ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS AT SECONDARY LEVEL IN PUNJAB: A SOCIO-SEMIOTIC STUDY

Abstract

Culture is a very important aspect of Identity. It is a versatile term and has many different definitions and descriptions. Cultural representation in the textbooks plays a very crucial role in learning and developing inter-cultural competence in the students. However, it is very important to understand different aspects of written text and visuals in the textbooks. Cultural representation in the textbooks is widely researched area. A number of researches have claimed that there is an imbalance in the representation of cultural diversity throughout many regions in the world. However, none of the studies have explained the portrayal of cultural diversity in English textbooks at secondary level in Punjab developed by Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board. The present study fills this existing gap. The whole text of secondary level English textbooks has been examined. The qualitative descriptive design along with purposive sampling is used in the study. Grade 9th and 10th English textbooks of Punjab are taken as samples. To examine the cultural diversity in the textbooks, Yuen’s (2012) analytical framework is employed along with multi-modal discourse analysis. There are 5 aspects of Yuen’s model that are employed for analysis of data. The results show that there is an imbalance in the textbook, with grade 9th textbook focusing more on Islamic aspects of culture and the grade 10th textbook portraying the dominance of foreign culture. However, there should be culturally responsive educators who incorporate culturally responsive teaching practices in order to give value to the diverse cultural perspectives.