Representations of the World in Language Textbooks 9781783099566

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

LANGUAGES FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION Series Editors: Michael Byram, University of Durham, UK and Anthony J. Liddicoat, University of Warwick, UK The overall aim of this series is to publish books which will ultimately inform learning and teaching, but whose primary focus is on the analysis of intercultural relationships, whether in textual form or in people’s experience. There will also be books which deal directly with pedagogy, with the relationships between language learning and cultural learning, between processes inside the classroom and beyond. They will all have in common a concern with the relationship between language and culture, and the development of intercultural communicative competence. All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

LANGUAGES FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION: 34

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks Karen Risager

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/RISAGE9559 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Risager, Karen - author. Title: Representations of the World in Language Textbooks/Karen Risager. Description: Bristol; Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Multilingual Matters, [2018] | Series: Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education: 34 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017041987| ISBN 9781783099559 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783099542 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783099580 (kindle) | ISBN 9781783099566 (pdf) | ISBN 9781783099573 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages--Textbooks--Evaluation. | Cultural pluralism in textbooks. | Multicultural education. | Language and culture. Classification: LCC P53.412 .R57 2018 | DDC 418.0071–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017041987 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-955-9 (hbk) ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-954-2 (pbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2018 Karen Risager. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services Limited. Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.

Contents

Preface 1

2

ix

Representations of the World Introduction Representations of the World: A Focus on Knowledge The Concept of Representation English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto Textbooks and Other Learning Materials in the Teaching Process Five Theoretical Approaches or Readings Main Questions Textbook Analysis: A Form of Critical Discourse Analysis The Role of Publishers Textbook Research across Subjects The Selection of Textbooks for This Study The Danish Education System Denmark in the World and the World in Denmark Overview of This Book

9 10 12 13 15 16 17 19 20 22

Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World Introduction Methodologies Thematic Categories Which Parts of the World? The Geopolitical Context The Textbook Genre and Cultural Politics The Survey Corpus Textbook Analyses: English Comments on the Analyses Related to English Textbook Analyses: German Comments on the Analyses Related to German Textbook Analyses: French Comments on the Analyses Related to French Textbook Analyses: Spanish

23 23 24 27 29 31 32 32 40 41 46 47 52 53

v

1 1 2 5 6

vi

Contents

Comments on the Analyses Related to Spanish Textbook Analyses: Danish Comments on the Analysis Related to Danish Conclusion 3

4

5

6

National Studies Introduction National Studies National Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy Analytical Questions in Relation to a National Studies Reading English: A Piece of Cake German: Du bist dran Conclusion

56 57 58 58 60 60 61 63 66 67 91 104

Citizenship Education Studies Introduction Citizenship Education Studies Citizenship Education Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy Analytical Questions in Relation to a Citizenship Education Studies Reading English: A Piece of Cake Danish: Puls Conclusion

106 106 106

Cultural Studies Introduction Cultural Studies Cultural Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy Culture in Language: Linguaculture Analytical Questions in Relation to a Cultural Studies Reading English: A Piece of Cake French: Français Formidable Conclusion

130 130 130 132 133

Postcolonial Studies Introduction Postcolonial Studies Postcolonial Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy Analytical Questions in Relation to a Postcolonial Studies Reading English: A Piece of Cake

158 158 158 162

107 109 110 119 128

135 136 145 157

163 164

Contents

Spanish: Caminando Conclusion 7

8

vii

174 184

Transnational Studies Introduction Transnational Studies Transnational Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy Language in Culture: A Transnational View Analytical Questions in Relation to a Transnational Studies Reading English: A Piece of Cake Esperanto: Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando Conclusion

185 185 185

Conclusion Representations of the World: Five Readings Textbooks with Different Purposes Knowledge and Knowledge Construction The Visibility and Identity of the Author Supplementary Materials The Study Seen in Relation to the Survey Corpus Researcher Reflexivity Intercultural Competence: Which Directions? The Language Textbook: A Dual Focus

214 214 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223

188 188 190 190 200 212

Appendix 1: Textbooks Selected

226

Appendix 2: Survey Corpus

227

References

230

Author Index

247

Subject Index

251

Preface

What images of culture, society and the world do we find in language teaching and learning? This question has guided me in all my academic work, including the monographs Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexities (Risager, 2006) and Language and Culture Pedagogy: From a National to a Transnational Paradigm (Risager, 2007). In the present book, I want to deal with this question in a concrete manner as I focus on the analysis of a number of language textbooks with special reference to their cultural representations: their images of culture, society and the world, including language as an integral part of culture and society. My central point is that an analysis of culture in textbooks has to be specific about what theoretical approaches are drawn upon, and therefore I distinguish between a number of different approaches: national studies, citizenship education studies, Cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. For each of the five approaches, I list a number of analytical questions that may guide the analysis of any language textbook. The methodology is useful for the analysis of other language learning materials as well, and also, in my view, for the analysis of other subjects and areas of education. In a sense, it is a way of analysing and reflecting on what directions intercultural competence takes or could take. The textbooks selected are drawn from six different languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. It is an important point to try to include many languages as they exemplify different traditions and perspectives. It is also a way of unfolding my own interest in multilingualism. When I went to school in Denmark in the 1960s, I had the wonderful opportunity of making the acquaintance of a number of different languages: English, German, French and Latin, and I studied Dutch on my own. Norwegian and Swedish were very easy to learn to read as these languages are closely related to Danish. In the years around 1970, I studied General Linguistics and French at the University of Copenhagen, and during those years I  acquired some (restricted) knowledge of a number of other languages: Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Vedic, Russian, Classical Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), Quechua and Basque. Later on, I studied Esperanto and Spanish, and a little bit of Portuguese and Italian. ix

x

Preface

I experienced how being able to read texts in a language may give access to discourses of the world that are influenced by the position of that particular language – and its users – in world history. My interest in language teaching, and also in theories of culture and in studies of the world order, stems from my work at Roskilde University. All of my professional life I have been attached to Roskilde University, one of the reform universities created in the 1970s, characterised to a large extent by interdisciplinarity, problem orientation and study work in groups with supervisors. I first had a post in Language pedagogy with special regard to French, and I started my research projects on the cultural, social and political dimensions of language teaching. Later on, I was attached to International Development Studies and gained further insight into theories of development and globalisation. In 2000, I was (co-)founder of Cultural Encounters, which focuses on critical intercultural studies with a team of teachers/researchers from postcolonial/decolonial studies, cultural sociology, Cultural studies, anthropology, the sociology of religion, language and culture studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Hence my interdisciplinary orientation. During the elaboration of this book I received constructive criticism, encouragement and suggestions from many colleagues and friends, some of whom are specialists in the fields of English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto studies: Lis Ramberg Beyer, Kirsten Bjerre, Heidi Bojsen, Michael Byram, Petra Daryai-Hansen, Susana Silvia Fernández, Karen-Margrete Frederiksen, Annegret Friedrichsen, John Gray, Hartmut Haberland, Anne Holmen, Lars Jensen, Mads Jakob Kirkebæk, Bergthóra Kristjánsdóttir, Anthony J. Liddicoat, Isabel Olesen, Michael Svendsen Pedersen, Kirsten Holst Petersen, Ileana Schrøder, Klaus Schulte, Julia Suárez-Krabbe, Lone Krogsgaard Svarstad, Louise Tranekjær and an anonymous reviewer. I am most grateful to them all. I want to express my special thanks to Karen Sonne Jakobsen who was the first reader during the whole writing process and with whom I had so many inspiring discussions. Karen Risager

1 Representations of the World

Introduction

With the present book, I want to contribute to theoretical reflections on cultural representations (sociocultural content) in foreign and second language learning, with special reference to textbooks and other learning materials. The focus is on different approaches to the analysis of representations of the world. Thus, the book will raise questions such as: What views of culture, society and the world guide the representations in textbooks? What parts of the world and what thematic areas do they deal with? What ideologies and emotions are reflected in their discourses? How do they deal with local and global power relations, problems and confl icts, and are there significant silences? The book also takes up questions of intercultural learning: What do textbooks invite us to do as students, teachers and citizens? How can textbooks be stepping stones for students’ further reflections on the world and perhaps for greater engagement in world issues? An analysis of culture in language textbooks has to be specific about what theoretical approaches are drawn upon, and in the course of Chapters 3–7 five different approaches will be presented and illustrated: national studies, citizenship education studies, Cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. The analysis will include a study of six textbooks, one for each of the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. Cultural representations in language textbooks may exhibit a very large array of thematic areas, for example: everyday lives and identities of groups in society, cultural connotations of words and phrases, celebrities, gender roles, youth culture, pets, artists, literature and film, media and IT, sport, health, travelling, business and consumption, demographic patterns, regional accents, social and political conditions, environment, religions, history and geography, weather and climate, landscapes and wildlife. Some of these areas are language related: ‘cultural connotations of words and phrases’, ‘literature’ and ‘regional accents’, and indeed I want to stress that language is included in this study as a cultural and social practice and as an integral part of the wider cultural and social landscape (see Chapters 5 and 7 in particular). On the other hand, I will

1

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

only deal briefly with language in a more specifically linguistic sense. As far as learning materials are concerned, linguistic aspects and aspects of language learning have already been extensively studied in relation to the elaboration of evaluation criteria and in the field of materials development (Harwood, 2010, 2014; Hutchinson & Torres, 1994; McGrath, 2002; Tomlinson, 2012; Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2010), some of it carried out within the framework of MATSDA – the Materials Development Association – based in the UK. The word ‘world’ has many possible denotations according to context, for instance the world of literature, the Muslim world, the old world, the fourth world, the world of animals, the world of business, the world of art, my inner world. The field of language studies is characterised by a specific kind of image of the world, where the world, in the sense of the entire globe, is fi rst and foremost seen as consisting of a number of different languages each with its own language area, and for some of these languages it is common to note that this language area constitutes a ‘world’ with its particular cultural identity: the English-speaking world, the French-speaking world, the Chinese-speaking world, the Spanishspeaking world. Furthermore, the expression ‘the English-speaking world’ is often ambiguous as it may also refer to people all over the world (the globe) who have some knowledge of English. This global extension of meaning is also sometimes seen for the other languages mentioned. Thus, looking at representations of the world in language learning materials also means looking at the geographical horizon attributed to the target language. As can be seen, I use the term ‘world’ in a geographical sense, referring to the globe or the planet. This does not, however, just imply a view of the world as a physical or territorial place but also as spaces of global range, such as global media or global environmental movements (see Chapter 7 on transnational studies). Representations of the World: A Focus on Knowledge

Focusing on representations of the world indicates a focus on knowledge. A basic educational tenet in the book is that knowledge of the world is important. But at the same time it must be maintained that knowledge is perspectival: It is socially situated and embedded in discourses, always seen and represented from somewhere and by some people with specific life histories, experiences and power positions (Foucault, 1976). Textbook knowledge, for example, is normally influenced by the perspective of a publishing company, perhaps in combination with a specific education system or institution and a specific curriculum. And when the textbook treats a certain phenomenon, for example the illness Ebola, it has to select among a multitude of different perspectives pertaining to different

Representations of the World

3

roles and agents: patients, health assistants, doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, the media industry, etc. (cf. Apple & Christian-Smith [1991b], who discuss the question of whose knowledge is represented in textbooks [in any subject]). Knowledge is generally coloured by emotions (Ahmed, 2004). Knowledge about ‘Ebola’ will for most people be associated with fear and worry but also perhaps a wish for relief and social change. Knowledge about a very different topic such as ‘Canada’ may be associated with widely different emotions, but in a textbook for English as a foreign language aimed at young people, for example, the representations may privilege positive emotions, such as curiosity and a wish for adventure. Knowledge does not only cover factually oriented knowledge. Knowledge can also take more implicit forms, and here I refer to the three dimensions of knowledge argued by Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe (2016): factual knowledge, epistemology and common sense. Where factual knowledge is explicit knowledge that is transmitted intentionally, epistemology is the ways of organising knowledge by means of more general concepts and frames of understanding, some of which may also be taught. Examples are concepts like ‘East’ and ‘West’, ‘North’ and ‘South’, ‘us’ and ‘them’, and here Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe refer to the work of Santos (2014) on ‘epistemologies of the South’. Common sense is knowledge that is seldom verbalised and more or less naturalised, i.e. felt as if it is natural, and here Tranekjær and Suárez-Krabbe refer to Billig’s (1991) work on common sense. An example could be a textbook theme on the transatlantic slave trade. Factual knowledge would be constructed via discourses containing more or less precise information on dates, numbers and places. The discourses would spring from a certain perspective, for instance a modern European perspective. These discourses would be structured by knowledge of a more epistemological nature, for instance ideas about different parts of the world: European vs. non-European, Christian vs. non-Christian, white vs. black – ideas that are typically organised in value hierarchies: European over non-European, Christian over non-Christian, white over black. Finally, the theme would probably rest on a number of common-sense ideas, which would be difficult to detect because they are naturalised. One of these may be the (false) idea that slavery is a phenomenon of the past. Thus, intercultural learning in the present volume focuses on the construction of knowledge. The construction of knowledge is both the building of a maximally coherent and factually oriented knowledge about culture, society and the world, the development of critical awareness of the epistemologies that guide and structure knowledge and, if possible, critical awareness of instances of common sense.

4

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

The age focus will be from 13+ to adults, not that I consider cultural representations irrelevant with regard to younger students, but because I want to focus on students who are able to understand that cultural representations (for example, the theme of sport and athletes) contain different perspectives and that these perspectives may change. Thus, Martyn Barrett states after the accomplishment of a large empirical investigation of children’s knowledge, beliefs and feelings about nations and national groups: By 10 or 11 years of age, children produce much more detailed descriptions of the distinctive characteristics that are exhibited by the members of a large number of different out-groups, and these characteristics include not only typical physical features, clothing, language and habits, and also psychological and personality traits and sometimes political and religious beliefs as well. … By 10–12 years of age children readily concede that most people do not actually conform to these stereotypes. (Barrett, 2007: 192–193)

The foregrounding of knowledge may be characterised as ‘modernism in postmodernism’ (Risager, 2007). The field of culture pedagogy in the language subjects may be interpreted as a struggle between modernism and postmodernism. Modernism was predominant until some time in the 1980s and has to do with an emphasis on the content dimension in teaching and in textbooks. It stresses the importance of a realistic and coherent factual knowledge of cultural and social conditions in target language countries. From the 1980s onwards, a postmodern tendency emerged that gradually became more influential. It focuses on the individual students, their experiences, attitudes and emotions, their ability to understand and deal with the Other. It stresses the affective dimension rather than the cognitive or knowledge oriented. In relation to this struggle, I want to situate my position in the postmodern wing as I agree that one should not ignore students’ subjectivities, attitudes, emotions and engagement. But I also want to maintain that the knowledge dimension is important: It does matter what image of the world the learning materials present to us as readers and users. Learning materials are carriers of potential knowledge. The above-mentioned network around Tomlinson and MATSDA has a different position. Tomlinson (2012) is clearly positioned in the postmodern wing as he stresses the importance of humanising the textbook, i.e. making it of more personal relevance and value to the human beings using it. Among the principles of materials development that he proposes, is ‘…a variety of [spoken and written] text types and genres in relation to topics, themes, events and locations likely to be meaningful to the target learners’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 346). He argues that: ‘Feeling enjoyment,

Representations of the World

5

pleasure and happiness, feeling empathy, being amused, being excited and being stimulated are most likely to influence acquisition positively but feeling annoyance, anger, fear, opposition and sadness is more useful than feeling nothing at all’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 347). Further, he proposes to ‘stimulate emotive responses through the use of music, song, literature, art, etc., through making use of controversial and provocative texts and through personalisation’ (Tomlinson, 2012: 348). Thus, Tomlinson very clearly stresses the affective dimension, but leaves the cognitive or knowledge dimension open. Thus, his approach does not imply a concern for the images of the world represented in learning materials. It should be said that this position may be related both to his foundation in the communicative approach and to the fact that his main field – the teaching of English as a foreign language – is indeed characterised by a very wide range of potential content both in terms of geographical reference and thematic orientation. The Concept of Representation

The concept of representation has been much discussed in the fields of Cultural studies and postcolonial studies. One of the major proponents of Cultural studies, Stuart Hall (1997b), distinguishes between three approaches to representation: the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist. In the reflective approach, representation is seen as a mirror of reality, as a direct and transparent relationship or imitation of reality. Relating this statement to the analysis of language textbooks, one can say that in the reflective approach, the representation of the target language country is a reflection of the reality out there. It gets authority from reality itself. Who has made the representation and under what circumstances is not important, as the meaning lies in reality itself. For example, ‘British life and institutions’ are just there to be described. Therefore, in this approach an analysis of the process of representation is not deemed to be necessary. The intentional approach reduces representation to the intentions of its author. Taking the example of a language textbook, one can say that in this approach the author of the textbook becomes interesting: Who is the author? It is his or her view of the target language country that is present in the textbook. The representation gets its authority from the author (or the collective of authors and their context, such as a publishing company). The reception of those who read and use the textbook, on the other hand, is not taken into account. The constructionist approach implies that reading and interpretation is an active process, and that meaning is therefore seen as never fi nally fi xed. The reader is just as important as the writer. In our example with the language textbook, one can say that the author constructs the image of

6

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the target language country, but all readers – individual teachers, learners, analysts – construct representations for themselves as well. In my view, Hall’s warning not to limit oneself to the reflective approach is important. The position and individual representation of the author, and the positions and individual representations of preferred and actual readers, must not be forgotten. (‘Readers’ here is an umbrella term for any interpreter of multimodal texts, including verbal text, images and sound.) But since my focus is on knowledge about the world, I want to stress that the reflective approach is the basic one. When the language textbook tries to provide students with perspectival knowledge about the world, explicitly or implicitly, its (multimodal) representations must aim at high quality. It must try to avoid representations of culture, society and the world that are incorrect, outdated, overly simplified and superficial, stereotypical or socially and culturally biased – whoever the author and whoever the preferred reader. English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto

The field of research into representations of culture and society in language learning materials is very fragmented (Weninger & Kiss, 2015). There are some important works dealing with the topic (see Chapter 2), but the great majority take their point of departure in one specific language. Analyses of cultural representation in language textbooks are typically scattered in many different journals and other publications each focusing on one language, and most often today this language is English. The field of materials analysis needs to establish a greater coherence and interchange of ideas and methods (Curdt-Christiansen & Weninger, 2015b; Gray, 2013; Kramsch, 2015), and in my view it should be founded in work with a large number of languages (cf. Fenoulhet & Ros i Solé, 2011). Therefore, the present volume draws on several languages. As said, examples of analysis (Chapters 3–7) will be drawn from six textbook systems, one for each of the following target languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. All the textbooks are – or have recently been – in use in Denmark, where I live and have good access to textbooks and the educational context. English, German, French and Spanish are the most prominent foreign languages in the Danish education system. The Danish language is of course a natural choice in Denmark, and represents the case of a language that functions as a second language for students. Finally, I have added Esperanto because it is generally perceived by its users to be an international, and nationally neutral, language – thus exhibiting interesting similarities and differences in relation to primarily English, but also other languages of wide international use. These six languages are positioned differently in the global landscape of languages, although historically related to Europe. I would have liked

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to include other target languages, such as for example Chinese or Arabic, but I am not able to read these languages and understand linguistically transmitted cultural references. It should be noted that the reading of this book and its analyses does not presuppose knowledge of any other languages than English. I want to emphasise that the aim of this study is not to investigate language teaching in Denmark or to evaluate specific textbooks in relation to official guidelines. The aim is to discuss fundamental views of culture, society and the world in language textbooks in general (as a genre) and in language teaching more broadly. In principle, materials used in other parts of the world could have been selected. On the other hand, of course, since the choice of Denmark has been made, the situatedness of the Danish context in the world has to be clarified. This is why there is some information on Denmark and the Danish education system later in this chapter. In order to be able to discuss the textbooks used in Denmark in a global perspective, I have elaborated a survey of 30 textbook analyses undertaken in different parts of the world since the 1980s (Chapter 2). They deal with the teaching of English, German, French, Spanish and Danish in many different contexts, and may be used as a reference tool for those who want to orientate themselves in the literature about the different languages. Reading textbook analyses across languages may lead to many reflections on how representations of the world may differ from language to language and from place to place (as well as over time). I would like to add a comment on language hierarchies. When several languages are mentioned, they normally have to be put in some order, and ultimately any order is the expression of a hierarchy (Risager, 2012b). In the situation of the six languages mentioned above, we have an interplay of several grounds of hierarchisation (Daryai-Hansen, 2010): English, German, French and Spanish as foreign languages are ordered like this according to the local institutional order in the Danish school system in terms of status and time of start. Danish as a second language for adults is put next because the teaching is set apart in specific language centres, i.e. not as part of mainstream adult education. Esperanto is put last because it has low status on a range of parameters: linguistically because it was originally a constructed language; politically because it is not supported by any state as a national language; and institutionally because it is not part of the education system (in Denmark at least). It is difficult to avoid hierarchies. If I arrange the languages in alphabetical order, there are two hierarchies at work: the fact that the languages are mentioned by their English names and not in other languages, and the fact that the Latin alphabet is used and not other alphabets or writing systems. A note on Esperanto language and culture: Esperanto (Blanke, 2009; Forster, 1982; Tonkin, 1997) is today a living and flexible language spoken

8

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

in many parts of the world, most numerously in Northern and Western Europe, in East Asia (China, South Korea, Japan), in Iran, in the Americas (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico) and in Africa (Togo, Madagascar). It is typically used as an additional language, but there are also native speakers, maybe about 1000 families around the world, involving perhaps 2000 children. These families are bi- or trilingual families where the parents have met in the global community of Esperanto speakers and may not have any other common language than Esperanto. The number of Esperanto speakers worldwide, at any level of proficiency, is very difficult to estimate, but it is probably somewhere between 1 and 2 million. It is by far the most widely spoken of the constructed languages. It could be added that the Esperanto section of Wikipedia (Vikipedio) is quite large with regard to the number of articles, larger than for instance the Danish one. Esperanto was constructed in the 1880s by the Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist L.L. Zamenhof. He was originally from Białystok in Eastern Poland which was at his time a part of Lithuania and placed under the Russian Empire. The city had a majority of Jews and it also had large communities of Polish, German, Russian and Byelorussian speakers. It was ethnically highly divided, in linguistic as well as religious terms. Beside the Jews, there were the Catholic Poles, the Orthodox Russians and the Protestant Germans. Zamenhof’s goal was to create an easy-to-learn, politically neutral language (an additional language) that would transcend nationality and foster peace and international understanding between people with different languages. Esperanto is constructed on the basis of European languages and uses the Latin alphabet. The vocabulary is mostly from Romance and Germanic languages and the grammar and phonology mostly from Slavic languages; it has a very simple morphology and very flexible and productive word formation. Thus, Esperanto is a European and Western language, and it has had strong universalist aspirations from the beginning – an Enlightenment project. It is not one of the imperial languages, like for instance English and Spanish with their colonialist and imperialist histories (Mignolo, 2011), as its proponents have had to fight for the recognition of Esperanto among the other languages (‘ethnic languages’, as they are called in the Esperanto context). As already mentioned, the reason why I have included a textbook for Esperanto in the present study is the specific relationship between language and culture in the case of Esperanto. Defi nitely, there is something that one can call Esperanto culture: a narrative of the origin of the language; a history of its speakers, including persecution by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes (Lins, 1988); a history of internationalist idealism, pacifism and socialism, and a history of internal confl icts over the purposes of an international language; practices of intercultural communication in transnational networks, associations and congresses;

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and personal encounters via the international travel ‘passport’ (Pasporta Servo) with more than 1000 addresses in 90 countries, where people can stay in other Esperanto speakers’ home for free or inexpensively, if only they speak Esperanto. There are more than 25,000 books in Esperanto, both original and translated literature such as novels, short stories, nonfiction and academic texts, poetry, songs, rock music, magazines, etc. The Esperanto community has its own flag (a green star on a white and green background) and an anthem. It can be described as a kind of transnation (see Chapter 7). Textbooks and Other Learning Materials in the Teaching Process

Analysing a textbook means analysing only part of a more comprehensive teaching process, not only the process in which the textbook was (is) actually used, but also the process that possibly came before and the process that possibly came after. One may ask whether it is meaningful to analyse a textbook without taking into account what was actually done with it in class and what impact it has had on the longer process. On the other hand, the textbook (or the whole textbook system, including many volumes, web links, etc.) has been collected and organised by a publisher and an ‘omniscient author’, and it typically contains some indications of imagined use. It presents itself as a fi nished product on the market. Therefore, I consider it possible to analyse a textbook although abstracted from any teaching practice. Textbooks nowadays are just one kind of material in a very varied repertoire of printed and digital multimodal materials, as well as artefacts of all kinds: tickets, money, food, flags, dolls, robots, classroom furniture, and of course the whole physical, social and cultural environment when one uses the target language in out-of-school situations or in virtual reality. Some of these materials have been planned and produced with the intention of being used in language learning, such as textbooks. They are didactic in their origin. Other materials have been more or less adapted for the learning situation, for example simplified texts for elementary reading. Still others are brought directly into the learning situation as so-called authentic materials. But, when the authentic materials are used for learning, they take on a new identity as ‘learning material’. For example, a bus ticket in the classroom is not the same as a ticket in the real travelling situation (but one can simulate a journey). All these materials contribute in different ways to cultural representation, and may be analysed along the same lines as the textbook analyses in Chapters 3–7. The reason I have chosen textbook systems – paper textbooks possibly supplemented by digital materials and links that can contribute to the further construction of knowledge – is that I expect a textbook system to exhibit cultural representations that have been collected, structured and

10

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

framed by a single discursive agent: the author(s). It has been put together as an ordered and fi nished didactic product offering a kind of synthesis. Since the textbooks I have selected, have been produced by publishing companies, they are also market products, and their content and design are strongly influenced by the specific markets (see below). Textbooks constitute a particular genre as they are products intended to be tools for a specific social practice: teaching and learning. Language textbooks are characterised by a dominating discourse of language (and culture) teaching and learning, normally controlled in a more or less detailed way by officially set guidelines. Textbooks are examples of a complex genre as they often consist of a large number of texts and genres taken from various sources or written by the authors themselves – plus several kinds of visuals (Fairclough, 1992; Lähdesmäki, 2009). All these texts and genres contribute to many modes of cultural representation. Textbooks still seem to play an important part at least in elementary teaching and sometimes in early intermediate teaching. But the situation is changing, and many modern textbook systems are i-books (interactive books) connected to the publisher’s website (‘study centre’, ‘learner’s universe’) that provides information on supplementary materials and external links to other websites. Textbook systems may be in a process of changing into more flexible collections of different materials, including materials on specific cultural and social themes, perhaps in the form of ‘longreads’ or ‘singles’, i.e. realistic narratives half-way between the article and the book (originally a journalistic genre). Some publishers choose to differentiate between textbooks produced for a larger market and exercise books adapted for more local linguistically defi ned markets (‘regionalised’ or ‘contextualised’ materials). Some publishers are considering stopping production of printed materials altogether and concentrating on fully digital materials presented in portals or the like. Five Theoretical Approaches or Readings

Analysing learning materials is a way of reading (Fenner, 2012), and this book focuses on different readings according to different views of culture, society and the world. This approach may be compared with different readings within the field of literary studies, e.g. New Criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalytic reading, feminism and reader-response criticism, and no doubt some of these could be relevant for language textbooks. But for the specific purpose of analysing representations in language textbooks (and in other language learning materials), I propose the following series of approaches that are associated with different theoretical understandings of culture, society and the world: national studies, citizenship education studies, Cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. These theoretical traditions

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11

are not entirely separate fields – actually, there are many overlaps and exchanges between them – but they have different foci: • • • • •

National studies focuses on the single country or a set of countries. Citizenship education studies focuses on students as citizens in culturally diverse societies. Cultural studies focuses on cultural identities and processes of identification. Postcolonial studies focuses on the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Transnational studies focuses on global processes and on the students’ past, present and future mobility.

The readings, all of which in principle can be applied to any language textbook (or other learning materials) will be further described and operationalised in Chapters 3–7. They are put in this order because it is possible to make an expanding narrative about the world by means of them. National studies sees the country as a container of everything from landscape to people, culture and economy; citizenship education studies turns its focus on culturally (most often ethnically) diverse societies; Cultural studies examines the dynamics of intersecting identities (ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, etc.) in and across nations or states; postcolonial studies looks at historical power relations between states, including their significance for the persistence of racism and for conceptions of ‘the West’ and ‘the rest’ and similar dichotomies; and transnational studies emphasises processes that cut across states and nations, including migrations and the use of information and communication technology at transcontinental and global levels. It is common to write Cultural studies with a capital C in order to emphasise that we are dealing with the tradition originating in the work of Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall in Britain in the 1950s, and which has now spread to many other parts of the world. In the context of language and culture pedagogy, it is important to be able to make a distinction between the Cultural studies tradition and what has been called cultural studies (with a small c) by Michael Byram (1989) and others in language and culture pedagogy, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. Although the two traditions have something in common, it is still relevant to distinguish between them. Cultural studies with a capital C is a much broader field than cultural studies in language pedagogy. It is engaged in the complex relationships of identities and cultural politics, ideology and power, whereas cultural studies in language pedagogy typically focuses on the cultures or cultural practices associated with specific languages. Thus, it is most closely related to national studies (see Chapter 3).

12

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

As noted above, the present study includes language as an integral part of the wider cultural and social landscape. All five readings have language dimensions, and each of them addresses language in a different way. National studies focuses on languages in their standard forms: ‘English’, or more specifically: ‘British English’, ‘American English’, etc.; citizenship education studies examines linguistically diverse societies, including minority languages; Cultural studies looks at language practices and their relations to subjectivity and identity (region, class, ethnicity, etc.) in complex societies; postcolonial studies emphasises historical power relations between languages, for instance relations between Quechua, Spanish and English in South America; and transnational studies turns its focus on languages as transnational phenomena, for example their use as lingua francas. Main Questions

The main questions of the study carried out in Chapters 3–7 can be summed up as follows, the fi rst being a research question and the second more of a question of materials development: • •

For each of the five theoretical readings: What does this reading tell us about the representation of culture, society and the world in the textbook under study? For each of the five theoretical readings: How can these reflections help us promote intercultural learning (the construction of knowledge about culture, society and the world) using the textbook under study as a stepping stone?

The readings have a descriptive as well as an evaluative side. For instance, the national studies reading looks at individual countries, including the question of which countries are represented. Among other things, the national studies reading of a textbook implies an analysis of which target language countries are represented, and an underlying premise is that the more target language countries are represented in the textbook (in a more or less detailed way), the better. Similarly all the readings are characterised by specific value orientations, which may be understood as evaluation criteria. But it is important to note that these evaluation criteria are not derived from official guidelines for language teaching or popular discourses about language and culture teaching. They are theory based: derived from theories of culture and society. In the conclusion (Chapter 8), I will discuss the readings of the specific textbooks in the broader context of language and culture pedagogy. The study is qualitative in nature. It consists primarily of macro-level analyses (whole textbook systems), supplemented by closer looks at a

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13

small number of selected chapters/units. The focus is not on analytical procedures of data collection and organisation, but on analyses (readings) that raise questions and invite reflection. Textbook Analysis: A Form of Critical Discourse Analysis

I have operationalised the fi rst main question within a framework that is inspired by critical discourse analysis as, for example, put forward by Fairclough in several publications. Answering the question demands analysis at several levels, here placed in an order that is practical for the presentation of the analyses: • • • •

Positioning and representation of the actors. Representation of culture, society and the world. Approach to intercultural learning. The textbook in society.

As noted above, I do not often go into the specific texts, but primarily undertake a macro-analysis, i.e. I look at the textbook as one composite system: all the textbooks, teacher’s guides, learner’s guides and associated websites taken together. The system is characterised by internal intertextuality, as some of the texts relate to one another, as well as by internal interdiscursivity, as the system is marked by different discourses often going across the texts or being mixed in the individual texts (for instance, discourses of success or discourses of care for the environment) (cf. the Dutch concept of ‘cultuurtext’ in Quist [2014]). The system is also characterised by external intertextuality in the sense that some of the texts have been imported from various sources in society, as already mentioned, and by external interdiscursivity as the discourses in the system can be found in various other sectors and discursive formations in society, for instance in parts of the media. Fairclough proposes a three-level approach to discourse analysis: ‘text’ (oral or written text, and/or visuals and sound), ‘discursive practice’ (production, distribution and consumption of the text) and ‘social practice’ (practices in the wider society), and I refer to this in the following. At the level of the ‘text’, the main focus in my analysis is on the representation of culture, society and the world and the approach to intercultural learning (or knowledge construction) (the ‘ideational’ aspect in Fairclough’s model). But in addition I emphasise the positioning and representation of the actors (‘the interpersonal aspect’): the imagined students who are addressed and perhaps represented in drawings; the imagined teacher who may be addressed in some way, perhaps in a teacher’s guide; the author(s) who may represent themselves in a way. The name of

14

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

the publishing company will of course be represented, as well as the name (title) of the product. At the level of ‘discursive practice’, i.e. the production, dissemination and reception/use of the textbook, there are potentially many actors involved: education authorities at different levels, who may have planned the curriculum, written the guidelines, perhaps censored and approved the textbook or recommended it – perhaps even produced the particular textbook themselves; examination boards and examination regulations; the publishers, who may be a national or transnational company consisting of editors and many other kinds of professionals; perhaps the publishers have adapted a textbook produced by another publishing company; perhaps the publishers have received funding from the state; purchasers (or receivers of donations) at the school; the authors, most often more than one; pedagogical schools or scholars referred to (such as e.g. ‘Cooperative Learning’). If the study comprises the use of the textbook in class, there are of course also the actual teacher(s) and the student(s), and possibly parents or the like. For all the actors in real life it is relevant to reflect on how their perspectives and agendas influence, expand or limit the view of the world or, in other words, what ideological impact they have. Of course, a specific understanding of the roles of the actors presupposes empirical investigations such as those carried out by Gray (2010a) (see below). When an analysis is undertaken, a new actor enters: the analyst, and it becomes important to reflect on the position of the analyst in relation to the results of the analysis: Not only experience with foreign or second language teaching, and knowledge about the institutional and societal context, but also national affi liation, political position and agenda, cultural identities, position in the global relations of power, and transnational experiences and networks. In the analysis, the analyst takes part in the construction of the representation, cf. Hall’s concepts of representation mentioned above. At the level of ‘social practice’, the relationship to discourses in the wider society comes into focus, and especially for the Cultural studies reading, the postcolonial studies reading and the transnational studies reading, it is relevant to reflect on the role of the textbook in society. Therefore, one of the analytical questions in Chapters 5–7 will consider this issue under the heading: The textbook in society. As emphasised above, the semiotic aspect, particularly the interplay between verbal and non-verbal text in the materials and in accompanying video and audio clips, is an important aspect to study, the more so that particularly visual materials may sometimes say much more about cultural and social conditions than words (and sometimes less). Visual materials and sound materials may also express other sides of emotions than words. The semiotic aspect is relevant for all dimensions of the analysis of textbooks and other learning materials, but the present study will,

Representations of the World

15

for reasons of space, only offer a limited number of examples of the role of visual materials in cultural representation (see Tyrer [2012], which focuses on images in UK-produced global coursebooks for English as a foreign language, including the Headway Series, the bestselling language textbook ever). The Role of Publishers

The production conditions of textbooks may vary greatly. Some may be produced by a community of teachers to meet local needs independently of the conditions set by publishers and their demand of profit. Most textbooks are produced in collaboration with publishers, but there may be great differences among local or national publishers and also among the international publishing houses operating within the different language areas – anglophone, hispanophone, etc. And, as stated by Altbach (1991), the world of textbooks is an unequal world in which the larger metropolitan centres have the expertise, publishing infrastructures, access to paper and capital to play a dominating role. Today, with the increased use of digital media and the internet, this inequity may however be somewhat diminishing. The role of publishers and their editors and designers is no doubt significant, although not very visible from without and rarely examined scientifically. As regards language textbooks, some studies have been conducted, among them a comprehensive study by Gray (2010a), who investigated a number of textbooks for the teaching of English as an additional (second), foreign or international language to young people or adults all over the world, produced by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Longman (‘ELT global coursebooks’). Gray (2010a: 3) concludes that these textbooks are characterised by discourses of ‘individualism, egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, mobility and affluence, in which students are increasingly addressed as consumers’. He also notes that all speakers in the textbooks are native speakers (‘native-speakerism’). In addition, Gray examined author guidelines, in which two aspects were prominent: prescriptive notes on the importance of a balanced representation of men and women, and notes on ‘inappropriate topics’, derived from a concern for customers’ perceived sensitivities in the diverse global market. Such ‘inappropriate topics’ are commonly referred to in English language teaching (ELT) publishing with the acronym PARSNIP (politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, isms and pork). It should be said that in some of the Scandinavian textbooks I analyse below, a number of these topics are dealt with: politics, religion and sex, and alcohol is also mentioned. Pork would not be a problem on the public educational market in Denmark, as pork is an important ingredient in traditional Danish food and one of Denmark’s biggest export goods.

16

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

There has been much ideological critique of language textbooks (Curdt-Christiansen & Weninger, 2015a; Dendrinos, 1992; Gray, 2010a, 2013; Kramsch, 1988), and the supposed role of publishers, who operate on the basis of their perceptions of the market (purchasers of books), is central here – as well as their perceptions of the intentions laid down in curricula and other official educational documents. As regards the analysis of published textbooks, it is in general impossible to see through the detailed negotiation and work processes prior to the publication date unless one has undertaken an ethnographic study of them. Textbook Research across Subjects

Textbook analysis or analysis of educational texts, for any subject, is an established field within educational research, and there are many studies of genre and style in learning materials, on the production and use of learning materials, as well as analyses of materials for specific subjects like history, geography, social studies, mathematics and mother tongue teaching. A characteristic aspect of this field, however, is that foreign and second language teaching has played a very marginal role until now. In spite of this, there are many publications in the field that may be useful for research on foreign and second languages, and among them I would like to mention three in particular: Johnsen (1993), which is an excellent international survey of literature and research on educational texts; Choppin (1992), which also deals systematically with the research field with a focus on the history of education in France and French language academic literature; and Apple and Christian-Smith (1991a), which focuses on the politics of the textbook in general. Other useful references are Heater (1980) on the World Studies movement, Preiswerk (1980) on racism in children’s books, Sadker and Sadker (1982) on sex equity in schools, Sujew (1986) on schoolbooks in the DDR, Altbach and Kelly (1988) on textbooks in the Third World and Pingel (1999) on UNESCO’s work with textbooks (see also Risager [2015] and Clammer [1986]). One of the world’s most comprehensive libraries of learning materials, especially for history and social studies, is the International Textbook Institute in Braunschweig, Germany (Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung). It is related to UNESCO and houses numerous projects of textbook research, not least directed at the mutual analysis and development of textbooks in post-confl ict situations. Among international research networks, IARTEM should be mentioned: the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media. Many of the approaches and methods used in other subjects than language teaching may be applied to language teaching materials, at any rate their cultural representations. The opposite is also true: the approaches

Representations of the World

17

and methods in the present book are transferable to other subjects as well, as history, social studies, geography, home economics, music, physical education, etc., all have intercultural dimensions that may or may not be expressed in their learning materials (cf. Hahl et al., 2015). The Selection of Textbooks for This Study

The selection of textbooks for this study was undertaken as an integral part of my own theoretical reflections on cultural representations in textbooks. The fi rst phase was the formulation of the five theoretical readings on the basis of my experience in the research fields of language and culture pedagogy as well as intercultural studies. The second phase was the selection of particular textbooks, and here there were three selection criteria: One was that it should be a textbook that was used in Denmark at the time (2015), but not necessarily the most used (and it should address young people of 13+ or adults, as mentioned above). The second criterion was that the author (the publisher) exhibited an intention to include knowledge about culture and society in the textbook. The intention might or might not be expressed in the preface or introduction to the teacher and/or the students. In this case, there were often several possibilities, and ultimately – the third criterion – I chose the textbooks that, taken together with the other textbooks in the study, offered me the best possibilities of illustrating and discussing the different theoretical readings. I have not used any of the textbooks in practical teaching myself. These textbooks intend to – and do – include knowledge about culture and society, and my readings and proposals in the following chapters should be seen as ideas as to the different directions that the further development of the textbooks (and learning materials in general) might take. The textbooks selected are shown in Table 1.1 (see also Appendix 1). The textbooks were not all conceived in Denmark. A Piece of Cake, Français Formidable and Caminando were originally published in Sweden, and Du bist dran was originally published in Norway. There Table 1.1 Textbooks selected Target language

Title

Age level

English

A Piece of Cake

13–16

German

Du bist dran (It’s Your Turn)

13–16

French

Français Formidable (Fabulous French)

13–16

Spanish

Caminando (On the Way)

16–17 and adults

Danish

Puls (Pulse)

Adults

Esperanto

Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando (Travels in Esperanto-Land)

Adults

18

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

is a Scandinavian textbook market, which means that textbooks are both international as they may easily be adapted to education in at least two other countries, and regional as they (implicitly) take a regional, Scandinavian perspective on the world. It should be added that the three Scandinavian languages – Danish, Swedish and (both standards of) Norwegian – are closely related, and therefore it is comparatively easy to translate from one language to another. However, language translation is normally not enough. When, for example, a textbook produced in Sweden is re-edited in Denmark, it has to undergo a cultural translation as well, as the histories and geopolitical situations of the Scandinavian countries are by no means identical. It should be noted that the Scandinavian market is of a size that makes it possible and common to produce and re-edit materials for English, German, French and Spanish. Thus, foreign language materials used in Denmark are typically not produced in target language countries, for instance Britain, Germany, etc. This does not mean, however, that they simply take a Danish (or Scandinavian) perspective, cf. Chapter 3. (It should be added that one usually distinguishes between ‘the Scandinavian countries’, comprising Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and ‘the Nordic countries’, comprising Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, plus Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands.) As to Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando, it was published in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where the World Esperanto Association has its headquarters. Its original version was published in Moscow. Only Puls, addressing immigrants in Denmark, was conceived in Denmark. In order to make the analyses in Chapters 3–7 accessible for as many as possible, I have decided to let the textbook for English teaching, A Piece of Cake, be the general example in the sense that I apply all the five readings to that textbook alone. The textbooks for the other languages are distributed among the five readings in the following way: • • • • •

German: national studies. Danish: citizenship education studies. French: Cultural studies. Spanish: postcolonial studies. Esperanto: transnational studies.

The reason that the languages other than English are only analysed according to one reading each, is purely practical as it is a question of space. Since it is crucial for my argument to illustrate the diversity of cultural representations on the basis of a number of different languages, I had to delimit the concrete analyses. It is important to note that all the languages can in principle be studied in relation to all readings, although more or less easily, for of course some textbooks lend themselves better to some readings than to others.

Representations of the World

19

Concerning the distribution of the languages among the five readings, I have had the following considerations: As regards German, there are many studies in the international literature on textbooks for German (see the survey in Chapter 2) that centre on the national: What kind of country is Germany (West Germany, DDR, etc.)? And since the question of Landeskunde (knowledge of the country) has a strong tradition in the German-speaking area, I thought it was interesting to analyse the textbook for German (Du bist dran) according to the national studies reading. As regards Danish, taught as a second language in Denmark, it can be expected to somehow prepare the (adult) students to become citizens of Denmark. Preparing for citizenship can be said to be even more important (in view of the students’ needs) in second language learning than in foreign language learning. Therefore, the textbook for Danish (Puls) will be analysed according to the citizenship education studies reading. As regards Spanish, there are many references to postcolonial studies in the international literature on textbooks for Spanish (see the survey in Chapter 2), so I thought it relevant to analyse the textbook for Spanish (Caminando) according to the postcolonial studies reading. As regards Esperanto, this language has a markedly transnational character, and therefore I thought it would be interesting to analyse the textbook (Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando) according to the transnational studies reading.

These choices leave the Cultural studies reading for French. When one looks at the survey in Chapter 2, the analyses of textbooks for French have many different perspectives, among them perspectives that may be related to Cultural studies. So I decided that it would be a relevant possibility to analyse the textbook for French (Français Formidable) according to the Cultural studies reading. The Danish Education System

The education system in Denmark is divided into three major institutions: primary and lower secondary education (‘Folkeskole’, classes 1–9, ages 6–16), upper secondary education (‘Gymnasieskole’, classes 1–3, ages 16–19) and tertiary education (professional and higher education). Since 2014, the teaching of foreign languages in the Folkeskole has begun earlier than before. English begins in Grade 1, for children of about 7 years (earlier it began in Grade 3), and German – or alternatively French – begins in Grade 5, for children of about 11 years (earlier in Grade 7). Spanish (if chosen) begins in Grade 1 in upper secondary school, for students of about 16 years. In the official guidelines for foreign languages in Denmark, it is emphasised several times that languages offer access to

20

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

the world, or are windows to the world. ‘The world’ is clearly a positive marker (Risager, 2016b). For adult immigrants, there are local publicly supported language centres for the teaching of Danish as a second language. There are three branches of ‘Danskuddannelse’ (DU) (Danish education) each divided into six levels or modules: DU1 is for students with no or very little schooling and for those who are not trained in the Latin alphabet. DU2 is for students with schooling equivalent to lower secondary school and DU3 is for students with at least upper secondary education. As regards DU3 (for which the textbook Puls was produced), the goal is to enable students to get a job or continue their studies, as well as to function actively as citizens in Danish society. There is no mention of the world in this context. It should be added that the whole system of Danish education (addressing adult immigrants in Denmark) refers to the scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001). Esperanto is taught on a private basis without institutional support, normally organised by the Danish Esperanto Association. There are no official guidelines for the teaching and learning of this language in Denmark. (But it should be mentioned that Esperanto has been described according to the scales of the CEFR, and since 2008 it has been possible to pass exams and receive a document attesting to one’s level of competence following the CEFR scales.) Teachers in Denmark are free to choose their own materials, including textbooks, but the school’s acquisition of new materials may be hindered by a lack of fi nances. In that case, it is not uncommon for teachers to compose materials photocopied from several different textbooks. Materials are free for students in the public school system, and they are all supposed to have their own copy of the textbook volume(s). As there is no state control of textbook production, publishers are free to produce or import (adapt) textbooks according to their market policies. In Denmark, and probably in many other countries, there is a marked discursive difference between the contexts of foreign language teaching and the context of teaching (Danish as) a second language. While the fi rstmentioned context is usually associated with discourses of being open to other cultures and playing a positive part in internationalisation, the second context is much more politicised and associated with discourses of social and cultural integration and confl icts and problems in relation to multicultural society. Denmark in the World and the World in Denmark

In a perspective that is critical of the national paradigm in language and culture pedagogy (Risager, 2007), it is important not to present Denmark as an isolated entity but to consider some of the relations between

Representations of the World

21

Denmark and the wider world. First of all, it is important to be aware that Denmark is the dominant part of a much larger entity: The Danish Realm (Rigsfællesskabet), a special state construction that comprises Denmark and two overseas countries: Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), the world’s largest island, has national autonomy. It has a population of about 56,000 inhabitants and a national language: Western Greenlandic (Kalaallisut). It is a member of NATO and houses the strategically important US Thule Air Base. It is not a member of the EU. The Faroe Islands (Føroyar), with about 48,000 inhabitants and the national Faroese language, are situated in the North Atlantic. The Faroe Islands have some national autonomy. They are a member of NATO, but not of the EU. Because of its dominance over Greenland, Denmark is an important player in the Arctic region (Breum, 2013), and Denmark (the Danish Realm) is a member of the Arctic Council together with Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Denmark is the only member of the Arctic Council that is also a member of both the EU and NATO. The colonial relationships with Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the history of the Nordic countries (Bregnsbo & Jensen, 2005). The fi rst settlers from Scandinavia were the Norse from Norway, and the islands were from the Viking age associated with Norway and in practice, from 1397 to 1814, fi rst placed under the Kalmar Union (a personal union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden-Finland), later under the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, both dominated by Denmark. In 1814, when Norway, with its new liberal constitution, was forced into a personal union with Sweden, Greenland and the Faroe Islands (and Iceland) stayed with Denmark. Besides Greenland and the Faroe Islands today, Denmark has also had a number of overseas colonies in the more traditional sense: in Asia, Tranquebar (1620–1845) and Serampore (1625–1845) on the Indian/ Bengal coast; in Africa, the Danish Gold Coast in Ghana (1658–1850); and in the Caribbean, the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) (1672–1917) (Gulløv et al., 2017). Denmark took part in the slave trade; it was No. 7 among the European colonial powers in terms of numbers of enslaved people deported. The population in Denmark is predominantly white, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (the Folkekirke) is very closely related to the Danish state. Denmark is a member of Schengen, but not of the Euro region. It is one of the welfare states in the rich region of the Nordic countries, it has a large public sector and is deeply integrated in the world economy with considerable export and import relations. For many centuries, Denmark received very considerable cultural influences from the German-speaking area and since World War II also from the United States and the UK. The country has always been characterised by migrations, both emigration, especially in the period 1820–1920, and

22

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

immigration, especially since the 1960s. Today, there are immigrants from more than 200 countries, notably Turkey, Poland, Germany and Iraq (Danmarks Statistik, 2014). The Roma (Romani) have a very low status in the ethnic hierarchy (Omar, 2015), and Greenlanders as well (Togeby, 2004), although most Greenlanders do well in Danish society. Xenophobia and (cultural) racism are widespread, especially in the media and in political life. The image of Denmark is essential, of course, in the teaching of Danish as a second language for immigrants. But it is also important with regard to foreign languages in Denmark. Foreign language learners in Denmark are sometimes asked to compare the target country in question with their own country. But what are their images of Denmark? Are they modelled in line with the national paradigm, which sees the world as a mosaic of isolated countries each with its people, language and culture? The question of the representation of the country of learning – the country in which the learning takes place, in this case Denmark – is just as important as the question of the representation of the target language country or countries. The nature of the representation of the students’ own country contributes to their cultural self-reflection, whether they are ethnic Danes or they (or their families) come from other countries. Overview of This Book

The chapters are structured as follows. Chapter 2 is a resource chapter that gives an outline of theoretical discussions within the field of analysis of culture in language textbooks, and surveys 30 textbook analyses already published in the international literature across the world in relation to English, German, French, Spanish and Danish. It offers a global context for the subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 presents the national studies reading and discusses A Piece of Cake (for English) and Du bist dran (for German). Chapter 4 presents the citizenship education reading and discusses A Piece of Cake and Puls (for Danish). Chapter 5 presents the Cultural studies reading and discusses A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable (for French). Chapter  6 presents the postcolonial reading and discusses A Piece of Cake and Caminando (for Spanish). Chapter 7 presents the transnational studies reading and discusses A Piece of Cake and Vojaĝo en Esperantolando (for Esperanto). Chapter 8 offers a general conclusion concerning the representations of the world in the textbooks. It discusses which directions intercultural competence could take in view of the different readings or approaches, and closes with a discussion of the dual focus of the language textbook.

2 Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to provide a global and methodologically diverse context for the analyses of cultural representations in Danish materials in the following chapters. The fi rst part starts with the presentation of a model of analysis distinguishing between thematic analysis, intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis. After that, it outlines a number of important theoretical discussions in the field of textbook analysis: the question of what thematic categories to identify in the analysis, the question of which parts of the world are depicted and the question of the cultural politics of language textbooks. As noted in Chapter 1, the field of research into language teaching materials is fragmented not least because it is divided between different languages. Each language study has its own networks, journals and teaching practices. Thus, the field as a whole is very much characterised by the national paradigm as, for example, discussed in Risager (2007). However, many language-specific studies are also relevant for other languages, and some scholars have explicitly developed methodology and theory that address the whole field across languages. These have been included in the outline below. Aspects of textbook research that are not covered in the following are teachers’ views of and use of textbooks (as, for example, treated in Davcheva & Sercu [2005]) and students’ views (Ulrich, 2004). It should be emphasised that discussions of textbooks and textbook analysis have had the longest and most lively history in Germany, dating back to at least the 1960s (and the general debate in Germany on foreign language teaching without a special focus on textbooks dates back to the second half of the 19th century). When I refer to ‘the German debate’ below, I mean the German-language debate, which involves German-speaking scholars, who may deal with textbooks for German, English, French, etc. Much of this debate has been restricted to German-speaking contexts. The survey corpus contains analyses that have been published in English, French, German and Spanish (and one in Norwegian). There are probably also analyses published in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian

23

24

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

and other languages that I cannot read. The analyses have been gathered by me from academic literature, PhD theses and personal contacts, but there may be relevant analyses that I am not aware of, as analyses are published in many diverse publications and may be related to, and draw on knowledge from, both the target language countries in question and the countries in which the materials are meant to be used. As I am situated in Denmark, the primary perspective and knowledge background is European, but – I hope – not Eurocentric. I would like now to refer to a few other analyses, written in English, that deal with culture in textbooks for languages other than the five already mentioned: Western Apache (de Reuse, 1997), Russian (Pilkington & Buravova, 2011; Shardakova & Pavlenko, 2004), Hungarian (Weninger & Williams, 2005), Portuguese (Bateman & Mattos, 2006), Chinese (CurdtChristiansen, 2008; Hong & He, 2015; Kirkebæk, 2016), Dutch (Quist, 2011), Hebrew and Arabic (Or & Shohamy [2015], which is a comparative analysis of Hebrew and Arabic in Israel). Kirkebæk (2016) deals with textbooks for the teaching of Chinese in Denmark, and his study focuses on the representation of ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity in three Chinese-produced textbooks (also analysed in Hong & He [2015]) and a Danish-produced textbook. The study shows that all the textbooks, irrespective of country of origin, are very similar in representing China as a country with one people, one language and one culture. As a general background I refer to the analysis of the international history of culture pedagogy in Risager (2007), some encyclopaedia entries: Krumm (2010), Risager and Chapelle (2013) and Verdelhan and Sercu (2013), and the research network HoLLT.net: ‘History of Language Learning and Teaching’, based in Nottingham, UK (for example, McLelland, 2015). Methodologies

The landscape of methodologies within the field of analysis of language learning materials (not only textbooks) may be analytically divided into three kinds: thematic analysis, intercultural analysis and analysis of power and empowerment (Risager, 2014a). Each of them rests on certain views of culture and society and of learning, views that exist side by side in the language subjects today: Thematic analysis implies that culture, society and the world are seen as a large number of themes or topics, and intercultural learning – or the construction of knowledge – is fi rst and foremost seen as the acquisition of factual knowledge about these themes. The empirical method that is most typically used in thematic analysis is content analysis (Krippendorf, 2013; Titscher et al., 2000), whether in its quantitative form (counting units like

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particular lexemes, country names, language names, cultural themes, etc.) or in a more qualitative interpretative form. Intercultural analysis implies that culture, society and the world, and also the classroom itself, are seen as a multitude of individual and group perspectives and identities, and intercultural learning – or the construction of knowledge – is fi rst and foremost seen as the development of the student’s awareness of different sociocultural perspectives and identities and their implications for intercultural communication and understanding, empathy and collaboration. Empirical methods that may be used in intercultural analysis are approaches from literary and dialogic studies (Bredella & Delanoy, 1996; Fenner, 2012; Kramsch, 1993), or approaches drawn from Michael Byram’s work on intercultural studies (Byram, 1989; Byram et al., 1991). Power and empowerment analysis implies that culture, society and the world, and also the classroom itself, are seen as scenes of confl icts and ideologies, and intercultural learning – or the construction of knowledge – is fi rst and foremost seen as the development of the student’s reflections on social and political issues and his or her development as a critical and engaged citizen. The empirical method most typically used for power analysis is (different forms of) critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2002; Titscher et al., 2007; Wodak & Meyer, 2003; Wodak et al., 2009). Critical discourse analysis typically consists of showing how ideological mechanisms in the text legitimise existing power relations.

These three views of culture and society, and of knowledge construction, are relevant and useful, and they may be combined. Many concrete analyses include more than one of them. Seen in relation to the three dimensions of knowledge presented in Chapter 1, thematic analysis is oriented primarily towards factual knowledge, while intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis are oriented both towards factual knowledge about groups and practices and towards epistemologies: different ways of identifying and understanding self and others. In recent years, another method has been introduced: semiotic analysis (Goodman, 1996; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006; Weninger & Kiss, 2013), which focuses on the relationships between different modalities, particularly visual and verbal text. This method is relevant in relation to all three kinds of analysis mentioned above. The tripartition of thematic, intercultural and power analysis can be found in other areas of education as well, for instance in Cummins (2000), where there is a discussion of three different pedagogies: traditional, progressive and transformative. In the traditional model ‘the teacher’s task is to impart knowledge or skills to students’ (Cummins, 2000: 255). Progressive approaches ‘highlight the role of collaborative inquiry and the construction of meaning as central to students’ academic growth’

26

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

(Cummins, 2000: 258). And transformative pedagogy ‘uses collaborative critical inquiry to enable students to analyze and understand the social realities of their own lives and of their communities’ (Cummins, 2000: 260). In this and the subsequent chapters, I will come back to illustrations of these methodologies and their related pedagogies. Csilla Weninger and Tamás Kiss present a similar model in Weninger and Kiss (2015). They describe the field of textbook analysis – with reference primarily to English language teaching – as characterised by methodological eclecticism. They note that there is generally very little methodological awareness and reflection, and analyses do not build on one another. The authors suggest to distinguish between three main methodological approaches – content analysis, critical discourse analysis and semiotic analysis – and for each of them they review a number of analyses (among them some of those included in my survey below: Camase, 2009; Gray, 2010a; Gulliver, 2010; Ramirez & Hall, 1990; Weninger & Kiss, 2013), and discuss them critically. As regards content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013), a social science method that in its most simple and quantitative form consists of counting how often pieces of content are mentioned and measuring how much space each of them takes, Weninger and Kiss write: Some researchers rely exclusively on a priori categories such as nationality to code texts and images, and make inferences about textbooks’ representations of the world based upon the relative frequency of data in each of the categories. Others have used themes in their analysis in addition to categories, whether those themes were developed in previous empirical research or derived from theoretical ideas relating to the researcher’s focus. Yet others rely on categories fi rst but later develop those into themes in order to go beyond a numerical account of representation that frequencies provide. (Weninger & Kiss, 2013: 56)

Regarding critical discourse analysis, Weninger and Kiss emphasise that there are many ways of doing critical discourse analysis, and that each of the authors reviewed by them works with concepts and categories tailored to their specific data and concerns. With respect to semiotic and multimodal analysis, which they describe as a possibly emerging trend in textbook analysis, they argue that it enables us to examine how the various meaning-making modalities afford particular readings, and as an exemplification they refer to the analysis in Weninger and Kiss (2013) (see below in the survey). As can be seen, my model distinguishes, more clearly than Weninger and Kiss’s model, between two interrelated levels: methodologies (in relation to views of culture and society in general) and methods (more

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concrete approaches and procedures that are also relevant to many other fields of study). In the following sections, I will present three fields of theoretical discussion in textbook analysis. The fi rst, ‘Thematic Categories’ relates mostly to thematic analysis; the second ‘Which Parts of the World?’ combines thematic, intercultural and sometimes power and empowerment analysis; and the third, ‘The Textbook Genre and Cultural Politics’ is mostly related to power and empowerment analysis. Thematic Categories

First of all, I would like to distinguish between the terms ‘topic’ and ‘theme’ in the following way: Topic is seen in relation to a text (written or oral). It is what the written text or conversation ‘is about’ – seen from the perspectives of the author or the readers or the participants in the conversation. A theme may be an umbrella for a number of texts and activities. For example, the theme ‘Britain’ may be the common denominator for a discussion of a number of texts each with its own topic: a picture of the Union flag, an article on second-hand shops in London, a legend relating to King Arthur, etc. The cultural content of language teaching is sometimes described as encompassing two types of culture: ‘culture with a big/capital C’ and ‘culture with a small c’, the fi rst standing for literature and other forms of artistic production, as well as history and geography, while the second stands for behaviour, norms and values in everyday life. This distinction, which originates in US American anthropology in the 1960s and 1970s, is very common, not least in North America and in the Spanish-speaking world from Latin America to Spain. In parallel with this simple division, a range of more detailed categories have been developed, especially in the European context, mostly drawing on the German theoretical and pedagogical debate. Among these attempts are my own from the late 1970s. My academic career started in textbook analysis, fi rst based on textbooks for French as a foreign language (Andersen & Risager, 1977, 1981; Risager & Andersen, 1978) and later based on textbooks for English, German and French in Denmark and in Scandinavia (Risager, 1987, 1991b). The main inspiration came from the German debate on the concept of Landeskunde (knowledge of the country), particularly from those who argued for a foreign language teaching that contributes to an overriding educational goal of politische Bildung (political education, education for citizenship), and therefore needs an empirical and critical societal approach (for instance, Langer & Schurig, 1972). I combined this with ideas coming from literary theory, especially the analysis of realistic prose (Jørgensen, 1972). In Risager (1991b), I present some analytical categories for textbook analysis that

28

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

have been employed and further developed by others (Sercu [2000] for German, Eide [2012] for Spanish, and see also Mar-Molinero [1992] for several languages): 1.

2.

3.

4.

the micro-level – phenomena of social and cultural anthropology: The social and geographical defi nition of characters; material environment; situations of interaction; interaction and subjectivity of characters: feelings, attitudes, values, and perceived problems. the macro-level – social, political and historical matters: broad social facts about contemporary society (geographic, economic, political, etc.); broad sociopolitical problems (unemployment, pollution, etc.); historical background. international and intercultural issues: comparisons between the foreign country and the pupils’ own; mutual representations, images, stereotypes; mutual relations: cultural power and dominance, co-operation and confl ict. point of view and style of the author(s). (Risager, 1991b: 182f)

As can be seen, this model is mostly related to thematic analysis, but it also contains elements related to intercultural analysis and power analysis. Although I still think that this is a useful and simple model, I want to discuss some more theoretically explicit approaches in the present book. Michael Byram has been working with textbook analysis in relation to (at least) French, German and English, and offers this list of evaluation criteria (‘minimum content’) in Byram (1993b): • • • • • • • •

social identity and social groups (social class, regional identity, ethnic minorities) social interaction (differing levels of formality; as outsider and insider) belief and behaviour (moral, religious beliefs, daily routines) social and political institutions (state institutions, health care, law and order, social security, local government) socialization and the life-cycle (families, schools, employment, rites of passage) national history (historical and contemporary events seen as markers of national identity) national geography (geographic factors seen as being significant by members) stereotypes and national identity (what is ‘typical’, symbols of national stereotypes) (Byram, 1993b: 36ff)

Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World

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Byram’s list is a bit more differentiated in terms of themes than the one quoted above from Risager (1991a), but it does not adopt its problemoriented, power-sensitive aspects. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001), which has been influential in Europe and beyond (Byram & Parmenter, 2012), draws on the same tradition in its list of ‘features distinctly characteristic of a particular European society and its culture’: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

everyday living (food and drink, ….) living conditions (living standards, …..) interpersonal relations (class structure of society, ….) values, beliefs and attitudes to … (social class, …. minorities, …. politics, … religion …) body language social conventions (punctuality, ….) ritual behaviour (religious observances and rites, …..) (Council of Europe, 2001: 102f; the dots are mine)

Note that this list is not directly aimed at an analysis of learning materials, but it can be used for that purpose. It should also be noted that the reference above is to ‘European societies’, and since this is not relativised in the framework, it is an instance of Eurocentric discourse. After all, target languages like English, French and Spanish do not only focus on European countries. There is also another type of categories that should be mentioned, categories that are the expression of critiques of the exoticising content in many textbooks and in foreign language teaching generally. In Britain, critical language teachers sometimes refer to the ‘three Ss’: saris, samosas and steel bands, and in the United States teachers may refer to the corresponding ‘four Fs’: food, fashion, festivals and folklore (Starkey, 2007). All proposals of thematic categories for language teaching and textbook analysis are social constructions reflecting contemporary discourses in society and educational philosophy. Some of them have a critical character, like mine, others are more mainstream – or humorous – but may serve as basis for critical analysis anyway. Which Parts of the World? The Geopolitical Context

It is often, not least in the West, taken for granted that what is represented in textbooks for foreign language teaching is the target language culture or cultures (C2). But Martin Cortazzi and Lixian Jin are among those who stress that other cultures may be represented: the learners’ own

30

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

culture (C1) or other cultures – ‘international target cultures’ (C3, C4, etc.) – (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999) (see also Alptekin & Alptekin, 1984; Baker, 2012; McKay, 2002; Prodromou, 1988). Cortazzi and Jin refer to some textbooks for English as a foreign language (EFL), used in Venezuela or Turkey or Saudi Arabia, in which the cultural content is the learners’ own country (see also Hino [1988] for different periods in the history of Japan). Cortazzi and Jin are working within English teaching, but I would say that although this situation is probably much more common for English, it is relevant for other languages as well. Below, a situation is described where a textbook for German in Estonia depicts primarily Estonia; and textbooks for French, for example, may include other countries than francophone countries in the stricter sense – countries in which French is a national or official language – because French is also considered an international language. Cortazzi and Jin stress that the culture of learning may be different among the three parties in the classroom dialogue: the textbook, the teacher and the students. The teacher may share the culture of the textbook or the culture of the students or neither of them. And the students may represent different cultures as well. In my view, it is interesting to see if the textbook author seems to be aware of these possibilities (Nelson, 1995). Cortazzi and Jin discuss the different possibilities by way of a systematic overview, and their approach can be seen as a kind of thematic analysis where the primary category is ‘(national) culture’ consisting of C1, C2, C3, etc. Aneta Pavlenko (2003) offers a more localised and historical account of how different geopolitical contexts can have deep implications for the teaching of the languages in question. She emphasises the importance of ‘foreign’ language teaching for national identity, and juxtaposes three situations: the steep decrease in the status of German and all other foreign languages than English in the United States during and after World War I; the role of foreign languages in the USSR after World War II, where English, as well as German, French and Italian, were taught as important languages not only because they were the languages of the enemy, but also because they were spoken by the working classes and communists in the countries in question; and the role of foreign languages in Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe after World War II, where they became satellites of the Soviet Union and Russian became the fi rst foreign language, in this case the language of the oppressor or coloniser (cf. Camase [2009] below), while the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union saw the demise of Russian and its displacement by English. Pavlenko (2003) introduces an important approach to the study of representations of the world in language learning materials, an approach that takes account of the wider geopolitical context and makes us

Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World

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reflect upon the power dimensions of interculturality. It is an example of a combination of intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis as accounted for above. The Textbook Genre and Cultural Politics

In an article from 1988 (Kramsch [1988], based on an analysis of textbooks for German, cf. Kramsch [1987]), Claire Kramsch suggests we should see the textbook as a specific genre, a cultural construct, a product of at least five different cultures: • • • • •

the target culture to be learned (C2) the source culture (C1) (that of the learners) the educational culture of the country where the book is published the classroom culture in which the book is used the interculture, or ‘stages of acquisition of C2 in the learner, made up of a developing universe in which C1 meanings are slowly being relativized in light of C2, but C2 is still viewed with C1 structures of meaning’. (Kramsch, 1987: 65)

Thus, Kramsch argues that we should analyse textbooks in a wider perspective including the role of dominant educational philosophies, publishers, state authorities, school boards and teachers, and consider the learning conditions in the classroom and the interculture developing in it (cf. Dendrinos [1992], a comprehensive analysis of the ideological role of the EFL textbook as a special genre, and cf. Risager [1998]). Kramsch takes up again the question of the cultural politics of language textbooks in an article written together with Kimberly Vinall (Kramsch & Vinall, 2015). They present a number of problematic aspects of language learning textbooks (in this case: textbooks for Spanish as a foreign language in the United States) and offer suggestions of how textbooks can be re-signified to meet the needs of language learners in a global economy. They explore a poststructuralist (Foucauldian) analysis in which the discourses of the textbooks are seen as echoing other dominant discourses, and they discuss how textbooks can be used ‘to explore new horizons outside the usual boundaries of Western logic and rationality’ and ‘prepare learners of Spanish to deal with the ambiguities, uncertainties and irrationalities of a global world order’ (Kramsch & Vinall, 2015: 14). Kramsch and Vinall (2015: 24) argue that textbooks can be used in ways different from those intended by authors: ‘every time the students list the information that is not in a text, every time they speculate as to what a character in a dialogue could have said but didn’t, or thought but did not say, or said but did not mean – the textbook serves to foster the students’ imagination and open up scenarios of possibility’ (cf. Luke [1989] on

32

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

open and closed texts: a closed text presents an unproblematic world that confi rms or reinforces students’ preconceived notions). Thus, classroom activities should include critical reading of the textbook as a political and economic construction. I agree that this is a central ideal in the work with language learning materials. This suggestion from Kramsch and Vinall is an example of power and empowerment analysis as mentioned above, with an emphasis on empowerment. The Survey Corpus

In the following sections, I survey 30 textbook analyses that focus on cultural representation: 11 on textbooks for English, 6 for German, 6 for French, 6 for Spanish and 1 for Danish. Many of them are well known in the research milieus of the respective languages. I have selected them from a larger number of studies (see below in the different sections) according to two criteria: • •

geographical spread: analyses that deal with the teaching of the target language in many different parts of the world, or analyses that contain arguments for a wider geographical spread in cultural representation; methodological spread: analyses that represent different methodologies.

Thus, the survey corpus (SC1-30) is a mosaic with divergent cultural and social content. It also addresses different age groups from young people to adults. It is a material with many different voices as the analysts have different geographical origins, and probably many of them have bi- or multilingual backgrounds. The analyses are placed in chronological order so that the reader can get an impression of the methodological and theoretical development. When the analysis referred to is not written in English, I add the language of publication in parenthesis. It should be noted that, due to limitations of space, the analyses are presented in very short form, and there is no information on the context of the textbooks concerned, such as social and historical background, local curriculum or publishers. In my comments on the analyses, placed at the end of each language section, I refer to the three methodologies mentioned above: thematic analysis, intercultural analysis and analysis of power and empowerment. I do not, on the other hand, refer to the five readings (national studies, etc.) as these readings are not properly explained until Chapters 3–7. Textbook Analyses: English

English has a very dominant position among the world’s languages on account of its function as the dominant fi rst or second language in the

Culture in Textbook Analyses around the World

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United States and in a large number of other countries in the North and the South, and its growing role as the dominant language of international communication (but by no means the only one). Probably around one third of the world’s population know at least some English. The teaching of EFL and English as a second language (ESL) are large fields. There have been many studies of World Englishes, exploring local varieties of English, and English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a growing field of study (Holmes & Dervin, 2016; Seidlhofer, 2005). The organisation TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) has a large number of sections and websites, such as KOTESOL (South Korea), TESOL Spain and TESOL Arabia (based in Dubai). There are many proposals of ‘de-Anglo-Americanising’ English teaching (e.g. Alptekin & Alptekin, 1984), and this trend can be related to the issue of ‘the ownership of English’ (Widdowson, 1994). All this means that the problem of representing the world (what, where, whom, why, how) is even more acute for English than for other languages. English teaching is also the field where we most often see discussions whether the content should be oriented towards the culturespecific: conditions in particular target language countries, or towards the culture-general: more abstract – and perhaps universal – conditions of communication and understanding between people with different backgrounds. The number of textbook analyses for English is larger than for other languages. In particular, there are quite a number of recent studies originating in East Asia and South East Asia. But there are also many studies being done in Britain, not least by John Gray and colleagues. A number of anthologies have been published, among them CurdtChristiansen and Weninger (2015), Goodman and Graddol (1996), Gray (2013a), Harwood (2010, 2014), Matsuda (2012), McKay (2002) and Sheldon (1987). Besides the analyses described below, I have noted the following: Ahmed and Narcy-Combes (2011), Alptekin (1993), Auerbach and Burgess (1985), Benesch (2010), Block (2010), Chen (2010a), Curdt-Christiansen (2015), Dendrinos (1992), Feng and Byram (2002), Friz (1991), Gray (2010b, 2012), Hewings (1991), Hino (1988), Ilieva (2000), Kullman (2013), Lappalainen (2011), Lee (2009), Lund (2006), Matsuda (2002), Méndez García (2005), Mukherjee and Ahmed (1988), Ndura (2004), Neuner (1979b), Otlowski (2003), Rashidi and Meihami (2016), Risager (1991a, 1991b), Santos (2013), Schneer (2007), Schulze (1979), Suaysuwan and Kapitzke (2005), Troncoso (2010), Tyrer (2012) and Yamanaka (2006). SC1 (Porreca, 1984): This article is about sexism in textbooks for ESL in the United States around 1980. It is based on an analysis of 15 textbooks, and the method used is quantitative content analysis. The

34

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

investigation focuses on categories of omission in text and illustrations (the number of women in relation to the number of men?), fi rstness (order of representation: men fi rst, or women fi rst?), occupational visibility in text and illustrations (what occupations do the two genders have?), nouns (relative frequency of ‘sister’ compared to ‘brother’, ‘man’ compared to ‘woman’, etc.), masculine generic constructions (‘him’ in places where ‘him/her’ would be more neutral, etc.) and adjectives (what adjectives describe women, what adjectives describe men?). Porreca gives many examples of unequal representation of women and men, and of the dominant male perspective. For example, the most frequently mentioned occupation for males is president, while it is teacher for females. Concerning fi rstness, one most often fi nds the order: fi rst boy, then girl in the textbooks, and then there is also an instance of ‘girlfriend/ boyfriend’, indicating the male perspective. ‘Mother-in-law’ is also much more frequent than ‘father-in-law’, and has distinct negative connotations, as can be seen from a sentence in one of the books: ‘I think his mother-inlaw poisoned him’. SC2 (Adaskou et al., 1990): This article deals with the question of whether a textbook for English in Morocco should represent AngloAmerican cultures or the students’ own country, Morocco. In the preparation of a large textbook project for EFL in secondary school, the authors asked a certain number of teachers (by group discussions, questionnaires and structured interviews) about the actual and future communicative needs of the students. It came out that most teachers thought that the students would be most motivated to learn English when it was presented in contexts that related its use realistically to their lives as young adults in Morocco. They thought that the students would feel alienated from their own culture if presented with foreign cultures with more material advantages, economic opportunities and freedom of behaviour. As a consequence of this investigation, most of the cultural content of the textbook relates to Morocco, and more than half of the characters are Moroccan. They communicate in English with Englishspeaking residents, native or non-native speakers, primarily in Morocco – but not necessarily about life in Morocco. SC3 (Canagarajah, 1993): The focus of this article is on the glosses that Tamil students have inscribed in their textbooks for ESL in Sri Lanka, and a discussion of their implications. Canagarajah had conducted a course in English for fi rst-year university students coming from rural communities and from the lowest economic groups. The class had been working with an older US-produced textbook that was donated in 1980 by a Western cultural agency. The book focuses on form rather than function, and contains situations like commuting frequently by air, performing instant cooking or doing department store shopping. After the course,

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35

he discovered that the students’ books were full of glosses and graffiti showing their reactions to the texts, illustrations and exercises. They were generally written in Tamil. Canagarajah describes the various types of glosses: political, cultural, cinematic and sexual glosses, and interrogates the ideological tensions that they reflect. He characterises the dialogues in the textbook as teaching ‘middle-class values like consumerism, thrift, delayed gratification and social mobility’ (Canagarajah, 1993: 148) and notes that the students wrench the images and symbols of the textbook from their original contexts, disfigure them and make them objects of ridicule. This is interpreted as a counter-discourse: ‘While the discourses of the textbook put students at a disadvantage, making them appear alien, incompetent, inferior and powerless, the students’ own discourses provide them confidence, familiarity, respectability and greater power in the social milieux’ (Canagarajah, 1993: 151). SC4 (Camase, 2009): This book-length study focuses on discourses about the relationship between Romanians and non-Romanians in a textbook for English produced and used in Romania during communism in the 1980s. The textbook addresses students in their fi fth year of study of English, i.e. either 9th or 10th grade. The corpus of analysis is the readings of each of the 14 units, supplemented by pre-reading activities and comprehension questions and exercises. The study includes a discussion of models in textbook analysis. Camase takes a critical discourse perspective and investigates the ideology guiding the representations of Romanians and non-Romanians. English was at the time the language of the enemy (cf. Pavlenko [2003] above) in Romania as in the rest of the Soviet bloc, and the teaching of English was carried out ‘through a translation of communist ideology into English’ (Camase, 2009: 4). In the textbook at hand this means that the discourse was patriotic and nationalistic, giving much more room for Romania than for English-speaking countries. Most of the readings describe Romanian landscape and people, and sometimes resemble a travel guide to Romania. All readings about Romanians are descriptive texts whose authors are anonymous – and therefore authoritative – while the readings dealing with non-Romanians are literature excerpts taken from famous writers in the English-speaking world. There is very little information on realities in English-speaking countries, so ‘English remains an abstract language of countries and people in the realm of fiction’ (Camase, 2009: 60). Camase examines the discourse of superiority, which means that Romanians are over-represented and described in very positive terms in an ‘us–them’ division. The textbook creates, in Camase’s terms, a second reality about ‘us’ and a second reality about ‘them’, and stereotypes are promoted. This ideological construction makes the learners react with distrust, resistance

36

Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

and ridicule. Camase makes the comment for language teaching in general that older schoolbooks may represent a valuable teaching tool that anchors the present texts historically and ideologically. SC5 (Gray, 2010a): In his monograph, Gray discusses textbooks (coursebooks) for English as a foreign or second language as cultural artefacts using perspectives from Cultural studies. His corpus is four textbooks, bestsellers from big publishers based in Britain (Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Longman). The textbooks have been published in the period from the 1970s to the 2000s, and they all aim at adult and young adult learners. They are global coursebooks, i.e. they are meant for the global market (see also Gray, 2002, 2010b). Gray focuses on constructions of reality in students’ books, not any other materials, and he includes artwork – photos, drawings, etc. – in his analysis. He also analyses the role of the publishers (cf. Chapter 1) and writes about a survey of teachers’ views that he has carried out by means of ‘activity-based’ interviews with 20 teachers in a number of Barcelona schools. Gray (2010a: 3) argues that publishers inscribe English language teaching with ‘a range of values and associations that include individualism, egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, mobility and affluence, in which students are increasingly addressed as consumers’, especially in the latest publications from the 1990s and 2000s. They depict both women and men as active, professional and successful individuals and they include some non-white characters in an atmosphere of inter-racial contact and harmony, characterised by Gray as resting on a discourse of liberal multiculturalism. The world of work occupies much space. Interaction is increasingly personalised as the characters mostly talk about themselves, their preferences, plans, etc. Gray also notes the pervasiveness of British English (RP: received pronunciation) as there are very few instances of other varieties of English. Thus, native-speakerism is one of the dominant discourses. Sometimes it is difficult to say where the activities and conversations take place, cf. ‘the preponderance of British characters suggests the coursebook is located mainly in Britain’ (Gray, 2010a: 95), and he adds later, with reference to his earlier publication (Gray 2002), that contemporary coursebooks show signs of being ‘subtly deterritorialized’ – by which I meant the way in which they are increasingly less exclusively located in the UK. This is true of Headway Intermediate which, while continuing to locate characters mainly in English-speaking parts of the world (e.g. the UK, the US and Australia), constantly refers to their experiences in other places or their plans to visit them (e.g. Mexico, France, Spain, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, Dubai and Tanzania – to list but a few). (Gray, 2010a: 104)

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This globalising of content may be said to ‘connote a global multiculturalism in which all the represented participants, whatever their differences, are essentially citizens of the world – linked together through the common currency of English’ (Gray, 2010a: 106). SC6 (Yamada, 2010): This article focuses on which countries and continents are represented in textbooks for English in Japan, and how they represent ethnic and racial diversity in Japan. Yamada introduces the study with a discussion of new varieties and uses of English as a working language for intranational and international communication in many parts of the world, and argues that teaching about diversity, not least ethnicity and race in a global context, is relevant and needed in English teaching. She also states that it is important to have a locally situated approach so that one can understand the meaning of the spread of English: ‘Learning the English language is strongly linked to the distribution of wealth, power and privilege’ (Yamada, 2010: 496). The corpus is six different textbooks produced in Japan with many editions, including the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s. Yamada has conducted a content analysis on the whole material divided into decades, and uses the model of inner circle (the UK, the US, Australia, etc.), outer circle (India, Singapore, etc.) and expanding circle (all other countries) (Kachru & Nelson, 1996) as a tool to analyse which countries and continents are represented. One of the results is that the coverage of Japan accounts for more than a quarter of all representations through the textbooks. The coverage of the United States exceeds that of Japan in the 1980s, and after the 1990s Japan appears more frequently. Outer circle countries (Africa, Latin America, India) are seriously underrepresented, which reflects unequal power relations in the global economy. With respect to the expanding circle, the coverage of East-Asian and Southeast-Asian countries increases, while Russia is absent throughout and (the rest of) Europe almost disappears in the 2000s. As regards ethnic and racial diversity in Japan, the focus is on newcomers from overseas, primarily people from inner circle countries (US-Americans, Canadians) – although the Ainu are also mentioned. SC7 (Gulliver, 2010): This article focuses on immigrant success stories in textbooks for ESL in Ontario, Canada. The textbooks have been produced in Canada and are used in government-funded courses for immigrants who have been living in Canada for less than three years. Forty immigrant experience stories were chosen from an already established textbook corpus. Thirty-two of them presented stories with a positive outcome, six had an ambivalent outcome of partial success and only two had a negative outcome, in which the immigrant did not succeed in Canada. Gulliver applies critical discourse analysis to the stories in order to examine the strategies of legitimation of success in Canada. Most of the stories follow a defi nite pattern of departure from the country of origin and arrival in Canada; a period of emotional and/or fi nancial struggle;

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discussion of fi nancial, emotional or personal success; attribution of the immigrant’s success to hard work or good character; and, fi nally, a quotation from the immigrant in which he or she comments on his or her feeling of achievement and success. In his analysis, Gulliver (2010: 733) shows how Canada is presented ‘as a land of opportunity in which the hard-working almost invariably succeed. At times, they even imply that those who do not succeed are lacking in the qualities and character required for success’. SC8 (Gray, 2013b): This article discusses the very sparse representation of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people in textbooks for English as a foreign and second language, especially in contemporary global coursebooks. The discussion includes teachers’ reflections taken from interviews with lesbian and gay teachers. Gray selected 10 global coursebooks (published in the UK), as well as some other materials that are more locally oriented, among them materials for migrants to the US and to the UK. In the textbooks for the global market, LGBT issues were invisible, and all families, couples and relations were heterosexual. In the other materials there were sometimes themes touching on such issues, or just instances of ‘mentioning’ (cf. Chapter 8) of lesbian and gay people. Gray refers to the broad debates and theoretical elaborations of questions concerning heteronormativity, heterosexism and homophobia. He argues that the content of the textbooks is constrained by heteronormativity and commercialism, especially publishers’ decisions not to segment the market and adapt materials to local needs and discourses. This situation tends to silence some of the students and render them invisible. SC9 (Weninger & Kiss, 2013): This article focuses on semiotic analysis (Peirce, 1980) with special regard to denotational and connotational meaning in two textbooks for EFL produced and used in Hungary, one with a communicative and the other with a structural syllabus. The authors argue that we need an analysis that is sensitive to the meaning potential of images and texts as well as to the meaning making that takes place during the tasks proposed by the textbook or by the teacher: the guided semiosis. They notice that the sign relations between texts and images in the textbooks are dominated by denotational meaning. For example, words for items of furniture point to images of items of furniture, and vice versa. Cultural connotation is very seldom touched upon. Weninger and Kiss describe this as an ideology of language learning that prioritises linguistic denotation and emphasise that: if we take intercultural citizenship as a desired outcome of foreign language learning, then an almost exclusive focus on denotation will not get us very far. Images need to be much more than mere reinforcement or spacefi llers. They need to be utilized as icons or symbols of things in their own

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right, as the explicit focus of attention in a meaningful pedagogic task, and as entry points for critical discussions about students’ cultural beliefs and stereotypes, complemented by task and text that foster awareness of reflection. (Weninger & Kiss, 2013: 710f)

SC10 (Gray & Block, 2014): This article studies the representation of the working class in textbooks for EFL, produced for the global market. The authors argue that capitalist society is perforce a class society, and that the supposed demise of the working class in our time is a myth created by neoliberal ideology. They then discuss how one can develop a concept of social class that is suitable for the highly complex societies of today, and propose a model of nine dimensions of class that may be used for textbook analysis: property (material possessions), wealth, occupation, place of residence, education, social networking, consumption patterns, symbolic behaviour (clothes, use of language, etc.) and spatial relations (physical mobility, size of dwelling, etc.). They also stress that social class is intertwined with other identity parameters, such as gender, ethnicity, race and nationality, and that further studies of such intersections are needed. For the textbook analysis, they have selected bestselling textbooks produced in Britain from the 1970s to the 2000s, and they use the nine dimensions with an initial focus on employment. Concerning the main result, I quote from their summary: The analysis reveals a largely superficial treatment of class in general and a progressive editing out of working class characters and issues relating to working class life from these textbooks. We conclude by arguing that this writing out of the working class from language learning materials can be seen as both a failure to educate students (by providing them with a very skewed view of the world) and a simultaneous betrayal of working class language learners, who are denied recognition. (Gray & Block, 2014: 45f)

An aspect of the analysis that should also be mentioned is that the nation states with their class systems seem to be disappearing from the global textbooks, as they are being de-territorialised (cf. Gray [2010a] above). What appears is the representation of a kind of global culture of consumerism in which the main players are middle-class, wealthy people. SC11 (Mahboob, 2015): This article is about identity management in a textbook for English in Pakistan. The textbook is used in the province of Sindh in Southern Pakistan, and it has been produced by the local Sindh Textbook Board for government schools, i.e. schools for students with working-class background. These schools are locally oriented, they have (in Sindh) Sindhi as the language of instruction, and Pakistani English

40

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is taught as a subject – while private schools for students from the rich and educated middle class offer a more globally oriented English-medium teaching that enables them to take part in globally oriented knowledge production. The textbook under study is much influenced by Islamic views. For example, the stated aims of the textbook contain the follow passage: ‘[…] inculcating the ingredients of universal Islamic brotherhood [sic] and to reflect the valiant deeds of our forebears and portray the illuminating patterns of our rich cultural heritage and traditions’ (Mahboob, 2015: 164, brackets in the original). The content is totally dominated by themes related to Pakistan, especially in the form of biographies of religious and military heroes. Mahboob (2015: 169) comments that ‘The language of the government-issued English language textbooks incorporates and projects a Pakistani Islamic identity as well as political attitudes of the dominant, conservative political parties’. He further concludes that the textbook analysed does not provide access to globalised ways of using language for knowledge production. Comments on the Analyses Related to English

The geographical spread of these analyses is not only related to where in the world the textbooks in question are used but also where they have been produced and where they have been analysed. We have seen examples of textbooks being used in the United States and in Canada, i.e. they deal with ESL in these countries. All the others deal with EFL in different countries: Morocco, Sri Lanka, Romania, Japan, Hungary and Pakistan, or – as the analyses of global coursebooks (Gray and colleagues) exemplify – undefi ned countries all over the world. Some of the textbooks are locally (regionally) produced: Morocco, Romania, Japan, Hungary and Pakistan, while the textbook used in Sri Lanka is produced (for global use?) in the United States, and the global coursebooks analysed by Gray and colleagues are produced in Britain. The analysts may be scholars from the country of learning, for instance Canagarajah (1993, SC3), Yamada (2010, SC6) and Mahboob (2015, SC11), or they may be scholars from the country of production: Gray (2010a, SC5) and Gray and Block (2014, SC10) – or they may of course have other origins. All this means that it is important to have the possible interplay of perspectives in mind: Where has the textbook been developed and published, where is it used and who is analysing it? What stands out in the analyses of textbooks for English is the very different attitudes to the principal representatives of English-speaking countries, the United States and Britain, seen in the background of geopolitical, historical and postcolonial relations. Adaskou et al. (1990, SC2) write about the reluctance in Morocco to focus on English-speaking

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countries in the materials because the students would feel alienated from their own culture; Canagarajah (1993, SC3) writes about the Tamil students’ ridiculing of American middle-class culture depicted in their textbook; and Mahboob (2015, SC11) writes about a textbook in Pakistan prioritising national Pakistani religious and military heroes. Camase (2009, SC4) writes about how Romanian authorities preferred to teach English – the language of the enemy (cf. Pavlenko [2003] mentioned above) by praising Romanian culture. It should be added that Gray (2010a, SC5) is among the very few who include language varieties, language and identity and a critique of native-speakerism in the investigation. As regards methodological spread, the analyses illustrate all three methodologies described earlier in this chapter: thematic analysis, intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis – or combinations of these. Porreca (1984, SC1) and Yamada (2010, SC6) are examples of thematic analysis, the fi rst focusing on the representation of gender in the United States, and the second focusing on the selection of countries and the representation of diversity in Japan. The analyses by Gray (2010a, SC5; 2013b, SC8) and Gray and Block (2014, SC10) constitute a combination of thematic analysis and power and empowerment analysis, as they describe the distribution of different groups and identities related to gender, race, sexuality and social class, and combine this with discussions of discourses of consumerism and other aspects of neoliberal society. Intercultural analysis can be seen in the analyses by Adaskou et al. (1990, SC2), Camase (2009, SC4) and Weninger and Kiss (2013, SC9), and Canagarajah (1993, SC3) combines intercultural analysis with power and empowerment analysis with an emphasis on empowerment. Mahboob (2015, SC11) is another example of power and empowerment analysis, as is Gulliver’s (2010, SC7) analysis, which focuses on narratives of immigrant success in Canada. Textbook Analyses: German

Although the German language is taught all over the world and spoken by numerous tourists, professionals, students and residents outside German-speaking countries, it is fi rst and foremost related to Europe for two main reasons: on the one hand because the large German-speaking area – Germany, Austria, large parts of Switzerland, Luxemburg and Liechtenstein, and border regions in neighbouring countries – occupies a central position in contemporary Europe and in European history; and on the other hand because Germany lost all its overseas colonies after World War I. It should be noted that the area in Europe (partly) inhabited by German-speaking people was much larger than it is today. A major catastrophe related to World War II was that during 1945–1950, 12–14

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million German-speaking people fled from Central and Eastern Europe to Germany (to what was becoming the BRD and the DDR) (MacGregor, 2014). Thus, today the ‘German-speaking area’ is more easily characterised in terms of national states than earlier. There has been a long debate in Germany since the late 19th century on the need to teach about other countries in Europe and about Germany itself, and on the concept of Landeskunde (knowledge of the country): Should it rather be called Realienkunde (knowledge of realia), Kulturkunde (knowledge of culture), Wesenskunde (knowledge of mentality), Leutekunde (knowledge of people)? What is its scientific basis? Should it be included in a new Kulturwissenschaft (the academic study of culture)? (Altmayer, 2004; Altmayer & Koreik, 2010). Discussions on textbook analysis started in the 1960s (Heuer, 1969), and since then a number of book-length studies and articles have been written on the image of Germany and on the images of Britain, France and the United States transmitted in Germany. Since the late 1980s, a discussion has been raised as to what should be the focus in German teaching: the (re-united) Germany or the whole German-speaking area? (see Krumm [1999] below, and see Ammon [1991] on German as an international language and Ammon [1995] on the German language in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Another discussion raised since the 1980s is how textbooks could be adapted to the linguistic, cultural and learning experiences of students in different countries and regions of the world (‘regionale Lehrwerke’, cf. Gerighausen and Seel [1982] and Krumm [2010]). A number of anthologies have been published, among them Kast and Neuner (1994) and Krumm et al. (2010) (a two-volume handbook comprising numerous articles on Landeskunde from different angles, including Risager [2010] on Landeskunde in German as a foreign language in non-German-speaking Europe). Besides the analyses described below, I have noted the following: Andon and Wingate (2013), Doyé (1991; see below under Byram and Doyé), Engel et al. (1979), Fink (2003), Friz (1991), Kirsch (1998), Koreik (1995), Kramsch (1987, 1988), Krauskopf (1985), McLelland (2015), Neuner (1979a), Schulze (1979), Ucharim (2011), Warmbold (1993), Wegner (1999) and Yildiz (1993). SC12 (Ammer, 1988) (in German): This monograph focuses on the image of West Germany in a large number of textbooks written by West German authors, produced since 1955 and used in West Germany, and it is supplemented with contrastive comments on the image of DDR in textbooks produced in DDR in the same period. Ammer emphasises the difference between textbook analysis and textbook evaluation, as well as the importance of analysing textbooks in relation to their historical, curricular and didactic contexts. It is a comprehensive Landeskunde study.

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The following six thematic areas are proposed: (1) West Germany  – country and nation (international relations, geography, history); (2) state and politics (form of state, state organs, parties and politicians); (3) economy; (4) society; (5) art and science; and (6) everyday life of the Germans (work, family, housing, food and drink, leisure and characteristics of the Germans). Ammer also proposes to distinguish between five ways of presentation of a theme: (1) typifying-imitative, for example: a typical dialogue in a restaurant; (2) normative-documentary, for example: a geographical description of a landscape; (3) affi rmative-exclamatory, for example: a laudatory text on a technical invention; (4) problem-oriented, for example: a picture of a beggar in a street; and (5) critical-emancipatory, for example: a narrative of some people protesting against the planning of a new highway going through a forest. Ammer emphasises that there are many images of West Germany, but one change from the 1950s to the 1980s stands out: The image was generally positive in the fi rst decades, but problematic aspects of society and everyday life have become ever more present, and so have problemoriented and critical-emancipatory ways of presentation. This is in contrast to the state-controlled image of DDR in DDR textbooks in the whole period of investigation, where society and life conditions are depicted as being in steady progress. SC13 (Dechert & Kastner, 1989): This article analyses 10 fi rst- and second-year German textbooks used in US high schools in the 1980s, and it combines this with a study of students’ interests in cultural topics. As the authors state: ‘We should attempt to teach students what they are most interested in as well as what we feel they need to know’ (Dechert & Kastner, 1989: 190). The study is a quantitative thematic analysis taking its point of departure in an inventory of 99 topics (based on Brooks [1960] among others), e.g. church and religion, the lifestyles of ethnic groups, AustriaHungary and biographies of German-speaking artists and composers. These topics are categorised into general categories, e.g. history and ordinary daily life activities. In the textbook part of the study, Dechert and Kastner note all references to cultural aspects in the textbooks, and count how many words have been used in relation to each of the general categories. In the student interest part, they ask university students (i.e. not students directly addressed by the textbooks) to rank their favourite cultural topics among the 99 topics mentioned above. Among the most favoured topics expressed by the students are ordinary daily life (e.g. student life, etiquette, value system), communication (e.g. regional language variation), current issues (e.g. the generation gap), ethnographic issues (e.g. customs of ethnic groups) and social structure and classes in society (West Germany). Furthermore, the textbooks abound with demographic information.

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Comparing the textbook analysis with the answers of the students, Dechert and Kastner (1989: 189) conclude that there is considerable difference between the prominent topics of the textbooks and the topics that raise most interest among students: ‘… for the fi rst twenty-five as well as the fi rst fi fty topics of interest to students, textbooks generally do not offer much’. SC14 (Byram & Doyé, 1993): This book chapter is the general conclusion of a joint German-British project involving several researchers: ‘Foreign Language Education for International Understanding’ or ‘the Braunschweig project’. It examines the representation of Britain in textbooks used in Germany and representations of Germany in textbooks used in Britain. It was published in Doyé (1991) and Byram (1993a; which contains this conclusion) and has been supported by, among others, the above-mentioned International Textbook Institute in Braunschweig (Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung). This conclusion is not about the individual analyses of the textbooks (eight for English, five for German, all published in the 1980s, and one in 1990); it contains reflections on the general differences between the books used in Germany for teaching English compared to those used in Britain for teaching German. The textbooks used in Germany for teaching English are more uniform and also more satisfactory according to the evaluation criteria than those used in Britain for teaching German. These criteria focus on accuracy, representativeness, realism and educational potential, and comprise the following thematic areas: social identity and social groups; social interaction; belief and behaviour; social and political institutions; socialisation and the life cycle; national history; national geography; stereotypes and national identity (see Byram, 1993b). Furthermore, the textbooks for German that have been produced in Germany are more satisfactory than those produced in Britain. As an important factor in explaining this difference, the authors point to the long debate in Germany, both West Germany and DDR, on the role of Landeskunde in language teaching. They also point to the fact that textbooks for use in Germany have to be approved by the federal state concerned. This means that in Germany cultural learning is generally taken more seriously than in Britain (and I would add: this is still the case today, cf. for example the above-mentioned handbook edited by Krumm et al., 2010). SC15 (Krumm, 1999) (in German): This article contains a discussion of the concept of Landeskunde in relation to the German-speaking area (der deutsche Sprachraum), with some examples from German textbooks and teaching in different countries such as Ukraine and South Korea. Krumm argues that Landeskunde in German as a foreign language should not delimit itself to Germany, but cover Germany, Austria and

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Switzerland, and focus not only on the national and regional diversity within this area, but also on its relationships with its neighbours in the wider European and EU perspective. This approach is already known under the name of DACH, cf. the registration letters of the respective countries: D-A-CH (or sometimes D-A-CH-L, including Liechtenstein). The approach started in the late 1980s, where it was known under the name of the ‘ABCD-Thesen’ (ABCD-Thesen, 1990), in which the DDR was a participant. Krumm emphasises the intercultural perspective, which implies that students of German in different parts of the world perceive the German-speaking area and Europe differently. As one example, he mentions a project in Japan, where there is cooperation between German and French teaching with the aim of furthering European awareness. The project includes a German-French club (Neurohr, 1997). SC16 (Sercu, 2000): This book-length study deals with an empirical research project on the development of intercultural competence in the teaching of German in Flemish-speaking Belgium. The investigation covers 592 students in six schools, and it focuses on two grades, one where the students are 15 years old and another where they are 18 years old. The schools are situated in two different areas in Belgium: partly in Limburg near the German border and partly in Westflanders farthest away from Germany. The investigation deals with students’ perceptions of Germany and with the cultural content of six different textbooks in use in the classrooms in question. The analysis of the students, as well as the analysis of the textbooks, contains both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Sercu chooses to focus the analysis on Germany only, and not the other Germanspeaking countries. The analysis of the students shows variation related to gender, age and geographical area, but the general image is that students do not know very much about Germany and do not perceive German culture as very interesting. The schema Germany=war often appears, especially when the students seem to want to conceal their lack of specific knowledge. Among the results of the textbooks analysis is an analytical distinction between two types of perspectives in the teaching of culture: the outsidertourist perspective and the insider-family perspective. The first perspective tends to focus on cultural differences. It contains quite a number of informative details about society and culture and has a relatively flat description of characters. The other tends to focus on both differences and similarities. There is less information on society and culture, and the description of characters is more rounded. Sercu concludes among other things that intercultural competence is best supported if textbooks comprise many different perspectives, both from within and without, and if topics are clearly directed towards the knowledge and interests of the students.

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SC17 (Maijala, 2004) (in German): This comprehensive monograph describes a large Finnish project on the representation of history in textbooks for German as a foreign language in five European countries: Estonia, Finland, France, Britain and Norway (see also Maijala, 2007). The 38 textbooks were produced in these countries during the 1990s and around 2000, i.e. in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. The investigation shows how the textbooks from the different countries reflect very different traditions, perspectives and historical experiences, both concerning their ‘own’ history and their historical relations with Germany in its different shapes. The Estonian textbooks were very much influenced by the recent history of Estonia, its newly regained independence and its work with national identity. The textbooks represented Estonia and Estonian history in a much more detailed way than Germany and German history, and one of the textbooks could be described as a traveller’s guide to Estonia. Thus, the textbooks can be said to educate students to be good Estonian citizens who know their country and can talk about it in German. The Finnish textbooks contained very little history and were oriented towards contemporary youth culture (not specifically German) with an emphasis on entertainment. The French textbooks represented German history primarily through authentic fictional texts and examples of expressionist paintings, and they included themes like German–French relations and cooperation. The British textbooks contained quite a lot of historical information mainly through interviews with eyewitnesses, and by means of informative texts, newspaper articles and photos. The Norwegian textbooks also contained much historical information, mostly embedded in imagined conversations where textbook characters talk about historical themes. Comments on the Analyses Related to German

The geographical spread in this survey corpus is mostly limited to Europe and the United States, but German is also taught elsewhere, of course, and Krumm (1999, SC15) refers to some examples from Japan and South Korea. Countries represented in this corpus are West Germany (before the reunification), the United States, Britain, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France and Norway. In West Germany, the German language was taught as a foreign and second language, and in the other countries it is taught as a foreign language. In the countries of learning mentioned, the textbooks for German were locally produced, i.e. in that same country. Many of the analysts come from the countries of learning and in some cases they or their families may have emigrated from Germany at some time. The study by Maijala (2004, SC17) makes it clear how important it is to be aware of different local or regional perspectives on, for example, Germany.

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What is characteristic for the analyses of textbooks for German is the very strong tradition of Landeskunde. Almost all the analyses that I have come across focus on the national in some way. They deal with the wide plethora of themes and topics describing the country, they discuss the question whether the total picture is positive or negative, they focus on the issue of Germany’s problematic history and the different political regimes (the German Reich, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Regime, the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the DDR, the reunited Germany). An exception to this is the article by Krumm (1999, SC15) discussing not only the need to cover all the German-speaking countries, but also the importance of regional studies and studies of the relations to the EU. The analyses also represent methodological spread: Ammer (1988, SC12), Dechert and Kastner (1989, SC13) and Krumm (1999, SC15) are examples of thematic analysis, the fi rst two by offering overviews of West Germany as a societal whole, the third by discussing the need to include countries other than Germany. Byram and Doyé (1993, SC14) combine thematic analysis and intercultural analysis by contributing to comparative overviews of Germany and Britain, and by introducing considerations of mutual representations between the two countries. Sercu (2000, SC16) and Maijala (2004, SC17) are other examples of intercultural analysis, putting great emphasis on different perspectives on Germany and its role in European history. Textbook Analyses: French

French has had, and still has to a certain degree, an important global position as an academic and diplomatic language, and it is spoken and taught in many parts of the world. It is fi rst and second language in France and parts of Belgium, Switzerland, Luxemburg and Monaco as well as parts of Canada and the Caribbean. It is an official language in large parts of West and Central Africa, some of which have been under French, others under Belgian, dominance, and it is a preferred foreign language or élite language in a number of other countries in North Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. Most of these countries are members of l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). More than half of the world’s speakers of French are located in Africa. There is also, however, a development going on in which some francophone countries in Africa choose English as an official language together with, or instead of, French, for example Rwanda (cf. Plonski, 2013). Traditionally, the Frenchspeaking world has one centre, France, and the teaching of French has been France centred and thereby ethnocentric and Eurocentric. This is raised as a problem in some contexts today (Castellotti [2013] and see below). Besides the analyses described below, I have noted the following: Baumgratz et al. (1982), Bertoletti and Dahlet (1984), Callaghan (1998),

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

Cordier-Gauthier (1999, 2002), Henriksen (2005, 2007), Krauskopf (1985), Louis (1998), Michler (2010), Miller (1989), Pasquale (2009), Pellandra (1993), Verdelhan-Bourgade (2002), Verlée (1973) and Zarate (1993). SC18 (Starkey, 1991): This article includes a description of a textbook for French for fourth- and fi fth-year students, produced in the UK in 1985: Orientations (Aplin et al., 1985). Starkey is one of its authors, in collaboration with Aplin and Miller. This is the only case in my survey where I have chosen an article written about a textbook by its own author, and the reason is that Starkey has taken a world perspective both in his work with this particular textbook and in his work since the 1980s on human rights education and world studies. Starkey argues that the communicative approach involving such activities as discussion, role play, games, problem solving and group work is clearly compatible with a world studies approach: a British curriculum development that supports ‘studies which promote the knowledge, attitudes and skills that are relevant to living responsibly in a multicultural and interdependent way’ (Starkey, 1991: 210). In world studies, trust, selfconfidence and responsibility are prerequisites for learning about the world and for possible engaged action. Starkey emphasises that the usual touristic and consumerist orientation of language textbooks could be challenged if themes were treated within broader perspectives, for instance: Conversations are likely to be very different if, under the heading of travel, the role-play is the traditional customs officer and tourist or if the roles are immigration officer and black tourist. The latter situation might offer some insights into immigration policy and an opportunity for raising some very open-ended questions. Food and drink are potentially interesting and controversial issues. Questions of health, of power, of advertising, of hunger and starvation in the world, hence of justice, are all areas of enquiry in this topic. Finding one’s way around town may lead to all sorts of discoveries about life in cities that tourist boards and even governments would not wish to be revealed. Why are these people in London and Paris sleeping under bridges or in cramped hostels? (Starkey, 1991: 214)

Starkey explains that the textbook Orientations was written with such reflections in mind. For example, a unit on fashion points to links between French fashion and India where the garments are actually made. A unit on nature includes a text on a Greenpeace protest on nuclear testing in Nevada. And a unit on food points to connections between colonisation in Senegal and present-day food shortages. Thus, the choice of texts and activities directs students’ attention to global interconnections and questions of power and injustice, and is not only limited to the ‘Frenchspeaking world’.

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SC19 (Arbex, 2000) (in French): In this article, Arbex examines five textbooks for French as a foreign language in Brazil, all produced in France. In Brazil, educational institutions – in this case universities – have (had) to use textbooks produced by French publishers. Arbex makes an intercultural analysis in the sense that she studies to what extent and how the textbooks invite students to compare with their own cultures. More generally, she asks whether the textbooks contribute to the construction of a plurilingual and pluricultural competence, and whether they take into account the fact that the contexts in which French is taught are very diverse. This is also a question, she states, of what image France wants to give of itself. She concludes among other things that references to other francophone countries than France itself are very rare in most of the textbooks, and this contributes to an ethnocentric image of France. She argues that it is problematic that it is always France that the students have to compare with when they discuss their own cultures or countries. This situation creates, for example in Brazil, an asymmetric relation because Brazilian students have to compare their country with France, and as France is described as a developed and overall well-functioning country, it (and Europe more generally) tends to be seen as an ideal and a model to be followed. Arbex also emphasises that even if some of the textbooks offer glimpses of foreign cultures in France (Chinese restaurants, etc.) and of French presence in other parts of the world, there is no attempt to deal seriously with the international dimensions of the French language and with political, economic or historical relations between France and other countries in the world. SC20 (Dumont, 2002) (in French): This article deals with approaches to the concept of la francophonie (the French-speaking world) in textbooks for French as a second language used in francophone countries in primarily Africa, but also other areas: Southeast Asia, West Asia (the Middle East) and the Caribbean. Dumont has selected textbooks (seven in all) from the late 1960s to around 2000, and the study reveals big differences in their discourses on la francophonie. One textbook from the late 1960s, which has been produced and published in Paris for use in Africa and Madagascar, puts strong emphasis on universalism. The author underscores the similarity between all humans of all times and in all countries, and he states that the French language gives access to universal and African culture, and thus to the world. Another textbook, produced in Dakar, stresses the confl ictual co-existence between French and African languages caused by French colonialism. Still another textbook, written by the sociolinguist L.-J. Calvet (et al.) and published in Paris, emphasises the diversity of languages and cultures in Africa, the role of language contact and the use of international languages such as French, English, Swahili, Arabic and Wolof. A more recent textbook from

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the 1990s published in Paris for use in diverse countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Vanuatu, Lebanon and Haïti, focuses on ‘francophone culture’, mostly in the sense of francophone literature from many different countries. Another textbook from the 1990s stresses that the French language is no longer the property of the French in France but belongs to all francophone people. SC21 (Auger, 2007) (in French): This is a book-length study of textbooks for French produced in different European countries (see also Auger, 2001). Auger analyses 42 textbooks from Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, all produced outside France. These are textbooks for beginners/false beginners and advanced students. (The textbook I analyse in Chapter 5 is not among those studied by Auger.) Auger chooses a particular form of intercultural analysis, enunciation analysis (inspired by French research in énonciation, Benveniste [1974]). She looks at how cultural representations emerge in the discourse (the running text or dialogue), i.e. what linguistic means the author uses, and here she distinguishes between cultural representations of ‘the other’ (l’autre): the target language, the target language culture and the target-language-speaking persons (French and France), as opposed to ‘the same’ (le même): the students’ language and culture. What makes the analysis an enunciation analysis is that there is special focus on the relation between author and student in time and place. This means that at all points in the discourse the analyst asks: What type of presence does the author have here? What does the student possibly imagine the author’s intentions and identity position are here? Auger notes all occurrences of words that refer to what is French: France, Français (Frenchman), français (the language), francophone, francophonie, français (adj.), francs (the currency). She also notes possible occurrences of words that refer to the students’ own nationality. She calls these items identity designators (désignants identitaires). In each case she can then make a closer analysis of the surrounding discourse of the words in question and work out how a picture of France is built up. Many examples are found of how the discourse creates and models national stereotypes. Thus, the analysis as a whole sheds light on the interplay between many different perspectives, angles, attitudes and identities in relation to the world and the societies involved. SC22 (Coffey, 2013): This article contains a comparative study of two textbooks for French, one produced in the UK for use in the UK, the other produced in France and more globally targeted. Coffey’s point of departure is that French studies in the UK has an image problem as elitist, outdated, feminised and inaccessible, and, as he says: ‘To participate in French teaching entails participation in a particular Francophile repertoire which is inscribed in clichéd images of French. Such images of Frenchness

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can attract but also exclude’ (Coffey, 2013: 141). Coffey wants to compare the two textbooks with respect to the ways they construct communicative contexts throughout the chapters, and particularly in relation to a theme found in both books, namely household chores (les tâches ménagères): who in the family does what and when, etc. For the textbooks in general, Coffey (2013: 149) argues that their content is France-centric, and adds: ‘the tight, exclusive linking of French to France reinforces the centralising post-colonial power of metropolitan France, which is at odds with the internationalising aims of an inclusive Francophonie agenda’. The characters are predominantly white and middle-class people, and there is no mentioning of immigration. Other francophone countries are mentioned, but no postcolonial perspective is discussed. Other European countries are mentioned, but only in relation to temporary visits to host families in other countries. Furthermore, there is no mentioning of communicative difficulties, all characters act as native speakers. Thus, there is no outsider perspective showing potential communicative, social and emotional difficulties associated with being a learner and a foreigner in relation to the target country/ies. Concerning communication in the household chore context, the textbooks introduce this by making characters discuss reality TV, humorous cartoons and women’s magazines, i.e. narrative worlds that are framed as normative in some way. And, commenting on the gendered image of France, Coffey (2013: 158) writes about one of the textbooks that it ‘strives to be inclusive and boy friendly through its images of active boys, but the topics are, nonetheless, predominantly centred around home, domestic spheres, shopping and talking about relationships’. He adds that there is no alternative, in the textbooks, to ‘the normality of heterosexual familism’ (Coffey [2013: 158], where he quotes from Chambers [2001: 168]). SC23 (Chapelle, 2014): This article is about the geographical focus of textbooks for French as a foreign language in the United States, all produced in the United States (see also Chapelle, 2009, 2010). It reports on an investigation of Canadian and Quebec (Québec) content in a sample of 65 fi rst-year textbooks from the 1960s through 2010. The primarily quantitative analysis, focusing on changes in themes such as Canadian history, Quebec identity and Canadian French language, challenges the popular notion that US-American teachers and textbook writers are inherently uninterested in Canada. Instead, the analysis fi nds that content related to Canada and Quebec increases over the five-decade period reaching a high point in the most recent decades. The results are discussed against the background of Canadian and Quebec history during the five decades, with special emphasis on two aspects: language and international relations. As regards language, Chapelle notes the growing awareness in Canada of Quebec French and

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the importance of supporting it, illustrated by the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the Charter of the French language in the 1970s, the description of standard Quebec French in the 1980s, further discussions of description in the 1990s and continued support for French in the 2000s. As regards international relations, the five decades have seen an increase in Quebec’s international relations as a specific political unit within Canada, both in relation to the rest of la francophonie and in relation to the United States. Thus, changes in Canadian and Quebec content in US-American textbooks are ascribed to events in (Canada and) Quebec rather than to US-American attitudes to Canada and Quebec. Comments on the Analyses Related to French

As regards geographical spread, the array of countries of learning dealt with in the analyses is quite wide: Britain, Brazil, the United States, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. In addition, Dumont (2002, SC20) refers to the teaching of French in ‘Africa and Madagascar’ and several other areas: Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. In Europe and the United States, the textbooks for French are typically regionally produced in the countries of learning, but when it comes to other areas, such as South America (Brazil) and Africa, they are typically produced in France. The analysts sometimes come from the country of learning, among them Starkey (who is also co-author of the textbook he refers to), whereas Auger (2007, SC21) is the French-speaking analyst of a large number of textbooks for French produced and used in various European countries. There seems to be no analyst from African countries in the corpus. Characteristic of the analyses of textbooks for French is the France centredness – ‘the exclusive linking of French to France’ as Coffey says (see above). But there is also a counter-movement that is of a global, ‘universal’ and sometimes transnational nature: the idea that the French language offers access to the whole world by virtue of the wide-ranging francophonie, which may not only refer to the members of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, but also to all French-speaking people in any country – tourists, professionals, students, residents – this could be assembled under the term francophonie with a small f. Methodologically, the analyses illustrate both thematic, intercultural and power and empowerment analysis. Starkey’s (1991, SC18) discussion of how themes related to France could be made more interesting and thoughtprovoking, and Chapelle’s (2014, SC23) discussion of Canadian themes in textbooks for French in the United States, are examples of thematic analysis. Arbex (2000, SC19) and Auger (2007, SC21) are intercultural analyses focusing on views of France from different perspectives, and especially Coffey (2013, SC22) offers a power and empowerment analysis

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in his critique of the clichéd images of France that are presented in the textbooks in question. Textbook Analyses: Spanish

Spanish is growing in importance as an international language, and compared to German, which is mostly related to Europe, and French, which is mostly oriented towards France because of the monocentric structure of the French-speaking world, the Spanish-speaking world is characterised by a bipolar structure in which the balance is shifting from Spain to the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and the growing Spanish-speaking populations in North America. This means that there is a struggle going on about which parts of the world – and which varieties of Spanish – the teaching of Spanish should focus on (cf. the discussion in Pozzo and Fernández [2012]). Besides the analyses described below, I have noted the following: Bongaerts and Pozzo (2011), Carillo Cabello (2012), Castagnani (2009), de la Cuesta (2009), Elissondo (2001), Frantzen (1998), González Casado (2002), Kramsch and Vinall (2015), Pozzo and Bongaerts (2011), Ros i Solé (2003) (see above). I would also like to refer to Lobato and Gargallo (2005; a comprehensive handbook for teachers of Spanish as a foreign or second language), and the thematic categories of the Cervantes Institute (Instituto Cervantes, 2006). SC24 (Ramirez & Hall, 1990): This article focuses on the thematic content in five textbooks for Spanish in use in high school in New York State, published in the 1980s. The authors look at what themes are included, distinguishing between five major themes (as proposed by Pfister & Borzelli, 1977): social, personal, religion/arts/humanities, political systems/institutions and environmental concerns, and they study what topics, communication situations and language functions are represented. The study is a thematic analysis using content analysis, both quantitative (whole textbook volumes) and qualitative (selected lessons). The results are presented in tables, some of which offer data for all the textbooks as one corpus, others offer data for each textbook for comparative reflection. Ramirez and Hall note that most references are to Mexico and Spain, and add that the majority of Spanish-speaking countries are underrepresented. There are no texts that contain significant representations of the Spanish-speaking groups living in the United States. There are no references to poverty, malnutrition and political strife, and everyday cultural events such as dating, weddings, funerals and ways of earning a living are absent. SC25 (Leeman & Martínez, 2007): This article deals with an analysis of textbooks for Spanish as a heritage language at universities in the

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United States. The authors examine the titles and prefaces of textbooks published between 1970 and 2000 in order to see how ideologies of the Spanish language and its learners have changed during this period. The corpus consists of 12 textbooks. The study reveals that the textbooks from the 1970s and the 1980s focus on minority Spanish language students, especially students with Chicano background (from the Southwest of the United States), and tend to underscore access, inclusion and representation of minorities. They emphasise recognition of the linguistic and cultural heritage of Latino families and celebrate local knowledge. On the other hand, the textbooks from the 1990s emphasise economic competitiveness and globalisation. They address not only Spanish-speaking minorities in the United States but also students from abroad who want to study Spanish, and they stress the (economic) value of Spanish as a world language. This wider acceptance and mainstreaming of Spanish as a heritage language is thus accompanied by a depolitisation and a decoupling of Spanish from Latino identity. As a result of this, they may contribute to a re-marginalisation of Spanish heritage speakers. SC26 (Pozzo & Fernández, 2008) (in Spanish): This is an article presenting a comparative study of textbooks for Spanish in Argentina and Denmark. For Argentina, it is based on four textbooks, three of which have been produced in Argentina and one in Spain. For Denmark, it is based on four textbooks, two of which have been produced in Denmark, one in Sweden and one in Norway. (The textbook I analyse in Chapter 6 is not one of these.) Among the conclusions are the very different world views to be found in the textbooks in terms of geographical reference. Among the Argentinian-produced textbooks, two are nationally oriented towards Argentina/Buenos Aires and one is more locally oriented towards the Argentinian city of Rosario. They do not deal with other Latin American countries or the South American region of the Southern Cone or organisations such as Mercosur (trading bloc for a number of South American countries), and they do not mention Spain. The Spanishproduced textbook used in Argentina includes many references to different Spanish-speaking countries but has a slight overweight towards Spain. Among the textbooks used in Denmark, one of them states that it only deals with Spain while the others claim that they deal with the Spanish-speaking world. But, in fact, they privilege Spain to a high degree, thus representing a Eurocentric view. None of the textbooks invite intercultural and critical reflection. SC27 (Eide, 2012) (in Norwegian): This is a book-length analysis of the representation of Latin America in four textbook systems for Spanish used in Norway. Two of them were produced in Norway and two in Sweden, and adapted for use in Norway. The analysis is based on a selection of

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212 texts from the textbooks for general analysis and 12 of these texts for in-depth analysis of specific ways of approaching Latin America. Thus, the study does not compare the textbooks but explores the representation of Latin America across textbooks, and both in verbal and visual text. The text corpus was categorised in six thematic groups (most often in the form of chapters): Latin America as a whole; Latin American countries; Latin America and Spain; Latin America and Norway; and isolated texts, i.e. texts that are not associated with the theme of the chapter in which they occur. Eide distinguishes between themes at the societal macro-level and the individual and group-related micro-level (Risager, 1991b) and adds a third level: the meso-level, comprising traditions, ways of living, food, clothes, language use, i.e. a level that is situated between the individual and society. She also analyses whose voices are heard in the texts and discusses three different discourses concerning the encounter with Latin America: ‘the Columbus encounter’ with its orientalising approach (Said, 1978), ‘the handbook encounter’ with its nationally descriptive approach (Hofstede, 2001), and ‘the tourist encounter’ with its experience-oriented and visual approach. Eide concludes, among other things, that the textbooks show very little interest in representing the diversity of Latin America or in raising questions of democracy. There is a mainly tourist-oriented focus on a common youth culture across Europe and Latin America, which results in an under-communication of North–South inequalities. The almost total absence of Latin American voices suggests that the textbooks are embedded in a Eurocentric and orientalist tradition. SC28 (Vinall, 2012): In this article, Vinall investigates how history is constructed and represented in textbooks, based upon an analysis of a lesson from a textbook for Spanish for use in the United States, published in Boston in 2009. She wants to explore the possibility of developing students’ symbolic competence (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008) through critical reflexivity, and chooses a lesson that deals with the Conquest of the Americas, specifically in the case of Mexico. This lesson contains a title: Un legado histórico (a historical legacy) and a photo that may be described as two young women (US-American tourists?) buying a handmade purse from an indigenous woman in colourful (typically Mayan) clothes. There is also a text about the communicative and linguistic objectives of the lesson, and a few questions related to the photo. After having discussed the subject positions available to the students, and having touched on the larger ideologies and structures of power that operate on language use in this lesson’s framing of the conquest, Vinall proceeds to suggest how one can carry out classroom activities that relate to the textbook material but aim at developing the students’ awareness of different discourse worlds and subjectivities, and

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hence may further their critical reflexivity. The activities may include interpretive work, individually or in groups, analysing the photo before working with the lesson as such, work with other juxtaposed texts that illustrate very different constructions of the conquest and work with the individual students’ different experiences and perspectives on the situation shown in the photo, in comparison with the questions offered in the lesson itself. SC29 (Ros i Solé, 2013): In this article, the author, who is based in the UK, presents an analysis of a textbook for Spanish, which was produced in Barcelona: Aula internacional (Difusión) (also included in Pozzo & Fernández, 2008). This textbook focuses on Europe, but is also directed at a wider global audience. The main aim of the analysis is to discuss the textbook in relation to the subjectivity it allows for the learner (with reference to Kramsch, 2009) and the political positions it affords to the learner within multilingual and super-diverse societies. Ros i Solé argues that a textbook, as a cultural product, should incorporate competing versions of the target culture, while at the same time allowing space for reflective distance (referring to Luke [1989] on open and closed texts). The analysis shows that the textbook constructs Spain as ‘us’ and Latin America as ‘them’, and overall it presents largely uncontroversial topics and examples from the literary canon. Thereby, it misses an opportunity to ‘address aspects of Hispanic cultures that invoke and challenge students’ own sense of self. By avoiding political events in the language classroom, such as the causes and aftermaths of war or revolution, language textbooks not only emphasise the positive aspects of a culture, but they sanitise it to the extent that learners may not feel the need to involve their own cultural memories’ (Ros i Solé et al., 2013: 181). Comments on the Analyses Related to Spanish

Regarding geographical spread, the analyses cover textbooks produced and used in the United States; textbooks used in the UK but produced in Spain; textbooks used in Argentina and produced in either Argentina or Spain; textbooks used in Denmark and produced in either Denmark, Norway or Sweden; or textbooks produced and used in Norway. The analysts are all working in the countries of learning. What stands out in the analyses of textbooks for Spanish is the critique of representations of Latin America including Hispanics in North America. The representations are often described as superficial or essentialising or exoticising. The analysts refer to postcolonial perspectives and to questions of power and inequality. Thus, the bipolar structure of the Spanishspeaking world makes itself seen more or less directly in the analyses of this corpus.

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The analyses constitute examples of both thematic, intercultural and power and empowerment analysis. Ramirez and Hall (1990, SC24) offer a thematic overview of representations of the Spanish-speaking world, and Ros i Solé (2013, SC29) and Pozzo and Fernández (2008, SC26) combine intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis as they are interested in comparisons and different perspectives on the Spanishspeaking world and question Eurocentric views. Eide (2012, SC27) is a comprehensive study that combines all three approaches in a critique of under-communication of North–South inequalities in the representation of Latin America. Leeman and Martínez (2007, SC25) and Vinall (2012, SC28) also base themselves on a postcolonial critique, and especially Vinall proposes alternative classroom activities that may enhance the students’ interpretative work. Textbook Analyses: Danish

Danish is spoken by about 6 million people, primarily in Denmark. In linguistic terms, Danish is one of the North Germanic languages like Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese, and there is a (limited) degree of intercomprehensibility between them. Sociohistorically, Danish is one of the imperial languages. It still has an important role in Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and it was the administrative and élite language in Norway during the many years of existence of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway (1523–1814). Danish is also spoken in Southern Schleswig (in Northern Germany), where it has minority status, and by some smaller immigrant communities in Sweden and Norway and other countries such the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil. There are also Danish-speaking people scattered all over the world as tourists, migrants, students, professionals, etc. In Denmark, it is spoken as a second language by the numerous immigrant groups. There is not much academic literature on the teaching of Danish written in other languages than Danish. Concerning literature in Danish (and Norwegian and Swedish), the journals Nordand and Sprogforum may be mentioned. Some of the articles in Sprogforum are also published online in English, French or German. Besides the analysis described below, I have noted a few others: Wagner (1999) and Reuter (2006). SC30 (Stougaard-Nielsen, 2011): This article focuses on Danishness, cosmopolitanism and democratic citizenship in relation to textbooks and other learning materials (printed or online) for Danish as a second and foreign language. Stougaard states that the teaching of Danish as a second and foreign language has a long tradition of practice in Denmark, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Schleswig, and at schools, universities

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and community centres around the world. More than 90 universities abroad offer courses in Danish, and at 40 of them one can obtain a master’s in Danish. Stougaard examines six different learning materials published in Denmark in the 1990s and 2000s, and used in the teaching of Danish both as a second and a foreign language. (The textbook I analyse in Chapter 4 is not one of them.) Although some of the materials from the 2000s show some openness to social and cultural diversity, and seek to contribute to citizenship education in the limited sense of explaining how democracy functions in Denmark, the overall image of Denmark is still characterised by banal nationalism (Billig, 1995). As Stougaard says: …there has not as of yet been a further development in available materials away from the national perspective. Their topics, design and pedagogy still marginalise the ethnically different, and constantly put the foreign language learner in an ‘outside’ position. As in the wider society, the pluricultural perspective is simply not admitted a place. (StougaardNielsen, 2011: 219) Comments on the Analysis Related to Danish

As the corpus only encompasses one analysis, the geographical spread is limited. The analyst comes from Denmark, the country of learning, but is teaching and doing research on Danish as a foreign language in the UK. This analysis is mostly a power and empowerment analysis as it focuses on the predominance of banal nationalism in the materials even though they are supposed to serve as support for the development of citizenship in Denmark, a culturally diverse country. Conclusion

The great geographical spread in the corpus as a whole makes it clear that it is necessary to situate any analysis fi rmly in its historical and geopolitical context, not least in relation to colonial histories. Are we in Sri Lanka? Japan? Pakistan? Brazil? Denmark? Does the textbook author reflect on the implications of this situatedness? And, in the concrete teaching situation, what are the backgrounds of the teacher and the students, who may have relations to various diasporas and networks across the world, and thereby access to different perspectives? Does the textbook raise the awareness of these possibilities? Note that there are not many analyses in the corpus from African countries, although I have tried to fi nd more. The survey shows great variability of methodology and empirical methods in textbook analysis and there is a chronological pattern.

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Thematic analysis is the oldest approach and has been used in the whole period under study since the 1980s, intercultural analysis started in the 1990s and power analysis has been growing since around 2010. Good examples of thematic analysis can be seen in Porreca (1984, SC1) on sexism in English teaching, in Dechert and Kastner (1989, SC13) on themes in German teaching, in Ramirez and Hall (1990, SC24) on themes in Spanish teaching, in Yamada (2010, SC6) on the range of countries in English teaching and in Chapelle (2014, SC23) on Canadian and Quebec themes in French teaching. Good examples of intercultural analysis can be seen in Sercu (2000, SC16) on Belgian views of Germany and in Auger (2007, SC21) on European views of France. And good examples of power analysis by means of critical discourse analysis can be seen in Gray (2010a, SC5) on discourses of consumerism, in Gulliver (2010, SC7) on narratives of immigrant success, in Coffey (2013, SC22) on images of Frenchness and in Vinall (2012, SC28) on different discourse worlds. In my view, people working with different languages have much to learn from each other. Those active in languages other than English may be inspired by the wide array of different studies from all corners of the earth, using different methodologies, not least critical discourse analysis and semiotic analysis, which are well developed within the Englishspeaking part of academia. Also, the field of Cultural studies is being introduced in English language textbook analyses: studies of gender, sexuality, race, religion, social class, etc. On the other hand, people active within English studies may also learn from the other languages. Some textbooks for English are being subtly deterritorialised, as Gray says (Gray, 2010a; Gray & Block, 2014), and in my view this development makes it difficult to develop intercultural competence or intercultural citizenship, or indeed knowledge about the world. It is important to situate interaction somewhere in space and time.

3 National Studies

Introduction

In this chapter, I introduce and illustrate the fi rst reading of language learning materials: national studies. This is my own term for a field of culture studies that focuses on the idea of the national. It includes ‘the national paradigm’, as for example discussed in Risager (2007), as well as reflections on national stereotypes, identities and discourses. Thus, national studies may fi nd ‘the national’ to be represented as a commonsense frame of the whole or most of the textbook, and/or as one or more themes focusing on national identity, or as a discussion thread throughout the book. I will illustrate national studies readings of two of the textbooks presented in Chapter 1: the textbook for English: A Piece of Cake and the textbook for German: Du bist dran. Here, I refer to the two main questions set out in Chapter 1: • •

For each of the five theoretical readings: What does this reading tell us about representations of culture, society and the world in the textbook under study? For each of the five theoretical readings: How can these reflections help us promote intercultural learning (the construction of knowledge about culture, society and the world) using the textbook under study as a stepping stone? This will be referred to as ‘possible supplementary materials’.

As part of the discussion of each textbook, an example chapter of special relevance for national studies will be selected and described. Furthermore, in order to keep the global perspective in mind and stress the local situatedness of the textbooks used in Denmark, the readings will also be discussed in relation to the survey corpus presented in Chapter 2. Note that Chapters 3–7 include readings of A Piece of Cake, which will be the common example, and a textbook for another language. Thus, Du bist dran figures in the present chapter only. It should be noted as well that the textbook readings below are meant to be illustrations of how one can apply different theoretical readings to the same kind of material. The readings could be extended and

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National Studies 61

deepened and possibly take the form of a whole monograph dealing with a single textbook. In any case, the textbooks are rich and open to many interpretations. National Studies

The field of studies of nation, nationalism and nationality is a broad and varied field, and I will focus on two issues that are central also for the specific field of language and culture pedagogy, namely the concept of banal nationalism and the distinction between political and ethnic conceptions of the national (the following paragraphs draw on Risager, 2007). Banal nationalism

Banal nationalism (Billig, 1995: 7) ‘include(s) the patterns of belief and practice which reproduce the world – “our” world – as a world of nationstates, in which “we” live as citizens of nation-states’. Banal nationalism fi nds expression in the many small everyday things and statements that remind us that the world is divided into nation states, and that presupposes that this is common sense – a quite natural thing that could not be otherwise (cf. the distinction between factual knowledge, epistemology and common sense in Chapter 1). The flag on official buildings; the political map, where countries are clearly demarcated from each other and in different colours; expressions such as ‘Australian weather’ or ‘German birds’; the expression ‘the whole country’; the political deixis that lies in the use of ‘us’ and ‘them’ – all these are examples of the apparently innocent things that keep alive our national conception of the world. It is virtually omnipresent, and Billig has analysed it in particular in political speeches and news reports, including sports pages. But even though banal nationalism seems to be innocent and a matter of routine, Billig emphasises that it is not harmless. It is an ideology – in fact, one of the most successful in the history of the human race (Billig, 1995: 22), for the belief that the whole world necessarily has to be divided up into nation states with precise borders is universal today, despite the fact that nationalism and the establishing of national states is only 200–300 years old. When we use the word nationalism, we are normally referring to a passionate and violent phenomenon. While banal nationalism accompanies us unnoticed in our daily lives, ‘nationalism’ is something that ‘the others’ practice: separatists, fascists and guerrillas. This more passionate form of nationalism Billig calls ‘hot nationalism’, and he stresses the distinction: ‘Surely, there is a distinction between the flag waved by Serbian ethnic cleansers and that hanging unobtrusively outside the US post office’

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(Billig, 1995: 6). (Billig’s basic metaphor is the flag, and the distinction between banal and hot nationalism is that between the waved and the unwaved flag.) Banal nationalism, however, is not harmless, for it functions as a mental ‘warm-up’ to hot nationalism and can easily change into this in connection with, for example, war propaganda. Billig emphasises that the idea of a national language is an important ingredient in banal nationalism and, while referring to Anderson’s (1991) conception of a nation as an ‘imagined community’, Billig (1995: 10) says that ‘national languages also have to be imagined, and this lies at the root of today’s common sense belief that discrete languages “naturally” exist’. Banal nationalism treats the concept of a national language as an unproblematic entity, which we know it is not, and when it sees the world as equipped with a number of languages that are separate from each other, it is a small step to take to seeing it as being perfectly natural for people who speak the same language wishing to have a common national state. Political and ethnic conceptions of the national

The distinction between a political and an ethnic conception of the national is very fruitful in connection with an analysis of the national in language studies. It has to do with two different conceptions that I will call here a political and an ethnic conception of the national. This is a difference that has been one of the most central points of discussion in Western nationality research, both the earlier and the more recent, including Anderson (1991 [1983]), Gellner (1983), Hobsbawm (1990) and Smith (1986). The distinction between the two conceptions of the national is described by, for example, Smith (1986), who distinguishes between two different models for the formation of nations: ‘Western territorialism’ (which corresponds to what I call the political model) and ‘Eastern ethnicism’ (which corresponds to what I call the ethnic model). The former, territorial, model is one that we mainly fi nd represented in the development of the earliest states in Western Europe since the 13th century: England and France as the fi rst, then Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia: state formations where a particular territory was defi ned and politically dominated by a particular ‘core ethnie’ while there were also other, smaller ethnies represented within the territory. Here, the building up of a nation consisted in creating a common citizenship, based on a common political, legal and economic (state) system, a common culture (including a ‘myth–symbol complex’), a common religion and a common language, beginning with a common standard written language. This model spread to large parts of the world. The second, ethnic model can be represented by the development in Central and Eastern Europe, where dynasties such as the Habsburgs ruled over a large number of different ethnies. Since these ethnies aspired

National Studies 63

to becoming nations, they particularly cultivated ‘descent, populism, vernacular culture and nativism’ (Smith, 1986: 145) and, in particular, language (fi rst language) as identity factors. It is in connection with this national model that fertile ground can be found for ideas about the inseparability of language and (ethnic) culture. The ethnic model also pervades today as an alternative way of conceiving a nation and it can be seen mixing with the territorial, political model in that certain states can be described as containing nations at two different levels that call for a ‘dual loyalty’: Spain, for example, can be said to comprise both a Spanish nation (territorially, politically) and a Catalan and Basque nation, respectively (ethnic). A somewhat different example could be the situation in the United States, where the concept of ‘nation’ is applied both to the whole US federation and to Native American polities, e.g. the Navajo Nation. If this conceptual division is compared with Billig’s description of banal nationalism, it can be said that in general it is probably the political understanding of the national that is most apparent in banal nationalism: ‘I come from this country, you come from that country, etc.’. But hot nationalism (the waved flag) can, as is known, be based on both forms. National Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy The national as common sense, or reflections on the national

The field of language and culture pedagogy has, since the mid-19th century, been very considerably influenced by the national paradigm in its unreflected or common-sense form, where the nation or country, occupying a specific territory or ‘land’, is thought to be the natural frame of reference for a wide range of cultural and social phenomena: Language, people, culture, society, economy, institutions, history, literature, art, mentality, humour, as well as landscape, flora and fauna, climate and weather (Risager, 2007). This way of thinking is still quite influential in practice among planners, teachers and students, but it has also been problematised by many on account of a growing awareness of globalisation and transnational processes, for example Byram (2008), Holliday (1999), Kramsch (2009), Kumaravadivelu (2008), Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) and Risager (2006, 2007). Thus, the national studies reading as proposed in the present book involves studies that take the national frame for granted (the national paradigm) and those who investigate or critique national narratives, identities and discourses (as, for instance, Auger [2007, SC21], cf. the survey corpus described in Chapter 2). Or in other words, those who treat the nation as an essence (implying that it exists and has always existed) and those who treat the nation as a community that is imagined at some phase in history (Anderson, 1991 [1983]).

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

How broad is the representation of the country (nation/state)?

Even when the nation is treated as a common-sense frame for cultural representation, there is still the question: What is the nature of this representation? More specifically: How representative is it and how realistic is it? Is it positive, negative or more or less neutral? In what sense does it offer ‘a panorama’ of a country, or present the country ‘in a nutshell’, to use some widespread metaphors? Does the representation include politics and economy? Does it include popular culture? These are central questions in the Landeskunde tradition, and here I refer to the section on ‘Thematic categories’ in Chapter 2, where the proposals of Byram (1993b), Risager (1991b) and the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001) are presented. The textbook analyses touching on national studies are also relevant here, especially Ammer (1988, SC12). Although the culture of a country may be described as a homogeneous entity, some variation is sometimes introduced: some regional variation, or ethnic variation in the sense that immigrants, expats and visitors from other countries, perhaps neighbouring countries, may be mentioned. But the overall frame is still the national. Here, the distinction between political and ethnic conceptions of the national becomes important: In the case of Denmark, for example, are we talking of the national in the sense of the whole area covered by the name of Denmark? Or are we talking of the national in the sense of everything pertaining only to ‘ethnic Danes’ (by no means a homogeneous group). As already mentioned, Denmark is also the centre of a particular state construction: The Danish Realm (Rigsfællesskabet), consisting of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. So Greenland, for example, is a nation, but again: Are we talking about Greenland as a political entity having political autonomy, or are we talking about ethnic Greenlanders (some of whom have one of the varieties of Greenlandic as their fi rst language, others have Danish as their fi rst language), or are we only talking about those who speak Western Greenlandic, the national standard language? Moreover, there are immigrants from other countries as well in Greenland, for example from Italy. Countries: Nations and states

The relationships between ‘nation’ and different kinds of ‘state’ may be very diverse across the world. The United States considers itself a nation, but is composed of a number of states. The same is true of, for example, Mexico and Brazil. The United Kingdom (as a nation?) consists of four nations (‘home nations’): England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (but in Northern Ireland the question of national identity is particularly

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sensitive). Germany and Austria are two German-speaking nations and states. Spain as a nation may be said to consist of several nations. During the cold war, it was debated whether West Germany and the DDR constituted one or two nations. But they were divided into two separate states that more or less ignored one another, at least in the teaching of German (either with a focus on West Germany from a Western point of view or the DDR from an Eastern point of view). A national studies reading has to consider these local complexities. Which countries (nations/states)?

As many of the target languages have imperial histories (the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, etc.), their language areas are big, spanning several continents. Therefore, national studies cannot restrict itself to the central nation, such as Britain or Spain, but has to take the whole target language area into account, and the question (in relation to national studies) is: which of all of these nations are mentioned and how is each of them represented? It may be a question of bringing some nations out of the shadow of big nations or states, such as Scotland in relation to Britain, or Belgium in relation to France. Some of these nations may be assembled in larger entities, like Latin America and francophone Africa, which contributes to the invisibility of the individual nations. Argentina, for example, is in a process of nation-building within the frames of the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language, in the sense that some scholars are trying to defi ne what should be taught about specifically Argentina and Argentinian history in language materials used in Argentina (Pozzo & Bongaerts, 2011). A related question is the treatment of different standard varieties of the target language, according to which parts of the former empires we are focusing on. For example: Is it acknowledged that there are different standard varieties of English, such as British English, American English, Indian English, etc.? It may also be the case, as mentioned in Chapter 2, that the focus is on the students’ own country, the country of learning. Or nations or countries are not referred to at all, as in the tendency to de-territorialisation described by Gray (2010a, SC5). Approach to intercultural learning

The approach to intercultural learning, or knowledge construction, in national studies may be oriented towards the acquisition of facts about the target country/ies: geography, history, national symbols, way of life, obtained through readings or perhaps games of various kinds. This interest can be related to thematic analysis as described in the

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section on methodologies in Chapter 2. Or there may be an interest in the development of awareness of different national perspectives: With the rise of interest in intercultural learning since the 1980s, the students’ own country has gained a role as a reference for (bi-national) comparisons and reflections on mutual relations, including an awareness of different national perspectives (Byram, 1989, 1997; Corbett, 2003; Krumm, 2010; Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). With the intercultural turn there is a growing interest in national identities and in the management of national stereotypes, both people’s stereotypes of other nations (hetero-stereotypes) and people’s stereotypes of their own nation (autostereotypes). This interest can be related to intercultural analysis as described in Chapter 2, but only with reference to the national (in the political or the ethnic sense). Analytical Questions in Relation to a National Studies Reading

The following questions refer to the section on Textbook analysis as a form of critical discourse analysis, presented in Chapter 1: Positioning and representation of actors •

How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their national affi liations and identities?

Representation of culture, society and the world •

Which countries (nations/states) are represented? (dealt with, or just mentioned)

•

Are different standard varieties of the target language represented?

•

Is the country of learning represented?

•

How broad and varied are the representations? (nature, economy, politics, etc.)

•

Banal nationalism? Ethnic or political sense of the nation?

Approach to intercultural learning •

Does the approach to intercultural learning promote the development of knowledge about countries? (collecting facts about the target country/ ies, reading pieces of national literature, intercultural [inter-national] comparisons, reflections on national stereotypes, perspectives and identities) What is the role of the teacher?

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English: A Piece of Cake Presentation

The fi rst textbook to be analysed addresses students of English as a foreign language at age levels 13–16. The students have already had English lessons typically from the age of 9. A Piece of Cake covers Grades 1–9 in primary and lower secondary school in Denmark, and addresses age levels 6–16. In this study, only Grades 7–9 are included, i.e. age levels 13–16. It was published by the Danish publishing company Alinea, Copenhagen, which is part of the transnational media house Egmont based in Copenhagen. A Piece of Cake 7–9 was adapted from the original Swedish version published by Liber AB, Stockholm. The authors in Sweden were Jörgen Tholin, Rigmor Eriksen and Moira Linnarud, and the authors in Denmark are Joan Boesen and Marianne Rosendal. Joan Boesen is EFL teaching materials consultant at Alinea and former associate professor at Zahle’s Seminarium, an institution of teacher education. Marianne Rosendal is a Folkeskole teacher (primary and lower secondary). The volumes analysed were published in 2011. (The chief editor of foreign languages in Alinea, Lise Nerlov [2005], has written an article on materials development with special reference to differentiated teaching and task-oriented vocabulary acquisition.) A note on the publication history of A Piece of Cake: The Swedish version from 1994 only covers Grades 7–9. The Danish version is a very thorough reworking of the original version, including partial exchange and reorganisation of themes, and a change in method from ‘tasks’ to ‘cooperative learning’. The graphic design of the Danish version from 2011 is much more colourful and playful, and the textbooks are in hard cover. The Swedish version from 1994 builds on a still older version from 1977, A Piece of Cake, Delight, written by the same group of authors and consisting of roughly the same chapters/themes. This history is an example of the sometimes large amount of reuse in the branch of textbook editing and publication.

Figure 3.1 Some facts about A Piece of Cake

For each of the Grades 7–9, the materials in the Danish version of A  Piece of Cake consist of the textbook (containing primarily verbal texts and photos), the teacher’s guide and the learner’s guide, plus a website with web resources for the teacher and the students containing, among other things, soundtracks, grammar worksheets with answer keys, listening comprehension manuscripts, extra reading comprehension texts and exercises, goal and evaluation charts and external links for further exploration. Below, I refer to the different volumes of A Piece of Cake in the following way: A Piece of Cake 7,1=Grade 7, textbook A Piece of Cake 7,2=Grade 7, teacher’s guide and website A Piece of Cake 7,3=Grade 7, learner’s guide The same for Grades 8 and 9 In the following, I prefer to call the learners ‘students’, but when I refer to the learner’s guide, I use that term because that is the one used by the publishers.

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A Piece of Cake is organised as a thematic syllabus (sociocultural themes) and intends to give students inputs of many different genres and topics that may contribute to their knowledge of the world. Students are supposed to work with the following chapters/themes (average length about 20 pages): In Grade 7: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

‘Absolutely British’ (about Britain) ‘Witches, the occult and other scary stuff’ ‘The fi rst Americans’ ‘Out and about’ (sports, including extreme sports) ‘Hawaii – the Aloha State’ ‘Spotlight on school’ (school in Britain and the United States) ‘Canada from sea to sea’

In Grade 8: (1) ‘Food, glorious food’ (2) ‘Is anybody out there?’ (space, astronomy and astrology) (3) ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ (celebrities and success as a young person) (4) ‘Georgia on my mind’ (e.g. Martin Luther King and Coca-Cola) (5) ‘The environment – ignore it and it will go away’ (6) ‘Music – our universal language’ (7) ‘Global connections’ (about globalisation) In Grade 9: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

‘Next stop NYC’ (including the 9/11 terrorist attacks) ‘Events that shook the world’ (e.g. Titanic, Pearl Harbor) ‘A look at Ireland’ ‘Love is in the air’ (love and sexuality) ‘What’s up down under’ (Australia) ‘Teen issues’ (poor and rich, race, religion) ‘Aspects of South Africa’

There are no central characters and no common storyline or plot in A Piece of Cake. I should add that in the grades before Grade 7 the students have been working with themes that included some very limited information on places in Britain, Australia, the United States and Canada – and the North Pole and the South Pole. The teacher’s guides and the learner’s guides contain lots of suggestions of structures for cooperative learning (Kagan & Stenlev, 2009) and other activities, including work on a language portfolio. Each theme is very

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thoroughly structured in different steps. In Grade 7, for example, the students go through each theme by the following steps: Before you start – introduction – goals – intro text – pick and choose – reading plus – rounding off – evaluation. In Grade 9, the steps are: Before you start – introduction – goals – intro texts – look back and look ahead – anthology – presentation – project (i.e. decision whether the class should develop this into a project) – evaluation. In the teacher’s guide for Grade 7 it is written (and repeated in the guides for Grades 8 and 9) that ‘In our day and age, EFL is to a very great degree about culture and cultural competence. Language and culture go together hand in hand. Language exists within a culture and is one means of cultural expression’ (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 13f). There is an emphasis on the importance of using ‘authentic texts’. There are also references to ‘the English-speaking world’, ‘English-speaking countries’, ‘English-speaking cultures’ and ‘English-speaking culture’ ( A Piece of Cake 7,2: 14), but no use of such expressions as ‘English as a lingua franca’ or ‘English as an international language’ (which is, however, indirectly referred to on the chart presented below). The Danish official guidelines are not referred to in the introduction of the teacher’s guide, but they are included in the ‘Teacher’s chart for planning and keeping track of goals’ (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 66f) (the chart is in Danish). For every chapter/theme, the teacher can check the following four points concerning cultural and social conditions: The students should be able to: –

–

– –

take part in conversations about youth cultures in English-speaking countries, fi rst and foremost on the background of work with lyrics, magazines, fi lm, TV and the internet; have knowledge of [kende til] examples of cultural and living conditions in English-speaking countries, especially from work with English language, literature, non-fiction texts, aural and visual media and IT; make comparisons between English-language cultures and their own culture; use their knowledge about cultural and social conditions in contact with people using English as a mother tongue or as an international means of communication (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 66f, my translation).

How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their national affiliations and identities?

In the colophon of all the volumes, the names of the publishing company, product (title), authors, editors and designers are mentioned. The company address is in Denmark. There is also a reference to the earlier

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Swedish edition from 1994. The title is in English, the target language (and the volumes are in English throughout, except word lists and overviews of grammatical rules). There is a general problematics concerning national affi liation and personal names, here illustrated by the given names and family names of the authors of A Piece of Cake. The names of the authors of the Danish edition (Jane Boesen and Marianne Rosendal) sound Danish, and the names of the authors of the Swedish edition sound Swedish. But there may be a complicated family history behind a name, including migration and transnational marriage, so one cannot deduce national affi liation or identity from a name alone. In the teacher’s guides, which only have one author – Joan Boesen – the author is not represented by an ‘I’, but a ‘we’. Thus, the author is not a personal author, but appears as the authoritative representative of the whole system. The introduction starts with ‘Welcome to A Piece of Cake!’. The author addresses the teacher as ‘you’, and refers both to ‘students’, ‘your students’ and ‘our students’. Furthermore, she refers very briefly to the work of a number of pedagogical scholars, among them Ziehe, Krashen, Vygotsky, Ellis, Dam, Lyster, Gardner and Kagan, without putting their work in relation to one another. There are no reflections as such concerning the possible national or ethnic identity of the teacher (most teachers in Denmark will be ethnically Danish). But it is recognised that the students may be at very different levels of competence in English: ‘For each topic there is an extra text. It is meant as a bonus text for your more avid readers or if you have a student who has gone to an English-speaking school or is a native speaker’ (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 19). In the textbooks, the teacher is never represented. In the learner’s guides, the teacher is sometimes referred to in the phrase: ‘Your teacher will tell you which goals he or she feels that the whole class needs to focus on’ (e.g. A Piece of Cake 7,3: 22). Thus, the teacher is referred to as a kind of assistant for the authors in front of the students. The authors are present in both the textbooks and the learner’s guides as the voice that tells, informs, asks and makes proposals and recommendations. The voice addresses the students as ‘you’, and in a few places the students are represented in simple two-colour drawings (light brown skin and clothes, black hair), distinguishing girls and boys. A few times there is also the use of an indefi nite ‘we’ (referring to whom?), as in this introduction to a text: ‘We like to idealize American Indian values and culture. Real life on a Native American reservation isn’t always only good or bad …’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 66). There is one instance, however, where one of the authors appears in her own name: At the start of the chapter on Hawaii, a one-page letter begins like this:

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Dear Ms. Boesen, How cool that you are including a Hawaii chapter in your new book! I am from Maui and as a 7th grader I was fascinated with the surf spot ‘Jaws’ aka ‘Peahi’ – famous for the biggest rideable waves on earth. If you put ‘Jaws waves’ into google, I’m sure you will fi nd spectacular wave pictures. If your students are concerned with learning inches and feet, talking about 70 foot waves might be interesting … Jesse Fisher. (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 90)

The letter, by the way, is hardly an authentic text as the words sound like suggestions by one teacher to another. One can say that the discourse of teaching contradicts the text which has the form of a personal letter from a student. As the Swedish version also had a chapter on Hawaii, it is uncertain whether Joan Boesen has been doing research on (and in) Hawaii herself. Also, in the learner’s guides, the introductions end with ‘We’re rooting for you! Joan and Marianne’ (e.g. A Piece of Cake 7,3: 5). It should be noted that in the learner’s guide and the textbook the students are (naturally) referred to as ‘you’, but in many cases one cannot know whether ‘you’ is to be understood in the singular or the plural. This is different from the other languages involved in this study (except Esperanto), in which this distinction is part of the language system (‘tu’ vs. ‘vous’ in French, etc.). Which countries (nations/states) are represented?

As can be seen from the series of 21 themes for Grades 7–9, there are chapters about (aspects of) Britain, the United States with special reference to Native Americans, New York City, Hawaii, Canada (including Quebec), Georgia, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Among the reading comprehension texts (A Piece of Cake 7,2 web) there is a text about Scotland (‘A letter from Scotland’). There is also a text on a village in India in the chapter about the environment (A Piece of Cake 8) – with a reference to the Bhopal disaster in 1984. With this selection of themes there is a clear intention of developing the students’ knowledge of various English-speaking countries and regions on the basis of authentic texts of different genres. But the concepts of ‘state’ and ‘nation’ are not discussed, although this is relevant to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. In all the other chapters, direct or indirect geographical references are almost always to either the United States, Britain or Ireland. ‘The troubles’ in Northern Ireland are also dealt with, and Belfast is mentioned as the place where the Titanic was built. There are a couple of references to Australia: information on the origin of the name ‘peach melba’, and a story about the life of a koala as the eucalyptus is disappearing. New Zealand is mentioned once, in connection with an explanation of the name ‘Wellington’. There are only two very minor references to Wales.

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

This means that the view of the world is very much bound to Englishspeaking countries, and – seen from a global perspective – among them only a few of the most powerful: Britain (London in particular), the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and South Africa. (This is more or less equivalent with ‘the anglosphere’, which usually comprises the UK, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.) Countries/nations like Wales, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and all the African countries having English as an official language, are practically absent in A Piece of Cake (except for a Zambian student visiting an Australian school). The very big fi lm industries of India (‘Bolliwood’) and Nigeria (‘Nolliwood’) are not mentioned (see also Yuen [2011] concerning the absence of Africa in textbooks for English in Hong Kong). Of course, the textbooks cannot deal equally with all English-speaking countries, but all countries (states/nations) could be marked on world maps, and there could be arguments on the part of the authors as to which countries have been chosen, and which have been left out. As regards countries that do not have English as a fi rst or official language (besides Denmark, see below), the following are referred to very briefly and often indirectly: Japan (manga, karate, Pearl Harbor, atomic bombs), France (parkour, which was invented by a Frenchman), the Netherlands (Double Dutch – a game of jump ropes), Norway (the Nobel Peace Prize, and an immigrant to the United States), Vietnam (a tourist account by a British teenager who has also visited Fiji, Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal). The chapter on space, astronomy and astrology (A  Piece of Cake 7) mentions several names from different European countries – Aristotle, Copernicus and Galileo – and it mentions that there have been astronauts from Europe, Russia, Japan and Iran (the fi rst female space tourist: Anousheh Ansari) on the International Space Station. Europe is also mentioned in relation to flooding as a consequence of climate change. In a humorous vein, it said that some foreign tyrants have tried to invade and conquer Great Britain, among them ‘Julius Caesar, Norman the Conqueror, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein’ (!) (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 23, my exclamation mark). (By the way, it should have been William the Conqueror.) The view of the non-English-speaking world is quite limited here: The whole of Latin America is absent, as is China and most other parts of Asia, including the Middle East (Western Asia) and Russia. Almost the whole of Africa is absent, and the image of Europe is very vague. The lack of interest in (continental) Europe is particularly surprising, as Denmark, the country of learning, is situated in Europe, and since English is the preferred lingua franca in Europe, including the Nordic countries. Maybe this choice is related to the above-mentioned dominant view of the English language (in the teacher’s guides of A Piece of Cake) that favours English as used among native speakers (this is an aspect of ‘native-speakerism’,

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cf. e.g. Holliday [2005]) and not English used as a foreign language and in situations where it functions as a lingua franca. There are no clear instances of people with different first (native) languages communicating in English as a lingua franca although such situations may of course be encountered worldwide. This implies that there are no intercultural speakers (people who can mediate between different languages and cultures, cf. Byram [1997]) or examples of intercultural communication in A Piece of Cake. On the other hand, there are chapters in A Piece of Cake that point to another non-localised use of English: English as an international language in relation to specific disciplinary subjects such as physics (the chapter on astronomy) and biology (the chapters on food and the environment). This use is traditionally called English for specific purposes (ESP). In this case, English is not bound to English-speaking countries, but that does not imply that the use of English is culturally neutral. It does matter whether the content is expressed in English or, say, Russian or Korean or Mandarin Chinese (cf. the section on linguaculture in Chapter 5). Are different standard varieties of the target language represented?

There is some information on British, American and Australian standard varieties of English, and the question of English as a world language is taken up on the website in connection with the chapter on ‘Global connections’ (A Piece of Cake 8) (see Chapter 7). Somewhat confusing, though, is that the spelling of English words lingers between American and British spelling (for instance: ‘civilization’ as well as ‘colour’) throughout the volumes. Some of these shifts may be well-founded because the texts have different origins, but this is not commented upon. Besides the Danish language, which is present in word lists and small-scale linguistic comparisons, a few languages other than English are mentioned in the volumes: French, Hawaiian, Gaelic and Afrikaans. There is surprisingly much material in Hawaiian language in the chapter on Hawaii (A Piece of Cake 7): Hawaii’s motto, the songs Aloha’Oe and Hawaii ’78, all of it also translated into English. Concerning French, in the chapter on Canada (A Piece of Cake 7) there is a conversation about ‘franglais’ in Quebec. The Canadian national anthem is also presented, both the English and the French versions. The English translation of the French version is not given, and the students are asked whether they can understand the French version (some of them may have classes in French in the same year). However, interestingly, there are no comments on the fact that these two texts have very different contents, something that would have been a good opportunity to touch on Quebec and Canadian identities.

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So, some languages are mentioned that are spoken in areas where English is the dominant language, but on the other hand, Spanish is not mentioned in spite of its importance in the United States (it is briefly mentioned, though, in Grade 5, in a text on Miami). Is the country of learning represented?

In the textbooks as such, Denmark is more or less invisible, with a few exceptions: We are told that a student in a certain US-American (?) school has a friend who has been to Denmark and who ‘said that it looked as if there was a uniform in schools there, too. Everybody wore jeans and a T-shirt and they all looked almost the same’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 116). (School uniforms are not required in Denmark.) We are also told that the same student has a penpal from Denmark called Maria. She visits him and they have a conversation (one page) in which she answers some questions about Denmark, among other things school lunch and holidays. The conversation ends with a comment in the voice of the invisible author(s): ‘Maria begins to think that school in Denmark is not too bad after all’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 177). Furthermore, Denmark is mentioned in relation to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In A Piece of Cake 8, in the chapter on ‘Nothing succeeds like success’, there are two pages about the Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. Later, there is a fiction text: ‘Lydia meets the Danes’ (six pages, a story based on personal experience) about a 13-year-old girl moving from Oregon to Denmark. It is not mentioned that a large proportion of the population of Denmark speaks English reasonably well. In the learner’s guides, however, Denmark is referred to quite often, but mostly very briefly, in the sense that the students are asked to compare conditions in English-speaking countries with conditions in Denmark. There are also a few very short texts now and then that offer information on Denmark specifically: As part of the chapter on ‘The fi rst Americans’, a very short text says that in 1952 the Danish government sent a group of children from Greenland to Denmark as an experiment. And in relation to the same chapter, there is this question: ‘We have many students from different ethnic backgrounds in our schools. Discuss how their situation compares to that of the Native American student who is quoted in the text. What could we do differently in our schools?’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 41). In A Piece of Cake 8,3 there is a reference to the Danish ‘Law of Jante’ – a set of statements that are said to characterise Danes (and perhaps people in the Nordic countries), and that can be summed up as follows: ‘Don’t think you are anything special’. In A Piece of Cake 9,3, the students are asked to fi nd out something about Denmark’s immigration rules, and there is a listening comprehension text on the role of Denmark in World War II (two people ‘pool their knowledge’ about how it may have been, A Piece of Cake 9,2 web).

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So while Denmark is not much represented in authentic texts in the textbooks, it is in fact present in the student’s guides, including – in passing – Greenland, i.e. one of the nations in the Danish Realm. But there is no intention of representing Denmark or the Danish Realm in any systematic way. The geographical focus is clearly on English-speaking countries and regions. What perspectives are taken?

The selection of countries and languages in A Piece of Cake raises the question of what perspective(s) it takes. Here, it is useful to distinguish between two sides of the concept of perspective: the perspective from (from Denmark, for example) and the perspective on (on the United States, for example, or the whole world). The primary perspective from is Danish, in the objective sense that the publishers and the authors are Danish and are operating within the institutional frame and curriculum of the Danish Folkeskole. A perspective from Denmark means a perspective from a comparatively small and rich European state that is quite dependent on larger states such as the United States and Germany, but has never been colonised by the (former) colonial powers (cf. Chapter 1). As already said, A Piece of Cake has been adapted from the Swedish version, but it should be noted that this adaption is not minimal in the sense of only translating all Swedish words and expressions into Danish. The material also contains cultural translation since a few considerations relating to Greenland – and thereby Danish history and not Swedish history – have been included. But in the representations of the materials, this perspective from becomes blurred. On the one hand, there are the suggestions now and then of comparison with conditions in Denmark, for instance: ‘What about Denmark? What examples of racial discrimination can you fi nd in Denmark?’ (A Piece of Cake 8,3: 49). On the other hand, the Danish perspective is not explicit but implicit and indirect in the books. We are not introduced to the act of seeing the English-speaking countries with Danish eyes. Rather, it seems that the Danish perspective has been transplanted to the English-speaking world and transformed into a perspective that appears as British (or sometimes US-American). This illusion is created because all texts, conversations, personal names, comments and fact boxes are in English (with a few exceptions), and, when localised, take place or seem to take place in an English-speaking environment where people are speaking and writing English as natives. For example, in the chapter on food we hear about smoothies (which originate in the United States, but this is not told), and in the chapter on music (‘Music – our universal language’), we are only presented with music from the United

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States and Britain, but this is not commented upon (see Chapter 7). This induces an ‘English-language’ perspective into the whole textbook system. The world seems to be seen through the eyes of English native speakers. This perspective from is supported by the many authentic texts that are written by English-speaking novelists, song writers, etc. Thus, A Piece of Cake is marked by native-speakerism and also what I would call ‘native-culturism’ in the sense that it is presupposed that the readers (teacher/students) assume native-speakers’ view of their own countries and the world. One curious aspect of the perspective on is the virtual absence of the rest of Europe although English is the main lingua franca in Europe and the dominant language in the institutions of the EU. Is this a reflection of a British tendency to look towards the West and ignore ‘the Continent’? Or do the authors expect their students not to be interested in continental Europe? Or is the major explanation that there is among the language subjects a division of labour so that the rest of Europe is deemed to be the responsibility of other language subjects: German or French in the Folkeskole, and Spanish later on? (but very few students will actually study French or Spanish). Another curious aspect of the perspective on is the virtual absence of a mention of the Spanish-speaking world, including Hispanics in the United States (simultaneously with quite a detailed description of various American Indian peoples). Can this be ascribed to a division of labour between the subjects English and Spanish? Or could it be part of a Danish or British perspective? Hardly a US-American perspective, for in a US-American context it is difficult to imagine a blindness towards Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and the whole Latin American region. When the publishers and the authors have been thinking of the students, they have probably imagined the perspectives of young people in Denmark and their experiences and priorities as (future) travellers and tourists abroad. But some of the students are excluded, then, for some of the students in the classes have family relations in, for example, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, and this part of the world is hardly mentioned in A Piece of Cake. How broad and varied are the representations?

In this book there is no room for a thorough study of all the chapters using, for example, the thematic categories presented in Chapter 2 (Byram, 1993 or Risager, 1991). But some characteristic aspects stand out: The English-speaking countries and regions are represented very differently. There is nothing about nature – landscapes, flora and fauna – in Britain, but much about nature in the chapters on Hawaii and Canada, and to a certain extent also Ireland and South Africa, which are described through

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the eyes of (English-speaking) tourists writing about their experiences. Hawaii is represented as a destination for travellers who would like to go surfi ng, diving or visiting volcanoes, and Canada can offer a visit to the Yukon or Niagara Falls. At the same time, there is a focus in the Hawaiian chapter on Hawaiians, Hawaiian songs and some aspects of the history of Hawaii. There is also a clear focus on native peoples in the chapter on Canada as well as a certain focus on Aboriginals in Australia. And most importantly, there is a whole chapter (A Piece of Cake 7) on the fi rst Americans (in North America, mainly the United States – however, there is no mention of Aztecs, Mayas, Incas or other peoples in Central and South America). This prioritisation of nature and native populations gives an exoticising and touristic flavour to the whole system. (By the way, most fi rst Americans actually live in cities nowadays.) The textbooks seem to prepare the students for a possible ‘world tour’ in the English-speaking world (but avoiding Europe and Africa north of South Africa). There are many travel letters, travel blogs or diaries, not authentic but offering a personalised view of the different locations. For example, a letter from a schoolboy called Ken whose family has moved to South Africa: Hi again! This time I’ll give you a more structured report. I’ve even done some research. Before I came here I didn’t know anything about South Africa. Well, that isn’t altogether true. Like everyone else I’d heard about the racial discrimination there. Today people here like to talk about the ‘new’ South Africa, but there’s another South Africa as well. ‘Apartheid’ – that’s what it’s called. It’s an Afrikaans word meaning ‘to keep apart’ and for decades it has been used to prevent the black Africans from getting human rights … (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 64)

Another example is this, taken from a diary written by Ellen and Daniel on an Interrail holiday in Ireland: ‘6th August. On the ferry from Cork to Swansea. Daniel is quite OK. We’re already talking about going back to Ireland. Maybe to see the northern parts next time. Going on to France non-stop’ (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 34). So, the written texts and images taken together construct a positive view of the world as composed of accessible and welcoming countries. There are also many local voices in the fictional texts presented, so the textbooks also seem to invite communication with local populations. Some of the students will actually travel a lot as backpackers upon fi nishing upper secondary. This does not mean that the picture is all entertainment. Some chapters contain texts that raise serious questions that may bring indignation and worry to the foreground. The chapter on the fi rst Americans, for example, includes a text on poverty in a reservation today, and there is also a text and a large painting representing the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation

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of some of the Indian tribes. Other social issues are raised in the chapters, such as racism, school shootings and eating disorders. However, the multicultural composition of contemporary society is only seldom mentioned, mainly in relation to New York City and Hawaii (see Chapter 4 on citizenship education studies). Religions are mentioned: Christianity and Judaism, but rarely Islam (see Chapter 5 on Cultural studies). Politics is touched upon in relation to the treatment of the native peoples in US-American, Canadian and Australian history and in relation to the civil rights movement in the United States (see Chapter  6 on postcolonial studies), and economic issues are mentioned as part of globalisation (see Chapter 7 on transnational studies). An example chapter: ‘Absolutely British’

The very fi rst chapter in A Piece of Cake 7 is called ‘Absolutely British’. I have chosen this as an example chapter because it is the chapter that most clearly intends to inform about a specific country. It covers 23 pages in the textbook and consists of 9 sections illustrated by many colourful and creative photos reproduced from various sources, probably image banks and advertising agencies: •

•

• •

The texts of ‘Rule Britannia!’ and ‘God Save the Queen’, as well as a picture of the Union Jack, and in a humorous juxtaposition: a photo of a poster showing a young white smiling girl with a T-shirt referring to the ‘God Save the Queen’ version made by the Sex Pistols – a controversial song (see Photos 1–2 below, from the textbook). In the learner’s guide, the students are asked to sing the two anthems in a standing posture. The poster is not hinted at; the Sex Pistols and the artist behind the punk picture of the queen (Jamie Reid) are not mentioned (see also Photos 5–6 from the teacher’s guide). A text (when nothing is said it is written by the invisible authors) asking the students to explore Britain on the internet by surfi ng the website of Woodlands Junior School (Tonbridge, Kent), which offers some factual information on Britain divided into several topics. The  text suggests the following topics to explore: customs and traditions, etiquette, superstitions, royal family and daily life. It also presents a part of the website with some of the other possible topics shown by different icons (e.g. food, tourist information, transport, government) (see Photos 3–4 from the textbook, and Photo 7 from the learner’s guide). A brief introduction to the legend of King Arthur, particularly about the topics: The Sword in the Stone, The Knights of the Round Table, The Code of Chivalry and Merlin (see Photo 8 from the learner’s guide). Texts and photos depicting eight British celebrities: Queen Victoria, Eddie Izzard, David Beckham, Sir Winston Churchill, John Lennon,

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• • • •

•

William of Wales and Kate Middleton and Keira Knightley. Churchill is placed in the centre. A text on vintage clothing, second-hand markets and charity shops in London, and suggestions as to how the class can arrange a fashion swap party if they are ‘not lucky enough to be in London’. Texts about, and illustrations from, Emma Vieceli’s manga version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Texts about, and illustrations of, some of the street artist Banksy’s graffiti ‘with a message’. Three sections on language: on jokes and puns, on British politeness and on certain lexical differences between British and American English (‘flat’ vs. ‘apartment’, etc.). The last section has the form of a blog written by a US-American visiting Britain. A text for extra reading: Extracts from T.H. White: The Sword in the Stone, with a still photo from a fi lm on the same topic.

Photo 1 Absolutely British. A Piece of Cake 7, textbook, p. 6.

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Photo 2 Absolutely British. A Piece of Cake 7, textbook, p. 7.

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Photo 3 Exploring Britain. A Piece of Cake 7, textbook, p. 8.

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Photo 4 Exploring Britain. A Piece of Cake 7, textbook, p. 9.

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Photo 5 Absolutely British. A Piece of Cake 7, teacher’s guide, p. 28.

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Photo 6 Absolutely British. A Piece of Cake 7, teacher’s guide, p. 29.

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Photo 7 Exploring Britain. A Piece of Cake 7, learners’s guide, p. 8.

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Photo 8 Exploring Britain, King Arthur. A Piece of Cake 7, learners’s guide, p. 9.

The image of Britain that arises in the background of these texts and pictures is varied, both regarding the choice of genres and the aspects of national culture: national symbols and myths, celebrities, literature and art and the English language. Many of the sections will probably arouse the interest of the students, and the students are also invited to think about their own knowledge of Britain at the start of the chapter (in the learner’s guide).

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But the image is also very fragmented. In the teacher’s guide there are some justifications regarding the choice of topics, texts and pictures, but the students are not told about any of the considerations of the authors. Overall, there is no intention of systematic treatment or search for coherence or connections. There are very few explanations of the texts and pictures, which would at least give the teacher some knowledge of the context. There is no ambition of ensuring that the students obtain some basic knowledge of the country they are focusing on, as for example: A map of the UK, natural and political geography, some facts about the different nations of Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), Northern Ireland, large cities, multicultural composition of the population and similar general information. While there is a genuine interest on the part of the publisher and the authors to select topics that might interest the students, there is not much time to gain a deeper understanding of the theme as such. A Piece of Cake has a thematic syllabus, but the themes are not internally coherent. Banal nationalism? Ethnic or political sense of the nation?

The approach to Britain is characterised by banal nationalism (flag, national anthems and legends, things to experience in London, British artists), with the partial exception of the section on Manga Shakespeare, showing that Shakespeare can be told in the manga cartoon-style developed in Japan. But it is more ambivalent in the representation of some of the other English-speaking regions, such as states in the United States (Hawaii, Georgia). Here, historical accounts have been included which explain the origins of the states in varying contexts of colonisation, expansion, domination, etc. There are no reflections on the national neither as a concept nor as a type of identity. On the other hand, some texts indirectly invite discussions of identity, for example the song ‘Georgia on My Mind’ in the chapter on Georgia. In light of the many references to indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada and Australia, it seems that a political sense of the nation is preferred, a sense that maintains that all ethnic groups are citizens of one big nation state. But again, Britain is treated differently, as there is no mention of ethnic or cultural diversity in Britain. Does that imply that ‘British’ simply means ‘English’? In that case, we are dealing with the ethnic sense of the national. Generally, the image of the world in A Piece of Cake is a set of diverse (English-speaking) countries and regions that are hardly seen as connected to one another, and they are not connected to the rest of the world. Each of them stands alone. None of them are connected or related to Denmark – with the few exceptions of the penfriend from Denmark, the migrant from Oregon to Denmark and the Vikings in old Ireland. On the other

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hand, a chapter on ‘Global connections’ has been included (see Chapter 7 on transnational studies). Approach to intercultural learning

As A Piece of Cake draws on cooperative learning, much work is done in pairs and in groups where all students are to be active. This also characterises students’ work with the construction of knowledge about culture, society and the world. The students are regularly invited to activate their pre-knowledge and pool this knowledge, perhaps in a collective mindmap, and search for more information in the texts and fact boxes presented, or on the website of A Piece of Cake or independently on the internet. They are invited to present their fi ndings in front of the class, or maybe do a presentation at a parents’ meeting. In some cases, the authors suggest that the students write questions and answers on cards for a game of showdown (similar to Trivial Pursuit). So, the primary approach is to collect facts and present them to others. The learner’s guides invite discussions of the texts, but are very reluctant to transcend the texts, as this passage from the website indicates: ‘Put on your thinking cap (that means that you won’t fi nd the answers directly in the text): What causes climate change? …’ (A Piece of Cake 8,2 web). Intercultural (inter-national) comparison is also used, as there are quite frequent suggestions in the learner’s guides to compare with conditions in Denmark. In the chapter on Britain, this is formulated in a somewhat stereotypical way: ‘Pool your knowledge – especially about how you think Brits differ from Danes’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 7). As noted above, this chapter is generally characterised by banal nationalism and contains questions like: What famous Brits do you know? What do you know about British history? What is going on in Britain today? What is special about the Brits? (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 7). And all this without discussing the political dimensions of the concepts of ‘Britain’, Great Britain, England and the United Kingdom. Generally, A Piece of Cake does not take up discussions of national stereotypes, and it only uses the word ‘identity’ a few times, without comments. The students have had English lessons from Grade 3 (or in some cases Grade 4 or – on an experimental basis – Grade 1), so they are quite familiar with the language although, of course, at very different levels of competence. Therefore, it is possible to have shorter texts that are not adapted (but ‘authentic’) and that treat topics in an intellectually demanding way. Many of the texts in A Piece of Cake are actually quite challenging, and they offer varying images of a number of Englishspeaking countries. But what is also striking is the very uneven level of knowledge across the chapters. In chapters that are not about countries, nations or regions, there are quite a lot of factually oriented texts offering

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data, overviews and information on key terms. Examples would be the chapter on the environment and the chapter on space, astronomy and astrology. These chapters may have been prepared for possible collaboration with other subjects like biology and physics. In the chapter on space, there are sections on the universe, the solar system and the planets, the history of astronomy, information on galaxies, comets and black holes, information on the International Space Station and also an overview and explanation of the signs of the zodiac. Why are such pieces of basic (perspectival) knowledge not given about, for instance, Britain or other English-speaking countries? This situation may lead to the impression that English as a subject does not in itself have an anchorage in the social and material world, and that it does not in itself have key terms related to culture and society (alongside linguistic key terms such as grammatical terminology). Fortunately, there are a few exceptions to this lack of information on concepts in A Piece of Cake: In the chapter on Canada there are boxes explaining the differences between the terms ‘fi rst nations’, ‘Inuits’ and ‘Métis’. As said, the students are often invited to search independently for information on the internet, and this open search may result in interesting fi ndings. But it also sometimes needs to be guided and qualified, for example by the teacher, and as a part of this the students should be introduced to useful key terms, such as ‘nation’, ‘state’, ‘national stereotype’ and ‘national identity’ (there is one text, though, on the question of Hawaiian statehood). The students are 13+ years old, so this is of course possible. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to the survey corpus (cf. Chapter 2), one thing stands out in A Piece of Cake: The low visibility of Denmark and the lack of an explicit Danish perspective. This can be compared with the results of some of the other analyses mentioned in Chapter 2, especially Adaskou et al. (1990, SC2), Camase (2009, SC4) and Yamada (2010, SC6). In the textbooks that they analysed, from Morocco, Romania and Japan, respectively, the country of learning have a prominent place: Adaskou et al. write about the reluctance in Morocco to focus on English-speaking countries because the students would feel alienated from their own culture; Camase writes about how Romanian communist authorities preferred to teach English – the language of the enemy – by praising Romanian culture; and Yamada notes that the coverage of Japan accounts for more than a quarter of all representations through the textbooks. Apparently, authorities and publishers in Sweden and Denmark do not have a self-reflecting national agenda in this sense (although some of the comparisons may lead to conclusions that conditions in Sweden or Denmark are better than in other countries). In countries like Sweden and Denmark, English is the

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language of the most powerful ally, the United States, and the general interest, not least in the media, in what is going on in the United States, is very strong. In addition, the existence of a pan-Scandinavian market for textbooks may be another reason for the weak representation of the specific countries of learning. Another point in relation to the survey corpus is that A Piece of Cake is unambiguously concerned with English-speaking countries and thus does not take part in the tendency to de-Anglo-Americanise English teaching (in favour of inclusion of expanding-circle countries) proposed by many since the 1980s (e.g. Alptekin & Alptekin, 1984). Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of national studies, and using A Piece of Cake as a stepping stone? First I want to say that in many ways A Piece of Cake is a good stepping stone because it has the ambition of helping students develop their knowledge of English-speaking countries. With the development of textbooks and other learning materials into combinations of printed and digital materials including external links, the possibilities of adding supplementary materials are potentially very big – not only as far as publishers are concerned but also teachers and students. Is there a hierarchy among the materials, so that the printed materials are more central or more basic than the digital materials? Or does their role as showcase for the publishers (with lots of colourful pictures) mean that their sociocultural content is not necessarily the most central or basic? In any case, it is very important for the language subjects to reflect on what knowledge of the world is most central and basic. Taking a global perspective, I fi nd it important that all the students get some knowledge about where in the world English is spoken. Among other things, they should work with maps showing the spread of English as a fi rst or official language, e.g. the inner and outer circles, in Kachru’s terms (Kachru & Nelson, 1996). Furthermore they should be told that in all these countries English is not the only language spoken; there may be numerous – and large – indigenous languages, and there will be immigrant languages (cf. ethnologue.com). The term ‘English-speaking country’ may refer to very different situations among the countries of the world. If English teaching is to offer a balanced view of the world, not only the most powerful ‘inner circle’ countries should be preferred. A possible example might be a project about Ghana, partly because it would be an opportunity to introduce (West) Africa into the teaching, partly because Ghana has an ancient relation to Denmark, part of it having been a Danish colony (the Danish Gold Coast). This would be an occasion to discuss

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relationships between Denmark, the country of learning, and other parts of the world. Ghana should be studied not as an isolated country, but as a country in the (West) African mosaic of ethnic groups, languages and religions, and anglophone and francophone states. Ghana also has numerous migrants, expats, etc. from other African countries and from outside Africa. The reasons for choosing Ghana should be discussed with the students as well (cf. Chapter 7 about a project on Scotland). As A Piece of Cake is used in Denmark, it should position itself more clearly in the world by making the Danish perspective more explicit, for instance by including more people (characters, writers) that come from Denmark (ethnic Danes as well as others). One way of doing this positioning is to make the Danish authors of A Piece of Cake and their national perspectives more visible. The materials should also mention or deal with some of the economic, political and cultural relations between Denmark and other places – not least Great Britain, our neighbour to the West with which we share a history of at least 16 centuries. German: Du bist dran Presentation

The next textbook to be analysed addresses students of German as a foreign language at the same age levels as A Piece of Cake: 13–16, but this time it is teaching starting at the elementary level. As regards cultural representations, we switch from a subject that touches on large and scattered parts of the world and that could, both in principle and in practice, cover almost the whole planet, to a subject that tends to be geographically much more focused on a central region in Europe: the German-speaking countries, forming a coherent linguistic area. Du bist dran (It’s Your Turn) (2nd edition) covers Grades 5–9 in primary and lower secondary, and addresses age levels 11–16. In this study, only Grades 7–9 are included (age levels 13–16). The system was published in 2010–2013 by the Danish publishing company Alinea, Copenhagen. It was adapted from the original Norwegian version published by J.W. Cappelen A/S 1997–1999, with the title: Noch Einmal (One More Time). The authors in Norway are Per Ramberg, Hannelore Selbekk and Brita Semundseth, and the authors in Denmark are Tanja Jessing and Annette Smidt Jørgensen. Tanja Jessing is also editor at Alinea and a former teacher at Blågård Seminarium, an institution of teacher education. Annette Smidt Jørgensen is a Folkeskole principal. (Du bist dran, 1st edition, has been analysed by Sørensen [2013] but not with a specific focus on cultural representations.)

Figure 3.2 Some facts about Du bist dran

For each of the Grades 7–9, the system consists of the textbook (plus an online version of the textbook for the teacher to use in class presentations), the teacher’s guide and the learner’s guide, and websites for the teacher and the learners with, among other things, soundtracks for all the texts in the

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textbook, fi lms and music, and external links. In the following, I refer to the different elements of Du bist dran in this way: Du bist dran 7,1=Grade 7, textbook Du bist dran 7,2=Grade 7, teacher’s guide, and website Du bist dran 7,3=Grade 7, learner’s guide The same for Grades 8 and 9 Du bist dran is organised primarily as a thematic syllabus, and as it is meant for teaching at the elementary and early intermediate levels, some of the themes are everyday themes like everyday life from morning to evening (in heteronormative, middle-class nuclear families, no pets). Some chapters draw on traditions from notional syllabuses (Wilkins, 1976) in the sense that certain semantic areas (‘notions’) are focused on, for example, the seasons, the weather or colours. Students are supposed to work with the following chapters/themes: In Grade 7 (average length 6 pages): (1) ‘Du und ich’ (you and I) (2) ‘Eine Familie’ (a family) (3) ‘Märchen’ (fairy tales) (4) ‘Der Alltag’ (everyday life) (5) ‘Die Jahreszeiten’ (the seasons) (6) ‘Schule und Mode’ (school and fashion) (7) ‘Guck mal!’ (look at this!) (on image analysis) (8) ‘Jetzt essen wir’ (now we are going to eat) (9) ‘Fußball und Liebe’ (football and love) (10) ‘Blick auf Deutschland’ (a look at Germany) (11) ‘Österreich auf eigene Faust’ (Austria on your own) (12) ‘Weihnachten’ (Christmas) (an extra chapter) In Grade 8 (average length 7 pages): (1) ‘Alles was zählt’ (all that counts) (2) ‘Mein Körper’ (my body) (3) ‘Auf der Spur’ (on the track) (on police work) (4) ‘Blick auf Deutschland’ (a look at Germany) (5) ‘Jung – ja und?’ (young – and then what?) (6) ‘Wir sind dran’ (it’s our turn) (7) ‘Multikulti’ (multiculture) (on ethnic and cultural diversity) (8) ‘Müll und blauer Dunst’ (rubbish and blue haze) (9) ‘Bilder erzählen’ (pictures tell stories) (10) ‘Das finde ich cool’ (I fi nd that cool) (11) ‘Die Schweiz auf eigene Faust’ (Switzerland on your own)

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(12) ‘Weihnachten’ (Christmas) (an extra follow-up chapter) (13) ‘Ostern’ (Easter) (an extra chapter) In Grade 9 (average length 15 pages): (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

‘Spitze – das Jugendmagazin’ (top! – the youth magazine) ‘Konturen – Kulturen’ (contours – cultures) (on youth cultures) ‘Das sind wir’ (this is us) ‘Mach mit!’ (join us) (on engagement in a better world) ‘Blick auf Deutschland – Geschichte’ (a look at Germany – history) ‘Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind…’ (and they all lived happily ever after…) (on fairy tales) (7) ‘Heute und Morgen’ (today and tomorrow) (on daydreams about life) (8) ‘Die gute Geschichte’ (the good story) (9) ‘Blick auf Deutschland – Deutschland auf eigene Faust’ (a look at Germany – Germany on your own) (10) ‘Weihnachten’ (Christmas) (an extra follow-up chapter) The teacher’s guide stresses the importance of student responsibility for learning, the idea of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983) and learning styles, and recommends the use of learning strategies and cooperative learning techniques. It also includes advice concerning language portfolios. There are no central characters and no plot, except that in each of the student’s guides for Grades 7–9 small stories are running through the chapters, each section being used as material for grammatical analysis (fi nding the verbs in the text, etc.). The teacher’s guide refers to the official guidelines and notes that the students are supposed to be able to draw on basic geographical and historical knowledge about German-speaking countries and compare examples of German and Danish everyday life and cultures (Du bist dran 7,2: 27). They refer to Risager (1994) in pointing out three aspects of cultural understanding: knowledge, feelings/attitudes and behaviour. They also recommend that the students get into contact with students in other countries, not only German-speaking countries but also countries where students are learning German as a foreign language (Du bist dran 7,2: 28). How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their national affiliations and identities?

As the publishing company for Du bist dran is the same as for A Piece of Cake, the colophons are very similar. But the authors are more visible

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in Du bist dran because there are portrait photos of both, including short CVs about their professional lives in Denmark – but only in the teacher’s guides. So, the authors as authorities are represented in a more personal manner in relation to the teachers than in relation to the students. On the other hand, the authors switch between referring to the teacher by using ‘du’ (Danish for ‘you’, singular) or ‘læreren’ (Danish for ‘the teacher’), which makes the relation imprecise. All introductory and explanatory texts in the teacher’s guides in Du bist dran are in Danish – compared to A Piece of Cake where they are all in English. This may be linked to the status difference between German and English in Denmark: English is increasingly seen rather as a second language that may be used in all sorts of professional communication, including among teachers of English, although the great majority of these will be Danish speakers. In the learner’s guides, the authors communicate with the students in Danish in Du bist dran 7, in a mixture of Danish and German in Du bist dran 8 and almost exclusively in German in Du bist dran 9. The students are addressed either with a ‘du’ (you, singular) or ‘ihr’ (you, plural) in cases of group work (or the corresponding Danish ‘du’ and ‘I’). The possibility that some of the students, and the teacher, may be of other nationalities (and first languages) than Danish is not mentioned. Which countries (nations/states) are represented?

Among the German-speaking countries, Germany is clearly at the centre, as Austria and Switzerland only have one chapter each. Germany as a whole is dealt with explicitly in four chapters, but in the other chapters, German-speaking milieus are, or seem to be, localised in Germany. Strangely, Switzerland is treated as if the whole country was German speaking: Although the four main languages of Switzerland are mentioned, it is not explained that each language is mainly spoken within its own region. In the chapter on the history of Germany (Du bist dran 9), the two states BRD and DDR are briefly dealt with, and in another chapter it is mentioned that Saarland has been French. But Germany, Austria and Switzerland are treated as isolated wholes, as there is no mention of any historical relations between them. Thus, there is no explanation why there are three larger states or nations in Europe that all have German as their national language (or one of them). Liechtenstein, Luxemburg and Belgium, in which German is also an official language, are not mentioned, nor is the German minority in Northern Schleswig (South Jutland, Denmark). A large number of non-German-speaking countries are mentioned. Turkey, Poland, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Afghanistan, Croatia and

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Denmark are mentioned as countries from where immigrants have come to Germany. A person has been adopted from India. Students in Kasakhstan seek penfriends in Germany. In the historical chapter (Du bist dran 9,1: 62ff), Ukraine, Hungary, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia are mentioned. Other references are doner kebabs, oriental carpets and Japanese manga. American tourists in Denmark are mentioned, and there is a whole narrative text about the life of an au pair girl from Germany in Paris (Du bist dran 9,1: 100ff). In the chapter on engagement in a better world (Du bist dran 9,1: 44), there is a text on a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) jungle trip to the Dzanga Sangha Reserve in central Africa (it is situated in the Central African Republic, which is not told). Computers are said to offer possibilities of getting friends from all over the world (using English or German), and the following countries are mentioned in this context: America, the Netherlands, Australia and Austria. Some Nordic countries are mentioned in a task in Du bist dran 7,3, where names of countries and capitals are to be combined. The EU is not mentioned, but we hear about the Eurovision song contest. The image of the world in Du bist dran has a very clear focus on Europe, but only on the central parts. Among the European countries not referred to are the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, the Baltic countries and post-Soviet Russia. Outside Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East are non-existent or minimally represented (and Africa only as a jungle). It should be emphasised, of course, that the official guidelines for German stress the European focus. As can be seen, this focus is very different from that of the subject English. Are different standard varieties of the target language represented?

In relation to the chapters on Austria and Switzerland, the students have the opportunity to listen to Austrian German and Swiss German (Schwyzerdütsch), but the target language is standard German, and there is no information on language varieties in Germany, except differences in ways of saying hello (tschüs, grüß Gott). Other languages mentioned are English (several times) and, in a poem by Josef Reding: French, Russian, Italian and Hebrew. There are no references to immigrant languages in Germany or the other German-speaking countries. The Danish language is very present in the volumes as the language of instruction (language of schooling), especially in Du bist dran 7–8. All German speakers in Du bist dran appear to be native speakers or very proficient second language speakers. It is sometimes indicated that there are people whose families originate in other countries such as Turkey, Poland and Afghanistan, and there is a whole chapter on

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cultural and ethnic diversity (Du bist dran 8,1: 47ff). But there is no explicit mentioning of German being spoken as a second language by diverse ethnic groups in German-speaking countries (ethnolects). There is no mentioning either of the challenges that language learners may encounter in communication with speakers of German such as linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, and there are no examples of the use of communicative strategies. Is the country of learning represented?

In Du bist dran 7 there are, on two occasions, Danes who travel to Germany: Anton from Esbjerg (a Danish town in Jutland), who travels with his parents to Kiel, Dresden, Frankfurt a.M. and Munich, and Andreas from Denmark, who visits his cousin in Aachen. There is also Martin, who comes from Denmark and has been living for three years in Berlin (Du bist dran 8). In the learner’s guides, students are often asked to discuss how things are in their own class or in Denmark. For instance, they are asked to discuss what youth cultures there are in their class (Du bist dran 9,3: 15) and what cultures and countries are represented in Denmark (Du bist dran 8,3: 81). There is also a reference to the Danish debate about immigrants and refugees. The most concrete task of this kind is that the students are asked to compare laws in Denmark and Germany concerning young people and smoking, alcohol and motorcycling, using links on the website (Du bist dran 9,3: 25). The small story running through Du bist dran 7 is about a German tourist in Denmark. But there are no texts that give explicit information on conditions in Denmark, and the geographical focus is clearly on Germany and marginally also the other two larger German-speaking countries. What perspectives are taken?

As above, I will distinguish between the perspective from (from Denmark, for example) and the perspective on (on Germany, for example, or the whole world). Who looks at whom? Some parts of Du bist dran are characterised by a Danish perspective from, others rather by a German perspective from. The perspective is mostly Danish in the beginning (Du bist dran 7) where Danish youngsters travel to different cities in Germany and are described as being interested in knowing something about Germany (but we are not introduced to their interpretations of what they experience). Already in the very fi rst chapter it is said with reference to Anton from Esbjerg, a Danish town: ‘Anton aus Esbjerg macht mit seinen Eltern eine Reise durch Deutschland – das grosse Nachbarland mit 82 Millionen Einwohnern’ (Du bist dran 7,1: 12)

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(Anton from Esbjerg undertakes a journey with his parents through Germany – the big neighbouring country with 82 million inhabitants). Germany is here identified by the authors as a big neighbouring country, in contrast to A Piece of Cake, in which Britain is not at all described in these terms. The Danish perspective from is also seen in the order of presentation of different parts of Germany, as journeys around Germany (including those undertaken by Germans) start in the North: one route is Kiel, Dresden, Frankfurt a.M., Munich; another route is Kiel, Cologne (Köln), Berlin. The order of presentation of different varieties of Konfirmation (communion) also suggest a Danish (or Northern European) perspective as the Lutheran variety is described fi rst, then the Roman Catholic and lastly the civil variety (with a reference to its use in the DDR) (Du bist dran 8,1: 38f). The presence of the Danish language in most of Du bist dran reinforces the Danish perspective. But the perspective on Europe appears to be more German than Danish. The overall selection of countries outside the German-speaking area: France and those to the east (Poland, Ukraine, the Soviet Union, Hungary) indicates a German perspective from – a reflection of the German geopolitical strategy of bridging East and West in Europe. The main perspective from Denmark would be different, as it is directed more clearly towards the west (the UK) and the south-west (Germany, France, etc.). This can be compared with the perspective from Britain discussed above: a perspective that mainly looks towards the west, away from continental Europe. Whose perspective do we have in the representations of Austria and Switzerland? Both countries are seen almost exclusively as tourist destinations. This would correspond quite well to a Danish perspective on these countries, but would it also correspond to a German one? At any rate, I doubt that Switzerland and Austria would prefer to be represented in this way in language learning materials – although the tourism industry is important for them. Thus, these countries are located in the shadow of the big neighbouring country, especially as seen from the north. (Something similar may be said about Ireland in A Piece of Cake.) How broad and varied are the representations?

When Germany, Austria and Switzerland are described as countries, it is clearly the geographical aspect that prevails. Basic facts on regions and cities are given, both in maps and text. There are clear and nice maps of all countries. It is important for the authors to offer information on the different cultural and touristic identities of the cities, and this, of course, is rooted in the history of the German area where many major

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and minor political leaders cultivated each their court and city, and where all these cities competed (and still compete) with one another. So regionality is a central aspect of the representation of primarily Germany with its Länder, but also Austria with its Bundesländer and Switzerland with its Kantone (cantons). It is a central aspect of the Landeskunde tradition. As already stated, there is a chapter on ethnic and cultural diversity (‘Multikulti’, Du bist dran 8,1: 47ff), which gives some demographic figures concerning the number of inhabitants in Germany and the number of Ausländer (more or less=immigrants). (The students are not asked to discuss the concept of Ausländer: Whom does it include, whom does it exclude? How many generations does it involve?) It should also be emphasised that the very fi rst page of Du bist dran 7 presents five young people: two boys and a girl living in Germany (Hamburg, Rostock and Munich), one girl living in Switzerland (Zurich) and one girl living in Austria (Vienna). The fi rst person mentioned is Sinan from Turkey, who lives in Hamburg. So the multi-ethnic character of Germany is marked from the beginning (as opposed to the lack of information on this aspect of Britain in A Piece of Cake). On the other hand, there is no mention of Jewish people today in Germany although there has been an influx of Jewish immigrants especially since the Reunification. (It should be mentioned that one of the authors, Tanja Jessing, is the daughter of a Jewish refugee from Germany 1939.) There is no sign of exoticism in Du bist dran, like the representations of indigenous peoples in A Piece of Cake. The explanation may, of course, be that there are no indigenous peoples in Central Europe. But on the other hand, are the Roma (Romani) not an example of an ethnic group (or groups) that has been just as oppressed as the indigenous Americans (and the Jews in Europe)? Unfortunately, the situation of the Roma is so bad in Europe that the life and history of the Roma cannot be used to persuade young tourists to travel to German-speaking countries. The history of Germany (not Switzerland or Austria) is treated in a separate chapter (Du bist dran 9,1: 62ff). It starts with World War II but with references back to World War I and the decades leading up to World War II, and makes use of an eyewitness to tell about some of the central events. Thus, the chapter does not capture the fleeting borders of the earlier centuries, nor the fact that Germany has had colonies and lost them. As it does not deal with Austria, it does not capture the role of Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the German-speaking area. Besides this chapter, which is of course partly about political issues, there is one place where the students are invited to engage in politics, namely in the chapter ‘Mach mit!’ about engagement for a better world (Du bist dran 9). Young people tell briefly about their work as a football

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trainer, as a member of a youth organisation under Amnesty International, as a member of the political party CDU, as a good friend, as a participant in a demonstration against the building of a motorway through Berlin and as active in a fitness centre. There is also a longer text on Bela B from the punk band Die Ärzte (the Doctors), who raise questions of neo-Nazism and racism in Germany. All in all, the representations of Austria and Switzerland are very touristic with an emphasis on nature (like, for example, Canada in A Piece of Cake), while the representation of Germany is more serious and not as much oriented towards celebrities and entertainment as in A Piece of Cake. It treats (selected aspects of) cultural, social and political matters in a systematic way, and as coherently as it can be when the descriptions include only basic information. But the approach is also clearly guided by the idea of the national as the container of everything, as the three countries are dealt with independently of one another, and independently of the EU, which is not mentioned. The representation through photos is a bit different in the two textbook systems. In A Piece of Cake some of the photos are humorous and in a way contradict the (verbal) text, for instance in Photo 1 above, where the photo of the girl with the Sex Pistols T-shirt gives a humorous comment on the national anthems. In Du bist dran photos generally just illustrate the texts. One might distinguish between images that illustrate with the text (as in Du bist dran) and images that illustrate against the text (as sometimes in A Piece of Cake). An example chapter: ‘Blick auf Deutschland’ (a look at Germany)

This chapter in Du bist dran (7,1: 62ff), which intends to give an impression of Germany as a whole, covers eight pages in the textbook and consists of five sections illustrated by tourist photos from Berlin, and a short comic strip in colour. • • • • •

Four friends – two girls, two boys – start a Musikreise (music tour) by train in Kiel (see Photo 9 below). They visit Cologne and listen to a concert with ‘The Wise Guys’. They visit Berlin and listen to a concert with ‘Wir sind Helden’ (we are heroes). The friends’ travel blog ‘Unsere Musikreise’ (our music tour), with lots of tourist photos from Berlin. A comic strip ‘Auf geht’s’ (off it goes), in which a girl and a boy discuss with their parents where they should go on holidays in Germany (they live in Rostock).

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Photo 9 Blick auf Deutschland (a look at Germany). Du bist dran 1, textbook, p. 62.

This chapter is placed as one of the last chapters in Grade 7, where the students are still at quite an elementary level. But the intention of contributing to the students’ geographical knowledge of Germany, with an emphasis on travelling, is clear. There is a simple map of Germany on the fi rst page, on which the cities mentioned are indicated, and there are

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many photos of well-known places in these cities. The tourist perspective is pervading (German tourists visiting their own country), but there is also a specific thematic focus on music: German rock bands originating in different cities. Banal nationalism? Ethnic or political sense of the nation?

As already mentioned, the overall approach to cultural representation in Du bist dran is, as in so many other language textbooks, characterised by what Billig calls banal nationalism (see above) in the sense that the three countries are treated as isolated entities. But the images of Austria and Switzerland are much more simple and stereotyping than that of Germany. While Austria is represented in accordance with an ethnic sense of the nation, the image of Germany is more ambivalent. Du bist dran deals with immigration and ethnic and cultural diversity in Germany and with everyday racism. So, it is characterised by the political sense of the nation in the sense that ethnic and cultural diversity is recognised. But there is very little actual information on non-German cultures, as far as this line can be drawn in a meaningful way. So, in reality, Germany is treated more or less as a monocultural country (cf. the analysis of Puls in Chapter 4). An aspect that supports this is that there is no mention of Germany as a multilingual community. Switzerland is a special case with its confederal political structure and specific questions of nationality, but in Du bist dran it is treated as a country that resembles Germany and Austria with respect to their regional divisions – with the exception that Switzerland has four languages instead of one. Approach to intercultural learning

The pedagogical principles in Du bist dran are described as based on ideas of different learning styles and intelligences, and it is not said how students should specifically gain knowledge about the German-speaking countries. But it appears that they should do this by working on the texts and maps. Although there are suggestions of searching the internet, via links on the website of Du bist dran, an independent search is not a necessary element in order to construct knowledge about cultural and social aspects of at least Germany. The authors have done some of the work themselves. One important dimension of this help is the maps, which are simple, clear and instructively coloured. But the emphasis is on the impartment of factual knowledge, there are no suggestions of individual or group work that would try to interpret and critically discuss the different discourses in the texts or in images. So, the construction of knowledge is not very much oriented towards intercultural understanding, including awareness of different perspectives.

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As the representations of all three countries draw very much on travel and travel experiences, it seems as if travel is highly favoured as a means of knowledge construction. It would, therefore, be one of the tasks of the teacher to raise the question in class of how travels can actually lead to knowledge and understanding. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to Adaskou et al. (1990, SC2), Camase (2009, SC4) and Maijala (2004, SC17), who all touch upon the question of how much weight is given to the representation of the country of learning, one can say that Du bist dran does not offer any representation of Denmark as such. But it tells about Danes who are related to Germany in different ways (tourists, relatives in Germany, immigrated to Germany), so Denmark is present in this sense. This is somewhat different in relation to A Piece of Cake, in which there are a few texts on conditions in Denmark (in the learner’s guides), but, on the other hand next to nothing on Danes in English-speaking countries or abroad more generally. Du bist dran clearly draws on the Landeskunde tradition with its informative intentions, not least as regards geography and history. One of its proponents, Ammer (1988, SC12), suggests a very broad understanding of Landeskunde, comprising six thematic areas (see Chapter 2). Du bist dran does not, however, cover all of these, but focuses on young people’s everyday lives and cultural interests as most textbooks for young people would do today. There is almost no mention of classical music and literature. And economy, globalisation and international relations are not mentioned either. In spite of this, it must be said that a comparison of Du bist dran with A Piece of Cake supports Byram and Doyé’s (1993, SC14) statement that the Landeskunde tradition has contributed to a continued interest in the subject of German of taking cultural learning seriously. Sercu’s (2000, SC12) distinction between an outsider and an insider perspective on the target language culture can also be applied to Du bist dran, as both are represented in the material. But this could be spelled out more clearly so that the students become aware of different perspectives: who looks at whom? Finally, Maijala’s (2004, SC17) suggestions of different ways of representing German history can also be used. Du bist dran is most similar to the approach found in the British textbooks on Germany, as it relies much on an eyewitness. As Du bist dran treats Austria and Switzerland as marginal in relation to Germany, it is not an example of the DACH approach (Krumm, 1999, SC15). The DACH approach seeks to give the three countries as equal treatment as possible, and prefers to describe German as a pluricentric

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language with three centres. The DACH approach also seeks to explore some relations between the three countries, as well as their relations to the EU. The textbook system Dimensionen (Jenkins, 2002–2006) may be said to draw on the DACH approach (Fischer et al., 2010), especially as regards the inclusion of a plurilingual approach. It deals with German as a pluricentric language and as one language among others both in the German-speaking countries and in the world. Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of national studies, and using Du bist dran as a stepping stone? Du bist dran clearly intends to offer basic geographical information on German-speaking countries, but with a strong emphasis on Germany. As the students have lower-level language skills than those of the students of A Piece of Cake, the information and discussions have to be relatively simple when they are not in Danish. I would supply more inputs to the construction of knowledge about Austria and Switzerland, and try to enrich the image of the Germanspeaking countries by also focusing on relations between these countries and between them and Denmark. Examples could be given of the strong economic, cultural and linguistic relations between the countries. The situation in the border region between Denmark and Germany could also be discussed. I would also suggest the use of German language TV channels, for example via the Danish site: nabosprogskanalerne. dk (‘Neighbouring languages channels’, including channels in German, Swedish and Norwegian, but not in English. In this context as well, the UK is not treated as a ‘neighbour’). Taking a European and global perspective, I would include the EU in the basic information on the countries, as their relations to the EU are central in order to understand what is going on in Europe. And although German is spoken fi rst and foremost in Germany, Austria and (large parts of) Switzerland, it is also spoken in other European countries, including Denmark, and also in other parts of the world. As one of the largest economies in the world, Germany is an important global player, and this should not be completely ignored in the teaching. One example could be the activities of the Deutsche Welle (the German state radio/TV abroad), which produces programmes in about 30 languages, including English, French and Portuguese, and some of these, for example, aim particularly at anglophone, francophone and lusophone Africa. Naturally, globalisation is just as relevant for the German-speaking countries as for example the English-speaking countries.

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Conclusion

As mentioned above, the English-speaking area is scattered around the world and has at least two centres: Britain and the United States, whereas the German-speaking area is a coherent area with one centre: Germany. A Piece of Cake treats Britain and the United States in a very fragmentary way, and Du bist dran has a clearer focus on describing the centre country, Germany. But the national studies reading also shows that the representations in A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran are both characterised by banal nationalism. There are no themes focusing on, for example, national identity, and ‘the national’ is certainly not a discussion thread throughout the books. The predominantly positive representation of the different countries and regions often resembles the national branding carried out by cultural diplomacy. In the global and transnational perspective within which I work, this approach to the world is unsatisfactory. The world does not simply consist of a number of countries isolated from one another. Although the Germanspeaking countries form a coherent linguistic area, there are no indications as to the historical reasons for this, nor are there any indications why the English-speaking countries are scattered all over the world. Further work on the basis of these two textbooks should explore cultural, linguistic, political, economic and climatic relations between countries, both within the language areas in question (the English-speaking area, the Germanspeaking area) and between these areas and the ‘outside’ world. The Danish perspective should be made clearer as well (and, of course, there may be several Danish perspectives). It is important to have a well-founded balance between the target language countries. The subject English is of course particularly challenged here, as there are so many potential target language countries. In my view, instead of including more countries, one should concentrate on fewer countries and do it well, for instance (as I would suggest) do a project on a country that includes many cultural, social and political aspects and that is not characterised by banal nationalism. In Chapter 7, I will come back to an example of such a project, focusing on Scotland in a transnational perspective. Another important task would be to begin to include different African countries in the world views of A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran. The intercultural approach, which has been discussed in educational circles since the 1980s, is only partly represented in the textbooks. One can distinguish between two kinds of foci in the intercultural approach: intercultural comparison, and intercultural communication and understanding. A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran both include intercultural comparisons, but do not represent real-life situations of intercultural understanding or misunderstanding, or offer examples of

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successful or not-so-successful communication strategies. The teacher is actually an intercultural speaker, and the students are in the process of becoming intercultural speakers as well, but there is no discussion of the role of the intercultural speaker. This is one of the consequences of native-speakerism. The students are 13+, so they can manage explanations, justifications and concepts (meta-language) to a certain extent, especially if they are in Danish. The choice and composition of chapters, the choice of countries and themes, the choice of texts, images and tasks, the choice of relevant concepts, should be made explicit, both in relation to the teacher and the students. It might then emerge that the teacher and the students sometimes have ideas concerning good inputs to the teaching that are better than those in the textbooks studied. The need for students to gain knowledge about culture, society and the world demands that the orthodoxy of prohibiting texts and conversations in other languages than the target language is given up in cases where it is really necessary (cf. the discussion in Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain [2009] on the use of the students’ fi rst language in foreign and second language teaching). Thus, the development of materials for foreign and second language teaching and learning includes considerations of which languages are best suited for a process of knowledge construction that attains as much as possible the level of maturity of the students.

4 Citizenship Education Studies

Introduction

While the national studies reading looks for instances where the textbook invites students to become aware of different countries or nations, and of national differences and similarities, and possibly reflect on their own national identity, the citizenship education studies reading is interested in whether the textbook treats the students as citizens, and future citizens, who are engaged in society and its many issues and confl icts. The students and the teacher are seen as living in culturally diverse societies (mostly in the sense of countries), and cultural diversity is most often understood as ethnic, and sometimes religious, diversity. Citizenship Education Studies

Citizenship education is a field that is of great interest to all societies however different they are in history, political and social conditions and languages. Educational authorities, scholars and teachers across the world have developed ideas of how to educate people so that they can contribute as ‘good citizens’ to their state and society, and these ideas are very heterogeneous since they are rooted in different histories and expressed in different languages (see Himmelmann [2006] as well as the other articles in Alred et al. [2006]). There are distinct traditions concerning the conception of citizenship and citizenship education formulated in Chinese, Japanese, German, English (for the United States), English (for England and Wales) and French, among others. The field gained momentum in the years after World War II and especially during the 1990s with the increased focus on transnational migration and the development of multicultural societies – itself a concept that has very different lexicalisations and connotations in different parts of the world and in different political contexts. Thus, citizenship education is related to the field of studies of cultural diversity and multiculturalism (Kymlicka, 2003; Parekh, 2000) and of ethnic minorities and majorities. Citizenship education is also related to the field of critical pedagogy, which is especially interested in investigating the possibilities of empowering students who are affi liated to oppressed groups in society, for instance 106

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inferior classes or minorities of different kinds – racial, ethnic, gender or other. Critical pedagogy owes much to Paolo Freire (1970 [1968]), who in his work teaching illiterate adults in Brazil and other places has developed the central (Portuguese) concept of ‘conscientização’: the process of learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions, and to take action against oppressive elements of reality. Henry Giroux is another scholar within critical pedagogy who has inspired language and culture pedagogy. Giroux (1983) takes his point of departure in the Frankfurt School of critical social theory and its investigations of the dialectics between on the one hand institutions and everyday life, and on the other hand the logics and forces that shape the larger social totality. He stresses that it is important to have this dialectic in mind when dealing with teaching and learning in a critical perspective, and not least when analysing the ‘hidden curriculum’ of schooling (Apple, 1979; Jackson, 1968) (see Chapter 8). Wolfgang Klafki (1996, 2001 [1985]) also works within citizenship education, but with a totally different focus. While Giroux deals with the conditions of empowerment and emancipation of the students in all schooling, Klafki deals with the desirable content of the teaching subjects, emphasising the importance of studying key problems of the contemporary world. Such key problems could be human rights, cultural diversity, the global environment, social inequality in the world, the peace issue, terrorism, etc. (see also Risager, 2007). Klafki states that It is possible very early on in individual development to form the basis for the development of points of view, the observation of problems and attitudes – to limit, for example, the horizon of children’s thoughts and interests to comprise the immediate environment or the frameworks for one’s own culture, nation, state – or conversely, to open up wider, international, humane perspectives. We are neglecting not only vital possibilities but also something that is necessary if we do not very early on commence the development of an in principle international problem awareness… (Klafki, 2001 [1985]: 100, italics in the original)

Giroux and Klafki are both interested in bringing forth the political dimensions of teaching and learning, and they are interested in discussing how students can develop into citizens who engage in the building of a better society and a better world. Giroux does this by stressing that schooling is ideological and political in itself, Klafki by stressing that students should work much more with international and global issues that require political action. Citizenship Education Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy

The citizenship education perspective is relevant to all foreign and second language teaching, especially for young people and adults, but even children in primary school may be initiated to some aspects of citizenship

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(cf. Klafki above) while keeping in mind the psychological development of children and their understanding of themselves and their world. Among other things, they could be encouraged to value an open attitude and relativise us–them oppositions (Byram, 2009: 77ff). Michael Byram has throughout most of his career been active in furthering the citizenship education perspective as part of his development of cultural studies in foreign language teaching (Byram, 1993a, 2006, 2008, 2014; Byram & Risager, 1999; Byram et al., 2016), including his work with education for European citizenship and his work on citizenship education in the Council of Europe. His main reference to citizenship education outside the language teaching field is Gagel (1983; 2nd edn, 2000), and in recent years also Himmelmann (2006), i.e. the German discussion of politische Bildung (‘political education’). Byram summarises Gagel’s concept of politische Bildung (in a narrow sense) as follows: learning to consider personal involvement in political action as desirable; learning to recognise democratic forms of action (and only democratic forms) as values – these can be called democratic ‘virtues’; acquiring interest in public affairs, being prepared to be interested in political resolutions of social problems. (Byram, 2008: 158)

The central concept in Byram’s approach in later years is ‘intercultural citizenship’, which in the language learning context is understood as citizenship in a multilingual world where there is a need for mediation (translation, interpretation) between languages/cultures, and where there is a need for engagement and action at an international level as well as a local, regional or national level (Byram, 2006). A sister concept is ‘critical cultural awareness’, defined as ‘an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries’ (Byram, 1997: 53). Furthermore, Byram speaks for a foreign language teaching that attempts to include instances of transnational communication and collaboration with students or other people living in target language countries, and he has described a number of such transnational projects (Byram, 2008: 205ff; Porto & Byram, 2015a, 2015b). Byram’s position is not critical in the sense of the critical pedagogy tradition where the focus is on the critique of power relations in society and on the possible emancipation of students. Byram is more interested in the independent and reasoned argumentation of the students in an intercultural context, as well as their willingness and opportunities to engage in political action. His position resembles Klafki’s more than Giroux’s. Byram et al. (2016) is the result of a large international project of developing intercultural citizenship education in foreign language teaching at all levels of language proficiency and for both young (from 11+) and adult learners, organised within the Cultnet (cultnetworld.wordpress. com). The projects were transnational in the sense that they consisted

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of collaboration between researchers/teachers from different countries around the world, and also in several cases of collaboration between classes or groups of students focusing on issues of political concern and engaging in some action. Among the issues were the environment, mural art and graffiti, historical confl icts (the Malvinas/Falklands war) and sport and human rights (the 1978 football World Cup held in Argentina at the time of a military dictatorship). The volume includes an article on citizenship education in English teaching (Grades 5–7) at an ‘international profi le school’ in Denmark (Porto et al., 2016). Among other scholars in language and culture pedagogy who have explored citizenship education one may mention Manuela Guilherme (2002), who has elaborated on the citizenship education perspective with reference to a multifaceted theoretical field composed of critical pedagogy (Freire, Giroux), critical theory (the Frankfurt School) and postmodernism (see also Chapter 6). Other relevant scholars are Hugh Starkey, who has been focusing on human rights education and the support of responsibility (Osler & Starkey, 1996, 2015; Starkey, 2002), and Cori Jakubiak and Linda Harklau, who discuss Freirian approaches to the teaching of English as a second language for immigrants in the United States (Jakubiak & Harklau, 2010). My own work on language teachers’ political identity (European and global) (Byram & Risager, 1999) could also be mentioned, as well as my reflections on the intercultural competence of the world citizen, referring, among others, to Klafki (Risager, 2007). Houghton (2012), Méndez García (2016) and Stougaard-Nielsen’s (2011, SC30) analysis of textbooks for Danish as a second language also take citizenship education perspectives. Analytical Questions in Relation to a Citizenship Education Studies Reading

As this reading has an emphasis on education, it foregrounds intercultural learning, especially the development of critical cultural awareness through intercultural mediation and engaged transnational cooperation (see also Chapter 7 on transnational studies). As for the actors, the citizenship education studies reading focuses on their roles as citizens, including their political values and agendas. As an example of the relevance of this, it should be borne in mind, as already mentioned, that some publishers, among them large British/transnational publishing companies, forbid ‘politics’ in English textbooks for the global market (Gray, 2010a). The concept of ‘politics’ or ‘the political’ that I draw on in this and subsequent chapters, is a broad one. It may be said to encompass three interrelated dimensions: One dimension concerns political institutions, for example: political and administrative institutions of the state at different levels, processes of government and political parties with their different political ideologies. A second dimension concerns political issues or key

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problems, for example: unemployment, outsourcing of jobs, terrorism, climate change, religious fundamentalism, war, refugees, famine, human trafficking. These two dimensions are included in the analytical questions below. The third dimension will be taken up in Chapter 5, and it focuses on the political content of discourses about any topic, for example: discourses on homes and everyday living in the target language country, where the reader is not told that the perspective is really a (higher) middle-class perspective. Positioning and representation of actors • How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly as (future) citizens with political values and agendas? Representation of culture, society and the world • Is cultural diversity represented, and ethnic/religious minorities? (which?) • Is linguistic diversity represented, and minority languages? (which?) • Are political institutions represented? • Are key problems of the contemporary world represented? Approach to intercultural learning • Does the approach to intercultural learning promote a sense of citizenship? (developing responsibility and critical cultural awareness, engaging in intercultural communication, mediation and action, engaging in transnational cooperation) What is the role of the teacher? English: A Piece of Cake How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly as (future) citizens with political values and agendas?

Among the 21 themes/chapters in A Piece of Cake, only a few point in the direction of citizenship education, especially two: ‘Food, glorious food’ and ‘The environment – ignore it and it will go away’, both placed in A Piece of Cake 8. But these chapters are not foregrounded by the publishers, which can be seen in the choice of photos on the covers of the volumes. For all volumes, cover photos (assembled in a collage) are selected from among the photos used in the chapters in the volumes in question, and on the covers for the teacher’s guide, the textbook and the learner’s guide for A Piece of Cake 8 there are no photos from the chapter on ‘The environment’, and only one from ‘Food, glorious food’ on the back of the learner’s guide. It should also be noted that the title itself, A Piece of Cake, indicates that learning English is fi rst and foremost easy and entertaining. Of course, it should be considered that this same title has to appeal to all age levels from 6 to 16, as well as their teachers and parents.

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The authors are not visible as politically engaged individuals. Joan Boesen represents herself as a person with historical interests, particularly concerning Hawaii, and she shows some indignation concerning the fate of native or aboriginal peoples. Sometimes the authors refer to texts ‘with a message’, for instance Banksy’s graffiti (A Piece of Cake 7). In some places, they represent themselves as offering ideas and inspiration, for example in connection with the chapter on sport: ‘Out and about’, where they stress the benefit of being out and about at least part of the day (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 44). The teacher is mentioned in the teacher’s guide, not as a source of inspiration in relation to politically interesting issues, but as a goal-setter (of primarily communicative-linguistic goals) and an organiser of projects and other collaborative work. The students are generally represented as having and acquiring knowledge (as explained in Chapter 3), but in some chapters their experiences, attitudes and opinions are referred to. They are not addressed as engaged, but it is presupposed that they have an individual responsibility for their health and for the environment. Is cultural and linguistic diversity represented?

Cultural diversity is dealt with to some limited extent, not only in the sense that each country has its own culture (the national paradigm), but also that cultural diversity is found within particular countries or societies. Strangely enough, there is no mention of cultural diversity in Britain (or in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but it is mentioned in relation to the United States and in particular New York City and Hawaii: In the chapter on Food there is, in the learner’s guide, a reading comprehension text on American Food, in which it is asked: ‘Is there such a thing as typical American food? Not really. The American population is made up of people from all over the world’ (A Piece of Cake 8,3: 9). Later in the text the following examples are given: Mexican tacos, Japanese sushi, Italian pizzas and hamburgers from Germany. The chapter on New York City starts with an enthusiastic introduction: ‘New York City. There’s no place like it. Washington DC may be the capital of the US but New York is the capital of the world. New York’s history and diversity are legendary. It’s the city of immigrants.…’ (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 6). As for Hawaii, it is said that ‘The relations between all the different peoples in Hawaii – Caucasians, Japanese, Filipinos, Chinese, Africans, Koreans, Samoans, Hawaiians and others – seem to be less problematic than in most other places…’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 100). In relation to Denmark, there are only a few hints at multiculturality, one of them being the already mentioned invitation to discussion: ‘We have many students from different ethnic backgrounds in our schools. Discuss how their situation compares to that of the Native American student who is quoted in the text. What could we do differently in our schools?’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 41) (see also Chapter 5). So, whereas Hawaii and New York City are celebrated for their cultural diversity, the cultural diversity of London and other big cities of

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the United Kingdom is ignored. The same goes for Ireland and (with a few exceptions as mentioned above) for Denmark. Is this reluctance to represent cultural diversity in European countries a reflex of the power of banal and hot nationalism (Billig, 1995) in Europe today and a fear of raising these confl ictual issues? All the ethnic groups mentioned in relation to the United States, New York and Hawaii are juxtaposed in the sense that power relations and hierarchies between them are not made explicit. There is no mention of minority and majority, inclusion and exclusion, discrimination and stigmatisation. But there may be more covert hierarchies that are not discussed, e.g. the fact that the above-mentioned list of peoples in Hawaii starts with Caucasians and ends with Hawaiians. As noted in Chapter 3, some languages are mentioned along with English in the ‘English-speaking’ countries: Hawaiian, French, Gaelic and Afrikaans. Here as well, there is no mention of relations of power between them. For instance, as regards Canada, language immersion in kindergartens and schools in Quebec is dealt with briefly, but the issues concerning Quebec identity, language, culture and relationship to la francophonie are not touched upon (except that the two national anthems are quoted, as already mentioned). Some religious groups are mentioned, see Chapter 5. Are political institutions and key problems represented?

Generally, one can say that there is nothing about political institutions in A Piece of Cake, such as political systems (republic, constitutional monarchy, other), parliaments, governments, political parties, the roles of regions or provinces, the constitutional role of religion, the role of the different kinds of media, organisations of civil society. The political in the institutional sense is hinted at only indirectly by way of celebrities: Winston Churchill, Barack Obama, Queen Victoria, Prince William, Martin Luther King, Jimmy Carter. Very significant omissions are the EU, the UN and the Commonwealth (see Chapter 7). Key problems of contemporary society may have a political character in the institutional sense, for example the rules that regulate the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Or they may be political in a more individual sense, such as the question of whether one should stop eating beef in order to reduce CO2 emissions in the world. The key problems represented in A Piece of Cake favour the individual’s engagement without necessarily entering collective action. I have already mentioned the chapter on Food, which focuses on self-improvement with respect to health and may be studied in combination with the subject home economics, and the chapter on ‘The environment’ (see below). A third example could be the chapter ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ (A  Piece of Cake 8), which focuses on the lives of successful people (heroes?) like Robert Pattinson, Caroline Wozniacki,

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Marilyn Monroe and Barack Obama. On the other hand, there is not much about such key problems as inequality, poverty and wealth, unemployment, social exclusion and social and religious conflict (but see Chapter 5 for some examples). War, crime and terrorism are represented, though: World War II is mentioned several times, and school shootings and the September 11 attacks. There is almost no mention of migration, no mention of refugees and no mention of Islam today as a world religion that is also present in English-speaking countries (see Chapter 5). It should be emphasised that the students are not too young to acquire knowledge about and gain interest in political matters. In Grades 7–9 (in Denmark, and probably in many other countries) they have lessons in social science, including politics and the economy. Even younger children may be motivated to hear and read news about politics and society, from home and abroad. The Danish newspaper for children of 6–12 years: Kids’ News (in Danish, but the title is in English) offers this possibility. It is a quality newspaper that won a silver prize for its coverage of the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo (the gold prize was given to the whole of the French press). An example chapter: ‘The environment – ignore it and it will go away’

I have chosen the chapter on ‘The environment’ in A Piece of Cake as an example chapter because it is the chapter that most clearly focuses on the responsibility of the student as a citizen. It covers 20 pages in the textbook and consists of 10 sections illustrated by many colourful and creative photos: • • • • • •

• • •

A poem ‘One Day the Lights Went Out’. (Nowhere is it mentioned where the text comes from.) An informative text (written by the invisible author) explaining the term and the movement ‘Earth Day’, which was held for the fi rst time in the United States in 22 April 1970. A list of energy tips: What can we do to save energy? An informative text on rubbish and about the three Rs of rubbish reduction: reduce, reuse, recycle. A review of The Carbon Diaries 2015, written by Saci Lloyd, a science fiction drama taking place in London. An interview with a weather expert on why there is so much flooding in Europe nowadays (all references are to continental Europe). It ends with the expert saying that he is participating in the Copenhagen Climate Conference (in 2009) (see Photos 10–11 below). A text on Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and how Brad Pitt helped people rebuild their neighbourhood. A koala tells about his life now that the eucalyptus is disappearing. An extract from Anita Desai’s novel The Village by the Sea: An Indian Family Story about the plans to build a fertiliser complex in a poor village (with a reference to the Bhopal disaster in 1984).

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The lyrics of the song ‘Pollution’ by Tom Lehrer (from 1965, which is not told).

Photo 10 Water, Water Everywhere. A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 94.

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Photo 11 Water, Water Everywhere. A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 95.

On the website are supplementary materials: reading comprehension texts on Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior (see Chapter 7), on The Eden Project, on the Tiger and on the Giant Panda, and a listening comprehension text on the Australian rain forests.

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It should be noted that although this chapter is not about specific countries or regions, and although most of the environmental problems are global, almost all geographical references are to English-speaking countries and cities (and to Europe drowning!): the United States, New Orleans, London, Australia, India and New Zealand. It is almost as if the whole world is restricted to English-speaking countries. As with the chapter on ‘Absolutely British’ (see Chapter 3), many of the texts are probably interesting for the students, and they are all very relevant to the theme of environmental issues. But the view of environmental problems is quite fragmented as there are no connections between the inputs. The sides of the problems that presuppose collective action by large actors in the world – states, cities, companies, organisations, etc., are not emphasised. The focus is on what the individual young person can do in everyday life: save energy, remove rubbish, etc. The students are seen as citizens, but primarily in an individualised and apolitical manner. And the threatened world is more or less seen through the eyes of people living in Englishspeaking areas, as for example the United States and London. A perspective from Denmark would for example include Greenland and the whole Arctic region with the melting ice cap and rising sea levels – but also the opening of a new Northern passage for sea transport. Approach to intercultural learning

The students are invited to read and discuss the texts, and think about serious questions, for example in the chapter on Food: ‘If you suspected that a classmate might be anorectic, what would you do?’ (A Piece of Cake 8,1: 7). In the chapter on ‘The environment’ they are asked to think about the themes that concern them most: air; water; the environment; plants and animals; or garbage and recycling (it is not clear what ‘the environment’ is or isn’t here), and to distribute the themes among the cooperative learning (CL) groups in the class. They are presented with a model of action in the story about Brad Pitt helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but they are not invited to take action themselves – except that in the chapter on Food they are invited to try out recipes and prepare ethnic dishes. They are asked to discuss, reflect and make proposals for action, and thus see themselves as responsible citizens or future citizens. For example, there are questions like ‘What could you do at school?’ and ‘What will you do in the future?’ But it is not expected that they take individual or collective action themselves. The teacher is not positioned as an adult who has the role of helping students enter discussions of contemporary key issues and possibly take some action. The ideas of intercultural citizenship and intercultural mediation and communication, as well as critical cultural awareness, are not taken up, in spite of the many invitations to compare countries (Denmark

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and a given English-speaking country or region). The authors advise teachers to try international collaboration, but this is not thought of as engaged collective action in the frame of citizenship education but as an organisation of learning that focuses on language use (and is thus relevant for any theme): A great source of cultural exposure and input is, of course, contact with the real thing …. That could be in the form of e-mail contact with a class in another country, web conferences, a collaborative journal, a wonder box or exchange of documentary videos … In being exposed to another culture in person, students have the valuable opportunity to try out their intercultural skills and for example, get a feeling for the level of politeness used, the relationship between young people and adults, the conventions that conversation follows and the like. (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 14). Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to the survey corpus, the idea of citizenship in A Piece of Cake (the authors do not use this word) refers primarily to the individual’s responsibility for the environment and for his or her own personal health. It does not refer to awareness of political conflicts and possible action in relation to the political structures of society. It offers some limited opportunities of imagining engaged action in the sense Starkey (1991, SC18) refers to when he writes about ‘living responsibly in a multicultural and interdependent way’ (cf. also Ros i Solé, 2013, SC29). But it is interesting that cultural diversity and multiculturality are celebrated in the case of the United States but ignored in the case of the UK. Stougaard-Nielsen (2011, SC30) mentions a more formal, and minimal, definition of citizenship education, namely learning how democracy functions. This could have been among the objectives of A Piece of Cake, but it is of course even more relevant for adults in the course of integration in a new society, which is the situation that Stougaard-Nielsen has been working with. Mahboob (2015, SC11) describes a different situation concerning the teaching of English in schools for students with working-class backgrounds in Pakistan. The textbook analysed presents a very patriotic image of Pakistan with a range of biographies of religious and military heroes. A Piece of Cake does not invite or inculcate patriotism for Denmark, but maybe one can speak of secondary patriotism for Britain and the United States? At any rate, the overall attitude to these two states is quite Anglophile and Americanophile. There are some texts dealing with problems in the history of the United States, but the image of life in the United States and Britain today is very positive. This image is reinforced because the perspective seems to be coming from inside these countries, as already pointed out.

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There are heroes in A Piece of Cake, though of a very different nature than those in the Pakistani textbook. In A Piece of Cake, they are actors, athletes, musicians and presidents from the United States and Britain (and one Danish hero, a tennis player). Success and the ambition of becoming a celebrity of some sort is an important part of learning to be a citizen in Western society. Possible supplementary materials

How can this help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of citizenship education, and using A Piece of Cake as a stepping stone? A Piece of Cake is open to cultural diversity in general, so the first thing would be to make sure that the students are aware of cultural diversity in all English-speaking countries, including the whole of the UK, i.e. all its four nations. Cultural diversity may in this context refer to national, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity. It is also important to have some basic knowledge of the EU, especially the role of the UK and the Republic of Ireland in the EU. The Brexit referendum of 2016 makes this all the more necessary. In the chapters of A Piece of Cake, it stands out that political issues in contemporary society are evaded to a large extent, although not completely. Among the many possibilities of including more aspects of contemporary society, I would propose to look at the issue of refugees and human rights. Amnesty International (AI), for example, has websites with lots of textual and visual materials in many countries. It is interesting to compare the websites of, for example, AI Canada, AI New Zealand, AI Ireland and AI UK (and for other target languages this would also be a useful task: AI France, AI Deutschland, AI Österreich, AI México, AI España, AI Danmark, etc.) (Risager, 2016b). Another suggestion is to include projects about themes like those mentioned above in the anthology edited by Byram et al. (2016). Some of the authors in that book describe work with themes like mural art, or a historical confl ict, or sport and human rights. Last, but not least, I would like to mention the sustainable development goals of the UN (from 2015). These constitute precisely a set of key problems of contemporary society, and offer ideas that are highly relevant for language studies. The UN formulates ‘17 goals to transform our world’ (un.org), and they are the following: No poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

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Danish: Puls Presentation

From the teaching of English as a foreign language for young people in Denmark, we turn to the teaching of Danish as a second language for adult immigrants in Denmark. The students are (young) adults and come from many countries around the world. They are living in Denmark, the target language country, and need to get some opportunities of becoming active and critical citizens in their new country. Therefore, Puls has a purpose that is very different from that of A Piece of Cake. Puls (Pulse) covers modules 1–3 in DU3 (for adult students who have a minimum of 12 years of education from abroad, see Chapter 1). The system was published in 2009–2011 by the Danish publishing company Alfabeta, Copenhagen. Alfabeta is, like Alinea, a part of the media corporation Egmont. The authors are Fanny Slotorub and Neel Jersild Moreira, who both have master’s degrees from Roskilde University and teach at the Copenhagen Language Center.

Figure 4.1 Some facts about Puls

For each of the modules the system consists of a textbook, a teacher’s guide and a website with, among other things, listening and reading exercises, dialogues and picture series. In the following, I refer to the different elements of Puls in this way: Puls 1,1=module 1, textbook Puls 1,2=module 1, teacher’s guide, and website The same for modules 2 and 3 Puls is organised as a thematic syllabus, and also includes aspects of a notional syllabus in the same way as Du bist dran described in Chapter 3. It comprises the following chapters/themes: In module 1 (average length 14 pages): (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

‘Introdansk’ (introductory Danish) ‘Du og din hverdag’ (you and your daily life) ‘Familie’ (family) ‘Bolig’ (home) ‘Mad og indkøb’ (food and shopping) ‘Året rundt’ (around the year) ‘Fritid’ (leisure)

In module 2 (average length 17 pages): (1) ‘Arbejde og uddannelse’ (work and education) (2) ‘Indvandring og arbejde i Danmark’ (immigration and work in Denmark)

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(3) (4) (5) (6)

‘Danmarksbilleder’ (images of Denmark) ‘Geografi og klima’ (geography and climate) ‘Højtider, fester og traditioner’ (festivals and traditions) ‘Eventyr’ (fairy tales)

In module 3 (average length 22 pages): (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

‘Dansk kunst og kultur’ (Danish art and culture) ‘Ligestilling’ (equality/equal opportunities) ‘Arbejde’ (work) ‘Lykke’ (happiness) ‘Miljø’ (the environment)

There are no central characters and no plot in Puls. The teacher’s guide offers advice concerning activities including cooperative learning techniques. How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly as (future) citizens with political values and agendas?

The name of the publishers, Alfabeta, more or less directly signals that this is a company specialising in language, especially language teaching for beginners. Actually, it specialises in the teaching of Danish as a second language for adults. In the teacher’s guides, the authors refer to themselves as ‘vi’ (we), and address the teacher as ‘læreren’ (the teacher) and refer to the students as ‘kursisterne’ (the course participants). They do not refer to the teacher as ‘du’ (you in the singular), and there are no portrait photos or CVs of the authors in the teacher’s guides or in the textbooks. Thus, the authors are represented in an impersonal style in Puls, unlike the somewhat more personal styles in Du bist dran and A Piece of Cake. On the other hand, the teacher and the students may get an impression of the interests and engagement of the authors (or publishers) by looking at the themes and the presentation of them, for instance the chapters on ‘Ligestilling’ (equality/equal opportunities) and ‘Miljø’ (environment) (see below). The students are not positioned in Puls as engaged citizens with political interests although they are adults and some of them at least will be refugees coming from political conflict. But they are positioned as potentially engaged (world) citizens in relation to environmental issues (see below). Is cultural and linguistic diversity represented?

In the very fi rst chapter: ‘Introdansk’ (introductory Danish), the students are supposed to learn to ask one another which country they

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come from. In the textbook they are given a large number of names of countries and nationalities, and in some cases the national languages, e.g. Latvia, Latvian (nationality) and Latvian (language). A very broad range of countries is mentioned, at least 62 representing all continents, including 14 countries in Africa – a continent that was observed to be almost invisible in both A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran (Chapter  3). Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also mentioned, but are only described in a three-line factual statement (my translation): ‘Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also parts of Denmark. Greenland is the world’s largest island, and most of it is covered by ice. Therefore there are only 56,000 inhabitants in Greenland, and they all live by the coasts. On the Faroe Islands, which consist of 18 small islands, there are about 48,000 inhabitants’ (Puls 2,1: 65). The term Rigsfællesskabet (The Danish Realm) is not mentioned. Denmark – as seen through the prism of life at the language centre for adult immigrants – is represented as the destination for the whole world. Throughout Puls we often meet people who have a personal history of migration or have married someone from another country. The textbooks contain many portrait photos of smiling people of different races (phenotypes). They are mostly (young) adults, but there are also older people and children. But while Denmark is represented as nationally (or ethnically) and racially diverse, it is not represented as culturally diverse. Facts and issues related to multicultural, multilingual and multifaith Danish society are not dealt with. Denmark is represented as a monocultural and monolingual country characterised by Christian traditions only. There is no mention of the growing importance of the English language in Denmark, and issues of identity, minority and majority, inclusion and exclusion are not dealt with, except that it is emphasised several times in immigrant narratives that learning Danish is a precondition for having a successful work career in Denmark. Thus, the image of Denmark represented in Puls is a mix of great ethnic diversity on the one hand, and strong cultural and linguistic homogeneity on the other hand. It should, of course, be borne in mind that the primary interest of most students probably is to gain knowledge of what counts as ‘Danish’ in Denmark. However, this question is very much open to debate in Denmark, depending on people’s personal experiences and political attitudes to multiculturality. An aspect of the representation of ethnic diversity is the naming practice. Fictive characters have names (most often given names, rarely family names) that are apparently deemed to be typical for certain ethnicities or nationalities, for example: ‘Sara’ for a Dane, ‘Ahmed’ for an Egyptian. A problematic aspect of this practice, however, is that it may imply that all people from Denmark are ethnic Danes, etc. That would be yet another case of banal (ethnic) nationalism.

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Are political institutions and key issues represented?

Political institutions as such are absent in Puls, but there are two chapters that touch on politically relevant issues in society: The chapter on ‘Miljø’ (the environment) (see the example below) and the chapter on ‘Ligestilling’ (equality/equal opportunities). The chapter on equality (Puls 3) is very factually oriented with lots of figures and percentages. It only refers to gender equality, not ethnic, religious or sexual equality, and it only represents middle-class ethnic Danes, singles or living in heterosexual nuclear families. Household chores are dealt with, but issues such as violence in the home, rape, alcoholism and child abuse are left unnoticed. Thus, the representation of gender equality in Denmark is quite idealising. This positive (Danophile) image is supported by another chapter on ‘Lykke’ (happiness) (Puls 3), probably included because Danes are often referred to in the international media as the happiest people on Earth. This is a legitimate theme to discuss, but the students should also be introduced to diverse opinions on life in Denmark, both positive and negative, and it should be borne in mind that not all course participants have had positive experiences in the Danish immigration and asylum system. Oddly, the International UFO Day is mentioned among important dates, parallel to International AIDS Day and Mother’s Day (Puls 1,1: 94). An example chapter: ‘Miljø’ (the environment)

The chapter on ‘Miljø’ (the environment) has been chosen because it is a chapter that clearly focuses on the responsibility of the citizen, and also because it may be compared to the chapter about the same topic in A Piece of Cake. Puls 3 covers 21 pages in the textbook and consists of a number of tasks supplemented by some colour photos that serve as inspiration for the generation of ideas, and some diagrams supporting the tasks. Some tasks are mostly linguistic, focusing on for example the pronunciation of vowels in a list of words related to the environment, others are more oriented towards the theme: • • • • • •

Brainstorm on the word environment, and discussion of a mind map on aspects of environmental issues (see Photos 12 and 13 below). An environment quiz based on a listening comprehension text. Reading comprehension tasks based on a text on climate change. Group discussion on how we can improve the environment by saving energy. An attitude study concerning the students’ environmental awareness – a table to fi ll in. Self-test on the internet: how energy-saving am I? Presentation of this to the class.

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Photo 12 Miljø (the environment). Puls 3, textbook, p. 98.

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A listening comprehension test on the basis of a text on energy-saving habits (transport, etc.). Reading comprehension tests on the basis of two texts on organic food.

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Photo 13 Miljø (the environment). Puls 3, textbook, p. 99.

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Filling in a questionnaire about attitudes to climate change: reasons for climate change, are the world’s politicians doing enough, our personal responsibility, other problems are more important, everybody should buy organic food.

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Writing and oral presentation tasks on the basis of a text on environmental organisations in Denmark (among them Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund). A listening comprehension test on the basis of a text on a Greenpeace action at a royal party in Denmark.

As can be seen in Photo 12, the students are given a mind map structure to work with, a structure that offers a kind of coherence to the whole chapter. The boxes to the left are about nature/climate (forest, beach, ocean) and problems, the box in the middle is about places (rainforest, city, Los Angeles) and the boxes to the right are about sources of energy (electricity, water, windmills, sunlight collectors and nuclear power) and solutions. The structure is not used as such in the rest of the chapter, but it creates a kind of overview at the start, an overview that we do not find in the fragmentary chapter on the environment in A Piece of Cake. All the texts are apparently written by the authors as there are no author names on them (except on one article from a daily newspaper). All the texts are non-fiction and very factually oriented. The theme is treated in an authoritative and impersonal way, and there is almost only one voice: that of the invisible author(s). This is very different from the chapter on the environment in A Piece of Cake, which contains a number of different voices. Approach to intercultural learning

Actually, the chapter on the environment as well as the rest of Puls is characterised by a very low rate of literary texts. In the chapter on fairy tales, there are two fairy tales (one by the Brothers Grimm, one by Andersen), and in the chapter on Danish art and culture there are a few short poems: three ‘Gruks’ by Piet Hein and the song ‘Kvinde min’ (my woman) by Gasolin’, a Danish rock band. In the chapter on immigration and work in Denmark, the song ‘I Danmark er jeg født’ (I am born in Denmark) by the Danish rapper Natasja Saad is included. This represents a certain difference to A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran. In Du bist dran there are many short literary texts throughout the chapters, such as poems, puns, proverbs and jokes, even at the elementary level. So the approach to intercultural learning in Puls most clearly focuses on the construction of knowledge of a factual and authoritative, ‘multiple-choice’ kind, centred on Denmark supplemented by three lines about Greenland and the Faroe Islands (and a text about a man who was born in Greenland, Puls 3,1: 92). Another difference especially to A Piece of Cake is the almost total absence of humour. Apart from some jokes about men and women in the chapter on equality, there are almost no texts or photos that may appeal to humour, creativity and alternative (critical) thinking, as for instance the photo of the girl with the Sex Pistols T-shirt in A Piece of Cake (Chapter 3).

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That the style in Puls is more authoritative and impersonal than in A Piece of Cake probably has to do with the situation of the teaching of Danish as a second language for adults, which is controlled by the state in much more detail than the foreign languages in the general school system, including the exams. Moreover, the classes in Danish prepare for the ‘medborgerskabsprøve’, a multiple-choice citizenship test that gives access to a residence permit. In the chapter on the environment, the students are positioned as potentially responsible persons in relation to issues of climate change, mostly understood as an individual responsibility, but also as a more collective responsibility as they are asked to imagine being a member of an environmental organisation and write a letter to a friend about this, inviting him or her to join the work. Thus, the students are here positioned as citizens, probably world citizens, as environmental issues are implicitly seen as transcending national borders. But they are not invited to engage in intercultural communication, mediation or action, or in transnational cooperation. The focus is always on knowledge about Denmark, with occasional invitations to compare with the countries of origin (food, weather, etc.). The Danish language, however, not only provides access to what life is like and what is going on in Denmark and other places where Danish is used – Greenland and the Faroe Islands among others. As it is closely related to the other Scandinavian languages, it may also provide access to these countries. But also the immigrants’ countries of origin might be dealt with in Danish texts. There are, of course, innumerable texts in Danish about the United States, the Middle East, China, etc. And some novels, poems, etc., from these countries have been translated into Danish. So, learning the Danish language is also a way of gaining knowledge and new perspectives on the world, building on the intercultural communication and transnational cooperation of other people, including translators. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

Puls contains stories of immigrant success that might be compared to those analysed in Gulliver (2010, SC7) taken from the teaching of English as a second language in Canada. The contexts are different, and I will just point to one interesting difference, namely that of the different status of English in Denmark as compared to its status in Canada. In Denmark, English is slowly gaining the status of a second language in the sense that more and more people use it, especially for listening and reading, in their everyday and professional lives. This means that immigrants who have good knowledge of English can make use of this as part of their integration into the Danish labour market and society at large. But Puls emphasises that it is a prerequisite for succeeding in Denmark that you have learnt

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Danish. Puls does not mention that there are quite a few English-speaking people in élite positions in international companies and higher education who do not speak Danish. Ros i Solé (2013, SC29), studying textbooks for Spanish, argues that a textbook, as a cultural product, should incorporate competing versions of the target culture, while at the same time allowing space for reflective distance. This argument is also relevant in relation to Puls, which on the one hand gives voice to many immigrants, but on the other hand does not deal with confl icting Danish discourses, such as the images of Denmark from the perspectives of different political parties, associations and movements. This argument is in line with what Stougaard-Nielsen (2011, SC30) writes about in his study of a number of other textbooks on the teaching of Danish as a second language. Puls is characterised by banal nationalism – but the inclusion of many immigrant voices is a fi rst step in representing Denmark as a culturally and linguistically diverse country, struggling with the dilemmas of multiculturalism both at the national and the EU level. Possible supplementary materials

How can this help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of citizenship education, and using Puls as a stepping stone? As noted, Puls does help students gain knowledge about Denmark, and it contains many good, simple, informative texts written by the authors or adapted from other sources. One theme related to Danish society that I fi nd missing is the media. Taking up the media on diverse platforms, for instance in Puls 3, would give students an introduction to ways of navigating in the political landscape of news and debates in Denmark about, among others, immigration, integration and xenophobia, as well as Denmark’s relation to the EU. It would give them access to competing versions of Danish society and daily life. This could offer opportunities for discussing political issues in class. Another relevant theme is Denmark as a multilingual country. The students should gain some insight into language policy in Denmark, and the situation for their own fi rst languages: Are they taught somewhere? Are they present in the media? Is there any access to translation and interpreting? The teacher should be open to the use of students’ fi rst languages as pedagogical tools for learning, if possible. Students who share a fi rst language, should be encouraged to help each other. In terms of citizenship, students are primarily focusing on the importance of obtaining formal Danish citizenship (Danish/EU passport) sometime in the future, i.e. a national citizenship. But at the same time it must not be forgotten that they all have transnational experiences, for instance as migrants or refugees, and thus they are, in

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a sense, world citizens when they arrive in Denmark. The question is whether they are allowed to maintain and develop this wider identity when they are being integrated into Danish society, or whether they are expected to assimilate to a more local Danish citizenship identity only? This is a central issue for the teaching of Danish as a second language, an issue that should be discussed in class as soon as language skills in Danish make it possible. Conclusion

As emphasised above, the students of Puls are adult immigrants, and they need to get some opportunities of becoming active and critical citizens in their new country. However, the citizenship education studies reading shows that the representations in A Piece of Cake as well as in Puls are both characterised by an avoidance of political institutions and ideologies (government, parties, -isms, etc.) in favour of politics concerning engagement in specific issues such as the environment (this theme also appears in Du bist dran). It should be added that while A Piece of Cake treats environmental responsibility only at the individual level, Puls also includes the possibility of active engagement – and empowerment – in an environmental organisation. Thus, while the representations are otherwise based on banal nationalism, the examples of active engagement may point away from the national confi nes towards a wider, and perhaps global, conception of citizenship. Neither A Piece of Cake nor Puls raise questions concerning life in a multicultural, multilingual and multifaith society. Neither of them deals with the target countries as multilingual societies (with the small exception of Canada in A Piece of Cake), and neither mentions Islam, the secondlargest religion in the world. (Note that Du bist dran mentions Islam in Germany as well as a political party, the CDU.) Concerning the aspects of citizenship education that have been pointed out by Byram and others (intercultural citizenship, intercultural communication and mediation, transnational cooperation), these have not been considered in A Piece of Cake and Puls. It should be said that Byram has foreign language education in mind rather than second language education, but intercultural citizenship is clearly relevant for both kinds of language teaching, as both activities build bridges between language communities. But they have different foci, which opens up the question of which countries (states) the citizenship relates to: As regards foreign language teaching, is it the target language country in question (e.g. the UK) or the country of learning (e.g. Denmark)? As regards second language teaching, is it the target language country (in which the learning takes place, e.g. Denmark) or the country of origin (e.g. Argentina)? Or is an over-riding bi-national concept covering both countries, focusing on intercultural communication

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and cooperation? Or are we talking of a more abstract global citizenship in a multilingual and multicultural world? I would favour the last interpretation because it allows for the view that all countries are multilingual and multicultural – which means that intercultural citizenship is also a relevant concept within the frame of one country. The use and non-use of English and Danish in the two textbooks is a signifi cant illustration of the struggle between English and Danish in Denmark. As said, in A Piece of Cake only English is used throughout (with the exception of word lists and some grammar), even in the teacher’s guides in spite of the fact that the teacher will most probably have Danish as his or her fi rst language. Contrary to this, in Puls only Danish is used. There is not a word in English (except ordinary loanwords), even if quite a large number of the students will probably know some English, and the teacher as well. English may very well function as a lingua franca among the majority of the students (at DU3) and the teacher. In the context of the teaching of immigrants, both languages are ‘second languages’ in Denmark in the sense that it is necessary to master both in order to lead an ordinary life in Denmark, Danish being the local, national second language and English the international second language. As there is widespread worry in Denmark that Danish will one day be displaced by English, the exclusive necessity of Danish is underscored in, for example, Puls. It should be noted that A Piece of Cake and Puls were both produced for use in Denmark in mind, i.e. in a country that – seen in global perspective – is characterised by relatively great freedom to discuss political questions, also in schools. This is a very different situation from the global textbooks for English as a foreign language mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2, which are constrained by taboos concerning ‘the political’. Even so, the two Danish textbooks under study are quite reluctant to introduce questions that could raise a political debate – a debate that would have to be carried out in a relatively simple language, of course, especially with regard to Puls since the recourse to English as a lingua franca is not always possible among immigrants coming from many different countries and social contexts.

5 Cultural Studies

Introduction

When we turn to a Cultural studies reading, we enter a field that is also interested in culture and politics, but with a methodological accentuation of process and agency, historicity and subjectivity, and with a much larger area of interest in terms of different kinds of identity. Whereas the national culture reading puts a special focus on nations and national identity, and the citizenship education reading is particularly interested in cultural diversity in the sense of ethnic and linguistic diversity, Cultural studies includes these and other identity parameters such as gender, sexuality, race, class, caste, education, tribe, clan, religion, age, generation, lifestyle, etc. Some scholars emphasise studies of identities in which certain parameters intersect, for example: poor white males, black female academics, young Muslim women, etc. In the Cultural studies tradition, ‘culture’ is not seen as something that exists out there and can be described as norms and values, products and practices (an essentialist view). As the Cultural studies tradition accentuates process and agency, it favours a view of culture that presupposes that it is constructed in discourse (a non-essentialist view): Culture is not something that can be used to explain people’s norms and values, culture is what should be explained. For example, why does a specific discourse about ‘culture’ exist in a certain context, and what does this discourse do? A similar distinction can be found in the study of identity: The focus is not on fi xed identities as group memberships, but on processes of identification of self and Other: Who identify whom in space and time and with what effects? – not only in interactions between people, but also as part of large-scale cultural processes such as the unfolding of discourses in society about race, class, gender, age, nationality, religion, language, etc. A term that is sometimes used to cover this diversity is ‘interculturality’, which in the Cultural studies context may be defi ned as discourses of the world that foreground diversity and encounters (Risager & Dervin, 2015). Cultural Studies

Cultural studies began in Britain in the 1950s as an interest in the cultural practices of other groups than the ruling élite. The fi rst important publication, The Uses of Literacy (Hoggart, 1957), shows how changes 130

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in the reading practices of the working class in postwar Britain affected individuals’ lives in many different respects in their work, family life, etc. Cultural studies was fi rst institutionalised in the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham in 1964, founded by Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall, and from there spread to the United States, Australia and many other places. It has developed into a very wide and differentiated field of study, but generally one can say that it focuses on the role of culture in contemporary society; on relations between culture, identity and politics; and on the forces of ideology and hegemony. It shows how the cultural practices of any group, organisation or institution are influenced by and in turn influence power relations. A central figure in the fi eld of Cultural studies is Stuart Hall (1992, 1997a, 1997b), who was director of the CCCS for some years, and who has written a number of very influential articles about basic concepts: identity, nationality, ethnicity, race and representation. For example, Hall argues that the concept of identity has different forms according to the kind of subject we are talking about, and he distinguishes between three different kinds of subjects: the Enlightenment subject, the sociological subject and the postmodern subject. The Enlightenment subject was ‘based on a conception of the human person as a fully centred, unifi ed individual, endowed with the capacities of reason, consciousness and action’ (Hall, 1992: 275). The sociological subject refl ected ‘the growing complexity of the modern world and the awareness that this inner core of the subject was not autonomous and self-sufficient, but was formed in relation to “significant others”, who mediated to the subject the values, meanings and symbols – the culture – of the worlds he/she inhabited’ (Hall, 1992: 275). And the postmodern subject has ‘no fi xed, essential or permanent identity. Identity [is] formed and transformed continuously in relation to the ways we are represented or addressed in the cultural system which surrounds us… It is historically, not biologically, defi ned’ (Hall, 1992: 277). Another influential Cultural studies scholar is Raymond Williams (1958, 1976), who has written a number of works about how to understand culture in an historical and societal context. Cultural studies today is an international meeting place for theoretical and philosophical debates and for studies of a whole range of identity and subjectivation processes, as well as the formation and restructuring of different groups and subcultures in contemporary society: studies of ethnicity and nationality, feminist and queer theory (studies of gender and sexuality), studies of race and racism, studies of religion and culture, studies of age and generation and – as mentioned above – studies of intersectionality (intersections of different identities) (Grzanka, 2014). Cultural studies also harbour the study of the cultural politics of emotions, i.e. the role of, for example, pain, hate, fear, disgust, shame and love in our understanding of political life (Ahmed, 2004).

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As the Cultural studies approach foregrounds variability and change, it favours (nouns based on) process verbs such as differentiation, categorisation, minorisation, racialisation, ethnification, stereotyping and Othering (discourses about the Other), and it is also interested in studying resistance to such processes. The empirical fields typically include media culture, popular culture, celebrity culture, lifestyle and consumption (During, 1999; Grossberg et al., 1992). See also the Association for Cultural Studies (ACS) and its Crossroads conferences (cultstud.org). As regards the three dimensions of knowledge (cf. Chapter 1), Cultural studies may be said to be especially interested in epistemologies. Although Cultural studies also contributes to the production of factual knowledge about practices and power relations, its primary focus is on different and changing epistemologies: ways of categorisation, identification and understanding in complex societies. Cultural Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy

The Cultural studies perspective has been explored in different ways by a number of scholars in language and culture pedagogy, among them Kramsch, Holliday, Guilherme, Gray and myself. Kramsch (1993: 31) argues for a dialogic pedagogy in language teaching, which ‘sets new goals for language teachers – poetic, psychological, political goals that are not measurable on proficiency tests and do not constitute any easy-to-follow method’. She is in favour of a language education that experiments with dialogic language and literature teaching with reference to Bakhtin’s (1986) work and sees the classroom as a site of cross-cultural fieldwork during which texts and discourses of different origins are being investigated and put into context. As she says: ‘a text creates its reader through its very structure or form, and the readers in turn create the text as they imbue it with meaning’ (Kramsch, 1993: 7). She also emphasises the importance of studying the experiences and life histories of language learners, including their memories, emotions and imagination. Thus, she underscores the cultural dimensions of the language use and language learning of the multilingual subject (Kramsch, 2009, 2015). In an article from 1999 about ‘small cultures’, Adrian Holliday distinguishes two paradigms of culture in language and culture pedagogy: ‘the large culture paradigm’ associated with ethnic, national or international entities (where I would use the term ‘the national paradigm’), and ‘the small culture paradigm’ associated with emergent behaviour in small social groupings. He suggests that small cultures should be analysed from a nonessentialist perspective, using ethnographic and interpretative methods. In a resource book by Holliday et al. (2004), the authors present a large number of texts, figures, etc., inviting reflections on concepts related to identity, Othering and representation (cf. Holliday, 2005, 2011 and the timeline in Risager, 2011).

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Guilherme is working in relation to the citizenship education perspective and Cultural studies, with an emphasis on postmodern concepts like multiplicity, fluidity and reflexivity. Her work is originally based on a large empirical project on Portuguese teachers of English with special reference to their reflections on critical cultural awareness (Guilherme, 2002). The overall concept is ‘critical citizens for an intercultural world’, and Guilherme elaborates this through a postmodern interpretation of the notions of ‘critical cultural awareness’ and ‘intercultural speaker’. While the intercultural speaker is normally understood as a concept describing a person who is learning/using a foreign language and may act as a negotiator and mediator between the foreign and the native languages and their corresponding cultures, Guilherme (2002: 125, italics in the original) prefers to speak of the critical intercultural speaker in a postmodern perspective: ‘The critical intercultural speaker is aware of the multiple, ambivalent, resourceful, and elastic nature of cultural identities in an intercultural encounter’. The critical intercultural speaker does not presuppose essential national or ethnic identities but has to problematise these concepts. He or she must be aware that the development of identities involves a constant negotiation. Lone K. Svarstad argues for a Cultural studies approach in language teaching, focusing on three key concepts: intersectionality, Othering and subtextuality. Her work is based on critical participatory action research on English teaching in lower secondary school in Denmark (Grade 8), in which the students worked with topics that opened up for discussions of identity, diversity, celebrities, fame and power (Svarstad, 2015, 2016). (One of the classes Svarstad studied, used some materials from A Piece of Cake at an early stage of the action research process.) Other scholars engaged in Cultural studies in language and culture pedagogy are Baker (2012), Kearney (2016), Kramer (1997), Liddicoat (2009), Miller (1989), Phipps and Gonzalez (2004) and Quist (2013). In Chapter 2, some proponents within textbook analysis are also mentioned: Ros i Solé (2013, SC29) and Gray’s studies of different dimensions of global textbooks for English, including Gray (2010a, SC5; 2013, SC8) and Gray and Block (2014, SC10). Culture in Language: Linguaculture

My own work on the concept of linguaculture (or languaculture) (Agar, 1994; Risager, 2006, 2007, 2015) develops a Cultural studies view of language and language learning. I am interested not only in the ways that language and culture are related, but also in the ways that language and culture are not related. Thus, my work is a critique of the national paradigm, which rests on the idea of an intimate relationship between language and culture in all respects. The relationship between language and culture has two sides: ‘culture in language’ and ‘language in culture’. In this section, I will present my view of the first side and in Chapter 7 (on transnational studies) my view of the second.

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Basically, all languages contribute to the production and reproduction of meaning and are thereby cultural practices, although they may in some situations be less culturally dense than in others (e.g. a poetic text is typically more culturally dense than a text on physics). In my view, the term ‘linguaculture’ is especially useful in the context of language use and language learning when one adopts a transnational perspective. This perspective implies that people (subjects) are seen as potentially or actually moving around in the world and thereby carrying their linguaculture with them from one cultural context to another. This idea avoids the conviction that language and culture will always be inseparable. The concept of linguaculture combines and seeks to integrate three different dimensions of language: the semantic and pragmatic dimension; the poetic dimension; and the identity dimension. All three dimensions represent well-established fields of language study that should be brought together in a closer dialogue: •

•

•

The semantic and pragmatic dimension can be exemplified by the distinction in the English language (in contrast to some other languages) between ‘sister’ and ‘brother’, between ‘he’ and ‘she’, between ‘red’ and ‘orange’, between ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’, or the cultural and political connotations of words like ‘nature’, ‘freedom’, ‘harmony’, ‘black’ and ‘white’ – words that are epistemologically interesting, i.e. they can be related to specific frames of understanding of the world. This dimension has been explored by many researchers interested in intercultural pragmatics and contrastive semantics, and it has also been a long-standing focus of interest for linguistic anthropology, intercultural communication and social-semiotic genre theory. It has a place in language learning and teaching as well, including studies of how specific words in the target language can mean different things for different people in different situations. The poetic dimension may be exemplified by the use of rhymes and rhythm, the exploitation of the phonological and syllabic structure of the language in poems and lyrics, the exploitation of the relationship between speech and writing in commercials, branding, etc. This dimension has been studied for a long time by literary theorists focusing on literary poetics, style, literariness and the like. It also has a place in language learning and teaching in the reading of poetry and related genres as well as in creative writing where students are invited to explore the poetic resources of the target language. The identity dimension is about how people identify themselves and others by the way they speak and write: their use of regional accents, sociolects, dialects and code-switching. It is also about how the language as such is identified in the global context: what is the identity of for example the English language in the context of colonialism and imperialism? What is the identity of the Ainu language in the Japanese context? What

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is the identity of Nigerian Pidgin English in the Nigerian context? This dimension has interested many sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists and scholars focusing on language attitudes and language ideologies. In the field of language learning, it is perhaps best represented in the discussion of the concept of the native speaker as opposed to that of the intercultural speaker, i.e. in the discussion of who are legitimate speakers of the target language. Seen in a postcolonial perspective, the identity dimension is also much about the role of the target language in relation to other languages in the global relations of power. In line with the general approach to culture in Cultural studies, I emphasise the subjective side of linguaculture. All subjects develop their personal linguacultures as a result of their specific life histories, and they expand and change their linguacultures during foreign and second language learning: For example: a woman speaking Danish as her fi rst language and who is in the process of learning French, must draw on her cultural and social experience related to the Danish language, especially in the fi rst stages of learning. Personal connotations of words and phrases will be transferred, and a kind of language mixture will result, where French is supplied with linguacultural matter from Danish and possibly other languages learnt. From her perspective, the alleged intimate association between the French language and culture is a normative one, not a descriptive one. It is her learning task to establish an association, and this task has to be accomplished on the basis of a growing understanding of some of the connotations common among native speakers (cf. Kramsch [2009], whose views on the subjective and symbolic aspects of language have some similarity with my views on linguaculture). When this learner moves around the world, she will introduce her composite and more or less integrated linguaculture into new cultural spaces, and the linguaculture may change again. Studying cultural representations in a language textbook, especially from a Cultural studies perspective, thus also includes studies of the dimensions of linguaculture: Are students invited to consider how specific words and expressions in the target language can mean different things for different people in different situations? Are students invited to explore the poetic resources of the target language? Are they invited to explore the identity dimensions of language, such as questions of language attitudes, or the question of how it feels for a language learner to be ‘reduced’ to non-native speaker identity? Analytical Questions in Relation to a Cultural Studies Reading

In this and the following readings, a section is added in the list: The textbook in society. This is because the analyst is now supposed not only to consider the textbook itself, but also to reflect on its role in the wider society (cf. Chapter 1 and Risager, 1998).

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It should be borne in mind again that some publishers, among them large British/transnational publishing companies, forbid ‘religion’ and ‘sex’ in English textbooks for the global market (Gray, 2010a). Positioning and representation of actors • How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their subjectivities and cultural identities? Representation of culture, society and the world • What cultural identities are represented, and how? (dealt with, or just mentioned) (class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, education, language, etc.) • What social identities are represented, and how? (dealt with, or just mentioned) (celebrities, refugees, business people, engineers, school children, homeless, journalists, etc.) • What dimensions of linguaculture are represented? • How is culture and identity viewed in the textbook? (essentialist/nonessentialist, static/dynamic) Approach to intercultural learning • Does the approach to intercultural learning promote awareness of subjectivity and cultural identity? (invitation to reflect on one’s own subjectivity and cultural identities, invitation to reflect on intersections of identities, support of critical awareness of processes like Othering, minorisation and racialisation). What is the role of the teacher? The textbook in society • Do parts of the textbook resemble other genres in society? (tourist guides, documentary, etc.) • If the textbook has been commercially produced: Are parts of the textbook related to the fact that it is a commodity? English: A Piece of Cake How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their subjectivities and cultural identities?

The publishers (Alinea) do not say anything about themselves except general colophon information, including name and company affi liation, names of editors and names of layout and graphical designers. There is no narrative about the publishers. The personal names of the Danish authors, indicated in the colophon, are female, and their collective voice

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is heard throughout the volumes, but in an anonymous way, without their names. Only once is one of their names revealed in the text when – as noted in Chapter 3 – the main Danish author, Joan Boesen, steps out of the shadow as the receiver of a constructed letter from a student in Hawaii. This adds a personal and narrative aspect to the otherwise anonymous voice. As there is no photo of Joan Boesen (or the other author), we do not have any impression of her age, ethnicity/race or other more or less visible dimensions of identity. There is no indication of her educational background either, nor of her possible religious affi liation – a piece of information which in (secular or Lutheran) Denmark would be considered as a totally private side of her life. In the learner’s guide, the teacher is referred to as either male of female (‘his or her’). This is due to English linguaculture, which requires gender division in the field of personal and possessive pronouns (but the order of placing the male before the female has cultural and historical connotations, of course). Otherwise, there is no indication of the identity of the possible teacher, other than that she or he is indirectly seen as a very competent speaker of English (not necessarily a native speaker), and as a person who has broad cultural knowledge to the extent that he or she can tell whether a certain girl wearing a Sex Pistols T-shirt is a celebrity or not (see Chapter 3 on the chapter ‘Absolutely British’, and see Photo 1 above). The students are seen as a group that may in some cases consist of different ethnicities. But note that the authors make an us–them distinction (or Othering): ‘We have many students from different ethnic backgrounds in our schools. Discuss how their situation compares to that of the Native American student who is quoted in the text. What could we do differently in our schools?’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 41). In this way, the ethnically Danish students are represented as the primary group, and a majority-minority hierarchy is maintained in Danish schools and Danish society. What cultural and social identities are represented?

As might be expected, the majority of people represented in texts and images are young people at the same age as the students or a bit older. There are also some adults but almost no children. Among the older adults, mostly presidents, queens and American Indian chiefs are represented. Among the young people and adults there are both females and males, but the balance depends on the theme: For instance, in the chapters ‘Music, our universal language’ (see also Chapter 7) and ‘Is anybody out there?’ (about Space) there are almost no females. (It should be added that in the Swedish version from 1994, the Swedish band ABBA introduces the chapter on music, and there is also a text on the deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie.) The photos in the various chapters show people of different skin colours, mostly Caucasian/white, African American, American Indian and Polynesian (Hawaii). Only a few (South and East) Asians are represented.

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This also varies with the chapters; for instance, the chapters on Britain (and the Republic of Ireland) only show white people (see the discussion of this in Chapter 4). Religion is mentioned several times: Many branches of Christianity (Catholicism, Baptism, Puritanism – but not Anglicanism) and also Judaism, Hinduism (already in Grade 6) and aboriginal religions. Strangely, Islam is not mentioned, except that there is a text on the website on the life of Malcolm X. Buddhism is not mentioned either. A number of the chapters in A Piece of Cake deal with other cultural identities, normally without using this term, most notably ‘Teen issues’ (which deals with class differences, see below), and ‘Love is in the air’ as well as part of ‘A trip to Ireland’ (sexuality). The chapter on Love (in Class 9) includes an informative text that deals with the ‘True Love Waits Card’, which some teenagers in the United States sign in order to promise not to have sex before marriage (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 45). The chapter on Ireland (also in Grade 9) includes a non-fiction text on the life of Oscar Wilde, and it contains the following comment on homosexuality: So far Oscar’s life had been one long success story. But he had a secret. He was gay. Today it wouldn’t matter much but at this time things were different. Homosexuality was still a crime. Most gay men stayed out of trouble by being discreet, but not Oscar. He wasn’t openly gay, of course, but even so his lifestyle was too much for some people. (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 37)

On the other hand, there are no chapters dealing with gender or sex as a social dimension of society or schools (gender roles, gender discrimination and social control, the rights of girls and women, etc.). As to social identities like professions, etc., the world of A Piece of Cake is of course influenced by the fact that the students are 13–16 years of age and mostly know about adult life (outside their own family and neighbourhood) through the internet, social media and the mass media, which are, in a country like Denmark, dominated by entertainment and celebrities. The celebrities present in A Piece of Cake are of different kinds: political leaders (presidents, kings and queens), athletes and people active in showbiz (film, music, dance), fiction writers – the authors of numerous literary texts, and scientists and astronauts (in the chapter on Space). There are also texts depicting poor people (in a village in India, in an English town near Liverpool and on a Native American reservation in the United States), and texts about victims of violence and disasters (September 11, Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, Titanic). On the other hand, few ‘ordinary’ working-class or middle-class jobs are represented, and no disabled or sick persons. Cultural and social identities may not only be represented by the inclusion of certain people in discourses and images (and the exclusion of others). Identities may also be represented indirectly by showing practices and objects without unveiling that they are more characteristic of certain

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groups than others. There are lots of examples of cities being represented via photos of tourist sights, and thus middle-class practices of travelling are favoured. Another example might be that of a photo of a ‘table’, where it is not told that this is a special type of table created by a well-known designer. In this way, an aesthetically minded middle-class perspective is favoured. What dimensions of linguaculture are represented?

The semantic and pragmatic dimension of linguaculture is of course present throughout the chapters where English words and expressions refer to culture and society (e.g. school systems) in ways that are different from, for example, Danish words and expressions. But there are very few examples of texts that put a focus on the personal and changing meanings of certain words. One of these is the text on the meaning of ‘Indian’ in the above-mentioned text ‘From Indian to Native American’. This could easily be remedied by frequently elaborating personal mindmaps of connotations of culturally or politically important words, comparing the mindmaps and discussing them. The poetic dimension of linguaculture is richly represented by the many poems and lyrics. But apart from the existence of regional accents of English, the identity dimension of linguaculture is not focused on at all. There are no invitations to discuss attitudes to English and reflect on how one identifies oneself through the use of a specific variety of English – a standard variety, a dialect, a sociolect, etc. (but see Chapter 7 on transnational studies). An example chapter: ‘Teen issues’

In Grade 9, we fi nd a chapter called ‘Teen issues’ (A Piece of Cake 9,1: 54ff). I have chosen this chapter as an example chapter because it deals with issues of social class, race and religion. It consists of three core texts (6 pages in all) and a number of optional texts (20 pages). The core texts are fictional texts based on interviews, but it is not told who wrote the texts (and if the interviews have in fact been carried out). • • •

The fi rst text (see Photos 14–15 below) is about a (white) British girl of 15 who lives with her mother, three older sisters and a baby in a small town outside Liverpool. She left school when she was 14. The second text is about a 17-year-old (white) boy living in West London with his father, who is an attorney. The boy attends a public school and he hopes to get a creative job, probably in advertising. The third text is about a (black) boy of 17, living in New York, who has just enlisted in the army. He is one of the leaders of the Baptist Youth Club and is described as a believer.

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Photo 14 Teen Issues. A Piece of Cake 9, textbook, p. 54.

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Photo 15 Teen Issues. A Piece of Cake 9, textbook, p. 55.

Of course, it is difficult to say how these different intersecting identity parameters have been chosen and distributed over the two countries. But

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they may have been distributed so that there are two white non-believers (?) in Britain (nearest to Scandinavia, predominantly white and secular), and one black believer in the United States (farther from Scandinavia in both geography and culture). The view of culture and identity

The word ‘culture’ itself is not used much in the volumes except in the introductions to the teacher’s guides: ‘Language and culture go together, hand in hand. Language exists within a culture and is one means of cultural expression’ (A Piece of Cake 7,2: 14). This is a very common and essentialistic way of talking about the key concepts in language and culture pedagogy. But in the chapters, the view of culture is more diverse and dynamic, as the numerous constructed and authentic texts represent many different voices and perspectives within each country or region. The word ‘identity’ is used very little, except in the learner’s guide to the chapter on ‘The first Americans’. Under the heading ‘Cultural identity’ the students are asked to ‘find links that deal with the comparison between Native American and general American culture on the A Piece of Cake website. Discuss the information you find on the charts. Agree on four differences you find especially interesting’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 40). On the next page there is the same heading again: ‘Cultural identity’, and the students are now asked to ‘find links that deal with the comparison between Native American and “white” American culture on the A Piece of Cake website. Discuss the information you find on the charts. Choose four differences in Native American values or behaviour that might create problems or misunderstandings at school’ (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 41). This idea of comparing two cultures is essentialistic, as it presupposes the existence of two entities called ‘cultures’. In the Cultural studies perspective, I would prefer to say that what exists is a complex and fluid reality of humans and (inter)actions, and on top of this some actors choose to delimit parts of this reality and call those parts ‘a culture’. But there is another text that exhibits a very different and much more dynamic view of identity, namely ‘From Indian to Native American’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 62f), which deals with the changing meanings of ‘Indian’ (from Columbus’ time) and the later term ‘Native American’, ending with this quote from a student at a high school in South Dakota: ‘This course means a lot to me because I learned about my own people. I know their values and many other great things about them. Now I’m glad I’m an Indian…’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 62) (see also Chapter 6). What characterises A Piece of Cake (and many other textbooks) is a lack of awareness of these methodological differences (essentialism vs.

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anti-essentialism) discussed in the field of Cultural studies, even if the authors are interested in depicting diversity and change. Authors, as well as teachers and – if possible – students need an adequate meta-language that enables them to talk about and critically discuss concepts like culture and identity. Approach to intercultural learning

Through comparisons with conditions in Denmark, the students may sometimes have opportunities to reflect on their own subjectivity (personal history and experiences as part of society) and cultural identity (gender, class, religion, ethnicity, etc.). But this opportunity is not directly addressed by the authors. There are a few opportunities to reflect on intersections of identities, for instance in the chapter ‘Teen issues’. But again, this is not thematised directly. There is no incentive to develop critical awareness of processes like Othering, stereotyping, minorisation and racialisation. So, relations of power between different groups in society, and between the state and different groups, are not in focus. Diversity is represented, but the students are not invited to think about why all these different groups and identities are not equal. The textbook in society

The discourses in A Piece of Cake partly resemble discourses in tourist literature, especially those that address the ethnographically and historically interested tourist, maybe the young backpacker. They do not address those who might be interested in what is going on in society right now, the political debates, struggles and confl icts. The discourses also resemble short biographies of celebrities known from youth magazines and from the internet and the media within the fields of sport, popular music and fi lm. Because of the choice of themes and texts illustrated by a colourful and playful graphic design, and because of its lack of an academic metalanguage in the field of culture and society, A Piece of Cake is part of the everyday-language entertainment industry. It does, however, include a number of discourses touching on more serious matters, e.g. poverty, both in Britain and in the United States. But, on the other hand, it does not draw on discourses from the subject social science. A Piece of Cake as a language textbook is thus a commercial product drawing to a large extent on discourses from other parts of the culture industry, outside education.

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Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to the survey corpus, one can compare with the analyses by Gray and colleagues: Gray (2010a, SC5; 2013, SC8) and Gray and Block (2014, SC10). While these analyses concentrate on global textbooks (of English) for (young) adults, A Piece of Cake is more locally produced and addresses young people. A Piece of Cake focuses on youth culture while the others focus on adult life and professions. But, A Piece of Cake is marked by the same overall ideology as described in Gray (2010a): individualism (but there are some texts on family life), egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism (but almost exclusively limited to the most powerful English-speaking countries), mobility (possible future travel, but refugees are not mentioned – see Chapter 7), affluence (but poverty is thematised several times) and native-speakerism. Homosexuality is dealt with in a couple of texts, and religions are mentioned, but with a significant silence: Islam today. Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge along the lines of Cultural studies, and using A Piece of Cake as a stepping stone? The field of language teaching has for many years been aware of the problems of national stereotyping. A Piece of Cake sometimes warns of certain stereotypes, for instance in a letter about Scotland (A Piece of Cake 7,2 web). Stereotypes are a form of essentialism, and the way forward, along the lines of Cultural studies, is to extend the critique of stereotyping to other aspects of the complex world. An important discursive strategy, which has methodological implications, is to avoid the noun ‘culture’ and prefer ‘cultural’ instead. This forces one to be specific and distinguish between, for example: ‘cultural context’, ‘cultural conditions’, ‘cultural perspectives’, ‘cultural production’, etc. In this way, it is possible to include the term ‘society’ and talk about the many cultural and social aspects of society instead of just ‘culture’ as an umbrella term: sociocultural groups; social and cultural identities, practices and values; discourses and ideologies, etc. Another strategy is to use verbs instead of nouns: identify, categorise, ethnify, racialise, exoticise, include, exclude. When the verb form is used, it becomes clear that there are actors involved: those who exclude and those who are excluded; those who have the power to exclude and those who lack the power to prevent it; those who resist the exclusion, etc. The approach to knowledge construction should be inspired by approaches to critical literacy (Janks, 2010; Luke, 2012; The New London Group, 1996; Wallace, 1992), approaches that focus on how students can

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gain an understanding of ‘how texts and discourses can be manipulated to represent and, indeed, alter the world’ (Luke, 2012: 9). In addition to simple text comprehension tests such as multiple choice and tasks that focus on ordering text fragments into meaningful sequences, students should regularly be invited to work critically with texts and their topics, reflecting on questions like: ‘Why is this topic being written about? How is the topic being written about? What other ways of writing about the topic are there?’ (quoted from Wallace, 1992: 71). In this way, the students could pool knowledge, not only seen as ‘facts’, but also recognised more clearly as perspectival knowledge and interpretive skills. A Piece of Cake does not offer much help here as most of the texts written by known authors are not even supplied with contextual information such as the year of writing. The ideas of critical literacy can of course also be applied to reflections on larger themes in the textbook: Why was this theme chosen? How is it organised? What other texts, images and perspectives could have been chosen to illustrate or problematise the theme? French: Français Formidable Presentation

Now we turn to a textbook for the teaching of French as a foreign language, addressing the same age group as A Piece of Cake: 13–16 years. The teaching starts from the elementary level, and this may entail a problem concerning the possibilities of presenting and discussing cultural complexity through a relatively simple language. However, it is not impossible to introduce themes that encompass cultural complexity and hybridity at lower levels of communicative competence, and Français Formidable shows us in some of its chapters how this can be done. Français Formidable (Fabulous French) (2nd edition) covers Grades 7–9 in lower secondary school, and addresses age levels 13–16 (from elementary stage). (The volumes are being revised because students now start French in Grade 5.) The system was published over the years 2010–2013 by the Danish publishing company Alinea, Copenhagen. It has been adapted from the original Swedish version published by Almqvist & Wiksell/Liber AB, Stockholm. The authors in Sweden are Margareta Brandelius and Ingvor Sundell, and the authors in Denmark are Leon Aktor and Mie Schröder. Both have master’s degrees in French, they are Folkeskole teachers and very active concerning foreign language teaching in the Folkeskole. Mie Schrøder also works as an editor at Alinea.

Figure 5.1 Some facts about Français Formidable

For each of the Grades 7–9 the system consists of the textbook (in two volumes, A and B, in Grades 7–8) and the teacher’s guide, plus CDs and a

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website with, among other things, sound and exercises. In the following, I refer to the different elements of Français Formidable in this way: Français Formidable 7,1A and 7,1B=Grade 7, textbook A and B Français Formidable 7,2=Grade 7, teacher’s guide and website The same for Grades 8–9 Français Formidable has a thematic syllabus, but the themes do not all have a sociocultural character. The chapters alternate between having a focus on communication (with themes related to the students’ own lives and their school, health, leisure and sport in Denmark), or on grammar and vocabulary, or on culture and society (implicitly: not in Denmark). The chapters that deal explicitly with culture and society, and whose titles are marked with a special colour in the textbooks, are distributed as follows: In Grade 7 (average length 4 pages): • • • • •

‘La géographie de la France I’ (geography of France I) (cities, oceans, neighbouring countries) ‘La géographie de la France II’ (mountains, rivers, more on cities) ‘Joyeux Noël!’ (Merry Christmas!) ‘L’histoire française I’ (history of France I) (from the Celts to the edict of Nantes 1598) ‘L’histoire française II’ (from Louis XIV to Napoleon, including the colonisations)

In Grade 8 (average length 6 pages): • • • • • • • •

‘La francophonie en Europe’ (la francophonie in Europe) ‘La francophonie dans le monde’ (la francophonie in the world) ‘Paris’ (sights to visit) ‘Info France’ (tourism, agriculture, industry, government, religion, symbols) ‘L’histoire française I’ (history of France I) (World War I and II) ‘L’histoire française II’ (wars in Indochina and Algeria, May 68, Simone de Beauvoir) ‘Le système éducatif’ (the education system) ‘Allons au cirque!’ (let’s go to the circus)

In Grade 9 (average length 15 pages): • • • •

‘En vacances’ (on holiday) ‘Être différent’ (being different) ‘Pour ou contre?’ (for or against) ‘La France dans le monde’ (France in the world)

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• •

‘La vie des jeunes’ (the life of young people) ‘Projets d’avenir’ (plans for the future) (job, au pair, the Foreign Legion, Doctors Without Borders)

There are no central characters and no plot in Français Formidable, but the history of France forms a kind of continued narrative during the fi rst two years. Français Formidable contains many reproductions of French paintings, as well as cartoons (Tintin, Astérix), popular songs and other poems, but there is no fiction prose. As can be seen above, there is much material on the history of France and on other francophone countries in Europe and the world, including Quebec, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, la Réunion, so a postcolonial reading of Français Formidable would be interesting. A national studies reading would also be interesting as the students are provided not only with timelines of the history of France, but also with parallel timelines of the history of Denmark. Actually, the ambitions concerning Landeskunde information, both on France and other francophone countries, are generally higher in Français Formidable than in Du bist dran. Moreover, there are texts on, for instance, the French government, the suburban riots of 2005, the Arab spring, Doctors Without Borders, les Restos du Cœur (free meals and other support of the poor) – but none on the environment or climate change, and none on the EU, not even in connection with Brussels – so a citizenship education reading would also be interesting. The teacher’s guides recommend the exploitation of images and of sound, i.e. listening to spoken French, in the beginning stages, and they recommend the use of cooperative learning structures. They include comments on student portfolios (in French called Le Beau Livre). They do not mention the use of French for international purposes or the existence of speakers of French in Denmark. All texts addressed to the teacher in the teacher’s guides are in Danish, and the pedagogical communication with the students in the textbooks (tasks, grammatical explanations, etc.) is also in Danish in all Grades 7–9. How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their subjectivities and cultural identities?

As in A Piece of Cake, the publishers (Alinea) do not say anything about themselves except general colophon information, and the authors (a male and a female) are not introduced either via CV or photo (as they are in Du bist dran). But there is an interesting difference as regards the illustrators: In the authors’ introduction to the teacher’s guides for

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Français Formidable 7–8, the illustrators are presented by name and a short CV, about 10 lines each (but no photo): Tippan Nordén and Mads Themberg (a female and a male). Their different tasks in relation to the textbook are also described. So the publishers present the illustrators, but not the authors. Of course, textually it is the authors who do not present themselves in their own text, but they present the illustrators. A reason why the authors are not presented may be that they are probably quite well known among teachers of French in Denmark. On the other hand, their CVs would still be relevant in relation to other groups, including students, parents and teachers of other subjects. The authors (and the illustrators) do not figure as individuals in the textbooks, and the teacher and the students are only addressed by the anonymous voice of the authors. But in the teacher’s guides, the authors often position themselves as teachers of the teacher in the sense that there are quite long texts that provide the teacher with sociocultural and historical information in Danish on France and other francophone countries: agriculture in France (ca. 120 words), Senegal (ca. 220 words), Quebec (ca. 330 words), the French political system and decentralisation (ca. 400 words), etc. With very minor editing, these texts could be given to interested students as well. In the teacher’s guides it is said that in their work with vocabulary and transparent words the students may draw on their knowledge of their fi rst language (i.e. not necessarily Danish), English or possibly German. The multilingual competences of the students are recognised. But the concept of intercultural speaker – in relation to the teacher and the students – is not explored. What cultural and social identities are represented?

The people represented are, naturally, mostly young people. There are very few smaller children or babies (except the Infant Jesus), there are some adults, mostly parents, and very few older people. The sexes are more or less equal in number across the different chapters, and when the family of the young people represented is mentioned, it is heterosexual and sometimes divorced. There is no discussion of gender or sexuality in Français Formidable. The drawings and photos show mostly Caucasian/white people with black or blond hair, but also a number of more clearly African/black people. There are almost no Asians, except a person from (probably) Vietnam. So, French society is generally represented as ethnically and racially diverse, although most of the chapters in the fi rst volume (Français Formidable 7) seem to depict white, ethnic French people.

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Compared to the ethnic diversity in Germany as described in Du bist dran, the ethnic diversity in France as described in Français Formidable is very different as the immigrants in France tend to be described as already francophone, i.e. they come from other francophone countries: ‘On est tous francophones’ (we are all francophone), said about people born in France, Switzerland, Tunisia and Morocco (Français Formidable 8,1B: 35). So while immigrants in Germany are mostly described as coming from outside the German-speaking area, immigrants in France are described as coming from the wider French-speaking area, but not from outside this area. This image of world migration cannot be found in A Piece of Cake, where immigrants to anglophone countries are described as coming from many parts of the world, for instance Japan, China and Germany (see Chapter 4). The francophone focus on migration, however, does not mean that the view of the world in Français Formidable is limited to the francophone area, for there is a map showing the whole world (with Europe and Africa in the middle), and maps of Europe. And the activities of both Doctors Without Borders and the Foreign Legion are described as relevant to the whole world. The sections on Belgium, Switzerland and Luxemburg are very short and do not mention migration. The sections on francophone countries outside Europe do not mention migration either. So, we are not told about the transnational histories of people moving to and from France or other francophone countries. Or migration to and from other parts of the world. With the great interest in indigenous peoples in A Piece of Cake in mind, it should be noted that in the representation of Quebec in Français Formidable there is not a word on the First Nations (Algonquian and Iroquoian) and the Inuit in the Province of Quebec (but the Quebec Winter Carnival is mentioned). Religion is mentioned in the chapter ‘Info France’ (information on France) in Français Formidable (8,1A: 100), where it is said that ‘La France est un pays catholique’ (France is a Catholic country), and the relative percentages are given concerning three religions in France: Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam. We see some Muslim men praying, and in another place a girl identifies herself as a Muslim. There is no mention of the debates on the hijab and the like in France, and there is no photo or drawing representing women who are veiled in some way. On the other hand, there is a chapter on how (Catholic) Christmas is celebrated in France, and there are two Christmas carols. As to social identities in the adult world, Français Formidable is dominated by everyday roles as parents, teachers, shop assistants, people in the streets, including tourists. There is a photographer and a dentist and a painter. The social focus is on middle-class young people.

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But there are exceptions, particularly in the chapter on ‘Être différent’ (being different, see below). Other exceptions are a chapter on food (Français Formidable 8,1B: 24f) where there is a text on les Restos du Cœur and their work for poor people and families, and the chapter on ‘Projets d’avenir’ (plans for the future; Français Formidable 9,1), in which the section on Doctors Without Borders deals with the work of this association all over the world, with examples from Haiti (the earthquake), South Africa (AIDS), Italy (refugees from Africa), Somalia (malnutrition) and Afghanistan (the war). Français Formidable mentions a small number of well-known people from history and politics, including Charles de Gaulle (twice), and also some well-known people from the history of art (painting and cartoons), as well as sport and music. Coluche, the founder of les Restos du Cœur, is mentioned, and Guy Laliberté, the founder of Le Cirque du Soleil (the circus of the sun), and Simone de Beauvoir. But the stress on celebrities and success is not as strong as in A Piece of Cake. So Français Formidable invites reflections on a number of cultural and social identities, fi rst and foremost, of course, the identity of age, focusing on young people, and secondly other identities: ethnicity and class, and (very seldom) religion, but none on sexuality. The dominating perspective is middle class as the poor, homeless and vulnerable are all seen through the eyes of middle-class, resourceful (young) people who might become volunteers in some humanitarian organisation. What dimensions of linguaculture are represented?

The semantic and pragmatic dimension of linguaculture is present throughout the chapters where French words and expressions refer to culture and society (e.g. school systems) in ways that are different from, for example, Danish words and expressions. There are also some examples of an awareness of the personal and changing meanings of certain words. It could be ‘la politesse’ (politeness) (Français Formidable 8,1B: 6), where a number of French lower secondary students are asked to tell about their associations with this concept. A similar example is ‘les SDF’ (Français Formidable 9,1: 27), where some young people explain how they understand this concept (SDF stands for Sans Domicile Fixe=without permanent address, i.e. homeless). There are many examples of differences between spoken and written language, both the general grammatical phenomenon of the use or non-use of the particle ‘ne’ in negations, and the use of informal or slang words such as ‘nana’ (girl/lass) and ‘mec’ (chap/bloke). So, the semantic and pragmatic dimension of linguaculture is represented in several ways. The poetic dimension of linguaculture is represented by way of poems

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and lyrics. The identity dimension is represented by information on some differences between French in France and in Quebec (Français Formidable 8,1A: 19), and also by listening comprehension texts that illustrate the pronunciation of French in different places. But there is no discussion or illustration of how it feels to speak French as a foreign language in different places and situations. An example chapter: ‘Être différent’ (being different)

In Grade 9, one of the chapters is called ‘Être différent’ (Francais Formidable 9,1: 18ff), and I have selected this example chapter as it offers opportunities for working with and discussing cultural complexity with special reference to mixed and changing identities. The chapter contains 12 pages with texts, followed by 16 pages with tasks, exercises, grammar and vocabulary. The fi rst textual part consists of the following 11 texts, illustrated by drawings and not least photos of different faces: • • • • • • • • • • •

‘Chacun son style’ (everybody his or her own style). Drawings of young people and adults exhibiting different styles – hair, clothing, etc. ‘On est tous différents’ (we are all different). Portrait photos of six young people of different sex, skin colour, hair colour, facial decoration, etc. ‘Message d’Alicia’ (message from Alicia). A girl of 15 tells about her wish to change her identity – new clothes, lots of make-up – and how her mother does not understand her. ‘Un jeune homme surdoué’ (a gifted young man). Parents tell about their son who is gifted or hyper-intelligent and has social problems in school. ‘Le Vilain Petit Canard’ (The Ugly Duckling). An extract from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. ‘Je suis métis’ (I am metis). A poem/song by the tennis player and musician Yannick Noah (see Photo 16 below). ‘Edith Piaf: La vie, l’amour et la mort’ (Edith Piaf: Life, love and death). An informative text on the life of Edith Piaf. ‘No et moi’ (No and me). An extract from the dialogue of the novel No et moi by Delphine de Vigan, on a young homeless woman. ‘Un SDF, qu’est-ce que c’est?’ (What is an SDF?). Some young people tell about their associations with this expression (see Photo 17). ‘L’homme qui te ressemble’ (the man who resembles you). A poem by René Philombé from Cameroon. ‘Cher ami blanc’ (dear white friend). A popular poem from South Africa.

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Photo 16 Je suis métis (I am metis). Français Formidable 9, textbook, p. 24.

On the website there is a link to a short article on the SDF taken from a web portal on sustainable development (vedura.fr) (Français Formidable 9,2 web). The focus on difference progresses from the students’ own experiences of and attitudes to style to more general identity issues related to appearance, race and class, and may open up for many reflections. In the teacher’s guide, the authors briefly explain the aim of the chapter in Danish: ‘Formålet med kapitlet er at vise eleverne at vi alle er forskellige og inspirere dem til at tænke over hvordan de selv opfatter forskellighed’

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Photo 17 Un SDF, qu’est-ce que c’est ? (What is an SDF?). Français Formidable 9, textbook, p. 27.

(the aim of the chapter is to show students that we are all different and inspire them to think about how they understand difference themselves’) (Français Formidable 9,2: 13, my translation). While A Piece of Cake in the chapter on ‘Teen issues’ distinguishes three ‘types’ in fictional texts: a poor white British girl, a well-to-do white British boy and a poor black

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American boy, Français Formidable introduces many facets and examples of identity, including hybridity (particularly the song by Yannick Noah). It emphasises the individual and subjective sides of identity, while not neglecting the social sides (for example, the situation of the homeless). The view of culture and identity

Thus, the chapter on ‘Être différent’ takes a step into the field of Cultural studies in trying to raise the students’ awareness of how individuals and groups in society see each other and themselves, and how power is an aspect of the processes of identity. The word ‘identity’ itself is only used once, however, namely in the message from Alicia (see above), where she writes: ‘Mes vêtements sont très importants pour moi – le look emo, c’est mon identité, ma différence’ (my clothes are very important for me – the emo look is my identity, my difference) (Français Formidable 9,1: 21). The chapter allows for reflections on the idea that we are all different, and on the other hand the idea that we are all similar, cf. the above-mentioned poem by René Philombé: ‘L’homme qui te ressemble’ (the man who resembles you). Thus, the texts are founded in a non-essentialistic concept of identity. The words ‘culture’ (French) and ‘kultur’ (Danish) are also very little used in Français Formidable. In the teacher’s guides it is used in the phrase ‘kultur og samfund’ (Danish for culture and society), and in the table of contents in the textbooks, where it is used in the phrase ‘culture et société’ (French for culture and society). It also occurs in a text where a young Moroccan girl who has moved to France, writes about herself that she has ‘pris le meilleur des deux cultures’ (taken the best from the two cultures) (Français Formidable 9,1: 66) – a typically essentialistic concept of culture that is often used in everyday discourse. As emphasised in relation to A Piece of Cake, textbook authors as well as teachers and – if possible – students need an adequate meta-language that enables them to talk about and critically discuss the use of concepts like identity and culture in different contexts. Approach to intercultural learning

The authors of Français Formidable propose cooperative learning structures, including work with texts where students in small groups are active and have different roles such as reading aloud, making small summaries, etc. The primary focus is on securing that the texts are understood and that the information on culture and society they contain is remembered – which may be controlled by playing games like Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy. So, in relation to a Cultural studies reading, the approach to learning does not in itself invite discussions or reflections on identities, for example. But the selection and juxtaposition of texts offer good opportunities to do this, and the website contains texts about, for example, racism that interested students may read and work with. The chapter following the one on ‘Être

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différent’ is entitled ‘Pour ou contre?’ (for or against), and focuses on how to express opinions and attitudes – in relation to themes such as living in the country or in town, pocket money, music, Facebook and reality shows. So, Français Formidable does take steps to enable students to draw on their own subjectivities and cultural identities. It does not say anything about the role of the teacher in this connection, though. The textbook in society

Concerning images, Français Formidable is very different from A  Piece of Cake, which indicates different relations to society outside school. In Français Formidable, there are numerous drawings but not many photos. The drawings are in colour and are more or less realistic. One of the illustrators (Tippan Nordén) makes loose, lively drawings for the communicative sections, and the other (Mads Themberg) makes more plain and clear-cut drawings for the grammar and vocabulary sections and the sections on culture and society. The photos are generally reproductions of paintings, photos of tourist sights, portrait photos and some other photos probably taken from image banks and advertising agencies. The number of photos is much smaller than the almost overwhelming number of photos in A Piece of Cake. Moreover, there are very few illustrations, and no colour, in the teacher’s guides. This means that a large part of the visual input is internally produced, i.e. not taken from the outside world. The knowledge that is represented about culture, society and the world also has a more ‘schoolish’ character, as it is given not only in informative texts for the students, but also in longer encyclopaedic texts intended for the teacher. Français Formidable includes travelling, but does not have a focus on the young ‘global’ backpacker as A Piece of Cake. There is no special focus on entertainment, celebrities and success to the same extent as in A Piece of Cake. Français Formidable is somewhat more characterised by care for the poor and vulnerable, cf. the homeless, les Restos Du Cœur, Doctors Without Borders, Cirque du Soleil. Thus, Français Formidable is a commercial product that draws to some extent on discourses from other parts of the culture industry, outside education, but not to such a high degree as A Piece of Cake. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to the survey corpus, one can compare with some of the analyses by Gray, who mainly draws on the Cultural studies perspective. Although he analyses (English) textbooks for adults all over the world, his results are also relevant in relation to the analysis of Français Formidable. One point is the two concepts of ‘personalisation’ and ‘subjectivation’. Gray (2010a, SC5) argues that interaction is increasingly personalised as

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the characters mostly talk about themselves, their preferences, plans, etc. He sees this as problematical as it indicates that social problems are only seen as personal problems, and social interests are only seen as personal interests, and I agree with him in that. On the other hand, I argue that it is important to support expressions of the student’s subjectivity (the unique subject formed in and by the historical context) as this can contribute to the de-essentialisation of fi xed collective identities such as ‘French’, ‘male’, Muslim’, ‘white’, etc. It makes visible the subject and his or her cultural complexity or hybridity. Uniting these two perspectives demands a dialectical understanding of the relationship between the social/historical context and the subject. Gray and Block (2014, SC10) write about the dominance of the middle class in the global coursebooks, and this dominance is also to be found in Français Formidable. There are apparently no upper-class people, and the lower classes represented are only the very poor, such as those receiving help at the Restos du Cœur and/or the homeless, or victims all over the world. The voices of these very poor are seldom heard in Français Formidable. Coffey (2013, SC22) speaks of a gendered image of France in the UK in the sense that the teaching of French in the UK traditionally has an image problem as feminised, elitist, outdated and inaccessible. When we turn to Français Formidable, used in Denmark, I would say that such an image is not at all present in this textbook. As far as I can see, there is quite a fair distribution of the genders and their activities and interests – an egalitarian representation, as Gray (2010a, SC5) would say on the basis of his analyses. On the other hand, it should be noted that there is no questioning of more general gender issues such as patriarchal structures among different groups in society and on a world scale. Thus, the parameter of gender seems to be absent as a legitimate theme. Other parameters that are present, but very cautiously treated, are sexuality (except heterosexual normativity) and religion (except Christianity). Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of Cultural studies, and using Français Formidable as a stepping stone? Français Formidable clearly wants to transmit basic and central knowledge about France and a number of other francophone countries and areas around the world. In the teacher’s guide, the authors emphasise that the teaching should inspire students to keep up to date on their own about what is going on in France and other francophone countries (Français Formidable 8,2: 13). As a background to this, it is important that the students have an impression of the great and fluid diversity of all French-speaking countries. In France, for example, there are refugees from different parts of the world, there is an upper class (haute société), there are Roma (Romani) people, there are

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trafficked women, there are people speaking Basque, there are Corsican nationalists, etc. As mentioned in connection with A Piece of Cake, students should be invited to discuss texts critically, and the ideas of critical literacy are relevant here as well. The students could be asked to discuss, perhaps in Danish, the selection of themes in Français Formidable: Why was a certain theme chosen? How is it organised? What other texts, images and perspectives could have been chosen to illustrate or problematise the theme? Conclusion

The Cultural studies reading shows that the representations in A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable include to varying degrees both ethnicity, religion and class. But the question is how different ethnicities, religions and classes are prioritised and what perspectives are taken. Who looks at whom? Whose voices are heard? In both A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable, we hear voices from different ethnicities and races, both ‘white’ and ‘black’, and in A Piece of Cake indigenous peoples as well. As regards religion, it is different, as Islam is practically absent in A Piece of Cake, and only very marginally treated in Français Formidable. When we turn to social class, the perspective from is clearly that of the middle class. The working class is more or less absent (except a few shop assistants and other people in service encounters), while the underclass (under the working class) is present. However, the underclass is not understood in terms of class, but in terms of extreme poverty. That is, there is no awareness of class and social confl ict in A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable (cf. the analysis in Gray & Block, 2014, SC10). Unemployment is only mentioned very marginally. A significant aspect of the representations is the absence of any interest in gender roles and gender issues in society and in the world despite widespread problems of, for example, women’s lack of access to education and human trafficking, which affects not least women (cf. the UN sustainable development goals mentioned in Chapter 4, one of which is gender equality). As said above, Cultural studies is characterised by a methodological accentuation of process and agency, historicity and subjectivity, and Français Formidable in particular takes steps in the direction of such an understanding of cultural complexity. It is an important step to take for it enables students to become aware of the epistemological dimension of knowledge (Chapter 1), the ways of categorisation, identification and understanding in complex societies by means of concepts such as ‘white’ and ‘black’, ‘us’ and ‘them’.

6 Postcolonial Studies

Introduction

Postcolonial studies turns our attention to time and place in world history. Where national studies, citizenship education studies and Cultural studies may focus on just one country, or just one country at a time, the postcolonial perspective requires that one focuses on (the contemporary significance of) ancient and more recent historical relations between specific dominating (colonialist, imperialist) and dominated states or regions. As all the empires around the world, not only European based, have had different histories, there may be great differences between postcolonial readings of materials for different languages, in our case English, German, French, Spanish and Danish. It should be noted that the names of these languages are bound to their identities as national languages in the imperial centres: English is the language of England, but it is still called English (or Australian English) in Australia, not Australian. The situation is more or less similar for the other imperial languages. Postcolonial Studies

Postcolonial studies (or postcolonialism) (Abraham, 2007; McLeod, 2000) was institutionalised in Western academia during the 1980s, particularly after the publication of the influential book Orientalism written by the Palestinian-American literary scholar Said (1978, see below). The field was mainly explored by Indian-American scholars (Bhabha, 1994; Spivak, 1988), and became fi rst and foremost a research interest in the anglophone world. But also the francophone world developed a practice of postcolonial studies drawing on the work of Fanon (1952, 1961) and others (Balandier, 2003). There has also been a growing exchange between postcolonial studies and Cultural studies, not least initiated by Hall in several of his works (Jensen, 2014). A somewhat different tradition has developed in relation to Latin America, under the name of decolonial studies or the coloniality of power (Bhambra, 2014; Dussel, 1995; Mignolo, 2000; Monasterios, 2008; Quijano, 2007; Suárez-Krabbe, 2008). It connects more explicitly the different dimensions of coloniality (economic, social, political, cultural)

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and insists on the importance of including the early European colonisation of the Americas – the First Modernity (Dussel, 1995) – as a prerequisite for an understanding of subsequent colonial history and its consequences for Europe and the rest of the world. Among the central foci of this field are studies of race and racial hierarchies and also studies of world views (cosmologies), i.e. studies of epistemic, or epistemological, differences and hierarchies in the production of knowledge in different parts of the world and in different sociocultural contexts, including indigenous cosmologies (Mignolo, 2000; Santos, 2014) (cf. Chapter 1 on dimensions of knowledge). A large number of postcolonial scholars have focused on the analysis of cultural products that illustrate or take up identity problematics in countries or regions that are in a process of decolonisation after having been colonised for a longer or shorter period. Research has always emphasised the importance of considering the power dimensions of knowledge and culture in historiography and in historical awareness: Who represents whom under what circumstances? Who purports to know what about whom, and why? The texts studied may be of any kind from fictional literature, fi lm or poetry, to non-fiction documents, commercials, scholarly works, textbooks, tourist guides and, more generally speaking, discourses in society and history, usually referring to Foucauldian approaches to discourse (Foucault, 1969, 1976) and/or to Gramsci’s (1971) work on hegemony and subalternity. Postcolonial studies has been interested in the cultural legacies of not only formal colonialism involving direct control and exploitation but also imperialism in its various forms of informal or indirect forms of dominance and influence. Postcolonial studies has included an interest in the development and self-image of imperial or post-imperial centres, not least Britain. Such studies have focused on the specific identity problematics of these countries in relation to decolonisation and immigration from former colonies, problematics that demand redefi nitions and redrawings of national identities and narratives. Generally, the understanding within postcolonial studies is that Europe could not have become so rich in the centuries since the early 16th century without the exploitation of its colonies – fi rst the Americas and later the rest of the world – and could not have developed her civilisational identity and conviction of racial, cultural and moral superiority without the colonies. Thus, another understanding in postcolonial studies is that there is a close connection between racism and colonialism, and that racism today is an after-effect of colonial and postcolonial history. Edward Said’s (1978) Orientalism deals with the question of the production of knowledge in the world, with reference to Foucault and Gramsci, and does this by investigating the Orient/Occident divide and Eurocentric discourses about the world (for example, expressed in such

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types as ‘the Oriental’, ‘the Arab’, ‘the Muslim’). The book contains a comprehensive discussion of how European writers and scholars have represented, and orientalised, the real complex East in novels, travel writings, art and research. Thus, Said develops a theory of how Western ideas and prejudice about the peoples of ‘the Orient’, very broadly understood as reaching from Morocco to Japan, were elaborated and turned into objective knowledge. He distinguishes between latent and manifest Orientalism, where the former is the almost unconscious, stable ideas of the backwardness and degeneracy of the Orient, and the latter is the more variably stated views by individual writers about Oriental society, languages, literatures, etc. (Said, 1978: 206). Said’s discussions in Orientalism raise general questions concerning what narratives are told about ‘us’ and ‘the Other’, and what purposes these narratives serve. The concept of representation is very central in Said’s view of culture; indeed, Said (1993: 66) says: ‘…representations – their production, circulation, history, and interpretation – are the very element of culture’. One implication of Said’s view of representation is that all texts, including literary works, should be seen as embedded in – and active in – the historical, political, social and cultural context. For this, he has coined the term ‘worldliness’: Literary works, for example, should not be seen as ‘sacred’ pieces of art, but as parts of the social world we live in; they are ‘worldly’ (Said, 1983). (I would add that textbooks should of course also be seen as worldly in this sense). A related term is ‘contrapuntal reading’, which means reading a text, written as part of Western culture, ‘from the perspective provided by anti-imperialist resistance as well as pro-imperialist apology’ (Said, 1994: 78). In textbook analysis, contrapuntal reading would, for example, be reading a text that celebrates multi-ethnic New York City both as a celebratory text and as a text that evades and excludes the long historical background, including the history of the indigenous tribe that once lived in the area, and centuries of hierarchisation among different groups of colonisers and immigrants. Said’s ideas of representation and power were further developed by Homi Bhabha (1994) who argues that other cultural traditions than those of the West should be inscribed into – and thereby change – narratives of modernity: narratives of slavery and other forms of subjugation and exploitation as well as more subtle forms of cultural differentiation. Bhabha makes a distinction between ‘cultural diversity’ understood as the complex realities of cultural life, and ‘cultural difference’ understood as a discursive construction, an act of identification, in which the complex cultural diversity is categorised and given meaning, for example when people are separated according to race, ethnicity or religion.

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Gayatri Spivak (1988) takes up the question of how dominated groups in a colonised or decolonising society can get a voice and represent themselves. She refers to historical studies of subaltern groups in India, i.e. groups that are not part of the élite, such as peasants, tribal people, low castes, and especially points to the difficulties of women in subaltern groups to get a voice. This also points to the general problem of representation that as soon as a group has been identified by others, for example as ‘homeless’, this group cannot freely defi ne and represent itself, but has somehow to take account of the identification from the outside. Enrique Dussel (1995), one of the pioneers of decolonial studies, explores the concept of modernity and the significance of 1492 in world history. He critiques the dominant Eurocentric understanding of modernity by arguing that ‘while modernity is undoubtedly a European occurrence, it also originates in a dialectical relation with non-Europe. Modernity appears when Europe organizes the initial world-system and places itself at the center of world history…’ (Dussel, 1995: 9–10). Thus, Dussel deals with the origins of Eurocentrism as well as of racism and the construction of racial hierarchies, and he unfolds two widely different perspectives on 1492: The European, particularly the Spanish, legitimating narratives of discovery, conquest, colonisation and civilisation, and the Amerindian (Maya, Aztec, Inca) philosophies and ontologies in the period before 1492, as well as the resistance and the interpretation of 1492 as the End of the World. As the field of postcolonial/decolonial studies is becoming interested in research into the cultural consequences of all forms of domination by one state over other states and regions, it has become relevant to almost all parts of the Earth (see, for instance, Schwarz & Ray, 2005; Poddar et al., 2008). There is also a growing interest in comparative studies, for instance in the Caribbean, an area of particularly intense cultural and linguistic creolisation, and in Europe, where cultural and linguistic nationalism is very strong, and where the building of the EU could be seen as an attempt at forming a new basis for European imperialism (Bhambra [2009] on ‘Postcolonial Europe’). Examples of European countries that have recently been studied from a postcolonial perspective are Germany, which is a former colonial power, and Switzerland, which is not. The German Reich, established in 1871, was very active in building a German colonial empire during the last decades of the 19th century, and it acquired Cameroon, German East Africa, German South-West Africa and Togo in Africa; German Samoa and German New Guinea in the Pacific; and Kiaochow in China. But it lost all these territories after World War I. Still, it is a postcolonial society, as recent studies show (Kundrus, 2008; Poddar et al., 2008). As in many other countries,

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racist constructions of difference with colonial connotations are still persistent in the media and in the tourism sector, as is the self-image of Germany as a ‘white’ country. Switzerland has never had any colonies, yet it is also a postcolonial society. In many cases, it exhibits ‘colonial’ patterns of thought and attitudes, for instance in everyday racism in children’s books, and more generally in the Othering of immigrants and the fear of getting ‘colonised’ by immigrants. Studies of the ‘postkoloniale Schweiz’ have appeared in Purtschert et al. (2013), who also write about the importance of putting Switzerland in a global historical context and thus contribute to the transnationalisation of studies of that country. Denmark is also being studied from a postcolonial perspective (see, for example, Gulløv et al., 2017; Poddar et al., 2008; and Chapter 1). Postcolonial Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy

Alastair Pennycook (1994, 1998) is active in the field of critical applied linguistics, and he is among those who have been most explicit in the development of a postcolonial perspective on language teaching, including students’ attitudes to the teaching of English in various former British colonies. Pennycook (1994) argues for the use of the concept ‘the worldliness of English’, with reference to Said’s concept of the wordliness of texts. For Pennycook, the worldliness of English is a way of foregrounding the connections between the language (the use of the language) and its social, economic, cultural, political and historical contingencies. He emphasises the complex interweaving between language acts and local and global discourses: The relationship between ‘English’ and global discourses of capitalism, democracy, education, development, and so on, is neither a coincidental conjunction – English just happens to be the language in which these discourses are expressed – nor a structural determinism – the nature of English determines what discourses are spoken, or the nature of discourses determines what language they are spoken in. (Pennycook, 1994: 33)

Pennycook further comments on the notion of ‘the worldliness of English’ that it is intended to refer to the spread and wide use of English around the world. I would like to add that – in this interpretation of the term – ‘worldliness’ is of course particularly relevant to English. But other languages should also be seen as worldly in the sense that their users act in specific historical and political contexts. Moreover, some of

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the languages may be quite widely used in the world (e.g. Spanish and French). And lastly it should be noted that languages like French, German, Spanish and Danish certainly can carry global discourses of capitalism, democracy, education and education. Suresh Canagarajah (1999, cf. 2009, SC3) argues for critical studies of English language teaching in postcolonial contexts, drawing on examples from classroom life in the Tamil community of Sri Lanka. Canagarajah distinguishes between centre nations such as Britain (or France, Belgium, Germany, etc.) and periphery nations such as India and Nigeria. Related to this, he distinguishes between centre-based perspectives and periphery-based perspectives, and argues for the importance of making periphery-based perspectives visible in language and culture pedagogy. In his own ethnographic studies, he wants to investigate learning as a personal, situated, cultural, ideological, negotiated and political process. He is especially attentive to students’ and teachers’ creative strategies to resist linguistic imperialism (as it is mediated in, for example, ‘centre textbooks’, i.e. textbooks produced in the centre) and to use the English language in ways that suit their needs and aspirations. This he calls ‘a pedagogy of appropriation’ (of the English language) (Canagarajah, 1999). Other works that should be mentioned in relation to postcolonial studies in language and culture pedagogy are Kramsch and Vinall (2015), Phillipson (1992) and Vinall (2012, SC28). Analytical Questions in Relation to a Postcolonial Studies Reading

Positioning and representation of actors • How are publishers, authors, teacher and learners positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their position in the historically developed global relations of power? Representation of culture, society and the world • How is the international history of target language countries, and of the target language, represented? (references to colonialism and imperialism? North-South and East-West divides? use of ‘us–them’ dichotomies and exoticising discourses?) • How is the international history of the country of learning, and of the language of schooling, represented? (references to colonialism and imperialism? North-South and East-West divides? use of ‘us–them’ dichotomies and exoticising discourses?) • Are historical relations between the target language country and the country of learning represented?

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Approach to intercultural learning • Does the approach to intercultural learning promote awareness of colonial and postcolonial history? (developing historical awareness, developing awareness of the historical origins of racism, developing critical thinking in a global centre–periphery perspective) What is the role of the teacher? The textbook in society • What does the textbook exclude or conceal? (postcolonial, contrapuntal reading) • How is this textbook an active voice in the global relations of power? (its worldliness) English: A Piece of Cake How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their position in the historically developed global relations of power?

There are no direct indications of the situatedness of the publishers in the global relations of power, but indirectly the design of A Piece of Cake signals that it addresses a rich (i.e. Western) market. It comprises both textbook and learner’s guide for the students, and a teacher’s book giving access to a special website organised by the publishers. The use of A Piece of Cake demands that both the teacher and all the students have access to the internet. In addition, all the volumes are richly illustrated mostly by colourful photos taken from various sources in image banks and other places. Table 6.1 presents the approximate percentages of pages with illustrations (and perhaps verbal text) in the different volumes (tables of content and pages with word lists, grammar and other linguistic and pedagogic tools are not included in the count). Illustrations in the learner’s guides and the teacher’s guides are the same as in the textbooks for each grade level. In order to capture the interest of the students and teachers, the publishers have fi lled the volumes with photos, drawings and coloured pages. This is expensive, but some schools are able and willing to pay. Table 6.1 Percentages of pages with illustrations Textbook (%)

Learner’s guide (%)

Grade 7

85

80

Teacher’s guide (%) 50

Grade 8

80

75

50

Grade 9

70

70

40

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As mentioned, the author is represented as communicating with people in Hawaii, and the students are indirectly addressed as future travellers with no lack of fi nancial resources (not the teacher, however, who is only visible as organiser, assessor and evaluator of the learning process). How is the international history of the target language countries, and of the target language, represented?

The postcolonial perspective reminds us that we need historical insight to understand contemporary societies and the world. It should also be emphasised that the students in Grades 7–9 (in Denmark, and probably many other countries) have lessons in the subject History, and they are beginning to be acquainted with not only historical factual knowledge but also historical awareness in a more interpretative, perspectival sense. It should be added that the term ’postcolonial’ is nowhere used in A Piece of Cake. What themes does historiography in A Piece of Cake take up? First of all, it is relevant to look at the order in which the English-speaking countries and regions are introduced in Grades 7–9: Britain (and Scotland), United States (First Americans), United States (Hawaii), Canada, United States (Georgia), United States (New York City), Ireland (and Northern Ireland), Australia, South Africa. Is this a covert narrative about colonial history – Britain being the original white centre of the former empire, and South Africa a periphery black country that has recently gained independence from the empire and overcome apartheid as a political system? Or is it a narrative about the most fascinating, and easiest, countries and areas to visit as a tourist from Denmark, which is geographically close to Britain? But what about Hawaii then? What has guided the order? In all the chapters on English-speaking countries and regions there is some historical information, least in the chapter on Britain, most in the chapter on Georgia, which will be treated in a separate section below. As for Britain, its history as a colonial and imperial centre is not mentioned at all. The British website that is referred to (Woodland’s Junior School’s project on Britain) does include some files containing chronologies of British history, but A Piece of Cake does not refer to these files. Anyway, the files take a very narrow national British (English) perspective and do not mention British colonialism and imperialism. While there are texts on the legends of King Arthur and a cartoon series on Hamlet in the chapter on Britain in A Piece of Cake, there is nothing about the empire and thus the historical background for the very wide spread of English today. There is nothing on the slave trade (see below), and there is nothing on the numerous immigrants in Britain that come from the former colonies. There is nothing on the long dominance of

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England over Wales, Ireland and Scotland. There is one exception, though, to the absence of references to the British Empire, namely the following joke in a section on British politeness: ‘The British … have always said Please before they colonized another country and Thank you afterwards. Which is why the sun never set on the British Empire’ (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 23). The chapters on the First Americans, Hawaii, Canada and Australia all have a great interest in native peoples in common, as noted in Chapter 5. There are historical accounts that present some of the history of the colonisation of the land of these peoples, and thus some phases of British and US-American colonial policies become visible. But the separate national histories are not put together to show a more coherent picture of the phases of the expansion and decline of the British Empire and the making of the United States. An example of the power of the national paradigm can be seen in the description of the First Americans, where the borders of the contemporary United States are projected back onto the time of Columbus. The chapter on the First Americans starts with a map showing the United States and neighbouring strips of land, and the names of about 20 tribes living in the area. The text says: 20,000 or 30,000 years ago the American Indians came walking from Asia into Alaska and spread all over America. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America, about eleven million people already lived there. Columbus thought he had found India, so he called them Indians. Before Europeans arrived in North America, Native Peoples inhabited every region. (A Piece of Cake 7,1: 49)

As already hinted at in Chapter 3, none the peoples south of the northern strips of Mexico are mentioned at all (Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, Aymará, etc.) nor the peoples north of the southern strips of Canada. ‘America’ is treated as more or less synonymous with the United States. (This is often the case in everyday discourse and is in itself an effect of colonial history.) The number of First Americans is said to have been 11 million at the time of Columbus. But this is only those living within the borders of what is now the United States. The number of native populations of Central, South and North America and the Caribbean at the time of Columbus is of course very difficult to estimate, but a ‘consensus count’ (Denevan, 1992) suggests 54 million, including 37 million south of the area marked on the map represented in A Piece of Cake. These are made invisible, or nonexistent, because of the national discourse focusing on the United States. By the way, A Piece of Cake (7,1: 62) says that Columbus ‘landed on the east coast of what is now the USA’, but actually he landed on one of the

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islands of the Bahamas (San Salvador). It can be added that the concept of ‘North America’ is contested as Mexico is alternately seen as a part of North America (in NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement) or as a part of Central America (in the UN). Compared to the United States, Canada and Australia, the indigenous majority population of South Africa is represented quite differently. There is no mention of the Khoi-San peoples or the Bantu-speaking Zulu and Xhosa and a number of others, that is, the black population is treated as one undifferentiated group. Indians (from India) are not mentioned either, and Afrikaners are only mentioned in connection with the word ‘apartheid’, which is described as an Afrikaans word. It is not explained who the ‘whites’ are in South Africa, and thus the country is depicted as divided between ‘black’ and ‘white’ only. No historical background is given. What is also missing is the African context, as the rest of (anglophone) Africa is invisible in A Piece of Cake, as already mentioned. The other chapters give a few historical notes: In the chapter on ‘The occult and other scary stuff’, one fi nds the only place where Western civilisation is mentioned in A Piece of Cake (7,1: 33): ‘Sorcery and witchcraft are still practiced today. In Western civilization you can meet modern day Druids (sometimes at Stonehenge) and members of the Wiccan religion’. In the chapter on ‘The environment’ there is a text (written by Anita Desai) about a village in India, but there is no information on India having been part of the British Empire. In the chapter on Ireland, the only historical reference is to the work of Oscar Wilde, and some information on ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Ellis Island and immigration to New York is mentioned, and also the significance of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Strangely, the Commonwealth is nowhere mentioned, not even the Commonwealth Games, in spite of the interest in the theme of sport. All in all, one can say that the intention of the publishers is clearly not to give systematic (although brief) overviews on the historical background of contemporary societies and the relations between them. Maybe it is not considered to be part of the genre of a language textbook? But why then so much information on the history of the native populations in the United States, Canada and Australia – information that is of course very relevant, but why does it stand alone? Maybe it is less sensitive because it refers to marginal groups that have very little power? Maybe it is legitimate as part of an exoticisation of native peoples, perhaps seen as something from the past? Thus, there are exoticising discourses in A Piece of Cake, and hence latent ‘us–them’ dichotomies, in relation to the indigenous peoples, even though this is not intended. There is also a (more or less joking) instance

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of an East–West divide, namely the reference to ‘Western civilization’ mentioned above. But North–South divides, for example differences between rich and poor regions in countries or in the world at large, are not mentioned. How is the international history of the country of learning, and of the language of schooling, represented?

As Denmark is more or less invisible in the textbooks and is only referred to in the learner’s guides in order to invite comparisons, the representation of Denmark is very meagre. A small text on Greenlandic children should be noted (A Piece of Cake 7,3: 34–35), which indirectly reminds the students and the teacher that Denmark is part of a larger state formation. But there is no mention of Danish colonialism nor of the Danish language as a colonial or imperial language (it is very unusual in Denmark to have such a perspective on the Danish language). No historical relations between Denmark and any English-speaking countries are referred to directly. But the choice of Winston Churchill as one of the celebrities in the chapter on Britain may indicate his status as a hero in Denmark at the end of World War II. An example chapter: ‘Georgia on My Mind’

The chapter ‘Georgia on My Mind’ is the only chapter that includes some explicit (but very brief) information on colonial history and slavery. It covers 28 pages in the textbook and consists of 10 sections illustrated by many colourful photos and accompanied by a map of Georgia and a map of The South. • • • • • • • • • •

The lyrics of ‘Georgia on My Mind’ by H. Carmichael and S. Gorell. An informative text on ‘Georgia – yesterday, today, tomorrow’ (see Photo 18). A quote from a certain Melvin G. on being a young black man in Georgia in the early 1960s (see Photo 19). An informative text on ‘Jimmy Carter – from Georgia peanut farmer to US President’. An informative text on ‘Atlanta – the capital of the South’. An informative text on ‘Martin Luther King, Jr – a dream come true’. An informative text on ‘The Real Thing’ (Coca-Cola). A recipe for Coca-Cola Cake. A drama text from the play ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ by Alfred Uhry, about ‘two “outsiders”: a black man and a Jewish matron in Atlanta from 1948 to 1973’ (A Piece of Cake 8,2: 78). The lyrics of the song ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ by Jim Weatherly.

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Photo 18 Georgia – yesterday, today, tomorrow. A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 60.

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

Photo 19 Georgia – yesterday, today, tomorrow. A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 61.

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Again a very fragmented chapter, from which I will comment on just one of the inputs: The text ‘Georgia – yesterday, today, tomorrow’ is a brief account (less than two pages) of Georgia’s history from the time before colonisation over slavery on the cotton plantations, the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King to modern Georgia’s industry and agriculture (Jimmy Carter) and Atlanta’s Major League sports teams. It starts in the following way: For thousands of years the only settlers in Georgia were the Cherokee and Creek Indians; then the Europeans came. The fi rst English colony was founded in 1773 …. Georgia, and many other states in the South, had large plantations on which cotton was grown. The plantation owners held black people as slaves, and the question of slavery was a major cause of the American Civil War… (A Piece of Cake 8,1: 60)

There is a reference to ‘slaves’ here, but there is no mention (in this or other chapters) of the European (not least British) slave trade from Africa to the Americas – one of the largest scandals in world history. Can this be related to the ideology of the national paradigm, which only acknowledges processes going on within borders and not across borders? Approach to intercultural learning

There are a few cases where some input (mainly informative texts and photos) is provided for the development of historical awareness, particularly concerning indigenous peoples. But otherwise there are only very brief and often indirect hints at the historical background, and no invitation to reflections on how the world has become what it is today – including explanations of the reasons why English is a widely used language. Thus, there is no incentive to develop self-awareness concerning the global condition and its historical roots. It should be added that the teacher has no formulated role here and does not get any help as regards (perspectival) knowledge of the historical contexts. The textbook in society

A postcolonial, contrapuntal reading of A Piece of Cake would consider whether it excludes or conceals something related to the hard realities of colonialism and imperialism. A Piece of Cake excludes large areas of the world, most importantly the whole of anglophone Africa except South Africa, and continental Europe, and it tends to exclude certain dimensions of society, not least the political dimension in

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the institutional sense. It does not explain that the United States is a super-power in political and military respects and to a certain extent also in economic and cultural respects. It does not mention the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the United States, and it does not mention the EU. It only deals very little with the internal national tensions in the UK. Although the British Empire was almost a world empire, there is no world history in A Piece of Cake, only the history of separate states or regions, and thus all relations of domination between England and any other parts of the empire, and the ensuing postcolonial situations, are left untold. Even the Commonwealth is not mentioned. The history of indigenous peoples in certain countries is dealt with but, in general, A  Piece of Cake is characterised by a white perspective, without this being reflected upon. If one considers the worldliness of A Piece of Cake, i.e. in what sense it is an active voice in the global relations of power, it becomes clear that it presents a number of statements, among them: When you learn and use English, you do not need to understand (some of) the power relations in the world. You can restrict yourself to be the curious and privileged (future) tourist you are. Racism today is not a topic, neither is Islam today nor the problem of refugees. Concerning its place in the global relations of power, A Piece of Cake can clearly be described as a centre textbook with a centre-based primary perspective (Canagarajah, 1999, see above), but also with small examples of texts that have the role of representing periphery-based perspectives (they may not be authentic, though, cf. the quote from Melvin G. referred to above). Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

These reflections may be put in relation to the analysis in Maijala (2004, SC17), which is about the representation of German history in European textbooks. Maijala distinguishes between different strategies of representing (or not representing) history, and it seems that the Finnish textbooks resemble A Piece of Cake to some extent as they contain very little history and are oriented towards contemporary youth life and culture with an emphasis on entertainment. But there are also traits that may be referred to the Norwegian and the British textbooks (see Chapter 2). The study by Eide (2012, SC27) describes three models of the (Norwegian) encounter with Latin America: ‘the Columbus encounter’, ‘the handbook encounter’ and ‘the tourist encounter’. These could be used as a tool for the analysis of A Piece of Cake as well, and it seems that all three are indirectly reflected in the chapters on English-speaking

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countries outside Europe (Europe including the British Isles). One can also say that A Piece of Cake is not Eurocentric. It is rather AngloAmericano-centric (see Chapter 3). Ros i Solé (2013, SC29) fi nds that in a Barcelona-produced textbook for Spanish, Spain is constructed as ‘us’ and Latin America as ‘them’. This discourse structure cannot be found in A Piece of Cake, as there is no construction of Britain as ‘us’ and the United States as ‘them’. There is a totally different power relation between these two countries compared to the relation between Spain and the assembled Latin American countries. Finally, I will mention the study and proposal by Vinall (2012, SC28), which I will take up in the analysis of Caminando below. Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of postcolonial studies, and using A Piece of Cake as a stepping stone? It goes without saying that there are limits to what a textbook can include as regards representations of target language countries and their interrelations. There is always a need for choice, and the question is: What direction should the representations take? Is awareness of some of the historical background important for the understanding of the contemporary world? Do we want students to (begin to) understand the contemporary world – even if they are ‘only’ studying the English language? I would answer in the affirmative. The teaching (in Grade 7, for 13-year-olds) could take its point of departure in the global picture. The teacher could present a world map indicating all ‘English-speaking’ countries today (which are all multilingual, as noted above), and a world map indicating the extent of the British Empire at its territorial peak (around 1920 after the Treaty of Versailles). The teacher could offer as much information as possible on British colonial history until today’s independent states. The account could include information on migrations to the UK from the former colonies, notably the Caribbean and India/Pakistan. It would be a lesson in political geography seen through the language teacher’s eyes. Some of this introduction could be done in Danish, or partly in Danish and English. World maps can be very instructive. They can be an important source of clearly perspectival knowledge as one could introduce not only maps showing the world with Europe in the centre (as would be usual in Denmark), but also maps seen from other parts of the world and having other centres and perspectives. See for example ‘world map seen from Australia’ and ‘south-up oriented maps’ on Google.

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Representations of the World in Language Textbooks

Spanish: Caminando Presentation

In order to understand the widespread use of English in the world today, it is indispensable to have some knowledge of the colonial history of the British Empire and the rise of one of its former colonies: the United States of America. Something similar may be said of the Spanish language. But the colonial history of the Spanish Empire is very different indeed from that of the British. Spain (and Portugal) were the first colonisers in the Americas, and Spain was a great power in Europe for several centuries after 1492. Later on, Northern Europe took over, not least England/Britain, and in the same period Latin America went from Spanish to British domination and later to US-American domination. Considered in the light of the global North–South divide, one can say that today Europe and (most of) North America are parts of the global North, while Central and South America are parts of the global South. Within Europe, however, there is also a divide between North and South, and thus Spain may be said to be situated in the South of the North. Postcolonial relations between Spain and Latin America may be said to be situated in the realm of the South, whereas relations between Britain and the United States are situated in the realm of the North. The power relations between the two last-mentioned countries can no longer be termed ‘postcolonial’, however, as the relations have been reversed and have taken on a different character since the end of World War II and ultimately since the Suez crisis in 1956. Caminando (On the Way) covers Grades 1–2 in upper secondary school and adult education, and addresses age levels 15–16 and adults (from elementary stage). The system was published 2009 by the Danish publishing company Gyldendal, Copenhagen. It was adapted from the original Swedish version published by Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm. The authors in Sweden are Elisabet Waldenström, Ninni Westermann and Märet Wik-Bretz, and the author in Denmark is Inge Margrethe Clausen. Inge Margrethe Clausen is Head of Education at the Copenhagen Centre for Adult Education (KVUC).

Figure 6.1 Some facts about Caminando

The system is both for school teaching and self-directed study, and it consists of a textbook and an exercise book. (There are also student and teacher CDs and a website, but these do not add much concerning representations of culture and society.) In the following, I refer to Caminando in this way: Caminando 1=textbook Caminando 2=exercise book

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Caminando contains eight chapters, each divided into sub-chapters. The chapters do not have titles, and they are not clearly thematically structured. However, it is possible to indicate their thematic content according to geographic focus: (1) Presentation of South America, Spain and Spanish language in the world, greetings. (2) Spain – school system, café, weather, clothes, Catalonia, Catalan language. (3) Nicaragua – Columbus, colonisation of America, buildings, transport. (4) Spain – leisure, football, music in the Spanish-speaking world. (5) United States and Spain – living in New York (ways of housing), visiting Madrid (tourist sights). (6) Cuba – travelling to Cuba, history, Caribbean rhythms, the Canary Islands. (7) Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla – immigration to Spain, Andalucía, history of Spain till 1492. (8) Fair trade (coffee), street children in Mexico, and the Mayas Supplement: Christmas and Easter celebrations, the Day of the Dead. Lyrics of famous songs. There is no central narrative or plot in Caminando, but there are a few characters who we meet more than once, and some of these know each other: the twin sisters Julia and Lali, from La Garriga in Catalonia, who are students of upper secondary; Eloy, from Mataró in Catalonia, who is studying sciences; Eduardo, who lives in Denmark and whose parents fled from Chile; and Aurora, who is a doctor at a hospital in Léon in Nicaragua. We also meet some other named persons just once: Julián, who is Spanish speaking and lives in New York; Sandra, who is Danish and works as a volunteer in Chichigalpa in Nicaragua; and later in the textbook, Tarik, who lives in Spain and whose parents are from Morocco; and Souad, who has migrated from Morocco to Spain. Note that all names are given names, not family names. All named persons are shown in portrait photos. They are young, middle-class adults, and there are no African or Asian types among them. Apparently, no Roma (Romani) are represented although there are about 6–700,000 Roma people in Spain. The textbook contains many colour photos of people in the streets, tourist sights, etc., and some of the illustrations are quite peculiar as they are montages consisting of bits of photographic material supplemented by colour drawings. The very fi rst piece of information on Spain is that it is a member of the EU (Caminando 1: 19). Later, it is said that Spain became a member of the European Communities early (1986) (Caminando 1: 24). It is even told about Havana that the EU has supported restorations of the city (Caminando 1:

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108). So, whereas the other textbooks studied do not mention the EU with a word, Caminando is different. Its focus on membership of the EU may be related to hopes in Spain that the EU would be a lever for democratic and economic development after the Franco regime (coming out of ‘the South’ of Europe). On the fi rst pages of the textbook there are a few comments for the student on how to use the book, fi nd one’s best learning style and work with dialogues, other texts and pictures. Neither the textbook nor the exercise book mentions the use of Spanish for international purposes. All pedagogical communication and many of the informative texts on culture and society are in Danish, with relevant Spanish words and expressions added, for instance (my translation): ‘Plants that originate in Asia, such as the sugar cane (la caña de azúcar) and the banana plant (la platanera) were transported from Europe to America via the Canary Islands’ (Caminando 1: 112). How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their position in the historically developed global relations of power?

The publishers do not indicate their situatedness in the global relations of power, and compared to A Piece of Cake, Caminando is a rather modest publication consisting of just one textbook of 224 pages and an exercise book of 120 pages. There are many illustrations, mostly in colour, but not as many as in A Piece of Cake. In the Caminando textbook, the percentage of illustrations is about 65%, whereas there are practically no illustrations in the exercise book. There is no information on the authors besides their names, i.e. no CV and no photo. All the authors, both the three original from Sweden and the one from Denmark, figure as authors on the book covers. So, there is a collective author, and that may be one of the reasons why the authors do not refer to themselves in the textbook or the exercise book. There is no ‘vi’ (we) or ‘jeg’ (I). This creates a very impersonal atmosphere in the whole system, which is, on the other hand, somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that there are a number of central characters with names and photos. The teacher is not referred to or represented at all, maybe because this system is aimed not least at self-directed study (in groups or individually). The students are addressed by ‘du’ (you sg.) or ‘I’ (you  pl.), and judging by the choice of characters in Caminando, the students are positioned as people who might some time travel to Spain or Latin America. It should be noted that the only Dane figuring in Caminando is a woman, Sandra, who is a volunteer in Chichigalpa in Nicaragua. We are not told what she

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is doing in Chichigalpa and why, but we hear that she is going to Léon to visit the cathedral and the culture house, in which her friend, Carlos, is working. In this way, an asymmetrical relationship between the North (the Danish volunteer) and the South (a region that apparently needs help or development) is vaguely indicated. How is the international history of the target language countries, and of the target language, represented?

Caminando begins with a chapter that introduces South America first, by way of a simple map showing countries, capitals and number of inhabitants, plus a photo of Machu Picchu (there is no text so it is not told what it is). Then, Spain is introduced, also by way of a map and some brief information on tourism, mountains and the royal family. In the rest of Caminando, the primary focus is on Spain, but with excursions to Nicaragua, Cuba and Spanish speakers in New York. On the back side of the front cover there is a map of Spain, and on the back side of the back cover there is a map of Latin America. Spain clearly has priority over Latin America, and one may ask to what extent this is a reflection of the colonial history with Spain as the colonising power and Latin America as the colonised area, and to what extent it can be linked to the fact that this textbook is to be used in another European country, and more specifically that Spain is one of the favourite holiday destinations of people from Scandinavia, and popular among pensioners (a North–South relationship). In the last section of the last chapter, the Mayas are presented. The chapter also contains texts on fair trade and street children, so it may be said to be the ‘problem chapter’ of Caminando. There is about one page in Danish on the Mayas, starting with information on the historic city of Chichén Itzá and followed up by notes on Mayan history, astronomy and script. The description ends by saying that ‘the descendants of the Maya Indians … feel discriminated against (discriminados), and their conditions of living are generally much worse than those of the rest of the population. Many live in small towns that look approximately like those that existed a thousand years ago, and they have maintained much of their culture and traditions’ (Caminando 1: 146, my translation from Danish). Nothing is told about the persecution of Mayan peoples, especially in the period from the 1960s to the 1990s, not least the Guatemalan genocide of about 170,000 Mayas as part of the civil war. What is a minor thing, but also significant, is the choice of one of the photos illustrating the text on the Mayas. It is without text and it shows – not the pyramid in Mayan Chichén Itzá – but the Pyramid of the Sun, situated in Teotihuacán (near Mexico City), which later became part of

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the Aztec area. But there is not a word about the Aztecs in Caminando, and very little on other indigenous peoples of the Americas, ancient or modern. (This mistake of choosing a wrong photo has been corrected in later impressions.) It should be added that whereas Caminando treats the Mayas in this neglectful way inside the book, traditional Mayan or indigenous art is used with decorative function on the front cover of the book in the form of a photo showing a piece of red-and-black narrative embroidery of (probably) Mayan origin. The representation of the Mayas in Caminando positions them as having only touristic interest. They are clearly seen from an outsider perspective, and their voices are not heard. This is very different from the treatment of the First Americans in A Piece of Cake, although both representations are exoticising. As already mentioned, a North–South hierarchy is reflected in the presence of the Danish character of Sandra, who is a volunteer in Nicaragua. This kind of hierarchy could have been represented in A Piece of Cake as well, for instance a Danish woman taking part in development work in Kenya, but this figure has not been exploited in A Piece of Cake. On the other hand, it would not be realistic to represent a Danish person volunteering on an American Indian Reservation in the United States, since the United States is part of the North, like Denmark. It does not receive development aid or organised volunteer work from abroad. Caminando does not try to explain why Nicaragua needs volunteer work from abroad, or why Danes want (wanted) to do volunteer work in Nicaragua, i.e. it does not thematise and discuss (some of) the consequences of colonial relations, not even in Danish. The students are (young) adults who are, of course, able to understand the most simple mechanisms of such global historical processes. In the chapter on Nicaragua, there is a brief account of Spanish colonisations, see below in the Example, and in the chapter on Cuba there is half a page in Danish about the history of Cuba. Very strangely, the history of Spain as represented in Caminando ends in 1492 – whereas the history of Spanish America starts in 1492 (except in the chapter on the Mayas). The  account of the history of Spain (Caminando 1: 121ff) covers about five pages in Spanish, including large photos, and comprises three sections: (1)  The prehistoric period from the cave paintings in Altamira to the Romans until 476 CE (Common Era); (2) The Arabs on the Iberian Peninsula 711–1492; (3) La Reconquista, the wars against the Arabs and Columbus’ expedition, 718–1492. After that, nothing about Spanish history in Europe and the decisive role of the colonies, and – in recent history – nothing about the Spanish civil war and the Franco regime. (There is a passing reference to the Franco regime, though, in relation to the Catalan language – Caminando 1: 44.) Of course, all this is complicated and conflictual, but brief accounts in Danish, with useful links to the

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internet, could have been elaborated. An aspect of Spanish history that is also overlooked is the longstanding rivalry with France and Britain over Morocco, and the Western Sahara conflict. So, the authors of Caminando do intend to supply students with historical information on both coloniser and colonised, more than those of A Piece of Cake, but the selection of events and developments is haphazard and stereotyping and thus not as well thought out and explained as in Français Formidable. Caminando does not use the word ‘postcolonial’ and does not contribute to a postcolonial understanding of the Spanishspeaking areas in the world. How is the international history of the country of learning, and of the language of schooling, represented?

Denmark is almost absent in Caminando, and thus also its role in world history, apart from the mentioning of Sandra and Danish development aid in Nicaragua. There is also a reference to Denmark in the exercise book (Caminando 2: 11), where students are asked to write a text about Denmark answering questions like: Where is Denmark? Is it a member of the EU? What is the name of its capital? This is in contrast to the systematic inclusion of Denmark in Français Formidable, which presents parallel historical timelines for France and Denmark and other comparative material. An example: Unit 3 – Focus on Nicaragua

Unit 3 presents some information on colonial history. It covers 17 pages in the textbook and consists of 7 sections, illustrated by many colourful photos and including questions on the texts as well as linguistic comments. • • • • • • •

A biographical text in Spanish on the above-mentioned character Aurora from Léon. An informative text in Spanish on Nicaragua and Léon. An informative text in Danish on why Spanish is spoken in Latin America (see Photo 20). An informative text on the difference between ‘South America’ and ‘Latin America’. A dialogue between Aurora and her colleague Mercedes and her son. Three dialogues between Sandra and people in Léon (Central Station, Culture House). An informative text on Nicaragua (capital, lakes, indigenous peoples, schooling).

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Photo 20 Hvorfor taler man spansk i Latinamerika? (Why is Spanish spoken in Latin America?). Caminando, textbook, p. 50.

This chapter is all about life in Nicaragua and is not as fragmented and kaleidoscopic as the chapter on Georgia in A Piece of Cake. But we do not hear the voices of local people, only the authors’ anonymous and authoritative voice and some constructed dialogues on everyday topics.

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One of the texts offers an ultra-brief overview of the history of Spanish colonisations, and I would like to present the whole paragraph here, translated from Danish: Why is Spanish spoken in Latin America? Spanish is spoken by about 450 million people. 500 years ago Columbus landed in Central America, on the island he called San Salvador. Many Spanish and Portuguese conquerors (los conquistadores) followed in his footsteps. The Spanish brought their language and religion (la religión) with them to the new colonies. For these men the ‘discovery’ of The New World was incredibly important. They emptied the continent of its riches and shipped 181 tons of gold (el  oro) and 16,000 tons of silver (la plata) across the Atlantic to Sevilla. Latin America was ravaged, and a large part of the indigenous population (los indígenas) perished. Some died in battle, but the majority died as a result of the hard slave work in the mines (las minas) and the new diseases that the Europeans brought with them. The indigenous population of Latin America calls itself indígenas and not ‘indios’, the designation they got from the Europeans who, as we know, thought that they had reached las Indias (India). Finally there were so few left that the Spaniards began to ‘import’ slaves (los esclavos) from Africa. (Caminando 1: 50)

It is clear that this is an exclusively Eurocentric perspective on the chain of events. Even if ‘discovery’ is put in inverted commas, we must ask whether it was only ‘incredibly important’ for the Spanish (men)? What about the indigenous peoples in the Americas and those from Africa? It should also be noted that there are no texts in Caminando reflecting on the diverse racial hierarchies in Latin American societies and history: criollo, mestizo, mulatto, etc. Approach to intercultural learning

Compared to A Piece of Cake, Caminando does give some limited historical background for understanding why Spanish is widely spoken in the Americas. But it has no ambitions of promoting reflections on global centre–periphery relations and on the origins and consequences of racism in both centre and periphery countries. As regards the role of the teacher, Caminando is produced for potential self-directed study, i.e. without any teacher. This gives the texts in Caminando a special responsibility. They will in some cases have to stand alone as inputs to the development of the students’ postcolonial awareness and selfawareness in relation to the contemporary global condition.

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The textbook in society

A postcolonial, contrapuntal reading of Caminando would consider whether it excludes or conceals something related to the hard realities of colonialism and imperialism. First, it should be said that the representation of the Spanish-speaking world in Caminando is an example of the bipolar structure referred to in Chapter 2: Spain vs. the whole of Latin America. Ros i Solé (2013, SC29) also refers to a hierarchical structure represented in a textbook: Spain positioned as ‘us’, and Latin America positioned as ‘them’. This bipolarity may also be described with the more or less ideological terms ‘developed’ and ‘developing’. So, while Caminando represents both a ‘developed’ country, Spain, and a ‘developing’ region, Latin America, A Piece of Cake is very different. It does not contain such a bipolar structure as it concentrates on a number of ‘developed’ countries. So, A Piece of Cake is much more oriented towards the world’s capitalist centres than Caminando. This means that the field would be much more open for Caminando to introduce the real problematics of development in different parts of the world, for example the role of US-American imperialism in Latin America. But Caminando does not take up this challenge. An interesting difference between Caminando and A Piece of Cake is the treatment of indigenous peoples, as already hinted at. In Caminando they receive peripheral attention at the end of the book, whereas in A Piece of Cake the First Americans are dealt with in one of the fi rst chapters in Grade 7. Is this because First Americans are supposed to be of special interest to young people, and/or is it because the resistance of the First Americans is part of the American myth, and that they have been represented in a very positive way recently, for example in the fi lm ‘Dances with Wolves’ from 1990? If one considers the worldliness of Caminando, i.e. in what sense is it an active voice in the global relations of power, it is clear that it takes an apolitical stance. It avoids everything that touches on the political, especially political confl icts, and thereby a crucial aspect of colonialism and the postcolonial situation. There is nothing about war, civil war, militarism, terror, exploitation and the struggle for land reforms and the preservation of nature, except in the very brief account of colonisation mentioned in the example chapter. Caminando does not foreground the students as engaged citizens or engaged future travellers who are interested in understanding colonialism and imperialism and their own position in relation to this. There are two exceptions to this, though, in Caminando: the interest in the development of fair trade and the interest in the fight against the problem of street children. Concerning its place in the global relations of power, Caminando can clearly be described as a centre textbook with a centre-based perspective (Canagarajah, 1999). It takes not only a European, but a Eurocentric perspective. It should be emphasised that a European perspective is not

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questionable in itself. After all, Caminando was produced with use in a European country in mind: Sweden and later Denmark. The European perspective is questionable, and indeed unacceptable, only when it becomes Eurocentric, i.e. based on the common-sense understanding that the European perspective will always be the natural choice. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

Pozzo and Fernández (2008, SC26) note that, among four textbooks for teaching Spanish in Denmark, three privilege Spain to a high degree even if they claim to deal with the Spanish-speaking world, and hence they may be described as Eurocentric. I would also characterise Caminando as Eurocentric, but, as explained above, I think it is important to distinguish between a European and a Eurocentric perspective. In her study of the representation of Latin America in Norwegian textbooks, Eide (2012, SC27) concludes that the textbooks show very little interest in representing the diversity of Latin America or in raising questions of democracy. There is a mainly tourist-oriented focus, and the total absence of Latin American voices suggests that the textbooks are embedded in a Eurocentric and orientalist tradition. The same can be said of Caminando, particularly as regards the avoidance of political issues and conflicts today. Vinall (2012, SC28) analyses a textbook for Spanish used in the United States, particularly a chapter containing a photo showing an encounter between a Mayan woman and US-American tourists. She suggests some very useful activities that could raise the students’ awareness of this situation in a postcolonial perspective instead of a tourism perspective. The activities include interpretive work, individually or in groups, with the photo before the work with the chapter as such, work with other juxtaposed texts that illustrate very different constructions of the historical background of the situation and work with the individual students’ different experiences and perspectives on the situation shown in the photo, in comparison with the questions offered in the chapter itself. If Caminando is used for self-directed study, however, such further activities will probably not be accomplished unless the students are acquainted with them from learning other languages. This puts an extra responsibility on the teaching of other languages in school, not least English, which is obligatory for all. Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of postcolonial studies, and using Caminando as a stepping stone? One task could be to search for stereotypes in the textbook, reflect on them and try to formulate alternative discourses on countries and practices. Photo 20, for example, shows some people with masks and

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fringed sombreros, but hopefully it is not meant as an illustration of the text, on the same page, about Spanish colonisations and the sad fate of the indigenous peoples? What other images would have been relevant? Incidentally, speaking about the spread of the Spanish language, it should also be told that all the ‘Spanish-speaking’ countries are multilingual. In order to counteract the Eurocentric perspective, Caminando could include work with different voices, and invite discussions of perspectives originating in different parts of the world and in different parts of society – according to class, ethnicity, race, gender, etc. It could draw on texts and songs written by subaltern groups (Spivak, 1988) and present examples of indigenous epistemologies of nature, life and society (cosmologies, cf. Santos, 2014; Suárez-Krabbe, 2015). One way of getting more knowledge about the world is, of course, to use the news media. Thus, materials that seek to help students in selecting, using and discussing news media on all platforms would be a useful supplement to Caminando. As in the case of A Piece of Cake, working with maps of the world that do not have Europe at the centre, may be eye-opening. Conclusion

The postcolonial studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Caminando only offer students minute inputs to support and enlarge their knowledge about the historical spread of English and Spanish (at the expense of other languages), and about the world in terms of historically developed global power relations and in terms of racial hierarchies. They do not touch on questions of North–South relations even though this could be illuminating. They do include texts about colonial history, Caminando a little more than A Piece of Cake, but their representations have very large lacunae. A Piece of Cake astonishingly says nothing about the British Empire and Britain’s role as initiator and central power in the British Empire. It mentions India, but not its past as one of the most important parts of the British Empire. It deals with South Africa, but not the rest of (anglophone) Africa. It mentions the use of enslaved people in the cotton fields in Georgia, but not the transatlantic slave trade. It does not mention the Middle East and British mandates. Caminando, on the other hand, does present the colonial and recent histories of some former colonies (Nicaragua and Cuba) within the frame of Spanish colonisation at large, but does not say a word about the effects of conquest and colonisation on life and culture in Spain and the role of Spain in Europe, not least in the 16th and 17th centuries. As already mentioned, the history of Spain ends in 1492.

7 Transnational Studies

Introduction

Whereas the readings discussed in Chapters 3–6 focus on countries and their interrelationships (comparisons, mutual perceptions and stereotypes, historical relations), this is not possible in the transnational studies reading, which focuses on non-state actors and all those processes and practices that transcend national borders – without disregarding that there are, of course, states and state territories. Non-state actors may be, for example, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) such as human rights organisations (e.g. Amnesty International), environmental organisations (e.g. Greenpeace), development organisations (e.g. Oxfam), religious organisations (e.g. the Roman Catholic Church), multinational corporations (e.g. Coca-Cola) or they may be transnational diaspora communities, transnational networks of cities, transnational terrorist networks, etc. The UN and its various sub-organisations might be included here, although they are international (collaboration between separate nations) rather than transnational. The same may be said of, for example, the World Esperanto Association (UEA). The EU is an example of a political entity that has international as well as transnational traits. All levels of social life are concerned in transnational studies, from the micro-level of individual people to macro-levels of economic globalisation and worldwide climate issues. Transnational studies is a particularly challenging perspective for language and culture pedagogy because of the strong tradition of the national paradigm in this field. Transnational Studies

In their introduction to a reader on transnational studies (Khagram & Levitt, 2008a), Sanjeev Khagram and Peggy Levitt start with the following illustration of the transnational nature of the world: Social life crosses, transcends and sometimes transforms borders and boundaries in many different ways. Social movements mobilize constituencies around the globe on issues such as human rights, gender justice, and family values campaigns. Many adherents of pan-Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and other faith-based movements value their religious membership more than their national or ethnic allegiances. Economies are organised around transcontinental investment, manufacturing, 185

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and consumption chains. Associations set common standards for professionals working around the world. Hip-hop ‘heads’ in Gugulettu and Rio draw inspiration from their Los Angeles counterparts; and tandoori chicken has become one of London’s snack foods of choice. The destruction of the World Trade Center, one of the most potent symbols of global capitalism, by members of the cross-border Al Qaeda terrorist network is a striking example of the ‘transnational’ nature of the world. (Khagram & Levitt, 2008b: 1)

Khagram and Levitt distinguish between two philosophies in the field of transnational studies: Either the view that states and nations are the norm and transnational processes are the exception; they transcend these already existing entities (a view that can be said to underlie the fi rst introductory sentence of this chapter). Or the view that social worlds and lives are inherently transnational, and that transnational phenomena and dynamics are the rule rather than the exception. Transnational processes – such as, for example, migration and the spread of ideas – have always existed. Khagram and Levitt (2008b: 5) state ‘…we propose an optic or gaze that begins with a world without borders, empirically examines the boundaries and borders that emerge at particular historical moments, and explores their relationships to unbounded arenas and processes’. This is also my own position in what follows. Numerous scholars from various disciplines have contributed to the field of transnational and globalisation studies since the 1990s (see, for example, Appadurai, 1996; Clifford, 1997; Frankopan, 2015; Hannerz, 1992, 1996; Turner, 2010; Urry, 2007; Wimmer & Glick Schiller, 2002). Zygmunt Bauman’s (1998) book is very relevant for today’s political debates about globalisation, a set of processes that signal freedom for some, but appear as an uninvited and cruel fate for many others. Arjun Appadurai presents a theory of cultural flow in a transnational perspective. He is interested in the effect of the media and migration on the work of imagination as a constitutive feature of modern subjectivity (Appadurai, 1996) (the following draws on Risager [2009, 2017]). Appadurai’s anthropological work, which does not deal with language specifically, draws upon the critical historical tradition represented by scholars such as Anderson (1991) on the nation as an imagined community and Said (1978) on orientalism, as well as the Cultural studies movement more generally, e.g. Hall (1986). Appadurai proposes to describe the global situation as a fundamental disjuncture between a number of processes, and he uses the term ‘-scape’ (from landscape) to bring forth a certain imagery of these more or less separate processes as fluid and irregular landscapes. He distinguishes between ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, fi nancescape and ideoscape. The fi rst two are the ones he has given most attention:

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Ethnoscape is the landscape of persons in the world, either as moving over longer or shorter distances for one reason or another: migrants, refugees, expats, tourists, students, etc., or as more sedentary. Ethnoscape is not only about actual physical mobility but also about fantasies about wanting to move, wanting to settle, wanting to control migrations, etc. Mediascape is both the specific distribution of media throughout the world and the images of the world created by these media. Mediascape contributes to the collective imagination through the proliferation of realistic and fictional representations in a wide range of genres and styles. Technoscape is the global configuration of all sorts of technology, new and old, mechanical and informational. Financescape is the global landscape of capital being moved around via stock exchanges, speculations, etc. And ideoscape is closely related to mediascape, but is more political in its orientation as it consists of ideologies of states and the counter ideologies of movements explicitly oriented to capturing state power or a piece of it. They may deal with the content and use of such concepts as democracy, freedom and management. All these landscapes are perspectival constructs, being perceived and understood from different sides and in different situations by, for example, transnational companies, national authorities, ethnic minorities, genders and generations. Appadurai sees his work as a contribution to a cosmopolitan ethnography or macro-ethnography in which the focus is not only on specific life trajectories, but also on large-scale imagined life possibilities. How do people, not least influenced by the power of representations in the media, imagine and narrate their past lives, their present lives and their futures? (And I would add: the representations in textbooks and other learning materials). For Appadurai, culture is difference (like Bhabha, see Chapter 6), and among the many possible cultural differences, he suggests a focus on those that set the groundwork for the construction and mobilisation of group identities. Those identities may be of any kind – ethnic, national, religious, linguistic, professional, sports related, lifestyle related, etc., and if they are transnational they may contribute to the development of transnational (or diasporic) imageries. Appadurai speaks of these diasporic identities as transnations: nations cutting across the usual territorially defined nations. As an example, he refers to the politics of ethnic identity in the United States: ‘For every nation-state that has exported significant numbers of its populations to the United States as refugees, tourists or students, there is now a delocalized transnation, which retains a special ideological link to a putative place of origin but is otherwise a thoroughly diasporic collectivity’ (Appadurai, 1996: 172, emphasis in the original). (I should add that Appadurai is critical of the use of the term ‘culture’ as a noun, and prefers to use it as an adjective ‘cultural’, cf. Chapter 5.)

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Transnational Studies in Language and Culture Pedagogy

Some scholars in language and culture pedagogy have taken up discussions related to transnational and globalisation studies, among them Kumaravadivelu and myself. Kumaravadivelu (2008) argues that the primary aim of language education is to raise students’ global cultural consciousness. He discusses three approaches to culture: cultural assimilation (becoming similar to the natives), cultural pluralism (maintaining your original identity) and cultural hybridity (creating a third place or third culture), and he argues for the adoption of a fourth approach: cultural realism. Cultural realism includes the relations between four different levels: the global, the national, the social and the individual, and Kumaravadivelu argues that identity formation is influenced by all levels. As he says: …globalization, with its incessant and increased flow of peoples, goods, and ideas across the world, is creating a novel ‘web of interlocution’ that is effectively challenging the traditional notions of identity formation of an individual or of a nation. This development is plunging the world in a creative as well as a chaotic tension that both unites and divides people. It is also resulting in an unintended and unexpected movement toward tribalization that contributes to an increase in ethnic, racial, religious, and national consciousness. (Kumaravadivelu, 2008: 158)

On this background, Kumaravadivelu (2008: 189) discusses (English) language education, and among other things he takes up the question of learning materials, saying that ‘What are sorely needed are materials that can deeply and critically engage the learners’ minds about the intricacies of cultural realism that are shaping their identity formation …’ and refers to Holliday et al. (2004) as a good resource book that focuses on three major cultural issues: identity, Otherisation and representation (a book that I would recommend as well). As I argue in Risager (2016a), the awareness of transnationality in the field of language and culture pedagogy means that the question of sociocultural content becomes much more open than within the national paradigm with its limitation to (homogeneous or diverse) national cultures and literatures, and nationally framed repertoires of norms and values (see also Risager [1989] on world studies). Other scholars that are engaged in transnational studies in language and culture pedagogy include Pennycook (2007), Sayer and Meadows (2012), Starkey (1991, SC18) and Zarate (2003). Language in Culture: A Transnational View

As part of a more general critique of the national paradigm in language and culture pedagogy (Risager, 2006, 2016), I argue that all languages are transnational (translocal, transregional) phenomena that flow across different cultural contexts in the world, mainly because of mobility and migration.

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None of the languages of the world are absolutely confined to a specific territory. Even the speakers of very small and local languages may move to other places, to the nearest city or other parts of the world, depending on their material resources and legal possibilities. As regards the larger languages, their speakers may be found on all continents, now and then even the Antarctic. This is a transnational view of language: language is seen as used by individual people who may be mobile across national borders. Linguistic practice is not seen as territorially bound. Speakers of Danish, for example, may be staying periodically or permanently all over the world as tourists, students, business people, pensioners, sports people, IT specialists, designers, lobbyists, environmental activists, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers, musicians and professionals of any other kind. All these people may use their Danish language (including their personal Danish linguacultures, cf. Chapter 5) in virtual space via the global information and communication media, to the extent that these are accessible on the spot. Furthermore, the institutional spread of the teaching of Danish is wide, as it is taught at Scandinavian departments in different parts of the world. Moreover, printed materials for the learning of Danish can of course move from place to place. One can say that people speaking and/or learning Danish form emergent social networks that in principle, and maybe also in practice, span the whole globe. In this sense, the Danish language is a world phenomenon, a ‘world language’, not on the basis of the number of its speakers, but on the basis of the extent of the networks using it. Exactly the same may be said of other languages, including the target languages of the present study: their speakers may be found all over the world for various reasons, whether this is a result of voluntary mobility from affluent societies and social classes (as in the Danish case), or whether it is a result of a combination of voluntary and involuntary mobility on the background of unemployment, poverty, persecution, war or climate change (and a postcolonial reading would contribute to the understanding of the historical background of all this). At the same time, it goes without saying that native speakers will be found in larger numbers and much more densely within the borders of the states or regions that form the institutional cores of the languages in question. (This does not apply to Esperanto, which is a special case.) It should be added that discourses may spread along different lines than languages. I am here thinking of discourses in the sense of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992, 2002; Wodak & Meyer, 2003). A  discourse deals with a certain subject matter from a certain perspective, for instance, discourses about culture, about food, about terrorism, about freedom, etc. Discourses may spread across languages. For example, a discourse on Christianity is not bound to any one language, although some languages are more specialised than others as to the verbalisation of themes related to Christianity. Discourses move from language community to language community by processes of translation and other kinds of transformation,

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and discourses are incorporated into the local language over longer or shorter periods of time. Discourses about globalisation, for example, may be spread primarily through the English language, but they are also taken up by users of other languages and elaborated further. Literary topics, genres and styles also spread from language to language, possibly through some transformations. Analytical Questions in Relation to a Transnational Studies Reading

Positioning and representation of actors •

How are publishers, authors, teacher and learners positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their transnational lives or networks?

Representation of culture, society and the world • • • • •

Are transnational organisations represented? (companies, associations, communities, networks, etc.) Are transnational flows of ideas, discourses and practices represented? (democracy, terrorism, music, global warming, etc.) Is transnational mobility or migration represented? (travel, refugees, diasporic communities or transnations, etc.) Is (potentially) transnational digital communication represented? (phone, Skype, internet, social media, role-playing games, etc.) Is the target language seen as a transnational phenomenon? (a ‘world language’)

Approach to intercultural learning •

Does the approach to intercultural learning promote awareness of transnationality? (development of world citizenship, development of global responsibility) What is the role of the teacher?

The textbook in society •

What is the role of this textbook in the transnational flow of discourses about the world?

English: A Piece of Cake How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their transnational lives or networks?

On the colophon it is stated that Alinea is part of Egmont. (Egmont is a Scandinavian media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. Naturally it has a large transnational network within the fi eld

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of publishing and mass media.) As already mentioned, one of the authors is represented as communicating with people in Hawaii, and the students are, among other things, indirectly addressed as (future) travellers, primarily tourists, i.e. forms of individual transnational free mobility. Transnational organisations? (companies, associations, communities, networks)

The World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) and Rotary are mentioned (see below in the Example section). Coca-Cola is mentioned both in the chapter on Food and in the chapter on Georgia (Atlanta), but there are no other brand names of material products (while there are several names of cultural products, for instance the fi lm Precious and the musical Oliver!). In the chapter on ‘The environment’ there is, as already noted, a reading comprehension text on Greenpeace and Rainbow Warrior. There is no reference to the UN or to the EU. So, when it comes to transnational organisations of any kind, there is not very much in A Piece of Cake. Transnational flows of ideas, discourses and practices?

As noted, all the chapters on countries or regions are focused entirely on the national or local (and so is the chapter on ‘Spotlight on school’, which focuses on school life in Britain and the United States, and the chapter on ‘Teen issues’, which describes aspects of life in Britain and the United States). The countries or regions concerned are not understood as integrated parts of a larger context. But the other chapters – on witchcraft, food, sport, space, success, music, global connections, love – are different. They do not explicitly refer to countries, but treat their themes as more general phenomena: food in general, etc. However, it is indirectly understood that the general geographical reference is to an Englishspeaking milieu anyway, and almost all texts and people mentioned are associated with life in, for instance, the United States or the UK. A good example is the chapter on ‘Music – our universal language’ (A Piece of Cake 8). Although universality is referred to, the selection is entirely Anglo-American with an emphasis on American (and in the English language). US-American musicians, bands and events mentioned: Stevie Wonder, Grandmaster Flash, Jay Z, Michael Jackson, Woodstock 1969, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley, and on the website: Bruce Springsteen. British music mentioned: Coldplay and the Proms, and on the website: Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Beatles. There is no attempt to deal with music from other parts of the world, such as the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere (but note the Hawaiian music in the chapter on Hawaii). Thus, while A Piece of Cake takes up several themes that may exemplify transnational flows of ideas, discourses and practices, such as

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food, success and music, which are indeed transnational and more or less worldwide phenomena, these themes are not dealt with in their diversity and as transnational (this term is never used), but as still more examples of what is going on in English-speaking countries or perhaps more broadly the English-speaking world. Transnational mobility or migration?

A Piece of Cake is full of allusions to travel. Many of the countries or regions are seen with the tourist’s eye (‘the tourist gaze’, cf. Urry, 1990). There are many texts written by travellers telling about their experiences. There is even a text about the first female space tourist (an Iranian-American): ‘How would you like to travel to outer space just like the astronauts? Since 1990 that has been possible’ (A Piece of Cake 8,1: 32). There is a specific perspective on mobility and migration emphasising the free mobility of individual persons (or families or groups) who have the resources to travel where they want, and who do not have passport problems. Darker sides of migration are also touched upon, for instance the forced relocation of indigenous tribes in the United States, and the waves of immigrants to the United States via Ellis Island. But the transatlantic slave trade, which was a kind of large-scale forced migration, is not mentioned. Other forms of migration or exodus, for example war migration or climate migration, are not mentioned, nor is it noted that for large parts of the world’s population it is not possible to migrate at all, due to economic or political barriers. The existence of diasporic communities in the world is not dealt with. As noted, there are some references to ethnic and cultural diversity in English-speaking areas, for instance in Hawaii and New York City, but the concept of ‘diaspora’ indicates lines of connection from country of origin to country of living. There is a difference between dealing with e.g. the ‘Somali minority’ among other minorities in a country, and dealing with the ‘Somali diaspora’, which has many kinds of transnational links to Somalia and to Somali emigrants in other countries. An awareness of diasporas would include both diasporas in English-speaking countries (e.g. Jamaicans and Poles in Britain, or Somalis and Italians in the United States), and diasporas from English-speaking countries in other parts of the world (e.g. Brits in Kenya, or US-Americans in Japan). Transnational digital communication?

Instances of transnational digital communication are shown in A Piece of Cake (see below in the Example chapter). Is the target language seen as a transnational phenomenon?

On the website related to the chapter ‘Global connections’ (see below), there is a listening comprehension text: ‘English – the world language’, in

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which people from India, France, Japan and Spain speak about their views of this theme. The website does not, however, mention that more than half of the population of the Earth do not know English at all. In addition to this, the students are asked to discuss the issue of English loanwords in Danish: ‘Is English a foreign language for you (=a language you are learning at school) or is it more like a second or additional language (=a language that is not just for school but also for everyday life)? Are you afraid that Danish language and culture are in danger of extinction? Explain’ (A Piece of Cake 8,2 web). Here, the author refers to discussions going on in Denmark about possible threats to the survival of the Danish language and culture. But it would have been relevant to note that among the world’s about 6700 languages, Danish is among the ca. 200 largest languages and therefore hardly threatened. English is treated in terms of ‘the global’ and the ‘world’, but it is not described as a transnational phenomenon in the sense that its users move around the world and bring their personal forms of English (their linguacultures) with them into new multicultural and multilingual contexts. An example chapter: ‘Global connections’

The chapter on ‘Global connections’ in A Piece of Cake 8,1 (the textbook) covers 22 pages and consists of 9 sections illustrated by many colourful and creative photos: • •

• • •

• • •

The song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon and a photo of the memorial to John Lennon in Central Park. Globalisation – like it or not! A photo assemblage of smiling young Indian women using phones and laptops together, surrounded by statements related to globalisation, such as ‘Restrictive governments can no longer stop information from reaching us’ and ‘Jobs are being outsourced – causing unemployment at home’ (see Photos 21–22). An informative text on the WTO and the WFTO. An informative text on Rotary Youth Exchange. A constructed interview (1 page) about Vietnam with a ‘global teenager’, a 19-year-old Brit who has travelled for nine months around North America, Vancouver, Fiji, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Nepal. A text about online social networking, including advice about the dangers of putting material online that one will probably regret later. A short informative text on World of Warcraft (WOW), an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). A text entitled ‘Lydia meets the Danes’ (5 pages) about a 13-year-old girl from Oregon who moves to Denmark with her family.

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Photo 21 Globalization – like it or not! A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 132.

•

The poem ‘Ations’, by Shel Silverstein, with rhymes on ‘ation’, for example: ‘salutation’, ‘consideration’, ‘civilization’.

The kinds of global connections that are focused on are connections between individual people by way of travelling, migration and digital communication, practices that lead to cultural encounters in real life or in virtual reality. (Another kind of transnational connection could be, for example, the fact that many commodities are produced using raw materials, labour, technology and capital from many different countries. See also Hannerz [1996].)

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Photo 22 Globalization – like it or not! A Piece of Cake 8, textbook, p. 133.

The concept of globalisation as represented in A Piece of Cake seems to cover many different aspects of the world situation, as illustrated by the kaleidoscopic statements mentioned above (13 in all, Photos 21–22). But it is primarily understood as an economic phenomenon, which can be seen in the choice of organisations to illustrate globalisation: the WTO and the WFTO. Thus, A Piece of Cake does not take up processes of cultural globalisation, such as the flow of musical genres and practices all over the world (cf. Pennycook, 2007). But on the website related to this chapter, the theme of English as a world language is taken up, as noted above.

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The chapter does not indicate why it is Indian women who are represented using IT in the global context (Photos 21–22), and not the usual British or US-American youngsters. This choice could have been accompanied by a text on India’s support of IT studies and of the development of IT competences – as a counterbalance to the story from the poor village in India (A Piece of Cake 8,1: 100ff). This chapter carries a heavy load of representing the global and transnational in a single chapter in the context of a long series of chapters that focus more or less directly on the national. Thus, A Piece of Cake is structured along the lines of the philosophy of transnational studies that I mentioned at the start of this chapter: the view that states and nations are the norm and transnational processes are the exception – they are something extra. One could also imagine the alternative philosophy as a structuring principle: the view that social worlds and lives are inherently transnational, and that transnational phenomena and dynamics are the rule rather than the exception. All chapters in the textbook could take the transnational and global perspective from the start: where are we in the world, why do we zoom into this country or phenomenon, how is it related to the rest of the world – and to us? Approach to intercultural learning

Although it is not said directly, it seems that A Piece of Cake wants the students to see themselves as (curious, resourceful and mobile) world citizens and to develop some sense of global responsibility, especially as regards individual behaviour vis-à-vis environmental problems. In order to gain knowledge about the world, there are frequent invitations to search on the internet. The world wide web is celebrated already in the fi rst chapter of A Piece of Cake 7. On the other hand, there are no reservations as to what kind of ‘information’ one can get on the internet. There are no indications of how one can reflect on the perspectives and interests of the writers behind the sources. The role of the teacher in this respect is crucial, but the authors of A Piece of Cake do not focus on this. The textbook in society

When we consider A Piece of Cake in the transnational flow of discourses about the world, how far do its discourses reach and how do they interact with other discourses? In Denmark, they will circulate in the schools where A Piece of Cake has been bought, maybe just in smaller fragments as teachers often print texts from some chapters in textbooks and leave other texts out. How they will be interpreted and further developed in the particular classes is, of course, impossible to know in general. But one can wonder whether they confi rm or contest already accepted discourses about the world in the school context in Denmark.

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As already mentioned, the Danish version is a very thoroughly reworked version of the Swedish version from 1994 (and ultimately from 1977). So, it has a transnational history, and it could in principle be reworked again by other editors in Scandinavia and similar countries. But textbooks that are regionally produced for specific markets are not easily translated. This is a field that needs empirical investigation, but my hypothesis would be that A Piece of Cake, like other regionally produced language textbooks, would not be translated or adapted for other parts of the world. This probably means that the discourses that it contains will remain circulating within Denmark. But on the other hand, the students who have been in contact with them, somehow take these discourses with them to other contexts, including the places they may travel to, in Denmark or other parts of the world. And again, one can wonder whether these discourses confi rm or contest already accepted discourses about the world in these other parts of the world? As the discourses favour the life of relatively affluent white Scandinavian/Nordic people (and probably over half of the actual students are just that), they will probably meet contradiction, perhaps laughter, in some quarters. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

In relation to the survey corpus, one can compare with Chapelle (2009, SC22), Krumm (1999, SC15), and especially Dumont (2002, SC20) and Starkey (1991, SC18). Starkey takes an explicit world perspective and tells about examples of transnational connections in his textbook Orientations (for the teaching of French): a unit on fashion points to links between French fashion and India where the garments are actually made; a unit on nature includes a text on a Greenpeace protest on nuclear testing in Nevada; and a unit on food points to connections between colonisation in Senegal and present-day food shortages (as I write in Chapter 2). These are good examples of how one can make transnational connections visible for students. Dumont’s analysis focuses on the role of the French language in the world. One of the traditional discourses of French language and ‘Frenchness’ focuses on the idea of ‘the universal’: the similarities between all humans at all times and in all countries. Compared to this, one can say that A Piece of Cake is not at all universalist. It indirectly stresses difference (‘language and culture go together hand in hand’, as the authors say in the teacher’s guides, e.g. A Piece of Cake 7,2: 14). The concept of universality is used in the title of the chapter on music: ‘Music – our universal language’. But it turns out that only music produced in Englishspeaking countries is treated as relevant.

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Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of transnational studies, and using A Piece of Cake as a stepping stone? The numerous statements on globalisation in the chapter on ‘Global connections’ (Photos 21–22) could be used as a point of departure for mindmaps where the students add associations to the statements in order to better understand (or at least imagine) the background and effects of the phenomena. They could think about how the statements could be connected and systematised. The teacher could suggest connections so that the total picture becomes a little less fragmented. And the students could discuss how their own lives are affected by processes of globalisation. A different approach could be ethnographic: the students could study the local supermarket or their home or their school, with a focus on the diversity and complexity of all sorts of locations due to transnational flows of commodities, discourses and images. The supermarket would be full of inputs from many parts of the world, and so would most homes and even the classroom. Even if one does not know the concrete answer, it is interesting to reflect on questions such as: Where were the tables produced and assembled? Where was the T-shirt produced, and the cotton and the dye? Where were the oranges grown? Why all this transport? Where does the news come from? Who has produced this textbook and all the photos in it? It may be possible to introduce the students to Appadurai’s model of five different ‘scapes’: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, fi nancescapes and ideoscapes. In my view, the metaphor of changing landscapes is a good tool when one wants to inspire the creation of imageries spanning the entire globe. A very important aspect of knowledge construction is to become aware of, and recognise, how little one knows about certain areas of the world. Knowledge construction along the lines of transnational studies requires a kind of bird’s eye perspective. The following offers an example of a project on Scotland seen in a transnational perspective. It is an imagined teaching sequence (about 12 lessons) in Grade 9 in the Danish Folkeskole, and it is characterised by a large number of different materials collected ad hoc. It could, for example, be linked to the text about Scotland on the website of A Piece of Cake. (The example draws on Risager [2014b, 2017], written before the Brexit referendum of 2016, which complicates the case.) It should be noted again that although much of the conversations and written work in the class is expected to be in English, Danish is also sometimes allowed if the subject matter is too difficult to express in English. Why Scotland? Scotland is located near Denmark and is regularly covered by the media. There are many relations of cooperation between

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Scotland and Denmark; many Scots are inspired by the Scandinavian welfare states; Scotland is in the middle of a politically interesting development; and many Danes like travelling to Scotland as tourists. The students are asked to fi nd as much material as possible on the internet or in other sources, under the guidance of the teacher, who also provides materials. The materials should contribute to the development of factual knowledge, to intercultural understanding and to critical citizenship (cf. the three methodologies presented in Chapter 2: thematic analysis, intercultural analysis and power and empowerment analysis). As regards the development of knowledge, students should gain some background knowledge in order to be able to understand the situation of Scotland. The students could themselves seek background information on the internet about topics like the main points in Scotland’s political history, geography, landscape, cities, population, languages – Scottish English, (Lowland) Scots, Scottish Gaelic and a large number of immigrant languages, fishing industry, oil industry, nuclear weapons and submarines, football and religious confl icts, flag, food, bagpipes, kilts, etc. They also look at what BBC News currently has on Scotland. Knowledge about Scotland need not only refer to conditions within Scotland’s own borders, but also to Scotland in the larger perspective: its relationship to England and the British Empire, its location in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, historical and actual relations to the Scandinavian countries, etc. For instance, the fact that the Church of Scotland is called ‘the Kirk’ would be an example of old linguistic relations as ‘kirke’ in Danish means ‘church’. The students may find something about the Scottish diaspora, formed by Scots who have emigrated to many parts of the world, or they may get an impression of what is going on in the Danish-Scottish Society, whose members are mainly Danes residing in Scotland. The internet is especially suitable for searching for more fact-oriented knowledge about many topics, but of course the students must learn to have a critical attitude to all sources. As regards the work with intercultural understanding, the teacher could collect, perhaps in collaboration with the students, a set of images, videos, lyrics, interviews, quotations, etc., on Scottish national symbols and ‘scottishness’ so that the students can become aware of different perceptions of Scottish identity, not only in Scotland but also, for example, in Denmark. They could examine how different groups of Scots see ‘the English’, and how different groups of English see ‘the Scots’. Or they could study how different groups of Scots perceive Denmark and Scandinavia, for example by considering the idea of ‘Scandinavian Scotland’. It may be necessary for the teacher to help the students fi nd suitable materials as it is important that the choice of perspectives is not too haphazard or one-sided. As regards critical citizenship, working with Scotland as a theme may contribute to the students’ awareness of power relations between countries, peoples and nations in the world. Denmark is an independent

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country (here the discussion of the role of the EU is relevant, of course) whereas Scotland is not. Why is it so, and should it, or can it, be changed? Furthermore, it should be noticed, also in comparison with Denmark, that Scottish nationalism and the independence movement are not ethnic but political: It is not (only) about ethnic Scots wanting to have better opportunities to cultivate their particular ethnic identities (language, etc.), but about all residents in Scotland, including immigrants, wanting political freedom. There are, for example, groups like ‘Scots Asians for Yes’ and ‘Africans for an Independent Scotland’. While it may be relatively easy for the students to fi nd more factually oriented information on Scotland, it is more difficult to fi nd materials on the internet that elucidate confl icts and ideologies in a sober way. Here, the teacher should supplement with, for example, relevant newspaper articles, blogs and other materials that can raise an informed debate. There might also be some people with personal links to Scotland who could be invited to the class to take part in discussions. A crucial point, relevant for the whole sequence, would be the management of the stereotypes that are activated in the process, not least national stereotypes. Stereotyping may be seen as a rhetorical figure (Pickering, 2001) that one can exploit in certain contexts to advance one’s cause, as it is done in publicity, in war propaganda and in humour, and the class should be encouraged to think of what people are doing when they are stereotyping. It should be noted that the focus in this description is on the collection of learning materials for knowledge construction. Other dimensions of learning, such as the language skills developed alongside the actual communicative activities, have not been touched upon although they are, of course, important. The learning materials in this example would be diverse and partly driven by students’ interests and luck in finding suitable inputs. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure some balance and to draw some conclusions – tasks that evidently presuppose that the teacher is qualified for this kind of teaching and is given the time to prepare lessons properly. Esperanto: Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando Presentation

The last textbook to be analysed addresses adult students of Esperanto. As already mentioned, Esperanto was constructed as an international language, meant for lingua franca use in the whole world. As English is the most important global lingua franca today, the two languages have something in common. They both have a strong transnational character. But they have very different origins, English having spread from being a much more local language (with all its varieties) used on the British Isles, especially in England, and Esperanto having spread from a desk in Białystok. The representations of culture, society and the world in A Piece of Cake and Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando are also very different.

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Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando (Travels in Esperanto-Land) addresses intermediate and advanced students (adults) all over the world. It was published in 2005 by an NGO: the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (the World Esperanto Association), Rotterdam. The author is Boris Kolker. Originally, it was conceived (by the same author) in Russia and published by Progreso (Progress Publishers), Moscow, in 1992. Progreso is a state company specialising in foreign languages, and it has published other books in Esperanto, among them Ulrich Lins: La danĝera lingvo (The Dangerous Language, 1990) on persecutions of Esperantists in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Union. See also the section on Esperanto in Chapter 1. Boris Kolker was born in 1939 in Moldavian ASSR, the Soviet Union, and in 1993 he migrated from Russia to the United States (Cleveland, Ohio) and worked as a teacher of Esperanto and as a translator. In the preface of the present edition, it is said that the Russocentrism of the first edition is inevitable, but that it has now to a large extent been eliminated (Vojaĝo: 9). The textbook, which aims at self-directed study in groups, only consists of one book of 280 pages. The full title is Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando. Perfektiga kurso de Esperanto kaj Gvidlibro pri la Esperanta kulturo (Travels in Esperanto-Land. Advanced Course in Esperanto and Guidebook to Esperanto Culture). In the following I will refer to the textbook as Vojaĝo.

Figure 7.1 Some facts about Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando

This book is very different from the other textbooks studied in Chapters 3–7. The approach to the national, the international and the transnational is different because of the transnational nature of Esperanto and the cultural ideas and practices of the Esperanto community and organisations. This will probably somehow characterise all textbooks for Esperanto. But Vojaĝo is also characterised by another aspect, which seems to be specific for this book, although it is in line with the general ethos in the Esperanto community of supporting an egalitarian attitude to interpersonal encounters. It is characterised by a very personal style, as the author’s voice can be heard (read) on almost every page. It should be pointed out that the textbook appears quite old-fashioned both as regards content and graphic layout. I will come back to the content below. Concerning the graphic layout, it uses very simple means. Beside the white colour of the paper itself, a light brown colour is used as decoration and as background colour for the contextual explanations of the author. Illustrations are black-and-white photos of people and places of special interest, as well as simple drawings in black. The only exceptions to this are the cover photos, which are in colour. The photo on the front cover shows people sitting beside a tour bus. It appears that the World Esperanto Association has chosen not to change too much in relation to the original Russian-produced version from 1992. The reason for this is probably that the book contains many extracts of historical sources of Esperanto culture that have not been collected for this learning purpose before. In addition, it would have been expensive and not always possible to replace black-andwhite photos with colour photos of the same motifs. Vojaĝo, in which everything is written in Esperanto, is divided into 26 lessons (lecionoj). The lessons do not focus on specific themes, so I cannot make a list of their sociocultural contents. All lessons consist of the following ingredients: messages from the author; extracts of original Esperanto literature and poetry; informative texts on people, places and

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events related to the Esperanto movement; texts on diverse topics such as nanotechnology, the traps of falling in love, tai chi, Switzerland, and earthquakes; comments on realia in the texts; and suggestions of language training activities and discussions of the texts. There are no central characters and no plot in Vojaĝo, but the personal presence of the author is felt throughout the book, as explained below. In the introduction, written by the author, it is said that Esperanto is such a good language that it deserves to be mastered at the same level as the fi rst language (Esperanto estu regata samnivele kiel la gepatra lingvo), and that Esperanto-Land is such a charming country that it deserves to be inhabited by linguistically well-educated citizens (Vojaĝo: 11). There are many texts in Vojaĝo about various aspects of Esperanto (affi xes, pronunciation, style, etc.) and the focus is clearly on the uniqueness of Esperanto, its literary merits and its merits in relation to communication and understanding across the world and regarding any topic – a humanistic, cosmopolitan and egalitarian orientation. For example, it is said in one of the fi rst lessons: ‘Do oni povas diri, ke Esperanto estas lingvo de popola diplomatio’ (So one can say that Esperanto is a language of popular diplomacy) (Vojaĝo: 23). I should add that some Esperanto speakers are idealists in this sense, others just see learning Esperanto as a hobby that offers opportunities for inexpensive alternative journeys around the globe. Besides the transnational reading presented here, a national studies reading of Vojaĝo would also be interesting. A large number of countries and cities are mentioned, but it is clear that Eastern and Central Europe, and Russia and other countries of the SNG (the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States), are at the centre, together with the United States (where the author is staying). After these come the rest of the Americas, East Asia and very seldom Africa (only Togo). From the Middle East, we only hear about Israel. (Generally there are very few speakers of Esperanto in the Arab countries, whereas there are quite a lot in Iran.) How are publishers, authors, teacher and students positioned and represented, particularly with regard to their transnational lives or networks?

The publisher, the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA), is the largest and most important organisation of the global Esperanto community, so its position as a transnational, or more precisely, international player, is clear. Its central office is located in Rotterdam, it has members from about 120 countries and coordinates national Esperanto associations set up in about 72 countries (cf. uea.org). Boris Kolker is shown in a colour photo on the back cover of the book. He is sitting smiling at the viewer on a fence or the like in front of a mountainous landscape, we don’t know where. He is wearing relaxed clothes – trousers

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and a short-sleeved patterned shirt. A speech bubble is added in which he addresses the viewer starting with these words (my translation): ‘Hello, my friend! Yes, in our comfortable bus, which will travel to Esperanto-Land, there is a vacant seat. What are we going to do during the travels? …’. So, he has the role of a tour guide to this particular ‘land’. Inside the book, he has three different roles. He starts with the role of the tour guide, as the speech bubble on the cover is repeated on one of the first pages. But immediately after this, he takes on the role of the author as there is a two-page text on the goals of the book, starting with the following words: ‘Dear reader! You have in your hands a unique book which has the following goals …’. This text is signed ‘Boris Kolker. Soviet Union – Russia – USA’ (hinting at his transnational biography) (Vojaĝo: 11, my translation). In this text, he refers to the teacher in the third person (la instruisto). Thirdly, on the first page of the first lesson, and in all the following lessons, he has the role of the imagined teacher, and this is indicated by a small icon showing a house by night, with tiny people in it. One of these people is the teacher, and his messages, explanations and personal comments are rendered in a speech bubble coming out of the house (see Photo 24 below). Sometimes, there are also bubbles with questions and comments from imagined students. This teacher not only introduces the texts but explains, week by week, what is normally going on in an Esperanto club, including lectures (prelegojn) by guests from abroad, transnational correspondence, excursions, celebrations (for instance, the celebration of Zamenhof’s birthday, 15 December) and work with the library of books in Esperanto. By the way, an excursion to Moscow is mentioned, so the little house by night is probably situated in or near Moscow. Thus, the book may also be used as a guide for people in different countries who want to start a local Esperanto club. This personal and multifaceted style of communication between the author and the students is very different from the other textbooks, where the authors are more or less anonymous, most in Puls and Caminando, less so in A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable, and least in Du bist dran, which offers photos of the authors to the teacher (but not the students). The reason for this big difference might be that the teaching of Esperanto is not regulated by any state or national school system, but takes place as part of a transnational community or civil society where people teach each other, sometimes on a voluntary basis. In Vojaĝo, the authority does not emanate from any state through an anonymous author, but from the personal legitimacy of the named author, whose history of migration is hinted at and whose personal comments and evaluations are expressed throughout the book – and behind him: the World Esperanto Association (UEA). Transnational organisations, companies, associations, networks?

The transnational community of Esperanto speakers (at every level from beginners to first language speakers) is not in itself organised. But in many

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countries, national and local Esperanto clubs have been created, and such national associations are organised together in the worldwide Universala Esperanto-Asocio. Vojaĝo often refers to this or to its world congress (Universala Kongreso), which takes place every year in different cities of the world (not yet in Africa or the Middle East, except Israel). These are important events that gather several thousand people including children. The Global Esperantist Youth Organisation (Tutmonda Esperantista Junilara Organizo) and The Esperanto Academy (Akademio de Esperanto), whose task is to conserve and protect the fundamental principles of Esperanto and control its development, are also often mentioned in Vojaĝo. These organisations, however, are not described as such, maybe because they are considered to be already known by the students. They are mentioned in relation to the presentation of heroes (pioneers, writers, etc.) and memory spaces (lieux de mémoire in French). The book is full of photos and drawings of well-known Esperantists and places, buildings, monuments, etc. Zamenhof’s birthplace (Photo 23 below) is an example, showing the house with a star above it (the Esperanto star symbol), an almost biblical representation (made by the artist Ichiel Tynowicki in 1931). An effect of this interest in heroes, not least those who have or have had high positions in the central Esperanto organisations, is that the representation of the world in Vojaĝo is very male-dominated (the females who are represented are mostly anonymous congress participants or other members). This is probably also related to the fact that the book was produced over 25 years ago and has not been reworked very much since. It is not really noted that there is a host of transnational associations using Esperanto as a means of communication within medicine, journalism, music, railways, religions, peace studies and many others. (Teachers of Esperanto are organised in ILEI: Internacia Ligo de Esperantistaj Instruistoj.) So transnational or international organisations are represented but not in any systematic way. Organisations outside the Esperanto community, such as the UN and UNESCO (and the League of Nations in the inter-war period) are mentioned, but only because the Universala Esperanto-Asocio is/ was linked to them. No other organisations, companies or networks outside the Esperanto community are mentioned. Thus, the representation of the world in Vojaĝo, despite its transnational and global orientation, is rather inward looking. It is not limited by national borders as the other textbooks, but by an organisational border derived from the community of Esperanto speakers. Transnational flows of ideas, discourses and practices?

Taken as a whole, Vojaĝo contributes to an image of how the ideas, discourses and practices related to the Esperanto movement and the Esperanto community at large are spread through Esperanto organisations

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and their congresses, services, libraries, museums and diverse media. The students are also encouraged to listen to news programmes in Esperanto produced in various places, for example in China or in the Vatican. But it does not deal with other kinds of flow, although some of the topics treated may be considered as examples of transnational flows, for example the practice of tai chi. Transnational mobility or migration?

There are many allusions to transnational mobility in Vojaĝo, especially in the form of guests from abroad who visit the Esperanto club and give a lecture on some topic, for example a presentation of their country. There are also accounts of journeys and the pleasure of meeting people in different parts of the world with whom one can speak fluently and perhaps form a far-flung network of friends sharing the humanistic ideas of Esperanto. Esperanto is not seen as (and probably very seldom is) an asset of the labour market. While Vojaĝo stresses the opportunities of free mobility, it does not mention any kinds of forced mobility, refugees, etc., except in relation to the persecution of Esperantists in the inter-war period. Vojaĝo does not use concepts corresponding to ‘diaspora’, ‘transnational’ or ‘globalisation’, one reason probably being that it is quite old. These concepts are highly useful for understanding the phenomenon of Esperanto. Another concept, mentioned above, is ‘transnation’ (Appadurai, 1996). Indeed one can say that the Esperanto community is a kind of transnation, not ethnically but linguistically defi ned, and to some degree also ideologically defi ned by a more or less common reference to humanism and universalism. Transnational digital communication?

Vojaĝo is very eager to tell students about the possibilities of transnational communication through all kinds of media, from letters to mobile phones and the internet. It does not, of course, mention social media. In a text on the internet, Kolker says: ‘La celo de Interreto kaj de Esperanto estas la sama – tutmonda komunikiĝo; ilis estas kvazaŭ kreitaj unu por la alia’ (The aims of the internet and Esperanto are the same – global communication; it is as if they were created for one another) (Vojaĝo: 268, my translation). Is the target language seen as a transnational phenomenon?

Ever since its publication in 1887, Esperanto has been seen as an international language (internacia lingvo) and the term transnacia is also often used today. Of course, this is also the point of departure in Vojaĝo.

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It presents – in fragments – the history of the ups and downs of Esperanto from being part of the mainly left-wing, anti-nationalist political landscape of Europe to its spread to other parts of the world. It does not, however, take up a discussion of the common-sense idea in the Esperanto movement that Esperanto is culturally and ideologically neutral (cf. Haberland, 2006). But in my view, discussions of Eurocentrism are important in relation to Esperanto, as are discussions of Anglo-Americano-centrism in relation to English. It should be added that Esperanto was originally created as a written language and then quickly developed as an oral language for more and more people. Still today, the written form of the language has a strong status as a means of worldwide communication, not least on the internet. Esperanto is made for lingua franca use, i.e. it is meant to be a common additional language for people who speak different national languages, or etnaj lingvoj (ethnic languages), as they are called in the Esperanto context. Compared to this, English is both an ‘ethnic’ language and, today, the most widespread means of communication for people speaking different languages. This privileges native speakers of English, a point often emphasised as a problem by Esperantists. On the other hand, the Esperanto community itself encourages people to gain native-like competence in Esperanto and some propose Esperanto-speaking bilingual families to raise their children in Esperanto as one of their first languages. An aspect of Esperanto use that Vojaĝo does not touch upon is linguacultural variability, since Esperanto is used by people with many different cultural backgrounds. It is very likely that people using Esperanto do not share connotations of words and expressions even if they speak ‘the same language’. An example: Lesson (Leciono) 6

This lesson covers nine pages and consists of seven sections illustrated by black-and-white photos and drawings: • • •

• • • •

A whole-page photo of the bookshop at the Universala EsperantoAsocio in Rotterdam. Drama text (monologues about loneliness) by Emilija Lapenna (continued from Lesson 5). János Nádasdi, ‘a guest from Hungary’, tells about what one can experience as a tourist in Hungary. Kolker, ‘the teacher’, adds that Hungary is one of the most central countries for the Esperanto movement, with many good publications. Another ‘guest from abroad’, Joachim Werdin, tells about what one can do with Esperanto after the course (see Photo 25). A small satirical poem by Štefo Urban: The cactus and the lizard. Comments on the texts, note by note. Tasks and discussions.

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Photo 23 Leciono 1 (Lesson 1). Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando, p. 12.

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Photo 24 Leciono 1 (Lesson 1). Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando, p. 13.

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Photo 25 Kaj post la kurso, kion? (And after the course, what can I do?). Vojaĝo en Esperantolando, p. 68.

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This lesson is chosen because it contains the text about what one can do with Esperanto after the course, positioning the individual student as an active agent in the transnational Esperanto community (and thus more generally in the process of linguistic and cultural globalisation). There are 13 proposals. You can: correspond with others; take part in national and international Esperanto events; listen to radio transmissions in Esperanto from different places; subscribe to magazines in Esperanto (which are not necessarily about Esperanto – my addition); work for magazines as a writer or researcher; read books/literature in Esperanto; write and translate books; develop your interests; use Esperanto in your professional life; study or teach at the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino, where one of the official languages is Esperanto; travel as a tourist with the Esperanto travel ‘passport’ (Pasporta Servo); found an international enterprise in commerce, tourism or other; or teach Esperanto. Approach to intercultural learning

As can be seen above, Vojaĝo offers many practical proposals of how one can use Esperanto to develop one’s interests and knowledge of the world. However, it does not encourage critical discussions of sources and documents. For many Esperantists (but not all), Esperanto is not just a language, but an idea (la interna ideo de Esperanto) or a mission or a hope (cf. that ‘Esperanto’ means he/she who hopes). In Vojaĝo, Kolker refers to a quotation by the Esperanto writer Julio Baghy (1891–1967, from Hungary): Esti esperantisto signifas ne nuran lingvoscion. Ĝi estas destino. Misio. Sopiro al pli bona mondo. Vera esperantisto ne fariĝas, sed naskiĝas, kaj li estas esperantisto jam antaŭ ol li lernas la lingvon. (To be Esperantist does not only mean to know the language. It is a destiny. A mission. A longing for a better world. A true Esperantist does not develop, but is born, and he is an Esperantist already before he learns the language.) (Vojaĝo: 28, my translation)

Kolker, ‘the teacher’, asks the students: Do you feel something similar? The quote is interesting because it touches on a more general question concerning the motivation for intercultural learning and understanding, namely to what extent and in what sense this is an aspect of one’s personality, whether this is actually inborn or whether it is acquired, or not acquired, early in life. Regardless of the answer to this question, the concept of intercultural learning – as far as the language dimension is concerned – changes its shape when we adopt a transnational perspective on language and culture. We will have to make use of the analytical distinction between culture

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in language (linguaculture) and language in culture (language users and language use moving from one cultural context to another). Learning Esperanto entails learning about the cultural and social content of Esperanto words and phrases, and the options and subtleties of Esperanto poetics, no matter where the language is used and no matter what topics are dealt with. Learning Esperanto may also mean entering the area of linguacultural variability, focusing on how different Esperanto speakers use and develop the language in their own personal ways while having in mind that the global Esperanto community must be united by a norm that secures intercomprehensibility. However, exactly the same may be said about learning English today, when we focus on the use of English as a lingua franca across the world and the use of English in written texts about any topic. Learning English is not just learning a language-and-culture, as A Piece of Cake apparently wants us to do by learning English as it is used mainly in Britain and the United States. A Piece of Cake is stuck in the national paradigm and does not take account of English as a real transnational phenomenon today. The section on Esperanto illustrates how a transnational language can offer opportunities for creating links between people in many corners of the earth, and presents ways in which it can be learned and taught. The textbook in society

Compared to A Piece of Cake, which was produced regionally for a Scandinavian market, Vojaĝo is both regionally and globally oriented. Its perspective is to a high degree Russian/SNG and Eastern European, but also US-American, reflecting the migration of the author from Russia to the United States. But it is also globally oriented as it may be used all over the world. No specific country of learning is presupposed. So the discourses of the book may flow (may have flowed) widely across the continents. But, as with A Piece of Cake, the African continent almost falls out of sight in Vojaĝo. In the case of Vojaĝo, it may be explained by the low number of Esperanto speakers in Africa, while this is certainly not the case for A Piece of Cake. Discussion in relation to the survey corpus

There is one article in the survey corpus that is very relevant to the representation of the world in Vojaĝo, and that is the one by Dumont (2002, SC20). As already stated, Dumont focuses on the role of the French language in the world and on the idea of the universal: the similarities between all humans in all countries. This echoes the idea of universalism in the Esperanto movement, but one can say that since Esperanto was constructed with the aim of becoming a world language (which is unrealistic today), its idea of universalism is less ambivalent than French,

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which has to straddle the (limited) francophone area and the whole (unlimited) world. Another near-analogy between French and Esperanto is that la francophonie is characterised by encompassing not only countries in which French is a fi rst or second/official language, but also potentially French-speaking élites in other countries. This is similar to the idea of the Esperanto community encompassing Esperanto-speaking people all over the world – but with the important difference that Esperanto is not carried by élites but by people from the middle classes, including the working classes. Possible supplementary materials

How can these reflections help us promote the construction of knowledge, along the lines of transnational studies, and using Vojaĝo as a stepping stone? Vojaĝo contains a valuable collection of historical sources, and of course it could be brought up-to-date by adding more recent materials. It would be important to try to counterbalance the male dominance in Vojaĝo. Further, Vojaĝo should be supplemented by materials that can raise the awareness of banal nationalism. The fact that the Esperanto community is transnational and that the movement has universalist aspirations, does not mean that the approach to the world is not characterised by banal nationalism. When ‘guests from abroad’ visit the Esperanto club in Vojaĝo, they very often present their home countries and cultures in a more or less stereotypical way (for instance, the presentation of Hungary in Example Lesson 6). At every Universala Kongreso of the UEA, the city and the country brand themselves positively because of the many visitors from all over the world. So ‘the national’ haunts the Esperanto community as much as other communities, although some try to counteract this, for example in the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT) (World Non-National Association) (literally ‘nationality-free’) with unionist, socialist and internationalist roots. Conclusion

The transnational studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Vojaĝo both deal with the transnational and global, but in very different ways. A Piece of Cake only contains one chapter that focuses on these aspects, under the heading of globalisation. The rest of the textbook is organised around the national or regional, either explicitly with chapters on, for example, Britain or South Africa, or implicitly with themes that seem to refer to activities in an English-speaking environment, for example sport or music. The world of Vojaĝo has a specific fi xed point or place of learning: the Esperanto club, situated in an unspecified location in

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the world, but implicitly situated in Russia, near Moscow. From there it looks out on the world and receives guests from many different countries, including ‘… esperantistojn el Makedonio, Svedio, Danlando kaj eĉ el la fora Kolombio’ (Esperantists from Macedonia, Sweden, Denmark and even from faraway Colombia) (Vojaĝo: 23). The Esperanto community has lived with global cultural awareness, world citizenship and cultural hybridity since its start, without using these words, and Vojaĝo reflects this – but still on a background of banal nationalism. In the world of A Piece of Cake, the ideas about the global and the transnational are new, and both exciting and disturbing (cf. the statements on globalisation in the Example section). A Piece of Cake does not mention the concept of English as a lingua franca, and Vojaĝo (naturally) does not mention the concept of lingua franca. But, in fact, the fields of English as a lingua franca and Esperanto studies could learn much from each other. They are both interested in communication between people who do not share any other language, but their interests are rooted in very different historical and ideological contexts.

8 Conclusion

Representations of the World: Five Readings

All the textbooks studied in Chapters 3–7 want to offer students the possibilities of developing their knowledge about the target language countries (or, in the case of Esperanto, knowledge about the contexts in which Esperanto is used). They offer quite a lot of information on culture and society, and they are full of photos of people and places. But their representations of the world may be problematised in several respects, and the five culture-theoretical readings can help us formulate the problems. The national studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran both create hierarchies in their representations of the world in the sense that some countries or regions are apparently seen as irrelevant or less relevant even though they are target language countries. The two textbooks do this, of course, in very different world contexts: the English language has two dominating centres, the UK and the US, while the German language has only one dominating centre: Germany. But both create hierarchies also between those that are outside the centres: In A Piece of Cake, Canada comes fi rst, then Ireland, Australia and South Africa, and India is mentioned in passing. A large number of countries are not mentioned at all. In Du bist dran, Austria comes before Switzerland. It should be emphasised that the textbooks cannot avoid some hierarchisation, but I fi nd it important that they – the authors – explain their choices using academically sound arguments (it is not enough that they have been there themselves), and that they present their arguments not only to the teacher but also to the students, maybe in their fi rst language or the language of schooling. An aspect of the national studies reading is that the representation of the world not only includes the countries and regions in which the target language is spoken (as fi rst, second or official language) but also other countries that are mentioned for one reason or another. We see that A Piece of Cake mentions a long series of countries, but curiously enough almost no countries in continental Europe. Du bist dran, on the other hand, mentions France and many countries in Eastern Europe. African countries (except South Africa) are more or less absent in the textbooks,

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although Britain and Germany have had important colonial relations with Africa. Another aspect of the national studies reading is the treatment of the country of learning. In both A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran, Denmark is present, but very vaguely described. The students are sometimes told to make intercultural comparisons between their own country (on the basis of their own knowledge and experience) and target language countries. But intercultural communication and understanding are practically never dealt with. Danish perspectives on the target language countries are never discussed, nor ‘their’ perspectives on Denmark. As to the treatment of the variability of the target languages, both A Piece of Cake and Du bist dran note that the target language has different national standard varieties, but they do not focus systematically on this. The citizenship education studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Puls construct a representation of the modern world in which only a very narrow range of political issues are relevant to be taken up in class, such as environmental problems, either seen as individualised problems (A Piece of Cake) or sometimes also as problems that may be tackled by collective action (Puls). Neither of the textbooks focuses on issues relating to multicultural, multilingual and multifaith society (for example, no minority languages are mentioned, nor Islam, the large minority religion), and neither of them shows interest in aspects of intercultural citizenship such as intercultural mediation and cooperation. The Cultural studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable both build a representation of the world that includes diversities along the lines of ethnicity, religion and class. But Français Formidable, and particularly A Piece of Cake, do not really touch on problematics that are characteristic of the Cultural studies approach, namely different and changing identities, voices, perspectives and discourses. Poetic dimensions of linguaculture are dealt with, but the other dimensions – the semantic and pragmatic dimension and the identity dimension – have almost no place in A Piece of Cake, whereas they figure in a more reflected way in Français Formidable. The postcolonial studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Caminando both include some texts on colonial history, but all in all the representations of world history are very unsatisfactory and do not give students a chance of understanding some of the background of inequalities in the modern world, including racism, Eurocentrism, Western-centrism, North–South relations and underdevelopment. Language hierarchies having emerged as part of global history are not dealt with. The transnational studies reading shows that A Piece of Cake and Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando both deal with the transnational and the global, but with very different points of departure in the history of the respective languages. Whereas A Piece of Cake represents a world that

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is fundamentally divided into separate (English-speaking) countries that are only connected (with each other and with the rest of the world) in a single chapter on globalisation, the whole of Vojaĝo constructs a world of Esperanto speakers who live in, and move between, different countries, and some of whom may be organised in Esperanto-related international and transnational organisations. A Piece of Cake deals only very minimally with English as a lingua franca, without using this term. The textbooks studied do not lend themselves evenly to the five readings. The national studies reading can be applied to almost every chapter in the textbooks since there are very often references to one or more countries. The Cultural studies reading can be applied to most chapters as well, as cultural categories and identities – gender, age, race, etc. – are represented everywhere. But the other readings generally have to lean on specific chapters or sections. There is little that relates to citizenship studies in A Piece of Cake except in the chapters on ‘The environment’ and on Food. There is not much on postcolonial studies in Caminando except in the chapters on Nicaragua and Cuba, etc. Some aspects are only present in the textbooks in the form of ‘mentioning’, for instance the mentioning of homosexuality in relation to Oscar Wilde in A Piece of Cake (cf. Apple & Christian-Smith [1991b: 10]: ‘Textbook publishers are under considerable and constant pressure to include more in their books. Progressive items are perhaps mentioned, then, but not developed in depth’ [emphases in the original]). The five readings span a large and diverse culture-theoretical field, starting in ‘the national’ and ending in ‘the transnational’. Concerning the transnational approach, I emphasise in Chapter 7 that it does not ignore ‘the national’: It recognises, of course, that there are states and state territories, and it also recognises the existence of discourses of national identities and national borders. But it places these in a larger context that underscores global connections and global power relations. Thus, the transnational approach touches upon one of the most central debates today: the role of national identities, and the role of national borders, in the midst of processes of globalisation and de-globalisation. Textbooks with Different Purposes

Four of the textbooks aim at foreign language teaching (English, German, French and Spanish), and they are rather similar. Generally, they show an open and welcoming world that one can visit and enjoy. There are lots of photos of smiling faces. There are also examples of problematic sides of life in the world, though, particularly in A Piece of Cake and Français Formidable: terrorism, wars (in the past), school shootings, homelessness, victims of disasters. But there are also differences between the four textbooks as regards their prioritisations of sociocultural content.

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In concrete cases it is often difficult to say to what extent the differences are related to the fact that we are dealing with different languages, or whether it is a matter of different views of the importance of intercultural learning or knowledge construction. For example, why is Français Formidable more ambitious concerning Landeskunde information, both on France and other francophone countries, than Du bist dran and A Piece of Cake? (cf. Chapter 3). The foreign language textbooks are thrown into relief by the textbook for Danish as a second language, and the one for Esperanto, a kind of foreign language, but also a born lingua franca. These have purposes that are different from the foreign language textbooks. Puls, which addresses (young) adult immigrants, is full of smiling people, too, but the focus is not on enjoying life in Denmark as a tourist, but on knowing about norms, rules and statistical data related to themes like work and different kinds of jobs, and education and immigration. It should also be noted that in the four foreign language textbooks as well as in Puls, gender is represented in a more or less egalitarian way. But whereas gender is never discussed as such in the foreign language textbooks, gender has a prominent place in Puls, as it has its own theme: ‘Ligestilling’ (equality/equal opportunities) (cf. Chapter 4). Thus, within the Danish context of immigration and integration, gender is a legitimate (and sometimes very stereotyping) topic in educational discourse, but not within the ‘outward-looking’ context of foreign language teaching. Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando is a special case in its emphasis on the organisational, cultural and literary history of Esperanto since the late 1880s. Travelling is a frequent topic, but the central figure is not the individual tourist, but the Esperantist visiting friends and potential friends all over the world. As for gender distribution, for example, the focus on heroes in the history of Esperanto, especially those who have been top leaders in the international organisations, implies that there is much greater weight on males than females in the representations – a distribution that is not questioned. Knowledge and Knowledge Construction

The representations of the world in the textbooks relate to all three dimensions of knowledge: factual (perspectival) knowledge, epistemology and common sense. First, factual knowledge is presented explicitly in informative texts and more implicitly in imagined interactions, literary texts and images. Here, we can distinguish between included knowledge (what is said, explicitly or implicitly) and excluded knowledge (what is not said, for example about the British Empire or the use of English in continental Europe and the EU). Second, epistemology is represented in the form of implicit hierarchies that determine the relative importance or

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relevance of places, identities and perspectives. Epistemology in A Piece of Cake, for example, gives much more space to First Americans than to African Americans, not to speak of Latinos, and it gives very little space to Danish perspectives. Third, common sense is represented in the form of implicit taken-for-granted ideas such as the conviction that the world is best described as a mosaic of countries (nations/states), i.e. banal nationalism, and the expectation of future free mobility for most students. Common-sense ideas and epistemologies, as well as excluded factual knowledge, contribute to ‘the hidden curriculum’, which has been defi ned as ‘the norms and values that are implicitly, but effectively, taught in schools and that are not usually talked about in teachers’ statements of ends or goals’ (Apple, 1979: 84). A common problem for all the textbooks (with the partial exception of the Esperanto textbook) is that knowledge construction is almost exclusively seen as a collection of facts, either from the textbook or from the internet (perhaps mediated by – or controlled by – the publisher’s website). The focus is on reading followed by reading comprehension tests or trivial-pursuit and multiple-choice games, often framed by cooperative learning activities. There could be much more focus on the development of awareness of different perspectives and identities – and hence epistemologies – for example in relation to work with short stories, songs, etc. A focus on critical literacy in relation to texts, topics and themes could raise the awareness of not only different perspectives and epistemologies, but also instances of common sense, for instance banal nationalism. The Visibility and Identity of the Author

The six textbooks are very different indeed when it comes to the visibility and identity of the author or authors. Caminando is the textbook in which the authors are most invisible. There are no portrait photos or CVs, and they do not even refer to themselves in the book (for example as ‘we’). This is a very impersonal style, although not completely anonymous, as the authors’ names are to be found on the cover. In Puls, the authors are also quite invisible, as there are no photos or CVs, but they do refer to themselves as ‘we’. A Piece of Cake is more personal. There are no photos or CVs, but the authors refer to themselves as ‘we’, and the main author enters the scene in her own name in one of the chapters, where there is a constructed letter to her from a student in Hawaii. In Du bist dran, the authors are visible right from the beginning in the teacher’s guides with photos and CVs – but not in the textbooks or the learner’s guides for the students. Français Formidable makes the choice that the illustrators, but not the authors, are represented with photos and CVs. In Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando, fi nally, the author is present throughout the book. He is shown full-size in a colour photo on

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the back of the book, he introduces the book and refers to himself as ‘I’, and it is his comments (‘the teacher’ in the small icons) we read on almost every page. He also stands as the named author of a few of the informative texts (small articles) in the book. The degree of visibility probably has some impact on the authority and credibility of the textbook. Another aspect of this is the identities of the authors as represented in the textbooks, in other words: their self-identifications. In Chapters 3–7, a range of potential author identities have been mentioned: national affi liation and identity; identity as a citizen with political values and agendas; subjectivity and cultural identities (gender, age, race, etc.); position in the historically developed global relations of power; and transnational life and networks. In most cases, we do not know anything about these aspects of identity because of the high degree of invisibility of the authors. But in my view it could enhance the overall dialogue between authors, teacher and students if the authors were more visible as persons, or subjects. Here, Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando offers a good example. On the other hand, the visibility and identity of the author should not be overestimated. As I argue in Chapter 1 concerning the three approaches to representation, namely the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist: The reflective approach is the basic one. The substance, i.e. the perspectival knowledge laid down in the multimodal texts of the language textbook, must be of quality, no matter who the author is and no matter how visible he or she is. Supplementary Materials

I note in Chapter 3 that the development of textbook materials, and all other learning materials, into combinations of printed and digital materials including external links, provides great possibilities to add supplementary materials, not only on the part of publishers but also teachers and students. Some of the materials may be written in the students’ fi rst languages. The supplementary materials suggested in Chapters 3–7 vary according to the concrete textbooks, which are different from one another. But my point of departure in all cases is that the learning materials composed for the whole teaching process must aim at quality as regards the overall representation of culture, society and the world. ‘Quality’, of course, is a difficult concept, but I try to approach it from two sides. In Chapter 1, I defi ned it negatively: The learning materials must try to avoid representations of culture, society and the world that are incorrect, outdated, overly simplified and superficial, stereotypical or socially and culturally biased. After the analyses in Chapters 2–7, I can also defi ne it positively (and still very briefly): The learning materials should be inclusive as well as power-sensitive. They should include many

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countries in the world as well as transnational processes; they should make students reflect on (intersections of) identities, and not least social class; and they should make students relate to and act upon major problems, power relations and hierarchies in the world. More concretely, I have several times pointed to the importance of using maps: geographical, political and historical maps, both maps that are Europe-centred and maps with other centres. Furthermore, for every country or other location, it is important to show some of the social and cultural complexity, including the different language groups and the struggles between them. Use of the more serious news media is crucial as well, and I suggest that students should be told about the possibilities of searching for information on what is happening in the world. They should be introduced to informed debates about what is happening, and they should be trained in managing them critically. One possibility I fi nd interesting is the suggestion by Camase (2009, SC4) that the textbook used in class might be compared to an older textbook for the same language, so that the students can see how representations and cultural priorities change over time. They could also be asked to consider how they would construct a textbook themselves – or other kinds of learning materials. The Study Seen in Relation to the Survey Corpus

The survey corpus presented in Chapter 2, covering a large number of countries, illustrates that a textbook is not necessarily produced, used and analysed in the same country. The textbooks I have studied (except the Esperanto book) have been produced in Scandinavia for use in Scandinavia (in this case, Denmark), and they have been analysed by me, a Dane and a Scandinavian. So the whole study constitutes a voice from Scandinavia. How does this geographical affi liation affect the representations of the world in the textbooks (except the Esperanto book)? This question is difficult to answer without empirically based comparisons with nonScandinavian textbooks, but I will offer a few suggestions. That the textbooks constitute a voice from Scandinavia does not mean that they constitute a ‘Scandinavian voice’. There is no reference to any Scandinavian or perhaps Nordic identity in the textbooks. There are also very few references to Denmark as the country of learning in the foreign language textbooks. The students are not supposed to learn anything particular about Denmark or learn to present Denmark to foreigners. So the foreign language textbooks are clearly outward-looking. All, including A Piece of Cake, focus predominantly on target language countries, and among them they give most space to the large European countries (the UK, Germany, France and Spain) plus the US and Canada, i.e. large parts of the Western world.

Conclusion 221

The textbooks have been produced in a wealthy part of the world and are characterised by an advanced and colourful layout and materials that exploit different media. Social and cultural life in the textbooks is dominated by white, middle-class people, and religion has very little place – except the main festivals of Christianity. Genders are represented as more or less equal. People are engaged in their health and in the environment, and children do not work of necessity. Problematic sides of society are to a large extent evaded. However, these more or less ideological characteristics can probably be found in many other textbooks produced by big publishing companies, who apparently do not hire professionals (sociologists, anthropologists, etc.) for the elaboration of the cultural and social side of textbook representation. The guidelines for language teaching in Denmark include requirements concerning knowledge about social and cultural conditions in target language countries. Probably not all countries offer language teaching having this kind of knowledge among their goals. But even if language teaching does not have this goal, the textbook still has to outline, however vaguely, a world in which linguistic interactions in the target language take place, and the teacher and the students will have to try to give meaning to it. Researcher Reflexivity

I am one of the actual readers of the textbooks, but I am not among the preferred readers. I read with the researcher’s eyes. At the same time, it should be taken into consideration that my subjectivity and personal history have probably had some impact on the readings and the whole study. The kinds of identities that are mentioned above in relation to the authors are also relevant for me as a researcher. As an extension of what I write in the Preface about my professional background and interests, I can add the following: I am ethnically Danish and a ‘native’ reader who analyses materials that are used in my own cultural context. Therefore, there may be blind spots in my analysis that an analyst from, for example, Greece or Cameroon or Singapore would not have. At the time of writing I am in my 60s, I am upper middle class, white, female and heterosexual, and as far as religion is concerned, I lead a more or less secular life in a country where Protestantism is the dominant religion. I am active in Western academia, and I am writing this in English, the language most strongly linked to power and privilege in the world. But my subjectivity and personal history should not be overestimated. As a researcher, I have tried to make the whole study (the specific readings and the survey corpus) as comprehensive, consistent, transparent and geographically balanced as possible – in other words, as least subjective as possible.

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Intercultural Competence: Which Directions?

Intercultural learning in the present volume focuses on the construction of knowledge, and knowledge is thus to be seen as an important ingredient in intercultural competence. But which directions can intercultural competence take? Which views of the world can it favour? The five culture-theoretical approaches can help us describe some of the directions that intercultural competence can take. Ideally, I would like intercultural competence to embrace all five, or at least avoid being stuck in the national studies approach because of its tendency to cultivate a reduced image of the world as consisting of isolated countries, each with its own essential culture. The national studies approach thus suggests an intercultural competence that focuses on knowledge about one or more target language countries and their (internally diverse) cultures. It uses language to translate and mediate between cultures. This is the most widespread conception of intercultural competence, not least in popular discourse, but probably also in many official guidelines for language teaching. The citizenship education studies approach suggests an ‘activistic’ intercultural competence, which focuses on knowledge about problematic aspects of society and the motivation to do something about them (if possible), individually or together with others. It uses language to mediate in (transnational) common projects. It comprises what Byram (2008) calls ‘critical cultural awareness’ and ‘intercultural citizenship’. The Cultural studies approach suggests an intercultural competence that focuses on cultural variability and change. It implies an ability and motivation to manage cultural and linguistic complexity, and to see oneself as part of the complexity. It includes an awareness of the important role of discourses in society. In comprises what Kramch calls ‘symbolic competence’, a competence that ‘makes language variation, choice, and style central to the language learning enterprise’ (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008: 667) (see also the discussion of intercultural competences in Dervin [2016]). The postcolonial studies approach suggests an intercultural competence that focuses on the awareness of the historical origins of the modern world with its inequalities and social, cultural and linguistic hierarchies. It includes the awareness of the important role of discourses in society and the world, e.g. orientalistic discourses or racist discourses. The transnational studies approach suggests an intercultural competence that is attentive to transnational flows of people, ideas and objects, as well as the existence of a multitude of organisations at regional, continental and global levels (cf. Risager, 2007, 2009). The concept of intercultural competence presupposes reflexivity, an orientation to the self as well as to the Other. Therefore, the five

Conclusion 223

different directions of intercultural competence also imply different understandings of the self. In the national studies approach, the national or ethnic identity of the self is foregrounded. In the citizenship education studies approach, what is foregrounded is the self as an active agent in culturally diverse societies, mostly conceived as countries. In the Cultural studies approach, cultural complexity comes to the foreground and the self is seen as an acting subject amid this complexity. In the postcolonial studies approach, the self is seen as part of global historical processes, including his or her own country’s history as dominator or dominated. In the transnational studies approach, the subject is seen as a part of transnational processes, and his or her life is linked to the rest of the world in various ways. The Language Textbook: A Dual Focus

The analyses in this volume focus on cultural representations in language textbooks. The textbooks would not exist if they did not also function as tools for language learning – whether the focus is on one or more language skills or on wider notions of communicative competence. Cultural representations in language textbooks are influenced by the fact that one of the goals is the learning of a particular target language. The analyses are meant to give an idea of the nature of this influence, and furthermore they offer a methodology that may be used in other analyses of language textbooks, as well as in investigations that compare language textbooks with textbooks in other disciplines. Thus, language textbooks are treated as having two foci: on the one hand, language and language learning, on the other hand, culture, society and the world and intercultural learning. The two foci are interrelated, as emphasised several times, not least in connection with the sections on culture in language (linguaculture) (Chapter 5) and language in culture (Chapter 7). One can say that the whole study is guided by the view that language teaching and learning, including language textbooks, may be seen analytically as characterised by a dual focus. This puts language textbooks, and other materials for language learning, in an interesting relation to fields that also have a dual focus, but of a very different kind. One example is the field of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). (I should add that the concept of ‘content’ is flexible, for language and language activities may of course also be seen as a form of content, see the discussion of the concept of ‘content’ in Liddicoat & Scarino [2013].) The field of CLIL is described as ‘a dualfocused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of content and language with the objective of promoting both content and language mastery to predefi ned levels’ (Marsh & Martín, 2012: 253). CLIL was developed in the European context

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in order to promote the learning of not only English but also languages such as French and German in an integration with the learning of regular subjects like geography, social science, business, mathematics or crosscurricular themes like environmental studies, human rights (Starkey, 2002) or any other collaborative project. CLIL resembles certain other fields such as ‘immersion’, ‘content-based language instruction’, ‘language for specific purposes’, ‘bilingual education’ or ‘English-mediated instruction’ (EMI) (Cenoz et al., 2014), but the proponents of CLIL insist on a balanced dual focus of content learning and language learning. There are elements of CLIL in the textbooks studied in this volume. In A Piece of Cake, the chapter on space, astronomy and astrology contains a lot of factually oriented texts and might be used in collaboration with physics. The chapter on the environment might be combined with biology. Also, in Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando, a number of texts deal with topics like nanotechnology or tai chi. However, although experiments with CLIL, and similar dual-focus endeavours, are interesting and relevant in some contexts, they also have serious implications for language teaching and learning. To the extent that language teaching and learning enters CLIL, it may very well lose the opportunities of perspectival and critical knowledge about culture, society and the world. It may lose the potentially wide spectrum of intercultural competences – as illustrated by the five approaches – that language studies can offer. In order to make this clear, language teaching and learning should aim more directly at a dual focus of its own. The cultural, social and political side of language textbooks and other language learning materials should be strengthened and made more visible and valid. It should be characterised by professionalism. Specialists in language and language learning should collaborate with people who are trained within other relevant fields, such as anthropologists, fiction writers, sociologists, geographers, journalists, historians, curriculum planners – especially people who are interested in interculturality. Thus, I agree with Feng and Byram’s suggestion: Foreign language textbook series like College English used on a large scale should be written by a team made up of, fi rst of all, local foreign-language specialists as chief writers supported by a sociologist, an anthropologist, a historian …. a scientist (as consultant for best representing the latest development in science and technology) and a photographer …. and some native speaking teachers or linguists. (Feng & Byram, 2002: 74)

The textbooks studied in this volume are already taking steps in this direction in various ways. Français Formidable contains a series of good informative texts on France and other francophone countries. Du bist dran presents a number of good user-friendly maps. A Piece of Cake includes numerous poems and jokes in many chapters, as does Du bist dran. Vojaĝo

Conclusion 225

en Esperanto-lando shows how the author can appear as a person, not as an anonymous voice. Français Formidable contains systematic historical overviews. A Piece of Cake presents lots of creative photos that sometimes contradict the ideology of the verbal text. Du bist dran makes experiments with small continuous stories running through the chapters. Français Formidable invites students’ reflections of identity, hybridity and racism. Thus, we can begin to see the contours of good multimodal textbooks (or collections of materials) that take knowledge of culture, society and the world seriously. They could be provided with subject and name indexes as well as references to other works and media that may contribute to our knowledge about target language countries and the world, written/spoken in the target language or in other languages known by the students. Maybe there could even be references to other good textbooks. This would create a new world of language textbooks dealing with diversities, problems and ways forward, taking the perspectives of different languages as their points of departure. Language learning materials – and their producers – have a responsibility as regards the knowledge that they put at the disposal of the teacher and the students. Knowledge about the world is important, and language studies have much to offer.

Appendix 1: Textbooks Selected

English: Joan Boesen and Marianne Rosendal (2011) A Piece of Cake 7–9 (textbooks, learner’s guides, teacher’s guides and website). Copenhagen: Alinea. German: Tanja Jessing and Annette Smidt Jørgensen (2012–2014) Du bist dran 1–3 (textbooks, teacher’s guides and website) (2nd edition). Copenhagen: Alinea. French: Margareta Brandelius et al. (2010–2013) Français Formidable 1–3 (textbooks, learner’s guides and website) (2nd edition). Copenhagen: Alinea. Spanish: Inge Margrethe Clausen (2009) Caminando (textbook and exercise book). Copenhagen: Gyldendal. Danish: Fanny Slotorub and Neel Jersild Moreira (2011–2014) Puls 1–3 (textbooks, teachers’ guides and website). Copenhagen: Alfabeta. Esperanto: Boris Kolker (2005) Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando (2nd edition). Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio.

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Appendix 2: Survey Corpus

SC1: Porreca, A.C. (1984) Sexism in current ESL textbooks. TESOL Quarterly 18 (4), 705–724. SC2: Adaskou, K., Britten, D. and Fahsi, B. (1990) Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco. ELT Journal 44 (1), 3–10. SC3: Canagarajah, A.S. (1993) American textbooks and Tamil students: Discerning ideological tensions in the ESL classroom. Language, Culture and Curriculum 6 (2), 143–156. SC4: Camase, G. (2009) The ideological construction of a second reality: A critical analysis of a Romanian EFL textbook. MA thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, The University of Toronto. SC5: Gray, J. (2010a) The Construction of English. Culture, Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT Global Coursebook. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. SC6: Yamada, M. (2010) English as a multicultural language: Implications from a study of Japan’s junior high schools’ English language textbooks. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 31 (5), 491–506. SC7: Gulliver, T. (2010) Immigrant success stories in ESL textbooks. TESOL Quarterly 44 (4), 725–745. SC8: Gray, J. (2013c) LGBT invisibility and heteronormativity in ELT materials. In J. Gray (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Language Teaching Materials (pp. 40–63). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. SC9: Weninger, C. and Kiss, T. (2013) Culture in English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks: A semiotic approach. TESOL Quarterly 47 (4), 694–716. SC10: Gray, J. and Block, D. (2014) All middle class now? Representations of the working class in the neoliberal era: The case of ELT textbooks. In: N. Harwood (ed.) English Language Teaching Textbooks: Content, Consumption, Production (pp. 45–71). Palgrave Macmillan. SC11: Mahboob, A. (2015) Identity management, language variation and English language textbooks: Focus on Pakistan. In D.N. Djenar, A.

227

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Mahboob and K. Cruickshank (eds) Language and Identity across Modes of Communication (pp. 153–177). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. SC12: Ammer, R. (1988) Das Deutschlandbild in den Lehrwerken für Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Die Gestaltung des landeskundlichen Inhalts in den Lehrwerken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von 1955 bis 1985 mit vergleichenden Betrachtungen zum Landesbild in den Lehrwerken der DDR [The Image of Germany in Textbooks for German as a Foreign Language. The Form of Landeskunde Content in Textbooks from West Germany from 1955 to 1985 with Comparative Reflections on the Image of the Country in Textbooks from the DDR]. München: Iudicium. SC13: Dechert, C. and Kastner, P. (1989) Undergraduate student interests and the cultural content of textbooks for German. Modern Language Journal 73, 178–191. SC14: Byram, M. and Doyé, P. (1993a) Conclusion. In M. Byram (ed.) Germany: Its Representation in Textbooks for Teaching German in Great Britain (pp. XX). Frankfurt a. M.: Verlag Moritz Diesterweg. SC15: Krumm, H.-J. (1999) Landeskunde Deutschland, D-A-CH oder Europa? Über den Umgang mit Verschiedenheit im DaF-Unterricht [Landeskunde Germany, D-A-CH or Europe? On dealing with difference in the teaching of German as a foreign language]. In H. Barkowski and A. Wolff (eds) Alternative Vermittlungsmethoden und Lernformen auf dem Prüfstand (pp. 31–61). Regensburg: Fachverband Deutsch als Fremdsprache. SC16: Sercu, L. (2000) Acquiring Intercultural Communicative Competence from Textbooks. The Case of Flemish Adolescents Learning German. Leuven: Leuven University Press. SC17: Maijala, M. (2004) Deutschland von außen gesehen [Germany Seen from Abroad]. Oxford: Peter Lang. SC18: Starkey, H. (1991) World studies and foreign language teaching: Converging approaches in textbook writing. In D. Buttjes and M. Byram (eds) Mediating Languages and Cultures (pp. 209–221). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. SC19: Arbex, M. (2000) La diversité culturelle dans les méthodes de FLE utilisées au Brésil [Cultural diversity in textbooks for French as a foreign language used in Brazil]. Dialogues et Cultures 44, 92–98. SC20: Dumont, P. (2002) Les manuels de FLS et la francophonie [Textbooks for French as a second language and the Francophonie]. ELA 125, 111–121.

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SC21: Auger, N. (2007) Constructions de l’interculturel dans les manuels de langues [Constructions of the Intercultural in Language Textbooks]. Cortil-Wodon: E.M.E. SC22: Coffey, S. (2013) Communicating constructions of Frenchness through language coursebooks: A comparison. In J. Gray (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Language Teaching Materials (pp. 137–160). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. SC23: Chapelle, C.A. (2014) Five decades of Canadian and Québec content in French textbooks in the United States. American Review of Canadian Studies 44 (4), 415–432. SC24: Ramirez, A. and Hall, J. (1990) Language and culture in secondary level Spanish textbooks. Modern Language Journal 74 (1), 48–65. SC25: Leeman, J. and Martínez, G. (2007) From identity to commodity: Ideologies of Spanish in heritage language textbooks. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 4 (1), 35–65. SC26: Pozzo, M.I. and Fernández, S. (2008) La cultura en la enseñanza de español LE: Argentina y Dinamarca, un estudio comparativo [Culture in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language: Argentina and Denmark, a comparative study]. Diálogos Latinoamericanos 14, 99–128. SC27: Eide, L. (2012) Representasjoner av ’målspråksområdet’ i fremmedspråksfaget. En studie av Latin-Amerika i lærebøker i spansk [Representations of the ‘target-language area’ in the foreign language subject. A study of Latin America in textbooks for Spanish]. PhD dissertation, University of Bergen, Norway. SC28: Vinall, K. (2012) ¿Un legado historico? [A historical legacy?] Symbolic competence and the construction of multiple histories. L2 Journal 4, 102–123. SC29: Ros i Solé, C. (2013) Spanish imagined: Political and subjective approaches to language textbooks. In J. Gray (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Language Teaching Materials (pp. 161–181). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. SC30: Stougaard-Nielsen, J. (2011) Danishness, cosmopolitanism and democratic citizenship in Danish language learning materials. In J. Fenoulhet and C. Ros i Solé (eds) Mobility and Localisation in Language Learning (pp. 199–222). Berlin: Peter Lang.

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Author Index

Abraham, T., 158 Adaskou, K., 34, 40, 41, 89, 102, 227 Agar, M., 133 Ahmed, F., 33 Ahmed, K., 33 Ahmed, S., 3, 131 Alptekin, C., 30, 33, 90 Alptekin, M., 30, 33, 90 Alred, G., 106 Altbach, P.G., 15, 16 Altmayer, C., 42 Ammer, R., 42, 43, 47, 64, 102, 228 Ammon, U., 42 Andersen, H., 27 Anderson, B., 62, 63, 186 Andon, N., 42 Aplin, R., 48 Appadurai, A., 186, 187, 198, 205 Apple, M.W., 3, 16, 107, 216, 218 Arbex, M., 49, 52, 228 Auerbach, E., 33 Auger, N., 50, 52, 59, 63, 229 Baker, W., 30, 133 Bakhtin, M., 132 Balandier, G., 158 Barrett, M., 4 Bateman, B., 24 Bauman, Z., 186 Baumgratz, B., 47 Benesch, S., 33 Benveniste, E., 50 Bertoletti, M.C., 47 Bhabha, H.K., 158, 160, 187 Bhambra, G., 161 Billig, M.. 3, 58, 61, 62, 101, 112 Blanke, D., 7 Block, D., 33, 39, 40, 41, 59, 133, 144, 156, 157, 227 Boesen, J., 67, 70, 71, 111, 137. 226 Bongaerts, H., 53, 65 Borzelli, P., 53 Brandelius, M., 145, 226 Bredella, L., 25 Bregnsbo, M., 21

Breum, M., 21 Britten, D., 227 Brooks, N., 43 Buravova, L., 24 Burgess, D., 33 Byram, M., 11, 25, 28, 29, 33, 42, 44, 47, 63, 64, 66, 73, 76, 102, 105, 109, 118, 128, 224, 228 Callaghan, M., 47 Camase, G., 26, 30, 35, 36, 41, 89, 102, 220, 227 Canagarajah, S., 34, 35, 40, 163, 172, 182, 227 Carillo Cabello, A.A., 53 Castagnani, T., 53 Castellotti, V., 47 Cenoz, J., 224 Chambers, D., 51 Chapelle, C.A., 24, 51, 52, 197, 229 Chen, Y., 33 Choppin, A., 16 Christian-Smith, L.K., 3, 16, 216 Clammer, D., 16 Clausen, I.M., 174, 226 Clifford, J., 186 Coffey, S., 50, 51, 52, 59, 156, 229 Corbett, J., 66 Cordier-Gauthier, C., 48 Cortazzi, M., 29, 30 Cuesta, I. de la, 53 Cummins, J., 25, 26 Curdt-Christiansen, X.L., 6, 16, 33 Dahlet, P., 47 Dailey-O’Cain, J., 105 Daryai-Hansen, P., 7 Davcheva, L., 23 Dechert, C., 43, 44, 47, 59, 228 Delanoy, W., 25 Dendrinos, B., 16, 31, 33 Denevan, W.M., 166 Dervin, F., 33, 130, 222 Doyé, P., 42, 44, 47, 102, 228 Dumont, P., 49, 52, 197, 211, 228

247

248

Author Index

During, S., 132 Dussel, E., 158, 159, 161 Eide, L., 28, 54, 55, 57, 172, 183, 229 Elissondo, G., 53 Engel, U., 42 Fahsi, H., 227 Fairchough, N., 10, 13, 25, 189 Fanon, F., 158 Feng, A., 33 Fenner, A.-B., 10, 25 Fenoulhet, J., 6, 229 Fernández, S.S., 53, 54, 56, 57, 183, 229 Fink, M.C., 42 Fischer, R., 103 Forster, P.G., 7 Foucault, M., 2, 159 Frankopan, P., 186 Frantzen, D., 53 Freire, P., 107, 109 Friz, S., 33, 42 Gagel, W., 108 Gargallo, I.S., 53 Gellner, E., 62 Gerighausen, J., 42 Giroux, H.A., 107, 108, 109 Glick Schiller, N., 186 Gonzalez, M., 133 González Casado, P. 53 Goodman, S., 25, 33 Gramsci, A., 159 Gray, J., 6, 14, 15, 16, 26, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 59, 65, 109, 133, 136, 144, 154, 155, 156, 157, 227, 229 Grossberg, L., 132 Grzanka, P.R., 131 Guilherme, M., 109, 132, 133 Gulliver, T., 26, 37, 38, 40, 59, 126, 227 Gulløv, H.C., 162 Haberland, H., 206 Hahl, K., 17 Hall, J., 26, 53, 57, 59, 229 Hall, S., 5, 6, 11, 14, 131, 158, 186 Hannerz, U., 186, 194 Harklau, L., 109 Harwood, N., 2, 33, 227 He, X., 24 Heater, D., 16 Henriksen, T., 48 Heuer, H., 42

Hewings, M., 33 Himmelmann, G., 106, 108 Hino, N., 30, 33 Hobsbawm, E.J., 62 Hofstede, G., 55 Hoggart, R., 130, 131 Holliday, A.R., 63, 73, 132, 188 Holmes, P., 33 Hong, H., 24 Houghton, S., 109 Hutchinson, T., 2 Ilieva, R., 33 Jackson, P.W., 107 Jakubiak, C., 109 Janks, H., 144 Jenkins, E.-A., 103 Jensen, K.V., 21 Jensen, L., 158 Jessing, T., 91, 98, 226 Jin, L., 29, 30 Jørgensen, A.S., 91, 226 Jørgensen, J.C., 27 Johnsen, E.B., 16 Kachru, B.B., 37, 90 Kagan, S., 68, 70 Kapitzke, C., 33 Kast, B., 42 Kastner, P., 43, 44, 47, 59, 228 Kearney, E., 133 Khagram, S., 185, 186 Kirkebæk, M.J., 24 Kirsch, F.-M., 42 Kiss, T., 6, 25, 26, 38, 39, 41, 227 Klafki, W., 107, 108, 109 Kolker, B., 201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 210, 226 Koreik, U., 42 Kramer, J., 133 Kramsch, C., 6, 16, 25, 31, 42, 53, 55, 56, 63, 132, 135, 163, 222 Krauskopf, J., 42, 48 Kress, G.R., 25 Krippendorff, K., 26 Krumm, H.-J., 24, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 66, 102, 197, 228 Kullman, J., 33 Kumaravadivelu, B., 63, 188 Kundrus, B., 161 Kymlicka, W., 106

Author Index 249

Lähdesmäki, S., 10 Langer, J., 27 Lappalainen, T., 33 Lee, K.-Y., 33 Leeman, J., 53, 57, 229 Leeuwen, T. van, 25 Levitt, P., 185, 186 Liddicoat, A.J., 63, 66, 133, 223 Lins, U., 8, 201 Lobato, J.S., 53 Louis, V., 48 Luke, A., 31, 56, 144, 145 Lund, R., 33 McGrath, I., 2 MacGregor, N., 42 McKay, S.L., 30, 33 McLelland, N., 24, 42 Mcleod, J., 158 Mahboob, A., 39, 40, 41, 117, 227, 228 Maijala, M., 46, 47, 102, 172, 228 Mar-Molinero, C., 28 Marsh, D., 223 Martin, M.J.F., 223 Martínez, G., 53, 57, 227 Masuhara, H., 2 Matos, A.G., 133 Matsuda, A., 33 Mattos, M., 24 Meadows, B., 188 Méndez García, M.d.C., 33, 109 Meyer, M., 25, 189 Michler, C., 48 Mignolo, W., 8, 158, 159 Miller, A., 48, 133 Monasterios, E., 158 Moreira, N.J., 119, 226 Mukherjee, H., 33 Narcy-Combes, M.F., 33 Ndura, E., 33 Nelson, C.L., 37, 90 Nelson, G., 30 Nerlov, L., 67 Neuner, G., 33, 42 Neurohr, E., 45 Omar, T., 22 Or, I.G., 24 Osler, A., 109 Otlowski, M., 33 Parekh, B., 106

Parmenter, L., 29 Pasquale, R., 48 Pavlenko, A., 24, 30, 35, 41 Pellandra, C., 48 Pennycook, A., 162, 188, 195 Phillipson, R., 163 Phipps, A., 133 Pickering, A., 200 Pilkington, A., 24 Pingel, F., 16 Plonski, P., 47 Poddar, P., 161, 162 Porreca, A.C., 33, 34, 41, 59, 227 Porto, M., 108, 109 Pozzo, M.I., 53, 54, 56, 57, 65, 183, 229 Preiswerk, R., 16 Prodromou, L., 30 Purtschert, P., 162 Quijano, A., 158 Quist, G., 13, 24, 133 Ramirez, A., 26, 53, 57, 59, 229 Rashidi, N., 33 Ray, S., 161 de Reuse, W.J., 24 Reuter, H., 57 Risager, K., 4, 7, 16, 20, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 42, 55, 60, 63, 64, 76, 93, 107, 108, 109, 118, 130, 132, 133, 135, 186, 188, 198, 222 Ros i Solé, C., 6, 53, 56, 57, 117, 127, 133, 173, 182, 229 Sadker, D.M., 16, 17 Sadker, M.P., 16, 17 Said, E.W., 55, 158, 159, 160, 162 Santos, B. de S., 3, 159, 184 Santos, D., 33 Sayer, P., 188 Scarino, A., 63, 66, 223 Schneer, D., 33 Schulze, M., 33, 42 Schurig, M., 27 Schwarz, H., 161 Seel, P., 42 Seidlhofer, B., 33 Sercu, L., 23, 24, 28, 45, 47, 59, 102, 228 Shardakova, M., 24 Shohamy, E., 24 Slotorub, F., 119, 226 Smith, A.D., 62, 63 Sørensen, F.. 91

250

Author Index

Spivak, G.C., 158, 161, 184 Starkey, H., 29, 48, 52, 109, 117, 188, 197, 224, 228 Stenlev, J., 68 Stougaard-Nielsen, J., 57, 58, 109, 117, 127, 229 Suárez-Krabbe, J., 3, 158, 184 Suaysuwan, N., 33 Sujew, D., 16, Sunderland, J., 33 Svarstad, L.K., 133 Titscher, S., 24, 25 Togeby, L., 22 Tomlinson, B., 2, 4, 5 Tonkin, H., 7 Torres, E., 2 Tranekjær, L., 3 Troncoso, C.R., 33 Turnbull, M., 105 Turner, B.S., 186 Tyrer, E., 15, 33 Ucharim, A., 42 Ulrich, N., 23 Urry, J., 186, 192

Verdelhan-Bourgade, M., 24, 48 Verlée, L., 48 Vinall, K., 31, 32, 53, 55, 57, 59, 163, 173, 183, 229 Wagner, J., 57 Wallace, C., 144, 145 Warmbold, J., 42 Wegner, A., 42 Weninger, C., 6, 16, 24, 25, 26, 33, 38, 39, 41, 227 Whiteside, A., 55 Widdowson, H.G., 33 Wilkins, D.A., 92 Williams, J.P., 24 Williams, R., 11, 131 Wimmer, A., 186 Wingate, U., 42 Wodak, R., 25, 189 Yamada, M., 37, 40, 41, 59, 89, 227 Yamanaka, N., 33 Yuen, K.-M., 72 Yildiz, S., 42 Zarate, G., 48, 188

Subject Index

actor, 13, 14, 66, 109, 110, 116, 136, 142, 144, 163, 185, 190 analyst, 6, 14, 32, 40, 46, 50, 52, 56, 58, 135, 221 anglophone, 15, 91, 103, 149, 158, 167, 171, 184 Anglosphere, 72 Arabic, 7, 24, 49 awareness, 3, 25, 26, 39, 45, 51, 58, 63, 66, 101, 107ff, 116, 117, 122, 131, 133, 136, 142, 143, 150, 154, 157, 159, 164, 165, 171, 173, 181, 183, 188, 190, 192, 199, 212, 213, 218 banal nationalism, 58, 61ff, 66, 87, 88, 101, 104, 112, 121, 127, 128, 212, 213, 218 bias, 6, 221 CEFR, 20, 64 Chinese, 2, 7, 23, 24, 49, 73, 106, 111 citizenship, 1, 10ff, 18, 19, 22, 27, 38, 57ff, 62, 78, 106ff, 130, 133, 147, 158, 190, 199, 213, 215, 216, 222, 223, 229 CLIL, 223, 224 colonialism, 8, 11, 49, 134, 158ff, 171, 182 commodity, 136, 194, 198, 229 common sense, 3, 61ff, 217, 182 connotation, 1, 34, 39, 106, 134, 135, 137, 139, 162, 206 content, 1, 4, 5, 10, 24, 26ff, 33, 34, 37, 38, 40, 45, 51ff, 73, 90, 107, 110, 154, 164, 175, 187, 188, 201, 211, 216, 223, 224, 227, 228, 229 contrapuntal, 160, 164, 171, 182 critical literacy, 144, 145, 157, 218 cultural politics, 11, 23, 27, 31f, 131 Cultural studies, 1, 5, 10ff, 14, 18, 19, 22, 35, 59, 130ff, 157, 158, 215, 216, 222, 223 culture in language, 133ff, 224 decolonial, 158, 161 diaspora, 58, 185, 187, 190, 192, 200, 205 discourse analysis, 13, 25, 26, 37, 59, 66, 189

dual focus, 22, 223, 224 emotion, 1, 3, 4, 14, 37, 38, 51, 131, 132 empowerment, 23ff, 27, 31, 32, 41, 52, 57, 58, 107, 128, 199 engaged, 25, 48, 106, 109, 111, 117, 120, 182, 221 epistemology, 3, 25, 61, 132, 134, 157, 159, 184, 217, 218 essentialism, 56, 130, 132, 136, 142ff, 154, 156 ethnicity, 11, 12, 37, 39, 130ff, 160, 184, 216 Eurocentrism, 24, 29, 47, 54, 55, 57, 159, 161, 173, 181ff, 206, 215 factual knowledge, 3, 4, 24, 25, 61, 101, 132, 165, 199, 217, 218 francophone, 30, 47, 49, 50, 51, 65, 91, 103, 147ff, 156, 158, 212, 217, 224 gender, 1, 11, 34, 38, 39, 41, 45, 51, 59, 107, 118, 122, 130ff, 184, 185, 187, 216, 217, 219, 221 genre, 4, 7, 10, 16, 27, 31, 68, 71, 86, 134, 136, 167, 187, 190, 195 geography, 1, 3, 5, 16, 17, 27, 28, 32, 40, 43, 45, 46, 51, 52, 54, 56, 58, 65, 71, 75, 87, 91, 93, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103, 116, 120, 142, 146, 165, 173, 175, 191, 199, 220, 221, 224 geopolitics, 18, 29, 30, 40, 58, 97 globalisation, 54, 63, 68, 78, 102, 103, 185ff, 216 guidelines, 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 20, 69, 94, 95, 221, 222 hierarchies, 3, 7, 27, 90, 112, 137, 159ff, 178, 181, 182, 184, 214, 215, 217, 220, 222 hispanophone, 15 IARTEM, 16 ideology, 1, 14, 16, 25, 31, 35, 36, 54, 55, 107, 109, 127, 135, 144, 163, 182, 187, 200, 205, 206, 213, 221, 227, 229

251

252

Subject Index

imperialism, 8, 11, 134, 158ff implicit, 3, 6, 18, 75, 126, 146, 212, 213, 217, 218 intercultural competence, 22, 45, 59, 108, 222ff intercultural speaker, 73, 105, 133, 135, 148 interculturality, 31, 130, 224 intersectionality, 11, 39, 131, 133, 136, 141, 143, 220 Landeskunde, 19, 27, 42, 44, 47, 64, 98, 102, 147, 217, 228 LGBT, 38, 227 linguaculture, 73, 133ff, 136, 137, 139, 150, 189, 193, 211, 215, 223 lingua franca, 12, 33, 69, 72, 76, 129, 200, 206, 211, 213, 216, 217 lusophone, 103 maps, 61, 72, 87, 90, 97, 100, 101, 149, 166, 168, 173, 177, 184, 220, 224 MATSDA, 2, 4 methodology, 1, 24ff, 32, 41, 47, 52, 58, 59, 66, 130, 142, 144, 157, 199, 223 migration, 11, 21, 22, 48, 51, 70, 74, 101, 106, 113, 119, 121, 122, 125, 127, 149, 159, 167, 173, 175, 186ff, 190, 192, 194, 203, 205, 211, 217 multilingual, 32, 56, 101, 108, 121, 127ff, 132, 148, 173, 184, 193, 215, 227, 228 multimodal, 6, 9, 26, 219, 225 nationality, 8, 11, 26, 39, 50, 61, 62, 101, 121, 130, 131, 188, 212 native speaker, 8, 15, 16, 34, 36, 41, 51, 70, 72, 73, 76, 95, 105, 135, 137, 144, 189, 206

orientalism, 158ff Othering, 132, 133, 136, 137, 143, 162 PARSNIP, 15 postcolonial, 1, 5, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 22, 40, 51, 56, 57, 78, 133, 147, 158ff, 189, 215, 216, 222, 223 race, 11, 16, 22, 36, 37, 75, 77, 78, 99, 101, 107, 121, 130ff, 158ff, 188, 215, 222, 225 religion, 1, 11, 15, 29, 43, 53, 59, 62, 68, 78, 91, 112, 113, 128, 130ff, 160, 167, 181, 204, 215, 221 semiotic, 14, 25, 26, 38, 59, 134, 227 social class, 28, 29, 39, 41, 59, 130ff, 139, 157, 190, 220 stereotype, 4, 6, 28, 35, 39, 44, 50, 60, 66, 88, 89, 101, 132, 143, 144, 179, 183, 185, 200, 212, 217, 219 subjectivity, 12, 28, 56, 130, 136, 143, 156, 157, 188, 219, 221 symbolic competence, 55, 222, 229 thematic, 1, 5, 23, 24, 27ff, 32, 41, 43, 44, 47, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 64, 65, 68, 76, 87, 92, 101, 102, 119, 146, 175, 199 UN, 118, 157 UNESCO, 16, 204 visual, 10, 13ff, 25, 55, 70, 118, 155 voice, 32, 54, 55, 70, 74, 77, 125, 127, 136, 137, 142, 148, 156, 157, 161, 164, 172, 178, 180, 182ff, 201, 215, 220, 225 worldliness, 160, 162, 164, 172, 182