A STUDY ON CULTURAL INTEGRATION IN THE ENGLISH …

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A STUDY ON CULTURAL INTEGRATION IN THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

Sugirin,SitiSudartini,Suciati,andLusiNurhayatiFakultasBahasadanSeniUniversitasNegeriYogyakarta

email:[email protected]

AbstractThefirstphaseofthistwo-yearstudyaimsatdescribingtheteachers’awareness

to includeculture in the teachingand learningprocess,whatculturalaspectsareincludedintheEnglishtextbooksusedinanumberofschools intheProvinceofDIYandhowtheculturalelementsareinsertedinthebooks.Theresearchdatawereobtainedthroughafocusgroupdiscussion(FGD)attendedby20Englishteachersfrom5regenciesintheProvinceofDIYandfrom7Englishtextbooksusedbytheseteachers.ThedatafromtheFGDwereanalyzedusingqualitativedataanalysis,whilethebookswerediscernedusingcontentanalysis.Theresultsoftheanalysesshow(1)theteachershaveinsertedculturalelementsintheirteachingandlearningprocess,followingtheexplicitandimplicitmodesofinsertionusedinthetextbooks;(2)theculturalelementsinthebooksconsistofknowledge,behaviors,andartifacts;and(3)thereare409westernculturalelementsand739Indonesianones,buttheyarenotfollowedbyadequateexplanationstoanticipateconfusionandmisunderstanding.

Keywords:culturalaspects,EFLtextbooks,culturalintegration

INTRODUCTIONAs any language is insepa-

rable from its culture (Colson, 2008;Dobrovol’skij & Piirainen, 2006; Wil-liams, 2010), teaching a new languagewill inevitably involve teaching a newculture.Only through introducing anddevelopingunderstandingofthecultureof the target language will a language learner be able to function properly inthe target language. This phenomenon oftenposesadilemmaforEnglishasaForeignLanguage(EFL)teachersinIn-donesia. On the one hand, they have to maintain the development the students’ understandingandmasteryofthelocalculture,thelocalvalues,andthenationalidentity. On the other hand, they have to make the students develop understand-ing the culture of the native speakersof English in order to make the English languagelearningcomprehensive.

Williams (2010) further asserts thatwhilelanguageandculturearein-tertwined, language is more than just words that transmit meaning. All cul-tureshavetheirbiases,practices,valuesand traditions that are inseparable from the language used in communication.In addition, Indonesia consists of over13.000 islands, with hundreds of eth-nic groups and hundreds of differentcultures. It is impossible to find a city,atown,orevenadistrict,withasingleculture.Allthesepartsofthecountryac-commodateandpracticemulti-cultures.Theimplicationisthat,forthesuccessoftheEFLteaching,theEFLteachersneedtounderstandnotonlyasingleculture,but they must have a good understand-ingofmulti-culturessharedbythecom-munity, the Indonesian community, aswell as those shared by the speakers of the language they teach - English. In

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other words, the EFL teachers shouldunderstand and practice multiculturaleducation.

Sinagatullin (2003: 83) definesmulticulturaleducationas‘anideastat-ing that all students, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, race, culture, socialclass,religion,orexceptionality,shouldhave an equal opportunity to learn at school.’ Sinagatullin (2003: 114) pro-vides further explanation that one of the goals of multicultural education is ‘tohelpstudentsacquireattitudes,knowl-edge, and skills needed to successfullyfunctionwithintheirownmicro-culture,mainstreamculture,andtheglobalcom-munity’.

This definition of multiculturaleducationshowsitsresemblancetotheconcept of the national education, i.e.education based on Pancasila (the FivePrinciples)andthe1945ConstitutionoftheRepublicofIndonesia,rootedonthevalues of religion, Indonesian national culture, in response to the demand ofthecurrentera(Article1Verse2ofthe2003ActontheNationalEducationSys-tem).Thismulticulture-basededucationis ameans to improve cultural aware-ness or cultural sensitivity in theprac-tice of teaching and learning a foreignlanguage, especially English. Tanaka(2006:37)claimsthattheconceptof‘cul-tural awareness’—understanding of dif-ferent cultures—has been emphasizedas an essential part of English learning andteaching.

Themain principle ofmulti-cul-ture-based education is the presenceof culturaldifferences,whichalso con-stitutesabasic issueintheforeignlan-guageteachingandlearning.Brown(inRichardsandRenandya,2002:13)asserts‘whenever you teach a language, youalsoteachacomplexsystemofculturalcustoms,values, andwaysof thinking,feeling,andacting’. Therefore, it is im-possible to implement the concept of

multiculturaleducationeffectivelywith-outinvolvingallthecomponentsrelatedto the teaching and learning process,includingthecurriculum,teachers,stu-dents,andotheraspectssuchasteachingand learning methods and materials.

As textbooks are generally con-sidered to be the major source of theteachingmaterials,theyplayanimpor-tant role in disseminating cultures orcultural elements in the teaching andlearning process. Tiwari (2008) alsoconsiderstextbooksasaninstrumenttoachieve the instructional goals, to helpteachers in preparing the teaching andlearning, in preparing tasks, in planning theclassroommanagement,andinguid-ingthestudents’learningbothatschoolandathome.Meanwhile,RichardsandSchmidt(2002:339)statethattheuseofmodulesallowsforflexibleorganizationofacourseandcangivelearnersasenseof achievement because objectives aremoreimmediateandspecific.Similarly,Kaiser (2005: 223) considers that text-booksarepracticallyusedasadidacticinstrumentinteachinginstitutions.

Inprinciple,atextbookisabookwritten for the teacher(s) and the stu-dentsinaclassoraschool,whichpres-ent a set of teaching and learningma-terials in a subject or closely-relatedsubjects (Tiwari, 2008).A textbook cantake the form of printed materials for the students to read or printed materials plustasksforthestudentstocarryout.InregardtotheEFLtextbooksRichardsand Schmidt (2002: 550) define a ‘text-book’ as: Abookonaspecificsubjectusedasateachinglearningguide,especiallyinaschoolorcollege.Textbooksforfor-eignlanguagelearningareoftenpartofagradedseriescoveringmultipleskills (listening, reading, writing, speaking, and grammar) or deal with a single skill (e.g. reading).

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AStudyonCulturalIntegrationinTheEnglishTextbooksforJuniorHighSchools

Inlinewithitsfunctionasaguide(Richards and Schmidt (2002: 550),Choudhury (1998: 154) claims that atextbook also serves as a binder of all the teachingandlearningprocesstomakeitasystemwhichenablesthecheckingofthenecessaryelementsmissingandun-necessary repetition.This confirmsoneof the requirements of a good textbook, conformity to the comprehensivenessofthecontentbasedonthecompetencystandardasindicatedbythebasiccom-petencescoveredinthebook(Boardforthe National Standard of Education,2007-2011).TheGuidetoTexbookWrit-ing (BSNP 2007-2011) explicitly men-tions the 8th of the 14 points of require-mentsforthecontentappropriatenessisthedevelopmentofthe“unityindiver-sity”persepective.ArecommendedEFLtextbookshouldreflectappreciationandrespect upon multicultures and com-munityplurality,whichincludevariousculturalvaluesand local,national, andglobalwisdoms.Inconjunctionwiththeconcern on the possible erosion of thecommitment to the local culturesmen-tioned earlier, special attention shouldbe paid to the students’ understanding ofthelocalcultures.

As has been mentioned earlier, language is inseparable from culture(Colson,2008;Dobrovol’skij&Piirainen,2006; Williams, 2010). Foley (2001: 19)mentionsthat languageisoftentreatedtheoreticallyasasub-systemofculturewithin cognitive anthropology but inpractice,thestructureoflanguageasre-vealedbymodernlinguisticshasgener-ally served as the paradigm for analyz-ingotheraspectsofculture.

In the meantime, Linton (in Mesthrie,etal.,2009:28)definescultureas “thewayof life of itsmembers; thecollectionofideasandhabitswhichtheylearn, share and transmit from genera-tiontogeneration.”Thismeansthatcul-turealsofunctionsas“designforliving,”

whichgivesmeaningtothewayandtheform of habits considered appropriateand acceptable within a certain com-munity group, while language is treated as“aculturalactivityand,atthesametime, an instrument for organizing other culturaldomains” (Sharifian&Palmer,2007:1). Inthiscontext,Taylor(inPeo-ples&Bailey,2009:22)definecultureas“complexwholewhichincludesknowl-edge, belief, art, morals, law, customs,andanyothercapabilitiesandhabitsac-quiredbymanasamemberofsociety.”In other words, knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals,laws,traditionsandotherprac-ticesobtainedbyhumanbeingsaspartof the community, constitute culturalcomponents.PeoplesandBailey(2009)concludethatcultureislearned,sharedand owned together. Culture makessomeone complete and simultaneouslycausesadifferenceatthelevelofgroup.Hence, culture distinguishes one com-munity group from the other groups.

Otherthancoveringthesystemofreligionandtraditionalceremonies,thesystemofsocialorganizationandcom-munity, the systemof science, arts, thesystemofeconomyandincomeearning,andthesystemofmeansandtechnolo-gy,languageconstitutesaculturalcom-ponent reflecting the community’s cul-ture,whichdistinguishes it fromothercommunities.Thesesevenelementswillalwaysbefoundinanycommunitywithits variations (Koentjaraningrat, 1996, in Simanjuntak, 2011).

Culturaldifferencesarethemainissuesincross-culturaleducation.GrantdanLei(2001:10-11)suggestfourmaincomponents of education which con-siderlinguisticandsocio-culturaldiffer-ences,i.e.:(1) subjective and objective supportof the identity of socio-cultural andlinguisticminoritystudents;(2)con-structingcurriculumcontentsimply-ingandreflectingthepositivevalue

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of theplurality of cultures and lan-guages;(3)buildingcommunicative,action-orientedskills;and(4)accept-ing socio-cultural diversity and theplurality of ideas as a challenge fordemocracy.

MosttrainedEFLteachersarewellaware that EFL teaching and learningcannotbeeffectivelycarriedoutwithoutunderstanding thecultureof its speak-ers’ communities. Consequently, EFLteachersaredemandedtoteachnotonlythe language but they must also provide culturalcontextsinwhichthelanguageisused.ThustheEFLstudentsmustalsolearnthecultureofthespeakersofEng-lishbecause,tobeabletocommunicateeffectively in English, a speaker is de-mandedtobecompetentnotonlyintheEnglishlanguagebutalsointhecultureof the native speakers of English.

Meanwhile, the 2003 Act of theRepublic of Indonesia on the NationalEducationSystemsuggeststheteachers’responsibility for maintaining the Indo-nesian national culture, rooted on thevaluesofreligionandlocalwisdoms.Iftheteachersdonotrealizethisfromtheoutset, the learning and mastery of the foreign or target language culturewilllead to the degradation on their under-standingoftheirownculture.Ifthispro-cesskeepsgoingwithout intentionally-takenstepstomaintainthelocalculture,theEFL teachingmay lead tobehaviorchanges as the results of the internal-izationoftheculturalvaluestheyhavelearnedwhich, inturn,willdegradeoreven eradicate their understanding ofthe highly valued local culture. Suchcontinuous process will damage thesustainabilityofthelocalculture.There-fore, understanding the local cultureand thesensitivity towards thecontentoftheforeigncultureareneededintheforeign language teachingcontext,par-ticularlytheteachingofEnglish,oneof

the foreign languages to be taught from kindergarten to university. This reality demandstheearlyintroductionandun-derstandingofthelocalculture.Linton(inMesthrie,etal.,2009:28)definescul-tureas“thewayoflifeofitsmembers;thecollectionofideasandhabitswhichthey learn, share and transmit from gen-eration to generation.”

The term ‘local culture’ is oftenrelatedtotheterm‘tradition’whichtex-tuallymeans“customstransmittedfromgenerationtogenerationwhicharestillpracticed in the community, based onthe evaluation and consideration thattheexistingpracticeisthebest”(Depar-temenPendidikanNasional,2005:1208).From this term, ‘tradition’ comes thederivedword ‘traditional,’whichhasasimilarmeaning,anattitudeorawayofthinkingandbehavingoractingconsis-tentlyfollowingthenormsandcustomslearned and shared from generation to generation. Thus the meaning of the conceptoftraditioniscloselyrelatedtothatof theconceptandareaof locality.Thelocalconceptthathasbeenconsid-ered the best existing practice is whatWales (NyomanSriSubawa,2008:351)calls‘localgenius.’

Geriya (2003: 2 in Nyoman SriSubawa, 2008: 351) considers ‘local ge-nius’aspartof‘localwisdom’whichhasbeen selected, tested, and outstandingin quality, locally and globally, so thatit plays an important role not only in shaping identity and pride but also in developing competence and potentialsforcompetitionacrossgeoraphicalareasand cultures. Anderson (2002: 6) callsthis local genius ‘cultural artefacts ofaparticularkind.’ Thisshows that theterm‘localgenius’alsoreferstotangibleobjects. In the area of medicine, localgenius alsomeans the use of local po-tentials suchas the richnessofflora asmedicine,i.e.,herbalmedicine.Itistheunique characteristics in each culture

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whichWales(NyomanSriSubawa,2008:351)calls‘localgenius.’

Meanwhile,theareainwhichthe‘local genius’ exists is as broad as themeaning giving of the human cultureitselfwhich,substantively,asproposedby the anthropologist, Honingmann (in Koentjaraningrat, 1990:186-187), coversthreemajor aspects, i.e. ideas, activities, and artifacts.Koentjaraningrat (2005, inBhaswara, 2008) further classifies cul-turalaspectsintofourformsas:(1)ide-ological values, (2) systemof ideas, (3)system of behaviors and patterned ac-tions,and(4)physicalobjects(artifact).The relation between Honingmann’s danKoentjaraningrat’scategoriesofcul-turalaspectscanbeseenthroughthefol-lowingfigure.

Koentjaraningrat (2005) classifiesthe cultural domain of ideas into twoseparate categories, system of cultureand value of culture. However, thesetwo categories are both abstract in na-ture. Honningmann’s categorizationand that of Kuncaraningrat pertain tothree core aspects: (1) ideas, (2) activi-ties/behaviors,and(3)artifacts(physicalobjects).Forthepurposeofpracticality,this paper adapts these three aspects,naming them: knowledge, behaviors, and artifacts.

Figure1.ConcentricFrameofCulture(Koentjaraningrat2005,inBhaswara,2008)

METHODThispaperiswrittenbasedonthe

inconclusiveresultsofaresearchstudyconductedintheProvinceofYogyakartaSpecialTerritory(DIY).Thestudyistheinitial step (needs analysis) of a longer Research and Development (R & D)study.Thegoalsof thisfirstphaseare:(1)todescribetheteachers’awarenesstoinclude cultural elements in the teach-ingandlearningprocess,(2)toidentifywhatculturalaspectsareincludedintheEnglishtextbookscurrentlyusedbythejuniorhighschoolteachersintheProv-inceofDIY,(3)toidentifythepatternsofinsertionoftheseculturalaspectsintheEnglish textbooks used.

To achieve these goals, the re-searchers conducted Focus GroupDiscussion (FGD) attended by twentyEnglishteachersrepresentingstateandprivatejuniorhighschoolsfromthecityofYogyakartaandthefourregenciesofBantul, Sleman,Kulon Progo, andGu-nung Kidul. In addition, ten postgradu-ate students of Applied Linguistics ofYogyakarta State University also par-ticipated in this FGD. Before the FGD,theparticipantswereaskedtocompleteaquizabouttheEnglishtextbookscur-rently used in their respective schools.ThentheFGDfollowed,focusingontheparticipants’ awarenessof thepresencethe cultural insertion in the textbooksandwhattheyhaddonetoincludecul-turalaspectsintheirteachingandlearn-ing process. Interviews were also con-ductedwithjuniorhighschoolstudentsin the city of Yogyakarta and Slemanregencytoseewhatculturalaspectsex-pectedtobeincludedinthetextbooksorintheteachingandlearningprocess.

ThedatafromtheFGDwereana-lyzed following Miles and Hubermann’s (1994) qualitative data analysis model consisting of data reduction, data pre-sentation,andinferencemaking.Basedon the quiz completed, the textbooks

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usedbythemajorityoftheschoolsrep-resentedby theFGDparticipantswereselected. The selected textbooks werediscerned tofind the cultural elementsincluded using content analysis (Krip-pendorff,2004).Theseculturalelementswere then classified based on the cul-tural aspect categorization mentionedearlier,ie.,aspectsofknowledge, behavior, and artifact.Uponthecompletionoftheclassification, furtheranalysiswascon-ducted to see other dimensions of theculturalelementssuchasorigin,propor-tion,mediaused,clarityofthemessage,and possible interpretation or misinter-pretation.

In this study data validity was achieved through (1) data sources, i.e.the textbooksselectedwere thoseactu-ally used by the teachers partcipatingin the study, while the teachers trulyrepresentedthe fourregenciesandonecityintheProvinceofDIY;and(2)care-fuldatacollectionprocess (i.e. inques-tionsaskedduringtheFGD,indiscern-ing the textbooks to make the inventory and analysis of the cultural elements).Thereliabilityofthedatawasachievedthrough (1) source triangulation (text-books, teachers’ information, students’expectation; (2) method triangulation(quiz,FGD,documentation);and(3)in-ter-raterdiscussion(thefourresearchersanalyzed all the seven books and then compared and discussed the results toformulatefindings.

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DIS-CUSSION

TheresultoftheFGDshowsthat,intheteachingandlearningprocess,thejuniorhighschoolteachersofEnglishintheProvinceofDIYteachthelanguageas well as its culture. The cultural as-pects taught includebothWestern andIndonesian cultures,which are usuallybased on the elements of culture andmodesofcultural insertionincludedin

thetextbookstheyuse.Afterdiscerningthetextbooksmostoftheseteachersuse,ageneralpicturecanbeobtainedabouttheculturalaspectsincluded,themodesoftheculturalinsertion,andthemediaused.

The cultural aspects found arerelated to gender, ethnicity, and race.Gender aspects are shown by the useof models for illustration or the use of people’s names in the reading texts rep-resenting the two sexes, females and males.Theaspectsofraceandethnicityare shown, for instance, by the use of:(1)variednamespertainingtodifferentethnicgroupsbothfromthesameordif-ferentnationalities,suchaspeoplefromIndonesia,India,Japan,Germany,USA,etc.(Butet,Made,Hans,Alice,etc.),and(2)avarietyoftextsandpicturesrelatedtospecificfoodofdifferentorigins(pas-ta,pizza,friedrice,etc.).

Asmentionedearlier,theculturalaspectsinsertedcanbegenerallyclassi-fiedintoknowledge, behavior, and artifact. Pertaining to themodes of cultural in-sertion, in most parts of the books the authors tend to insert cultural aspectsimplicitly,i.e.byintegratingtheminthelanguage materials. In some other parts, the cultural insertion isdone explicitlybythepresentationofculturalaspectsasatopicofatextoraspartofaunitoflan-guagematerialswithculturalnotesper-taining to theculturalaspects inserted.The media most authors use are in the formsofpicturesandwritings.

The seven junior high schoolEnglish textbooks most used in the Province of DIY are: (1)Real Time: An Intreractive English Course for Junior High School Students Year VII (Bates, N., 2007);(2) English on Sky1 for Junior High School Year VII (Mukarto, et al., 2007);(3)The Bridge to English Competence for SMP Grade VII (Kistono, et al., 2006);(4) Interactive English Junior High School Grade VII (Iragilia S, et al., 2009); (5)

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Table 1 Insertion on Western Cultural Aspects

Table 2. Insertion on Indonesian Cultural Aspects

English in Focus1 for Grade VII Junior High School (Wardiman,A.,Jahur,M.B.,and Djusma, M.S., 2008); (6) Passport to the World I (Djatmika, PriyantoA.G,andDewiI.K.,2009);and(7)Scaffolding: English for Junior High School Students Grade VII (Joko Priyana, Riandi andAnita Mumpuni. (2008).

Thefollowingtablesshowfiguresontheinsertionofculturalaspectsintheseven textbooks above.

ItcanbeseenfromTable1thatthetotal number of elements representing theWesternculturalaspectsarealmostevenly distributed, i.e., knowledge, be-havior,andartifactsarerepresentedby108,165,and136elements,respectively.

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The Bridge to English Competence for SMP Grade VII appears to dominate the num-berofculturalelementsincluded(149or36,4%outofthe409elementspresent).

Incontrast,Table2showsthattheculturalelementspresentarenotevenlydistributed, with 22, 225, and 492 ele-ments representing knowledge, behav-ior,andartifacts,respectively.The Bridge to English Competence for SMP Grade VII remainsdominantinthenumberofcul-turalelementsincluded(396or54%outof the739elementsofculturepresent);the uneven distribution of the culturalaspectsisevenmoreapparentwith0,54,and 342 elements representing knowl-edge,behavior,andartifact,respective-ly.Theabsenceoforthelowpercentageof the presence of cultural knowledgemaybedue to a take-it-for-granted at-titude that the users of the textbooks are mostly Indonesians who no longer need

explanation or knowledge of their own culture.However,confirmationandfur-therjustificationareneeded.

Comparison of the cultural as-pectsinTable1andTable2showsthatthe number of the Indonesian culturalelements exceeds that of its counter-parts,theWesternculturalelements(409Westernand739Indonesian).Thisgivesan impression that the textbooks have adequatelyaccommodatedthelocalcul-tures so that there should be no worries about the degradation of the local cul-turesthroughthestudents’contactwiththeWestern cultures.However, a closeexamination on how the cultural ele-ments are presented, there are phenom-enathatmayconfusethelocalnormsorunderminethepositionofthelocalcul-tures.Thefollowingpicturesaretwoofthe many examples present in the text-books.

Figure1Astudentraisingthelefthandforaskingpermissiontospeak(Bates,2007:34)

Figure 1 shows a common phe-nomenoninatypicalwesternclassroomormeetingroom.Inthewesternculture,raisingtheleftorrighthandasasigntointerrupt or ask a question and giving or receiving somethingwith the leftor

righthandareequallypoliteandaccept-able. Frequent exposures of such a be-haviortothestudentswithoutacorrectexplanationon thedifferencesbetweenthe western norms and the Indonesian ones will give them an impression that

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theycanalsogiveabooktotheteacherwith the left hand. This is, of course,againstthelocalorIndonesiannorm.

In Figure 2, there is a contrastbetween the Indonesian movie and the westernone,whichmayreflectthecon-trastoftheculturesofthetwopeoples.Linton (in Mesthrie, et al., 2009: 28) de-fines culture as ‘the way of life of itsmembers; the collection of ideas andhabits which they learn….’While theIndonesian people are still busy with the mysteryof‘pocong’(ghost),thewesternpeople keep developing their technol-ogywhich is already advanced (robot-ics, planet life, etc.). This contrastmaybeinterpretedasareflectionthattheIn-donesian people prefer dreaming about the past to thinking about what to do for the future. TheAmerican people seemto think the otherway around. Such acontrastmaybuildanimageoftheIndo-nesian inferiority in the way of thinking andtheworld’stechnologyforum.

In one of the textbooks there seems to be an effort to introduce theEnglishculturalaspectmixedwithaJa-vanese or Indonesian one. It may seem

tofitthecontext,butitisconfusingandcanbemisleading.InEnglish,theuseofMr., Mrs., or Miss is normally followed by the last name or surname, e.g. Bill ClintonasMr.Clinton,KathyMcKownasMissMcKown,etc.InJavaneseorIn-donesian such titles are usually giventheir equivalents as Bapak/Pak, Ibu/Bu, and Nona/Mbak. For persons such asSinton Panjaitan and Uci Panggabean,addressing them as Mr. Panjaitan and MissPanggabeanisappropriatebecausetheirsecondnamesarefamilynamesorsurnames.Atschool,studentsareaccus-tomedtoaddressingtheteacherPak Joko for Joko Putranto. In the English classthey almost always call himMr. Joko.In fact this iswhat actually appears inone of the textbooks investigated in this study. Consequently, it is common tohear students addressing a native speak-erlecturerorteacherasMissCatherineforCatherineFoster.Inhercountry,thestudents usually address her as “MissFoster”orsimply“Catherine.”Withouta proper clarification, this erroneouspracticewillpersist.

Figure2PocongvsRobotics(Bates,2007:59)

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These examples are only a small sketchofwhatmaybesaidabouthowculturalinsertioninatextbookmayhaveonthereader’sperceptionandresponse.The interpretation may be biased, but it may serve as a warning to the foreign languageteachersandtextbookwritersthatgreatcaremustbe taken in insert-ing cultural elements in the textbooksaswell as in the teachingand learningprocess.

Asmentionedearlier,theculturalelements found were categorized intothreeaspects:knowledge, behavior, and ar-tifacts.Forexamples,culturalknowledgeappears in the form of greetings related totheEnglishconceptoftime(partsoftheday), suchas:goodmorning,goodafternoon, good evening, and goodnight,etc., theconceptofpolitenessbytheuse of expressions such as: thanks,please,wouldyou…,etc.Behaviorscanseen in theAmerican habits of diningoutandtakinganannualleaveorvaca-tion,thewayofintroducingoneselforothers, farmers’ activities in Indonesia,shakinghandsinbothwesternandlocalcultures, etc. Artifacts are representedby the pictures of buildings, vehicles,household appliances, kitchenutensils,arts and crafts, and articles of clothingandaccessories,etc.

Overall, the presence of the cul-tural elements in each book seems tohavenotbeenbasedoncomprehensiveplanning to include all knowledge, be-haviors, and artifacts appropriate foreachgradeor levelofeducation. Inre-gardtotheconceptofmulti-cultures,allof the seven books investigated have not shown clear indicators of the balancedpresenceofthemicro/local,mainstreamandglobalcultureswhich,inSinagatul-lin’sview(2003:114),willhelpstudentsacquireattitudes,knowledge,andskillsneededtosuccessfullyfunctionintheirfuture.

In addition, in this global era, the Indonesians will not communicate inEnglish only with the native speakers ofEnglish (theEnglish, theAmericans,the Australians and the New Zealand-ers), but they will have more frequent encounters with the non-native speak-erswhoalsospeakEnglish(theChinese,the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Vietnam-ese,theKoreans,theJapanese,theGer-mans, the Dutch, etc.). Therefore, theyalso need to familiarize themselves with the different cultures of these peoples.AsGrantandLei(2001:10-11)suggest,culturaldifferencesare themain issuesincross-culturalormulticulturaleduca-tion. Understanding these cultural dif-ferences is one of the requirements tofunction successfully in multiculturalcommunication.

CONCLUSIONBased on the research findings

anddiscussion,itcanbeconcludedthat,todifferentdegrees,thesevenEFLtext-books investigated have inserted cul-turalelementswhichareclassifiedintoknowledge, behaviors, and artifacts, inboth western and Indonesian culturalcontexts. To some extent, three of theseven textbooks have also shown the authors’ awareness of the need to ac-commodate cross-cultural differencespertaining to both native speakers and non-native speakers of English. How-ever, care has not been fully taken toanticipate cultural sensitivity as seenfrom cultural elements which may bebiasedagainstacertainculture.Despitetheadequatepercentageofthelocalcul-tural elements present, each book hasnot evenly distributed the elements to represent the localities or regions pro-portionally.

In response to Grant and Lei’ssuggestion (2001: 10-11) that culturaldifferencesarethemainissuesincross-culturaleducation, thispaperproposes

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that, in efforts to infuse cultural ele-ments, EFL textbooks written for theIndonesian students should (1) accom-modatelocal,mainstream(Indonesian),Asianandglobal cultural elements; (2)focus on cultural aspects that may in-duce misunderstanding or confusion,completedwithproperexplanationandillustration;(3)bepresentedinbothex-plicitmode(withanexplicittopicononeormoreoftheculturalaspects)andim-plicitmode (with cultural elements in-cluded,whichmayinducethestudents’curiosityandtheteacher’sawarenessoftheneedtodealwiththemintheteach-ingandlearningprocess).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThisarticleisbasedonresearchof

excellence fundedby theDIPAofUni-versitas Negeri Yogyakarta in the year of 2011. In this relation, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to (1) theRectorofUNYforsponsoringthere-searchthroughHeadofUNYResearchInstitute; (2)Head, Secretary, and staffof the UNY Research Institute for fa-cilitatingtheresearchsothatitcouldbeconductedinaccordancewiththeestab-lishedprocedures;(3)theBoardofEdi-torsofLITERAforcorrectionsandinputsothatthisarticlecanbeincludedinthisedition.

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