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how teachers censor and adapt This article takes as its starting point a small survey of teachers attitudes to aspects of cultural content in ELT reading materials. The aim of thisexploratory study was to elicit some of the salient issues in teachers thinking about coursebook cultural content, and to suggest a possible di-rection for further investigation. The results of the survey identify a num-ber of areas where cultural content is often reshaped (or censored by teachers. The article concludes by advocating the need to recognize thecoursebook s status as cultural artefact, and suggests that critical en- gagement with cultural content makes both cross-cultural and educational sense. Imttrodudtiom In Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (1948: 92), T. S. Eliot wrote:Even the humblest material artefact which is the product and thesymbol of a particular civilisation, is an emissary of the culture out ofwhich it comes.While Eliot s comment was not made in reference to ELT materials, itprovides those of us involved in language teaching with an appropriatepoint of departure for reflection. ELT materials produced in Britain andthe United States for use in classrooms around the world are sources notonly of grammar, lexis, and activities for language practice, but, likeLevi s jeans and Coca Cola, commodities which are imbued with culturalpromise. In the case of ELT coursebooks, it is the promise of entry intoan international speech community which is represented in what tend tobe very idealized terms. The coursebook asambassador 274 It is precisely the ambassadorial aspect of the ELT coursebook whichhas led to recent criticisms. Phillipson (1992: 60) sees the promotion ofthe British global coursebook as a government-backed enterprise withan economic and ideological agenda aimed ultimately at boostingcommerce and the dissemination of ideas. Prodromou (1988) is alsocritical, but focuses more on what he sees as the alienating effects of suchmaterials on students, and how they can produce a disengagement withlearning. Neither have foreign governments or their state schoolemployees been oblivious to the cultural content to be found inmaterials produced for global consumption. Thus, Moroccan teachers ofEnglish have expressed their concern about the danger of the erosion ofbelief in the ability of native culture and language to deal with the ELT Journal Volume 54/3 July 2000 © Oxford University Press 2000 a t Uni v e r s i t y C ol l e g e L on d on onF e b r u a r y4 ,2 0 1 5 h t t p : / / e l t j . oxf or d j o ur n a l s . or g / D o wnl o a d e d f r om modern world (Hyde 1994: 296), while Saudi Arabia and China havegone to the extreme of producing materials with almost no references toEnglish-speaking cultures. Reshaping cultural Just as Coca Cola can be used in popular (if theologically unorthodox) content religious ceremonies in Central America, so too are coursebooks subject(at least in theory) to change in the language classroom. Thus, in Torres study of the use of an ESP coursebook in several classrooms (inHutchinson and Torres 1994: 325) it was noted that:teachers and learners do not follow the textbook script. Most oftenteachers follow their own scripts by adapting or changing textbook-based tasks, adding new texts or deleting some, changing themanagement of the tasks, changing task inputs or expected outputs,and so on. Moreover, what is also clear from the study is that theteacher s planned task is reshaped and reinterpreted by theinteraction of teacher and learners during the lesson.Such reshaping and reinterpretation can be seen as a key element in theconstruction of new meanings and in the creation of the culture of theclassroom. Apple (1992: 10) makes a similar point about the importanceof the learners role in this process, when he suggests that they too (aswell as teachers) accept, reinterpret, and reject what counts aslegitimate knowledge selectively . But how does this happen? Dolearners accept, reinterpret, and reject openly, or is this an internal andunspoken process? And what motivates teachers in the choices theymake when they set about changing the coursebook? Clearly there aremany questions to be answered. ELT coursebooks As part of an exploratory study to answer the last of these questions, I questionnaire asked a number of teachers to complete a short questionnaire on thecultural content of ELT reading materials (see Appendix 1). The surveywas conducted in 1997, during the autumn term, at International House,Barcelona. The aim was to find out what teachers think about thecultural content in ELT coursebooks, and what they should do withmaterial with which they do not feel comfortable.The questionnaire was given to 20 teachers. Of this group, 8 werecolleagues I felt would be prepared to co-operate in the survey, and theremaining 12 were practising teachers taking the UCLES/RSA Diplomain Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults (DTEFLA) coursein the school. Of the 12 who returned the questionnaire, 9 were womenand 3 were men. Seven were experienced RSA DTEFLA teachers (eachhaving between 10 and 20 years experience), one was a recentlycertificated teacher with less than two years experience, and four wereRSA DTEFLA candidates currently studying in the school. All theteachers were native speakers of English, and most were from Britain. Itis important to point out that my aim in this article is not to generalizefrom the results of such a small survey—rather, it is to suggest that this isan area of teacher thinking which merits further research, and also to The ELT coursebook as cultural artefact: how teachers censor and adapt 275 a t Uni v e r s i t y C ol l e g e L on d on onF e b r u a r y4 ,2 0 1 5 h t t p : / / e l t j . oxf or d j o ur n a l s . or g / D o wnl o a d e d f r om Questionnaire: part H Stereotypicalrepresentations 276 suggest that coursebook content can also be engaged with critically.The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the first part dealt withcoursebooks familiar to teachers from their own teaching, while the second part asked for their opinions on a piece of material from a well-known coursebook for beginners, The Cambridge English Course 1 (Swan and Walter 1984: 52, see Appendix 2). In the first part, the aim was to identify the range of topics teachers saw as presenting some kindof cultural problem in their classrooms, and to discover how thisproblematic content was addressed. The second part of the question-naire was designed to see if the teachers perceived what I considered to be a culturally-explicit piece of material in more or less the same way. All teachers agreed that coursebooks contain cultural information, and that they had sometimes felt uncomfortable with the reading exercises.The general areas of concern which emerged were stereotypicalrepresentations, mainly of Britain, followed by irrelevant, outdated,and sexist content. I shall deal with the first of these in some depth, as this was the main area of concern.Six of the 12 teachers referred to stereotypical representations of Britain, one referred to negative representations of others, and one to stereotypical representations of national groups in general. However,there was considerable variation in the reasons offered for the discomfort occasioned by such stereotypes, as a selection of theircomments illustrates. Teacher A mentioned the cringe factor involvedin using certain types of material, and gave as an example the bowler-hatted representation of the typical Englishman in Coursebook 1 (teachers are identified by letters and the coursebooks they mention by numbers). In similar vein, Teacher B cited the picture painted of Britishparenting in Coursebook 2. In answer to Question 4 she stated: The text painted a very negative picture of British childrearing and compared it unfavourably with European parenting. This teacher explained, on returning her questionnaire, that as someonewho lived in Catalonia, and who was also a mother, she felt very unlikethe stereotype represented in the coursebook, and for that reason she did not want to use the material.Teacher C was less concerned about his own feelings than about the possible effect of such stereotypical representation on students:/ think by accepting stereotypes of one group of people we accept all stereotypes of all people — some not so complimentary. Other teachers mentioned the value system of their students as a factorinfluencing their approach to materials, where the portrayal of L2 culture could be seen as being at variance with LI cultural values. In the case of Teachers D and E, in particular, there was also a strong wish not to be associated with the way in which L2 culture was represented.These two teachers differ from Teachers A and B in that they seemed to John Gray a t Uni v e r s i t y C ol l e g e L on d on onF e b r u a r y4 ,2 0 1 5 h t t p : / / e l t j . oxf or d j o ur n a l s . or g / D o wnl o a d e d f r om be more concerned with the potentially alienating effect of the materialon their students.Commenting on Coursebook 4, Teacher D described the material asfollows: Text about pub culture in England, followed by vocab exercises to do with alcoholic drinks, how to order your drink, rounds, etc. (There are dozens of references to drink and pubs throughout the book.) His answer to Question 4 outlines the reasons for his discomfort: Was teaching in Cairo, group included number of women wearinghijab, also 2 young Al Azhar students. Material obviously irrelevant, inappropriate probably offensive to some. Constant references to alcohol seem to imply a culture obsessed with the stuff—didn't feel likehaving to defend this. Teacher E answered Question 3 as follows: The whole of Coursebook 5 — the world seen from a jingoistic Britishpoint of view — old book — this is changing but often find similarexamples. He explained further in his answer to Question 4: I'm a 'working-class' Midlander who along with many groups isn't represented. I don't want to teach my culture/or British culture as if it ssuperior to that of my students. This teacher was alone in stating that as working-class (his quotationmarks) he felt unrepresented in coursebook material, and that theculture represented in the coursebook conveyed an implicit sense ofsuperiority which he felt would have been perceptible to students.However, another teacher did point out that many coursebooks seem tohave a very straight and middle-class attitude , and this was perceivedby the teacher as being problematic. Adapting the Of the 12 teachers consulted, six said they dropped material they felt coursebook uncomfortable with, and one teacher left this question unanswered. Theremaining five said that they adapted material, or would now do so.Three respondents stated that as beginning teachers they had used thematerials as suggested in the coursebook, but that experience had giventhem the confidence to drop materials or adapt them.Adaptation involved different approaches. Teacher D dropped thematerial on alcohol he had felt uncomfortable with, but retained thefunctional language the text was designed to teach—a procedure hedescribed as adaptation in his answer to Question 5.Teacher D: [I] changed the situation from pub to school cafeteria — found a tapewith similar language that didn't mention alcohol.The ELT coursebook as cultural artefact: how teachers censor and adapt 277 a t Uni v e r s i t y C ol l e g e L on d on onF e b r u a r y4 ,2 0 1 5 h t t p : / / e l t j . oxf or d j o ur n a l s . or g / D o wnl o a d e d f r om Teachers C, E, and G all adapted the material by using it, but not as thecoursebobk suggested.Teacher C: It was a long time ago. I think I followed it up by asking if stereotypeswere true reflection (sic) of a people/culture. Teacher E: Told them it was stereotypical/laughed about it — got them to tell mewhy/their point of view. Teacher G, unhappy about the sexism of the material she had to use:/ did it, but made a joke of the whole thing. At least half the teachers (in an admittedly very small survey) dealt withwhat they considered to be inappropriate cultural material by censor- ship, by which I mean complete abandonment of the material. Thequestion is why? Is it easier to censor than to adapt? Or do languageteachers see the cultural content as merely incidental, and alwayssecondary to linguistic aims? Hyde (1994), writing about the Moroccansituation, argues against censorship and suggests that, however wellintentioned, it robs students of the ability to defend themselves againstthe possibly harmful concepts and pressures (ibid.: 302) exerted bycoursebook cultural content. He advocates a more educational andcross-cultural approach to language teaching:To be able to select, accept, or reject ideas, concepts, and pressures,especially those emanating from other and dominant cultures, peoplehave to be equipped with a good knowlege of their own culture andhistory. This provides the bedrock upon which to judge (ibid.: 303).The teachers in the Barcelona survey are all working in the privatesector. It is possible that, as a consequence of their training and thecontext in which they work, they see themselves as technicists ratherthan educators, that is, as being essentially specialists trained to developlanguage skills only. Pennycook (1994) suggests that the commercializa-tion of ELT has had precisely this effect on teachers perceptions ofthemselves, and that it serves to perpetuate the notion of languageteaching practices as value free. Questionnaire: Whatever the Barcelona teachers views of the precise nature of their part roles as language teachers, a majority of them rejected the material from The Cambridge English Course as inappropriate for their languageclassrooms.Of the three teachers who said they would use the material, two saw it as light-hearted and humorous , while the third (Teacher E) disliked it,but felt it could be used to provoke discussion by allowing students tobring their own cultural perspective to bear on one aspect of thematerial: The stereotypical view of father/daughter relationships, adolescentbehaviour, Tories are preferable to parents etc [is] a bit irksome. On 278 John Gray a t Uni v e r s i t y C ol l e g e L on d on onF e b r u a r y4 ,2 0 1 5 h t t p : / / e l t j . oxf or d j o ur n a l s . or g / D o wnl o a d e d f r om
