Cultural Content Analysis of ‘O’ Level English text Book in Pakistan

Dr. Masroor Sibtain, Assistant Professor of English, Government College of Science, Multan, Pakistan  Abdul Ali, PhD Scholar, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan  Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Qasim, Assistant Profe

Dr. Masroor Sibtain, Assistant Professor of English, Government College of Science, Multan, Pakistan Abdul Ali, PhD Scholar, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Qasim, Assistant Profe

Keywords: language, culture, content analysis, textbook, source culture, target culture

Abstract

The present research aims to analyze contents of ‘O’ level English book taught in Pakistani schools. This research investigates the distribution of cultural senses in textbook and what is most dominant cultural sense. The contents of the textbook will be analyzed based on the framework propounded by by Adaskou, Britten, and Fahsi (1990). The framework comprises aesthetic sense, sociological sense, semantic sense and pragmatic sense. As for research methods, the study is of qualitative and quantitative nature. Cambridge O level English textbook is the sample of the study. The results of the analysis reveal that the aesthetic sense was devoted 100 % space in the text book. The semantic dimension was allotted 19% space in the text book and followed by semantic dimension was sociological dimension which was devoted 16 % space whereas pragmatic sense was given 0 % space in the text book. Hence, the aesthetic sense found to be the dominant in the textbook. The present study concludes that the contents of analyzed an O level text book are not supportive of intercultural communicative competence for the learners. The majority of the contents of the textbook are culturally neutral, in other words, the contents do not focus or highlight any particular culture. It is suggested that it is highly imperative to develop intercultural communicative competence of learners through ELT textbooks. One cultural dimension must not be preferred over cultural dimension; in other words, there should be a balanced distribution in English text book. Last but not the least, the textbooks should neither be culture free nor should they carry universal culture. Towards the end, it is anticipated that curriculum developers, syllabus designers and text book authors will bring knowledge in terms of local culture and target culture and international culture.