This paper is the result of a critical review of two Teacher’s Guides aimed at English 5 (the first year) in Swedish upper secondary schools. The aim was to investigate, with a pragmatic approach, how cultural representations are epitomised in the guidance materials: Progress Gold and Professional as well as how those representations correlate to the fundamental values of the curriculum for the upper secondary school. In short: how do these Teacher’s Guides uphold the fundamental values of the Swedish curriculum via their cultural representations? The theoretical framework consists of Stuart Hall’s description of what culture and representation are and Claire Kramsch’s ideas on language and culture. The main analytical tool, and underlying theory, for identifying cultural representations are the three understandings of culture identified by Ulrika Tornberg. These cultural understandings are used to categorize and discuss the cultural findings and consists of culture as a fact fulfilled, culture as a future competence and culture as an encounter in an open landscape. The Teacher’s Guides representations of cultures show signs of being static to a great extent as cultures in many instances are defined by nationality, unaffected by time and individuals. Progress Gold A has a strong and clearly expressed connection between language learning and cultural knowledge, both in their selected grading criteria and chapter descriptions, whereas Professional does not explicitly focus on culture in English speaking countries. The guides are in many instances at risk of being stereotyping and in the long run discriminating if left unreflected, which is not in correlation with the fundamental values of the curriculum. The paper is concluded with a discussion on cultural teaching’s role in the English as a foreign language classroom in relation to the fundamental values, and suggestions for further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-60555 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Anneli |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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