find
themselves as the minority will feel threatened culturally to some extent religiously and it calls for a defense. Feeling pressured and threatened, people will usually seek refuge in their
primordial identities including cultural one Naisbitt, 1994. cited in Lie 2002. This cultural –
psychological context m ay hinder learners‘ development of individual as well as group
identities. Lie 2002 points out that it is likely that students who are underrepresented andor negatively stereotyped in the learning materials are vulnerable to the feeling of ambivalence
a bout their group identification. To some extent, this may be blocks stand in learners‘
learning process. Cultural conflict may also take place when there is a greater social distance between students‘ source culture and the culture of the language studied. If they find their
culture group the subordinate politically, culturally, technically or economically of the target language culture group, the greater the distance between two cultures will be. Schumann
1976, cited in Brown, 2000 points out that the greater the social distance between two cultures, the greater difficulty the students will have in learning the target language.
Furthermore, for teachers who come from the source culture that expect them to fulfill their role as the main information provider in the classroom and the main source of the
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW
271 knowledge., this kind of materials will place them in a troubling position if they have limited
access to the culture reference of the topic discussed.
International Target Cultures
– Some other textbooks and teaching materials include a wide variety of cultures set in English-speaking countries or in other countries; international
target cultures. The uninterested students and the lack of information needed to explain the cultural information in the materials may still appear as the disadvantages of this kind of
material. Yet, some benefits might arise from using this kind of material related to the enhancement of students‘ intercultural competence. When students come into direct contact
with other cultures, the opportunities to experience reflective interpretation of their own culture C1 and the culture of others C2 will be available. This experience involves the
students in an objective and subjective reflection of C1 and C2 from which they must choose their own meanings that best reflect their personal perspectives. By careful and effective
management, the teacher may, also, lead the students to the finding of manner in which English is used effectively to communicate with others for international purposes. Nunn
2011 discusses the importance of providing our students with the opportunity in which they are able to a
dapting to different types of ‗communities‘. He argues that EIL users do not operate in homogenous, single speech communities. Therefore, they need to be able to
communicate within different kinds of communities. Some of these – such as communities of
practice – will be semi-permanent, others will be temporary.
3.4 Issue and Consideration 4: Establishing the „third place‟
