REPRESENTATION OF SOURCE, TARGET AND INTERNATIONAL TARGET CULTURES: THE INCLUSIVENESS OF TEACHING CONTENTS IN PAKISTAN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52567/pjsr.v4i2.542Abstract
The aim of the present study was to know about the depiction of source, target and international target cultures in two English textbooks used at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) level in the government schools of Balochistan, Pakistan. The study was delimited only to reading passages of the prescribed textbooks. The study was descriptive and exploratory in nature and the specific method employed was content analysis. The study was a blend of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. In this connection, all the reading passages of the textbooks were firstly classified into cultural specific and neutral texts; secondly, cultural specific texts were categorized by adapting the frameworks of Cortazzi and Jin (2013); source culture, target culture, international target culture, Oliver (1942), and Chapelle (2009). The percentage of each category was calculated and then the cultural elements of each category were also discussed with the help of a devised checklist. The results of the study show that the percentage of neutral passages in the textbooks used in Balochistan is 65.38% whereas the percentage of passages having cultural contents is 34.61%. As for passages having cultural contents, the numbers of Mentions related to source culture(s) are 149(91.41%) whereas the numbers of Depiction are 57 (89.06%). As regards target culture(s), there are only 2(1.22%) instances of Mention and 4(6.25%) instances of Depiction. As for international target culture(s), the textbooks contain 12(7.36%) instances of Mention and only 3(4.68%) instances of Depiction. Overall, the study reveals that the textbooks do not provide sufficient cultural load as two third of the passages are neutral in nature. Moreover, the cultural elements in the textbooks are predominantly about source culture(s) and there is a dearth of cultural elements pertaining to target and international target cultures. Therefore, it is suggested that the textbooks should be improved by incorporating adequate amount of cultural elements across all the cultures for developing intercultural communicative competence in the learners.
Keywords: source, target, international, culture, English, textbooks.
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