Research (Francis, 1996; Ihm, 1996; and Lesikin, 1998) has shown that textbooks typically contain representations of a culture and its social identifications. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks in Taiwan were not particularly designed with an emphasis on cultural content and the social identity of the students as a focus. To investigate the nature of this problem, the cultural content and social identifications embedded in two series of contemporary English textbooks—one series from Taiwan EFL and one series from America (ESL) were examined. Content analysis was employed as the research methodology to determine cultural and social representations occurring in reading passages and picture illustrations in the analyzed textbooks. Simple percentages were presented to describe the findings.
The findings revealed that ESL textbooks were designed to respond to the needs of the diverse cultural backgrounds of immigrant students, whereas the EFL textbooks did not focus on the needs of Taiwanese students. Six subcategories of cultural content were used to investigate cultural representations in the textbooks. Both EFL and ESL textbooks showed that PNE= people, national identity, and ethnicity occupied the biggest proportion (49%) in their cultural representations. For the invisible cultural content of textbook analysis, value orientations were evident in both EFL and ESL textbooks. This was mainly seen through statements referring to individualism and collectivism. Individualism was found in both the ESL and EFL textbooks, in that most of the content in the EFL textbooks was adapted from Western language instructional materials. Whereas collectivism was only reinforced in some decontextualized sentences and reading passages reflecting Taiwan/Chinese cultural content in the EFL textbooks.
Social identity was investigated through picture illustrations and statements of gender, race, profession (occupation), age, and disability in EFL and ESL textbooks. Analysis of pictures and readings in the EFL textbooks showed that there was an inconsistency between the reading passages and picture illustrations. Some of the EFL textbooks did not accurately reflect the diversity of American society. On the contrary, ESL textbook writers seemed to try to break the barriers of race, gender, age, and disability. Biased and stereotyped issues were taken care of by avoiding use of the third person as subjects and by not using men to represent all humans in the content. Also, analysis of the pictures showed that ESL textbooks reflected the diversity of American society.
It is recommended that the EFL textbook authors need to work to reflect the needs of EFL students and become more aware of these needs in selecting cultural content and pictures. Also a feminist perspective as well as a non-white American point of view are recommended to help raise both teachers' and students' cultural awareness by encouraging them to question the cultural content while using textbooks. The study includes tables showing summaries of the textbook analysis, a conclusion and recommendations for further study. References and appendixes are included at the end of the document.