Content Analysis on Cultural Context of Junior High School English Textbook

Abstract

Textbooks have important roles in learning, including learning English. English textbooks
are not only a source of information about the material studied but also provide an
overview of the culture contained in the textbook. Concerning to culture, this research
aims to determine the culture portrayed in the English textbook "Think Globally Act
Locally" used by SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 2 Gorontalo students in Grade IX and to
determine the teacher’s way to implement the culture in textbooks. This research used
qualitative descriptive. The data collected through observation check list, interview, and
documentation. The steps in analyzing the data are: (1) reading the textbook "Think
Globally Act Locally"; (2) grouping culture into several aspects according to the theory
used by Cortazzi and Jin and Adaskou, Briten and Fahsi; (3) analyzing the most dominant
culture in textbooks. The research findings shown that the culture described in textbooks
includes source culture, target culture and international culture. The culture that appears
most often is the source culture. This is evidenced by the results of 50% source culture, 38% target culture and 12% international culture.

Keywords: Textbooks, Cultural, Source Culture, Target Culture, International Culture