Intercultural competence in English language textbooks. A qualitative study of the promotion of intercultural competence in two English language textbooks for upper primary level in Norway.

Abstract

This study investigates and compares how two English language textbooks for upper primary level in Norway (one old and one new) support intercultural competence. The old textbook is adapted for LK06 and the new textbook is adapted for LK20, and will be implemented this August. The research questions are as follows: To what extent do texts and images in English upper primary level textbooks from LK06 and LK20 support the acquisition of intercultural competence in young English language learners? and To what extent does the emphasis on intercultural content differ in textbooks from LK06 to LK20? To address my research questions, I have used critical discourse analysis as a qualitative theoretical approach to analyze my findings. The findings are also sorted into categories developed by a combination of Byram’s model for intercultural communicative competence (Dypedahl & Bøhn, 2018) and Barrett’s (2018) definition of intercultural competence. The categories describe the sets of values, skills, attitudes and knowledge/understanding needed to acquire intercultural competence. The results indicate that the old textbook promotes stereotypical and superficial presentations of cultures and thus, provides shallow cultural knowledge. As a result of curricula changes, the new textbook still promotes stereotypical presentations, but attempts to avoid superficial presentations by promoting deeper learning and thus, provides deeper cultural understanding.