An Analysis of the Integr ation of both Target and Local Cultures in "MY Book of English"

Abstract

This study attempts to examine the cultural content presented in My Book of English of the fourth year middle school textbook, specifically the analysis of the integration of local culture together with the target one in teaching English. In addition, it aims to uncover the teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of both cultures as well as their and teaching practices in the classroom . To achieve the mentioned aims, two research assumptions have been made: first, the textbook focuses more on the target culture, and the second, teachers do not take into consideration the learners’ local culture in their teaching process. Therefore, two research instruments were used, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 20 teachers of English teaching the fourth year pupils in different middle schools in Jijel. In addition, a checklist was adapted from the models of Cunningsworth, Kilickaya and Reimann was adopted for the purpose of analyzing the integration of local and target cultural content in the textbook My Book of English. The analysis of the textbook has shown that the local culture is more dominant than the target one, however, aspects of culture are not well presented and without much details in the textbook under study