Ideology and Worldview in Textbooks: A Study of Cultural Aspects in ELT in Pakistan

Abstract

The present study is a critical discourse analysis of ideological contents related to culture in Pakistan English language textbooks. It critically examines the following books: Punjab Textbook Board (henceforth PTB) English textbooks and Oxford University Press (henceforth OUP) English textbooks. These textbooks are taught in three different types of schools in the country. The PTB English textbooks are taught in the government Urdu- medium schools and private non-elite English-medium schools at the secondary level (i.e. 9th and 10th classes/grades), whereas the latter are taught at the same level (i.e. O level) in some of the elite English-medium schools in Pakistan. The research aims at finding out the cultural ideologies embedded within the textbooks. The research employs Fairclough’s (2003) analytical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth) CDA) to explore cultural themes. The analytical categories adapted for analysis of certain textual issues in this model are: ‘Social Events’, ‘Difference’, ‘Intertexuality’, ‘Assumptions’, ‘Representations of Social Events’ and ‘Styles’. Further analytical devices include Comparison, Presupposition/Assumption/Implicature, Contrast, Foregrounding, Implication, Inclusion, Metaphor, Identity, Representation, Attribution, Backgrounding, Exclusion, Difference, Prominence/Reinforcement, Dialogicality, and Universalization. The purpose of critically analyzing the discourse of English textbooks is, in fact, threefold: (a) To find out the implicit as well as explicit ideological messages related to culture, (b) To see if these ideologies are different in the textbooks of different schools; and (c) To see how far these ideologies impact upon the learners’ worldviews. The analysis shows that both the PTB and OUP English textbooks are replete with cultural ideologies. Moreover, they represent different cultural ideologies which are, therefore, likely to impart different worldviews to their young readers. In order to determine this aspect statistically, I constructed a questionnaire related to the major themes such as gender, jihad etc. The results show that the government and non-elite schools students (who read PTB textbooks) hold almost identical worldview; whereas their counterparts from the elite school (who read OUP books) hold different worldview regarding most of the themes mentioned above. The former ones are more religious, nationalistic, anti-Hindu, anti-Christians, anti-Israel, and closer to indigenous culture as compared to the latter ones. As compared to elite school students, they like male characters more than the females ones. However, so far as the desire for learning English is concerned, difference is little – mostly the students of all schools disagree with the abolition of English in the country. The findings of the present study can be useful in a number of ways. They can be useful in developing new curricula and teaching materials including textbooks with less nationalistic, religious and gender biases. They can also help the policy makers, textbook authors and ELT practitioners to realize the politics of language textbooks, and, thus, seek to establish an egalitarian and symmetrical educational system.