Intercultural awareness and its misrepresentation in textbooks

Language policies in Colombia: a tension between the local culture and the Eurocentric culture

From the very beginning, the MEN officially embraced a foreign model for language education in Colombia as they adopted the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001), which was also at the core of the early NBP in 2004. However, scholars and English language teachers have resisted this model since it is considered Eurocentric, and they claim that Colombian language policies have historically been shaped and influenced by foreign models (de Mejía, 2012; Rivas, 1993). An exception is the national policy established in 1826. This policy was revolutionary in that time as it did not only promote the learning and teaching of several European languages (including English, French, Latin and Greek), but also embraced the education of the ancestral Colombian language associated with the location of each individual school. (Bonilla & Tejada-Sánchez, 2016; Henao, 2017).

Teachers and scholars have raised the above concerns because they value the inclusion of diverse voices in the construction of educational agendas and object to the high level of intervention by transnational companies in the implementation of educational reforms. They claim that a more realistic approach for meeting the challenges of global and local educational needs should aim at tackling the considerable social gaps in and diversity of contexts and cultures (Shohamy, 2008; Usma, 2009a, 2009b). They also stress the fact that both teachers and institutions have been appropriating and readapting language policies to serve the real needs of language learners in different contexts throughout Colombia (Cárdenas, González & Álvarez, 2010; Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2008; Henao, 2015a, 2015b; Quintero, 2006; Usma, 2009a).

Some recent academic symposia and conferences have revolved around the areas of culture, intercultural awareness, interculturality and language education in Colombia. Examples of this trend include: the 2017 Intercultural Educational Proposals Promoting Bilingual and Multilingual Teaching Trajectories: Co-Constructing Teacher Development in the 21st Century, held at Universidad de los Andes; the 2017 ASOCOPI Annual Congress, ELT Classroom Practices and the Construction of Peace and Social Justice and most recently, the 2018 Second International Symposium: Interlingual and Intercultural Contacts. All these events have become discursive spaces, in which preservice and in-service practitioners reflect and share views and pedagogical experiences vis à vis the ideas of local and international presenters. However, the bottom line throughout is the discussions on the approaches to the teaching of languages from an intercultural perspective.

It is becoming more evident that in the Colombian context two theoretical constructs coexist: on one side, the Eurocentric one supported by the government, and on the other side, the local, decolonial, Southcentric one. The former unquestioningly adopts the CEFR for language education in Colombia, and the latter is reflected by the various researchers who have been questioning foreign models while advocating for local and popular ones.

Textbooks and materials as local empowerment

Language teaching has undergone a process of transformation in recent decades. Traditional methods concentrated in developing students’ linguistic skills in heavily grammar-oriented environments. Nowadays, language teaching is seen more as a life-long process, and language teaching has become a profession permeated with ethical, cultural and political ideas. The kind of material language teachers use in a class become crucial not just in language learning, but also in how they shape and transform the students they educate. The cultures, methods, competences and ideologies educators favour will inevitably be conveyed to students during the language learning process (Freire, 1970; Lau, 2012; Morrell, 2005). Materials and textbooks used in second language classrooms are expected to have the potential to connect teachers’ experiences, knowledge and expertise with their students’ lives, needs, expectations and language level. Textbooks and materials should ideally demonstrate respect for and interaction with local culture, history, linguistic diversity, values and traditions; and encourage an environment in which no teacher, or student feels marginalized or neglected. In other words, they should foster a space in which language users can read the word and the world (Canagarajah, 2005; Freire, 1970; Freire & Macedo, 1987; Janks, 2014; Kramsch, 2001; Luke, 2012; Mora, 2012).

Population and context of the series

According to step 2, population can refer to textbooks. In this case, the population is the English, Please! series, a high school-level collection of textbooks and supporting materials intended for 9^th, 10^th and 11^th graders in the Colombian high school system. This series is the first in Colombian history to be delivered by the MEN for public high schools in the country. They were developed as a result of an interinstitutional agreement between the MEN and the British Council, with support from the Fundación Empresarios por la Educación. The series consists of a kit containing material for each level (1, 2 and 3, for grades 9, 10 and 11, respectively). The set of materials for each level includes: one student’s book, one teacher’s guide, an accompanying audio CD and an online workbook. Each English, Please! level contains four modules, and each module focuses on a different topic. For each topic, students complete a project designated by the textbook. The modules start with an introductory section in which every new topic is explored. The expected language learning outcomes and the final project are also presented. Following the introduction, there are three units, each including number of lessons. The first two units explore different subtopics related to the module topic and provide students with activities for practising language strategies that will allow them to work on various aspects of the final project. Following are some of the activities incorporated into each lesson:

Get ready!: These activities are generally found at the beginning of every lesson, and students are invited to answer questions about the topic of the lesson. This is a space to increase vocabulary, initiate discussion, invite students to share opinions and bring in their background knowledge to generate interest in the new topic.

Language skills: Speaking, listening, reading and writing: These traditional skills are identified with specific icons in the textbook. A microphone represents speaking skills, earphones represent listening skills, a book represents reading skills and a pencil represents writing skills. These activities may involve using a skill in isolation, or in combination with another. In such cases, two icons are used.

Focus on language: This subtitle indicates activities in which students try to comprehend how language functions. When this subtitle appears, learners are expected to discover the language forms and the rules by themselves with minimal guidance from the teacher. It is an inductive instruction strategy and a much more student-centered approach than more traditional activities.

Tips: These small text boxes provide students with advice on the most effective learning strategies. For example, in a box on listening tips: “Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything, concentrate on the specific words you need for the activity” (MEN, 2013a, p. IV).

Focus on vocabulary: This subtitle indicates activities in which students should work to grasp understanding and use of key vocabulary and functional language from the textbook.

Let’s work together: These purple text boxes that are presented, next to a hammer and a screwdriver icon, are activities for learners to incorporate into their final projects. Every lesson has one.

Self-assessment: This closing activity presented on each module offers both, students and teachers, the possibility to make a reflection on the relative progress, or problems encountered in the module in the suggested individual or group activities. For that process, the authors of the series provide a format, which is included in the text.

Delimiting the samples

The teacher’s guides in the English, Please! series were selected for data collection and analysis. This decision was made after evaluating the material from the entire series, including the students’ books, the teacher’s guide, the audio CD and the online workbook. The teacher’s guides were deemed the most appropriate for evaluation, as they include an overview of the materials to be evaluated, including the table of contents, book covers, summary, dedication, introduction, title, references and more. This overview allows for a better content analysis (Cohen et al., 2007; Tomlinson, 2003). The teacher’s guide contains complete student’s activities, important information, explanations and answers for each activity in the series and recommendations for the teachers. This facilitate the categorization of the elements to be studied, and thus contribute to more refined data collection (McDonough & Shaw, 1993).

Data collection process

We first examined Lineamientos curriculares: Idiomas extranjeros (MEN, 1999) and Estándares básicos de competencia en lenguas extranjeras: Inglés (MEN, 2006), as these documents contain the curricular plans for English language education in basic, middle and high school in Colombia. This provided an overview of the relative importance of intercultural awareness in the curriculum before examining the number and type of activities meant to promote intercultural understanding in the English, Please! series.

The criteria and instruments applied to the collection of data and the analysis of the activities in this study were aligned with the concepts and definitions that Byram presented in his seminal work Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence (1997), as well as in Developing the Intercultural Dimensions in Language Teaching: A Practical Introduction for Teachers (Byram, Gribkova & Starkey, 2002). The CEFR was also used as a point of reference, since Byram’s theories and concepts have already been incorporated into educational contexts (Council of Europe, 2001). We specifically targeted the key concepts of “knowledge, awareness and understanding” (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 103) which are developed later in this paper, as they contribute to the definition of the concept of intercultural awareness in the CEFR. These concepts support a wider view and appreciation of cultures, which is not limited to factual information, and data and statistical figures of the target language society. Rather, they are based on a progressive understanding of similarities and differences between local and foreign cultures, ideas and values, and the fostering of a respectful dialogue among language learners. With this background, we placed the activities of the modules in a table, and we examined, whether or not, they matched the definitions and descriptions of Byram et al. (2002); Byram (1997); Byram & Zarate (1997); Henao (2017). (Appendix 1).

A grid was also designed to streamline data collection. It contained the category of activity, the module, in which the activity appears, the number or letter assigned to the activity in the text and a brief description which explains why a particular task was classified as an intercultural awareness activity (see table 1).

Table 1: Activity Grid

Knowledge activities

Knowledge activities focus on acquiring new knowledge about culture or cultural practices. Out of 1405 activities only 209 fulfilled the criteria to be considered as conducive to intercultural knowledge (appendix 1). This is derived from what Byram (1997) proposed as the definitions, objectives and assessment of socio-cultural competence. For him, savoir apprendre/faire was aligned with the act of collecting and consulting data about cultures and the process of negotiation and interaction among learners, and his idea goes beyond the simple act of learning and memorizing facts for the construction of a knowledge base. Following, we provided a concise sample of those relevant activities.

The exercise named Food Poster represents a typical knowledge activity in the English, Please! series (figure 1). In this assignment learners are expected to find information about a traditional dish from around the world and to design a poster in which they can display their information.

Figure 1.: Knowledge activity: Food Poster

In a similar activity (figure 2), students must research information related to a traditional celebration or holiday, this time specifically in Colombia.

Figure 2: Knowledge activity: Presentation.

Finally, in the exercise named Graphic (figure 3), learners investigate a development in their own city or region that has had a negative impact on the environment. Although the activities aim at an increase of learning concrete culture, they fall short at the promotion of interactions with other sources beyond the book, internet, mass media, magazines, etcetera. Because, if we follow the lines of critical cultural awareness (Byram et al., 2002, p. 3), activities should be instrumental for students to analyse their own socio critical perspectives. These three activities are focused on what Byram et al. (2002) define as savoirs, and savoirs apprendre (see apendix 1).

Figure 3: Knowledge activity: Graphic.

Most of the knowledge activities in the English, Please! series focus on an incremental building of cultural knowledge through an exposure to specific cultural events (own culture vs. target language culture), geographical spaces, products, landmarks, significant human beings and national emblems. Activities are also focused on the conventions and interactions that affect communication with other cultures, specifically on cross-cultural communication among people from different backgrounds and nationalities. This type of activity relies heavily on the accumulation of learner’s knowledge of both explicit and implicit cultural norms. For the former, the designers of the series include observable behaviours, rituals, symbols, famous people, fashion, food, music, dance, special occasions, festivities and celebrations, physical spaces and landmarks, among others. The latter includes the underlying or unspoken values or norms of a culture which show people which behaviours are considered appropriate or inappropriate.

Awareness activities

An awareness of the similarities and differences between local and foreign cultures is another of the fundamental activities that produces intercultural awareness. As expressed by the CEFR:

It is, of course, important to note that intercultural awareness includes an awareness of regional and social diversity in both worlds. It is also enriched by awareness of a wider range of cultures than those carried by the learner’s L1 and L2. This wider awareness helps to place both in context. (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 103)

Awareness is defined by Byram et al. (2002) as intercultural attitudes (savoir être), or “curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about cultures and belief about one’s own” (p. 12). Central to cultural awareness (savoir s’engager) is the “ability to evaluate critically, on the basis of the explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures” (Byram et al., 2002, p. 13).

Awareness activities permit a differentiation between the world of origin and the world of the target community while raising awareness of the regional and social diversity in both worlds. Some awareness activities motivate learners by engaging them with practical activities. These activities were created with the intention of generating curiosity and interest in culture via exploring various social groups, cultural practices and the experiences of others. These activities are expected to help students to adapt and to be engaged more actively with other cultures. (Byram, 1997; Byram & Zarate, 1997).

In the following sample (figure 4) we can find a model on what Byram et al. (2002) define as savoir etre (attitudes) (see appendix 1). In the activity learners play the Ambassador Nomination game in which they are to take the role of ambassadors in different regions of Colombia. Although the activity encourages students to take up opportunities to engage with others’ events in daily life experience, and to seek the others’ perspectives, it is very basic and do not truly foster a critical perspective, and negotiation of meaning among students.

Figure 4: Ambassador Nomination game.

Some activities focus on the negotiation of meaning; that is, understanding, identifying and interpreting explicit or implicit values and ideological perspectives from both the learner’s culture and from other cultures. In these activities, learners analyze ideological perspectives, values and religious affiliations by evaluating a document or event in the context of its sources, time and place (Byram, 1997; Byram & Zarate, 1997). In the below activity (figure 5), learners are expected to become aware of and analyze their own ideological perspectives as they decide if the information they are given is morally or legally correct.

Figure 5: Interpreting ideological perspectives.

Awareness activities has the lowest count compared to other types of activities. This may be to the fact that awareness activities are more complex than knowledge activities, as they require more than just the collection of information. The creation of scenarios in the context of a given foreign culture places learners in a situation in which they must engage with the other culture by placing themselves in someone else’s shoes. It is expected that students become more sensitive to explicit and implicit values of the target language culture and ideological perspectives as they become interculturally aware learners.

Understanding activities

Understanding activities represented 32 out of the 1405 analyzed activities in the English, Please! series (table 2). These activities focus on the skills of interpreting and relating events from another culture to the students’ own culture. This understanding can be fostered through the language skills of interpreting and relating (Byram et al., 2002). Cultural understanding (savoir comprendre) is defined by Byram et al. (2002) as “the ability to interpret a document or an event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one’s own culture” (p. 13) and is aimed at identifying and explaining the meanings and values arising from a national or other ethnocentric perspectives and misunderstandings among cultures. In the following sample (figure 6) students are challenged to interpret, compare and contrast celebrations using a Venn diagram.

Figure 6: Comparing celebrations.

Other understanding activities found in the English, Please! series included those which required learners to identify and explain the meanings and values arising from national or other ethnocentric perspectives (e.g. stereotypes, historical connotation in texts).

Theoretical implications

A major challenge when beginning this study was the absence of literature focused on the analysis of the concept of intercultural awareness in textbooks and ELT materials, so as Bonilla Medina (2008) points out, publishing houses have been interested in the concepts of culture and multiculturality. The present study shows the possibility of analyzing and assessing activities aimed at producing intercultural awareness through language textbooks. Another implication of this research study is that the criteria used for the analysis of activities can provide a rubric with which intercultural awareness activities in other textbooks and contexts can be interpreted.

Methodological implications

Although the research method used in study is not new, and all efforts were made to faithfully follow the eleven steps proposed by Cohen et al. (2007), it was adapted in innovative ways to improve and deepen the goals of this study. In particular, steps two through four -defining the population, deciding the sample and defining the environment- were combined with the methods for textbook and materials evaluation proposed by Tomlinson (2003). Furthermore, it was found that in defining the sample to undertake this study, the first step was to define the environment and the cause of the text; that is, to do steps two and four before step three.

Another important implication was the creation of categories and codes from the current literature that could fit not only the case of the English, Please! series, but also different language textbooks and broader studies. These variations of analysis allowed a more rigorous and reliable method in analysing a textbook than those presented by the aforementioned authors, as well as the creation of an instrument for analysing and filtering intercultural awareness activities in a broader way.

Practical implications

The present study has implications on the creation of activities aimed at producing intercultural awareness in a class, context, and classroom materials, teachers, book designers, and other experts on the production of materials face multiple challenges to reconciliate and interpret national mandated regulations, language policies, national identity, when designing textbooks and ancillary materials for the teaching of English as a foreign language. Today, more meaningful material should promote a development of intercultural awareness. In other words, materials that give students or learners the chance of going beyond factual information, and open up spaces for cultural sensitivity. Students should be given the chance to reflect first in their own identity, so they can be empowered to engaged in the process of negotiation of cultural understanding.