Representations of the World in Language Textbooks (Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education, 34, Band 34) - Softcover

Risager, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783099542 ISBN 13: 9781783099542

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

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.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Karen Risager is Professor Emerita in Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is the author of Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Paradigm (Multilingual Matters, 2007).

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

By Karen Risager

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2018 Karen Risager
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-954-2

Contents

Preface, ix, 
1 Representations of the World, 1, 
2 Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World, 23, 
3 National Studies, 60, 
4 Citizenship Education Studies, 106, 
5 Cultural Studies, 130, 
6 Postcolonial Studies, 158, 
7 Transnational Studies, 185, 
8 Conclusion, 214, 
Appendix 1: Textbooks Selected, 226, 
Appendix 2: Survey Corpus, 227, 
References, 230, 
Author Index, 247, 
Subject Index, 251, 

CHAPTER 1

Representations 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...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1783099542
• ISBN 13: 9781783099542
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland