Western culture and EFL textbooks
While educational leaders in some countries are hesitant to include Western culture in English language teaching, many of the textbooks adopted in these countries do include Western characters- and values. Japan is a case in point. Although the majority of characters in textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education are Japanese, those that are not Japanese are Western characters. In examining current high school English oral communication textbooks, Shimako (2000) found that although Japanese culture was the main content used in the books, when foreign cultures were mentioned in the texts, it was in the context of visitors to Japan (almost exclusively Western visitors) being introduced to Japanese culture by Japanese. By and large, the main Western culture presented was American. This tendency to focus mainly on Western English-speaking cultures is also evident in junior high school textbooks approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education. This is demonstrated by the chart on the next page, which lists the countries of origin of the non-Japanese characters in such textbooks.
Perhaps more interesting than the nationalities of characters in textbooks is how characters are used in the textbooks. In many countries where Western characters are introduced in textbooks, it is often in the context of presenting differences »" between Western culture and local cultures-, often accompanied by an emulation of Western- culture and traditions. Examples in the following discussion demonstrate this tendency. All of these examples involve the issue of gender roles, and all of them appear in textbooks approved by the local Ministry of Education.
In one Moroccan textbook (English in Life), students are introduced to an American engineer, Steve Lynch, and his family of three children. In terms of gender roles, the family is fairly traditional because the wife, Barbara, doesn't work outside of the home. However, in one of die readings, the family's
activities are described in such a way that traditional gender roles are questioned.
Example One:
After work Steve comes back home. He likes to be with his family in the evening. Usually he or Nancy [his daughter] cooks dinner for the family. Then they wash the plates. Barbara just likes to eat. She doesn't like to work in the kitchen. She thinks it takes a lot of time and it isn't interesting. Steve never criticizes her. Do you think he's right? (page 41) In this case, although the wife plays a traditional role in that she doesn't work outside of the home, nonetheless, she is unusual because she doesn't participate in the traditional female role of making meals. Steve, on the other hand, by undertaking domestic duties, illustrates a male role that is often encouraged in Western cultures. Hence, not only does the -book depict gender roles advocated by many Western cultures, but it also opens a discussion of gender roles by asking whether of not Barbara should be criticized for not playing a traditional female role presentation of Western values regarding gender roles is evident later in this same textbook when the daughter, Nancy, is discussing her future with her Moroccan friend, Latifa. The following is an excerpt from this dialogue: