Anglo-centrism in Indonesian ELT Textbooks

Satwika Nindya Kirana

, Phongsakorn Methitham

Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok 65000, Thailand

Keywords: ELT Textbook, Anglo-centrism

Abstract: The objective of the study is examining to what extent is Anglo-centrism embedded in ELT textbooks for

senior high school students in Indonesia. The textbook was developed by local English teachers, supervised

and published by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia. The study focuses on analysing critical

elements in the passages in the textbooks. Fifty-nine passages were analysed quantitatively using Moran’s

(2001) cultural dimensions and qualitatively using a set of guideline questions developed from Fairclough’s

(2001) three dimensions of discourse analysis. The findings show that Anglo-centrism is the second major

ideology after Indonesia-centrism. It is found in thirteen passages; four passages in Grade X, three passages

in Grade XI, and six passages in Grade XII. Out of five dimensions (Products, Practices, Perspectives,

Persons, Communities), only persons and products are found in the passages. The products presented include

infrastructure, literature, places, and food. The findings are presented descriptively with assorted excerpts

from the passages followed by discussions for each excerpt. Suggestions on how to lessen Anglo-centrism

transfer are presented on the conclusion.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, Critical Applied Linguists have

been interested in revealing the unequal power

relationship between dominating centre countries and

dominated periphery countries in the use of English

as an international language. Dominating centre

refers to Anglophone western communities while

dominated periphery are those countries in which

English is used as the second or foreign language. The

centre maintain its dominance by transferring their

values and ideologies through English language

teaching (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 2012;

Holliday, 2005). Interestingly, the ideologies are

transferred not only by the centre, but also by local

authorities in the periphery who spread the ideologies

unintentionally since they have been taken for granted

and followed without being criticized for generations.

As the centre in this imbalance relationship is

Anglophone western countries (UK, the US,

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada), the present

study focuses on Anglo-centrism which is

foregrounded in all aspects of English language

teaching (ELT) pedagogies, including ELT textbooks

as the main source of materials. ELT textbooks used

in most periphery countries are global commercial

textbooks published by the centre (Fitzgibbon, 2013;

Litz, 2005; Melliti, 2013). As global textbooks are

marketed internationally, the contents are potentially

do not suit local values and contexts. Most of the

values presented are those of the westerns

(Canagarajah, 1999; Holliday, 2005;

Kumaravadivelu, 2012; Pennycook, 1994; Phillipson

1992) which indicate imbalance exposure with

Anglophone values being emphasized.

While in most periphery countries imported

global commercial textbooks are prioritized, in

Indonesia the textbooks are developed by local

English teachers based on the latest curriculum

revised, under the supervision of The Ministry of

Education and Culture (Indonesian Ministry of

Education and Culture, 2013). However, Anglo-

centrism might still unconsciously inserted in the

textbooks because western values hijacking ELT

have been passed down for generations they are taken

for granted and seen as normal (Canagarajah, 1999;

Fairclough, 2001; Phillipson, 1992; Tollefson, 2007).

Hence, the present study aims at revealing Anglo-

centrism embedded in an ELT textbooks for senior

high schools, published by The Ministry of Education

and Culture in Indonesia.

216

Kirana, S. and Methitham, P.

Anglo-centrism in Indonesian ELT Textbooks.

DOI: 10.5220/0010005300002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 216-220

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

We strongly encourage authors to use this document

for the preparation of the camera-ready. Please follow

the instructions closely in order to make the volume

look as uniform as possible (Moore and Lopes, 1999).

Please remember that all the papers must be in

English and without orthographic errors.

The study is based on the theories of Critical

Discourse Analysis and Critical Applied Linguistics,

sprung from Critical Theory. As Critical Theory sees

domination as a problem (Fuchs, 2015), it concerns

the imbalance power in the society. Accordingly,

Critical Applied Linguistics concerns the dominance

and inequality in ELT (Pennycook, 2001). While

Critical Discourse Analysis focuses on analysing

written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive

sources of power, dominance, in equality and bias

(Fairclough, 2001; Van Dijk, 1998). The theories are

used as the theoretical framework in this study since

the study focuses on critically analysing written

discourse in form of passages.

2.1 Anglo-centrism as an Unquestioned

Ideology in ELT

Ideology is defined by Eagleton (1991) and van Dijk

(2003) as values and ideas of a particular social group

encrypting certain interests related to social power

that are legitimating and naturalizing. Ideology and

power are intertwined (Bourdieu, 1991; Fairclough,

2001; Van Dijk, 1998), hence, the presence of

ideology is related to social power. The ideologies

followed in the society are those of hegemony groups,

or groups with higher social power (Gramsci, 1971).

Anglo-centrism refers to ethnocentric beliefs that

Anglophone western countries (North America,

Britain, New Zealand, and Australia) are more

dominant over non-Anglophone countries, especially

the ones outside the West as stated by Holliday

(2005), Canagarajah (1999), Phillipson (2012), and

Pennycook (1994). In fact, before EIL, WE, and ELF

become concerns in ELT, Anglo-centrism has been

seen as normal in ELT. One example of Anglo-

centrism in ELT is the use of standardized English. It

reflects the dominance of Anglophone countries over

English (Lippi-Green, 1997) which implies that

English speakers and learners have to follow the rules

and norms of the native English countries. One of the

measurements of proficient English speakers are their

ability to use standardized English, either British or

American English (Lippi-Green, 1997), while accents

other than standardized English are categorized as

deviant (Baker, 2015). Not only standardized English,

the cultural representations attached to English are

those of Anglophone countries (Pennycook, 1994).

When students learn English, they are commonly

exposed to the cultures of the West rather than their

own local cultures.

Another case of Anglo-centrism in ELT is the

great one-way flows of ELT resources from the

Anglophone communities to the periphery countries

(Canagarajah, 1999; Holliday, 2005; Phillipson 1992)

that bring economic advantages to the hegemonic

communities (Crystal, 2003; Phillipson 1992), such

as methodology, human resources, textbooks and

other teaching media. (Wu & Tarc, 2016) state that

Anglophone communities successfully distribute and

market their pedagogies to non-Anglophone

countries, especially in the East. Another resource

that Anglophone countries have benefitted from ELT

is human resource. Holliday (2015), sharing similar

idea with Phillipson’s (1992) native fallacy, uses the

term native-speakerism to explain the phenomena in

ELT where native English teachers are crowned as

legitimate owner of English and the methodology that

they have are superior over non-native English

teachers.

3 METHODOLOGY

The study focuses on analysing fifty-nine passages in

Indonesian ELT textbooks for senior high school

students. The study employs Moran’s (2001) cultural

dimensions (Products, Practices, Perspectives,

Persons, and Communities) and Fairclough’s (2001)

three dimensions of critical discourse analysis

(description-interpretation-explanation). The three

dimensions of discourse analysis is used as a

framework to construct a set of guideline questions to

detect the indications of Anglo-centrism by critically

observing the use of pronouns, wording, metaphors,

semantic relations, genre, and the representation of

ethos, values, and cultures in the passages. Three

steps of reading are taken to analyse the materials: 1)

general reading, aiming at understanding main ideas;

2) specific reading, marking suspicious words,

phrases, and sentences indicating certain ideologies;

3) critical reading, analysing the highlighted points

and questioning the motives lie behind the word

choices.

Anglo-centrism in Indonesian ELT Textbooks

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4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The present study reveals that Indonesian government

emphasizes Indonesian cultural values in most of the

passages in the textbooks. Indonesian-centrism is the

major ideology found in twenty-three passages; nine

passages in Grade X textbook, seven passages in

Grade XI textbook, and seven passages in Grade XII

textbook. However, Indonesian-centrism is not

discussed further since the study focuses on Anglo-

centrism in the textbooks.

Anglo-centrism is the second major ideology found

after Indonesia-centrism. It is found in thirteen

passages; four passages in Grade X, three passages in

Grade XI, and six passages in Grade XII. Out of five

dimensions (Products, Practices, Perspectives,

Persons, Communities), only persons and products

are found in the passages. The products presented

include infrastructure, literature, places, and food.

Persons. Persons refer to individual members who

embody the culture and its communities in unique

ways. The depictions of persons from Anglophone

communities are found in six passages. Three

passages holistically highlight the superiority of

persons from the West. The passages “Interview with

the Wright Brothers” and “Harold Pinter Won a

Nobel Prize” present figures from the UK. One

passage of job application portrays persons from the

UK in professional setting. Three other passages

inserted Anglo-centrism of the persons in small

portions. In the passage “An E-mail from Hannah”,

Anglo-centrism in term of persons can be seen in the

following excerpts:

“I know your name from my friend, Caroline. She

told me that you sent her an email telling her that you

would like to have more pen pals from the US. I’d

like to be your E-pal. You sound really cool!”

(Grade X, Page 4, Paragraph 1)

The excerpt implies that students in Indonesia can

improve their English by communicating with only

native English speakers (henceforth referred to as

NES), which support the idea of Anglo-centrism.

Like in other periphery countries, in Indonesia people

believe that communicating with native speakers, or

living in native speakers communities will accelerate

English communicative competence (Chun, 2014;

Wu & Ke, 2009). This belief has been lasted for

generations and is somehow seen normal for

Indonesian people. The fact is that recent studies

reveal that both NES and NNES have their own

strengths in improving students’ English (Árva &

Medgyes, 2000; Benke & Medgyes, 2005;

Walkinshaw & Oanh, 2014). A study conducted by

Walkinshaw and Oanh (2014) shows that NESs are

superior in terms of pronunciation and cultural

knowledge, while non-native English speakers

(henceforth referred to as NNES) are dominant in

grammars since they learn the language explicitly.

At school, I have many Hmong friends who were not

fully fluent in English. Their family moved here from

Asia. I enjoy talking to them about our different

cultures.

(Grade X, Page 4, Paragraph 3)

Referring to Hmong as influent English speakers

might initiates the idea that NNES are not able to

reach the English proficiency as NES does. It

reinforces the belief that NES are fluent and

competent in English, while NNES are influent and

incompetent in English. This, again, leads to Anglo-

centrism in a way that speakers from Anglophone

countries are declared as the legitimate speakers of

English while NNES are illegitimate over English

(Bourdieu, 1991; Holliday, 2006; Phillipson, 1992).

This kind of perception might demotivate students

because they think it is impossible for NNES to speak

as fluent and as natural as NES, and that there is

nothing they can do about it because they are not born

as NES. Those thoughts are not absolutely right.

There are possibilities for NNES to reach native-like

or native-near proficiency as argued by Phillipson

(1992) which infer that English competencies are not

a birthright and can be achieved by whoever despite

their nationalities and races.

Products. Products include artefacts (food,

documents, language, money, tools), places

(buildings, cities, houses), institutions (family, law,

economy, religion, education, politics), and art forms

(music, clothes, dancing, painting, movie,

architecture). The products of the Anglophone

communities found in this research include places,

literature, food, infrastructure, living quality,

education, and knowledge as presented and discussed

below.

Places. Anglo-centrism found in this research is

revealed to promote places in Anglophone

communities. Western centrism in term of places is

found in four passages. The passage “Visiting

Niagara Falls” promotes Niagara Falls as a

multipurpose tourist destination.

The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty

and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power.

Managing the balance between recreational,

commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge

for the stewards of the falls since the 19

century.

(Grade X, Page 84, Paragraph 8)

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Anglo-centrism can be seen from the writers’

decision to present The Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls

is a famous tourism destination that most Indonesian

students know. They even know Niagara Falls better

than numerous beautiful, yet infamous waterfalls in

Indonesia. Anglo-centrism can be lessen by: 1)

juxtaposing the Niagara Falls with one of waterfalls

in Indonesia that are used as a hydroelectric power.

For example, Sigura-gura Waterfalls in Sumatera

which is the highest waterfall in Indonesia and is used

as a hydroelectric power. However, not many

students in Indonesia know about this waterfall; 2)

juxtaposing the Niagara Falls with waterfalls from

periphery countries other than Indonesia; 3) choosing

natural tourism objects from periphery countries to

give students new knowledge.

Literature. Anglo-centrism can also be identified

from literary works chosen. There are three literary

works reflecting Anglo-centrism featured in the

textbooks. The Last Leaf is an Anglophone literature

written by O. Henry, depicting Anglophone

communities.

Many artists lived in Greenwich Village in New York

City. Sue and Johnsy, two artists also lived there in a

studio apartment.

(Grade XI, Page 47, Paragraph 1)

The cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves

from the vine until its skeleton branches clung, almost

bare, to the crumbling bricks.

(Grade XI, Page 47, Paragraph 7)

A persistent, cold raining was falling, mingled with

snow.

(Grade XI, Page 47, Paragraph 9)

The story potentially transfer Anglo-centrism as the

names, setting, and condition depicted in the story are

related to western communities. However, since the

story portrays the disadvantage of winter, as it can

cause pneumonia, the Anglo-centrism presented is

less strong. This contradicts the portrayal of beautiful

winter and autumn in the West that is commonly

found in English short stories that reflect Anglo-

centrism.

Food. Anglo-centrism highlighting western food can

be seen in three procedure passages: How to Make

Cheese Toast and How to Make Chocolate Dipped

Strawberry. The passage ‘How to Make Cheese

Toast’ reflects the Anglo-centrism as cheese toast is

originally from the UK. In the same vein, chocolate

dipped strawberry is a typical valentine’s gift

originated from the US. On the other hand, pizza is a

worldwide famous food originated from Italy.

Infrastructure. There is one excerpt of a passage ‘An

E-mail from Hannah’ that reflect the developed,

civilized infrastructure in the US that can be seen as

follows:

I haven’t got much interest in fashion, although we

have ‘Mall of America,’ the biggest mall in

Minnesota. We can reach the mall very easily. A

commuter train runs every 15 minutes, buses also

come from different directions. We can also drive to

the mall. It’s much faster than going there by train or

by bus.

(Grade X, Page 4, Paragraph 4)

The excerpt shows the depiction of how developed

and efficient Hannah’s life in America is. This kind

of portrayal of Anglophone countries, which

Canagarajah (1999) said “rose-tinted, but not entirely

false” (p. 12), is very commonly inserted in ELT.

Anglophone centre countries are framed by media,

and perceived by periphery countries, as

economically more developed and civilized than

periphery countries. What presented in the textbooks

is all about the good sides of western countries, while

the existed bad sides remain unrevealed

(Canagarajah, 1999). In contrary to the depiction of

the centre, the periphery countries are exposed on the

bad sides and criticized that they should learn from

the centre countries. The good sides of periphery

countries are not frequently discussed. These

imbalance imageries between centre and periphery

countries are what often depicted in ELT textbooks

might make the students either motivated to be the

part of it by learning English, or demotivated because

they feel inferior of their own condition.

5 CONCLUSIONS

According to the findings, it can be said that

Indonesian government has developed the materials

well by emphasizing on Indonesia-centrism.

However, Anglo-centrism is found to be the second

major ideology after Indonesia-centrism. The

phenomena is probably seen as normal in ELT as they

have been naturalized for generations in ELT process

in Indonesia. Therefore, this study reveals that those

‘natural and normal’ phenomena in ELT is neither

natural nor normal. The transfer of Anglo-centrism

can be lessen by: 1) providing Indonesian cultures or

other cultures from periphery countries in line with

the cultures of the centre countries; 2) providing the

roles of Indonesians and other important figures from

the periphery countries so that they are not

marginalized. By giving equal importance to

Anglo-centrism in Indonesian ELT Textbooks

219

Indonesia, the periphery, and the centre countries, the

harm of Anglo-centrism could be prevented.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was financially supported by Naresuan

University Research Grant.

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