The Cultural Content on English Textbook used by Second Grade of Junior High School Students

Abstract

“EIL involves cross-cultural interactions among the users of English from the inner circle, the outer circle and the expanding circle and hence these users of EIL are in constant touch with each other's varieties of English” (Canagarajah, 2006, p. 231). English as an International Language (EIL) has become one of the current issue in language teaching. This study was conducted to investigate the existence of cultural content in English textbook used by second grade junior high school. The study analyzed an English textbook entitled English in Focus which currently used by public junior high school in Indonesia. English in Focus was published by Pusat Perbukuan Departemen Pendidikan Indonesia in 2008 and written by Wardiman, Jahur, and Djusma (2008). The book was designed based on standard of KTSP 2006. This study focused on analyzing the cultural contents in reading, listening and speaking texts. The data was analyzed quantitatively and elaborated qualitatively. The result of this study revealed that English in Focus tended to represent local culture. It was important to note that the two other cultures were also being represented through the texts such as the English diversity and Western culture.