The Inside of English Textbooks in a City of Education: A Cultural Content Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of teaching English as a foreign language is learners are able use it both in spoken and written language, as well as understand the culture of the target language. Cultural material is seen as important as a learning medium to improve language skills, cultural understanding, and appreciation for diversity. English textbooks carried two important missions, namely language and cultural learning media. This study explores cultural materials in two English textbooks in Kota Metro - Indonesia as a city of education. The research used qualitative approach with content analysis technique. The research object was seven English textbooks used in high schools. Data analysis is done descriptively used Miles and Huberman model. The findings as follow: (1) The cultural materials were divided into three types of source information. (2) The culture materials were mostly presented into text rather than audio-visual. (3) There were four elements of culture in English textbooks: products, persons practices, and perspectives. The cultural materials can create students who have character, moral values who then live and interact in multicultural society.