The effects of a critical approach on Algerian university learner the effects of a critical approach on Algerian university learners of English cross-cultural awareness.

Abstract

The present thesis attempted to evaluate the culture content of seven in-use Algerian EFL textbooks at both the secondary school and middle school levels from the vintage point of an imbrication of two of the most outstanding critical approaches in applied linguistics, critical pedagogy and English as a lingua franca movement(ELF). Critical Pedagogy (CP) conceives educational action as a social process the aim of which is to liberate the individual by means of a method of ‘conscientization’ based on dialogue.In a clear departure from the concept of nativity, the new conception of English as a lingua franca in English language teaching English as lingua franca is based on the argument that the increasingly global role that English has come to play in the modern world has been possible thanks to the concept of internationality, it is used by an ever-expanding number of people who do not share a first language. Hence, English language teaching should abandon the traditional native-speakers norms in favor of a new orientation the aim of which is to teach English as a communicative tool across languages and cultures. Against the backdrop of an imbrication of these two perspectives, the culture content of four in-use Middle school textbooks(My Book of English One, My Book of English Two, My Book of English Three, and My Book of English Four) and three in-use secondary school textbooks (, At the Crossroads Getting Through, and New Prospects) have been evaluated with reference to two major research questions: (1) - Does the culture component of the Algerian middle and secondary school textbooks equip learners with an adequate level of critical awareness that would enable them to develop as whole citizens capable of challenging the status quo and acting positively upon their social reality to improve it ?and (2) - Does the culture component of the Algerian middle and secondary school textbooks foster in learners an adequate level of cross-cultural awareness that would enable them to develop as multicultural individuals capable of mediating between their mother tongue culture and other cultures? In order to answer these questions, a checklist was designed following the perspectives in question and implemented to the analysis of the seven textbooks. Moreover, the results of the checklist-based analysis were cross-compared to a student and two teachers questionnaires. The students’ questionnaire was designed and implemented to thirty six first year university students of English at Mohammed Seddik Benyahia University, Jijel who received instruction based on the textbooks in question. As for the teachers’ questionnaire, it was designed and administered to 50 middle school teachers and 78 secondary school teachers in the province of Jijel, Algeria.The checklist-based analysis has revealed that although the textbooks are, on one hand, biased towards the values of an urban, middle class culture and, on the other, entrenched in native speakers’norms with regard to the development of linguistic competence, these locally designed textbooks, which are are not underpinned by any ‘hidden’ or overt system for the organization of cultural content, appear to be less equipped to have the necessary potential even to assimilate pupils to those criticized values and norms.Moreover, the themes and topics lack the critical attitude, the dialogic design, the content intensity, the socio-cultural relevance to and engagement with pupils’real lives, the conceptual depth, the cognitive gradual growth in complexity, and the English as a lingua franca norms that would enable them to foster in pupils the level of ‘conscentiazation’ and ‘savoires’ that are susceptible to allow them to emerge as intercultural speakers capable ‘to think globally and act locally’ to reverse the status quo.Furthermore, the themes and topics of these in-use textbooks do not tap into the underlying dynamics of either the mother tongue or the target language culture which they both erroneously depict as monolithic and culturally neutral.Nor do they allow for a cross-cultural comparison between them.Even more, what is intended to be culture teaching is no more than another version of the notional functional teaching where culture content is organized and graded to allow ‘a synthetic’ presentation of the linguistic elements.However, the relative contrast between the findings of the checklist-based analysis and the those of the teachers and university students’ questionnaires betray a lack of sufficient consciousness about the modern orientations in the teaching of cross-cultural awareness. This is most probably due to the influence of the discourse on the competency-based approach, especially in the case of the teachers, and the ignorance of the real scope of the critical approach to intercultural competence, especially in the case of the students. A reform of the university English curriculum and teacher training program in line with the proposed twopronged perspective is, therefore, required as a first step towards designing and implementing more up-todate and effective syllabi and textbooks to teach English as a school subject in the Algerian context.