RACES OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN ELT MATERIAL

INTRODUCTION
As stated in the previous presentation (“Why Intercultural Competence Matters?”) due to
the impact of globalization, the way people interact has undergone innumerable changes. The
influence of technology and the introduction of social media in people’s lifestyles have contributed
to the increased likelihood of intercultural encounters in common social spheres. Learning a
foreign language is clearly of utmost importance in order to communicate in these situations.
However,  it is not the only necessary tool to communicate successfully. 
Becoming an intercultural competent speaker clearly implies far more than the mere
knowledge of the cultural characteristics of a given country. For instance, it involves the
knowledge of self and others as well as the development of the skills to interpret, discover and
relate; respecting other culture`s values, beliefs and behaviours. It is at this stage that the
language teacher’s role becomes crucial since they have to be aware of the importance of
students being intercultural competent speakers in order to face the current-world challenges.
Therefore, language teachers must be critical when it comes to selecting their teaching materials
because broadly speaking, the target culture tends to be predominant in English textbooks.
After having said this, this paper aims to find traces of IC in the book English File, Upper-
intermediate by Christina Latham-Koeing and Clive Oxenden. The findings recorded will be
presented in a quantitative and detailed analysis carried out on six out of ten units from the book
and workbook. For this study, we have taken into account a number of variables, namely: national
identity, everyday living, social issues, geography, language and politics. These variables were
developed by Byram and later modified by Canga and Cifone, and finally an adapted by this
research group.  
METHODOLOGY
As mentioned above, the textbook used in the present study was “English File, Upper-
intermediate by Christina Latham-Koeing and Clive Oxenden” from which only the following texts
(belonging to the student’s book and the workbook, including listening tapescripts) were
analysed: 
 Student’s book:
 “Q&A” by The Guardian Newspaper (p. 4 - Unit 1A)
 “Hard to believe but it happened to me” (p. 8 - Unit 1B)
 “Confessions of a Cyberchondriac” (p. 16 - Unit 2A)
 “Trading ages” (p. 18 - Unit 2B)
 “Don’t know what to say? Talk about the weather!” (p.36 - Unit 4A)
 “I’m John, I’m a speedaholic” (p.40 - Unit 4B)
 “How to eat an elephant” (p. 45 - Unit 5A)
 “Regrets, we’ve had a few” (p.50 - Unit 5B)
  “What music would you play to an alien?” (p.55 - Unit 6A) 
 “Three things you (probably) didn’t know about” (p.59 - Unit 6B) 
 “Would you pass the bagel test?” (p.84 - Unit 9A)
 “Andrew Marr’s Megacities” (p. 88 - Unit 9B)
 Listening tapescripts:
 “What your signature says about you” (p. 120 - Unit 1B)
 “Best dressed list” - (p. 153 - Unit 2B)
  “Are you a risk taker?” (p. 124 - Unit 4B)
 “Lost in the Jungle” (p.124 - Unit 5B)
 “Why do we listen to music?” (p. 126 - Unit 6A)
 “Would you pass the bagel test?” (p. 129 - Unit 9A)

 Workbook:
 “The hidden dangers of rock music” (p.37 -  Unit 6A) 
 “Dangerous drivers” (p. 27 - Unit 4B)
 “Night on a bare mountain” (p. 30 - Unit 5A)
 “How to deal with a sleep-walking husband” (p.40 - Unit 6B) 
 “Ponzi Schemes” (p. 66 - Unit 9A)
 “Shangai” (p. 69 - Unit 9B)

The data (words, phrase, clauses, sentences) collected was organised in a chart falling either
within the classification of target or foreign culture. The former refers only to England and the
United States which are considered to be more representative when it comes to language
teaching. Regarding the latter, it makes reference to all the other cultures, including other English
speaking countries such as Scotland, India and Australia. 

As regards the tools used to tabulate the data, Microsoft Excel was implemented in for the
creation of graphics. Each of the members in this research group was given a unit drawn at
random to analyse and selected the examples according to a pre-established criteria.

National Target 58 13 19% Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock

Identity % Holmes, BBC, Michael Jackson, The
Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd,
Star Trek, The Guardian Newspaper,
Daily Mail.

Foreign 27 6% Sunita Menon, Aishwarya Rai,

Bollywood, Buddhist temples, Mariachi
bands.

Everyday Target 69 16 19% Weather talk, getting points on your

living % license, chips, cream cheese, bungee
jumping, a balloon ride, talking on the
phone when… driving with their babies
on the card, turkey, online support
groups, terraced houses.

Foreign 13 3% A café, hikikomori, Hashiriya, taco

stands
Social Target 74 17 18% A Saturday job, I pod, Industry’s
Issues % carbon footprint, hipster, Italian
immigrant, fashion journalist

Foreign 5 1% Malaria, Ebola, tiny flats, high property

prices, extreme poverty, slums

Geography Target 62 14 23% London, Britons, New York, Cornwall,

% Washington, Richmond, The United
States, Los Angeles, California,
Hollywood, Britain, Leicester Square.

Foreign 39 9% South Africa, Bulgaria, Edinburgh,

Spain, Tokyo, Mexico City, The Andes,
The Himalayas, La Paz.

Language Target 53 12 13% Down to the penny, lovely weather for

% ducks, Can’t stand, hot or cold/ bright
or cloudy/windy or calm, the buzz you
get, get straight to the point, need for
speed, to lay the blame on someone
else’s door, to get on the property
ladder, there is not so much room for,
come up with.

Foreign 5 1% Vintage boutique, Hayirisha,

hikikomori, panniculitis.

Politics Target 33 7% 8% British Council, United States Navy,

The Met Office, Speedaholic course,
Air Force Survival School.

Foreign 4 1% European Union, Low unemployment,

High levels of crime.

TOTAL Target 349 79 100%

%

Foreign 93 21
%
Table 1. N° of instances, percentages and examples.

Graphic 1. Percentages of each category

RESULTS 

The material this research group has based this study on was designed to be used by
students all over the world. Even though there are traces of foreign cultures in this book, it is
noticeable that there is a predominance of features of the target culture. From the total number
of instances, a 79% percent belong to the target culture whereas only a 21% percent represent
foreign cultures,as shown in graphic 2. This evidences a great unbalance between the proportions
in which the two types of culture appear in this textbook, reinforcing the fact that the target
culture prevails in the book analysed. These figures back up the idea previously stated of english
textbooks only dealing with the culture of most known english speaking countries, not even taking
into consideration other english-speaking countries.

 
Graphic 2. Percentage of target culture and foreign culture 

Foreign culture  

As regards the instances which make reference to foreign cultures, we considered relevant
to highlight  the following categories: Geography (39) which occupies the first position, followed
by National Identity (27), and Everyday LIving in the third place (13). Examples of these instances
are used to fulfill functions such as describing touristic experiences (The Andes, La Paz and The
Amazon Rainforest); giving information about cultural beliefs (the importance of astrology in
India), mentioning famous people (Mozart, Beethoven, Valentino Rossi) as well as making
reference to many nationalities, countries and cities (Spanish, South Africa, Japan, Istanbul); and
talking about fashion (vintage boutique) and food (spaghetti  bolognese, omelette, bagel).
However, it is our belief that these instances represent a shallow knowledge of other cultures and
do not focus on more specific and enriching aspects such as the way people live, interact as well as
their social practices and cultural products. 

In this sense, the content analysis of the book under discussion proves that the possibility of
representing foreign cultures is affected since there is no allusion to the way in which the linguistic
elements found convey not only meaning and connotations but also feelings, ideas and
experiences shared by the community which they come from. At this point, it is possible to say
that because of the poor treatment of contexts, regarding foreign cultural elements, students may
find it difficult to develop meaningful intercultural insights. As a result, they may not be able to
assimilate, understand and relate the target culture with foreign cultures or with their own in
order to become effective and critical global citizens

Target culture

Concerning the target culture, social issues is placed in the first position with 74 instances;
every living is placed in the second position with 69 instances, whereas geography falls in the third
place with 62 instances. As regards the category of social issues, we can mention the following
examples: “Get better marks in the university entrance exams”, “new mothers behave almost as
badly on the road as teenages”, “cowboy boots”, “bought myself a sports car”, etc. The second
category, everyday living, “weather talk”, “terraced houses”, “online support groups”are cases in
point. Lastly, it seems relevant to highlight the fact that within Geography, there are sixty two (62)
references to either the United States or the United Kingdom, whilst out of the 39 instances of
foreign culture, only six make reference to Latin America, leaving little room for these cultures to
be shared or known.

Conclusion

It is worth noticing that even though we have found examples that fit in all the different categories
of IC described in this study, most of these examples do not necessarily help to build up IC, as they
are used to refer to people, monuments, cities, etcetera, by only naming them. They do not
actually describe interactions between people whose behavior might provide guidelines on
communicative exchanges within a certain culture. These instances of real communicative
exchanges are not so recurrent (except for one that describes how husband and wife argue on a
Pacific Island). All the others reinforce stereotypes of the culture of origin.
For example, a listening activity between wife and husband, wife is complaining because husband
has finished the milk. The husband is trying to disclaim responsibility by saying she had given it to
the cat the night before. In another listening task, we hear a wife complaining because her
husband took the wrong road of a roundabout. Again, the husband is trying to disclaim
responsibility by saying that they were going to her sister’s house, and she should have known the
way. In both there is a wife complaining and a husband trying to disclaim responsibility.

Although they are angry, they never raise their voices or lose their temper. It is through situations
like these that we can infer how couples react and complain when there’s something that upsets
them. So, we can conclude that some terms provide students with cultural background knowledge
which is necessary for referencing when we get engaged in conversation. But it is mainly in
instances in which speakers are involved in real communicative situations o when cultural
attitudes and behavior are described, that teaching materials contribute to the development of
intercultural competence.

To conclude, as future teachers we consider that the role of language teachers is crucial when it
comes to providing our learners with opportunities to raise awareness of the cultural diversity and
richness that the different societies bear around the world. It is evident that due to the existence
of this huge cultural diversity, no textbook will be able to encompass all of them neither the
teacher. Nevertheless, we have the opportunity to help develop IC in our learners, provided that
we have a critical look at ELT material or create our own and bring it to the classroom as a starting
point for reflection. In addition, the teacher should also promote attitudes of respect and
tolerance towards other cultures without putting aside our own.