“İngilizce Dosyası- English File” Kitap Serisindeki Gömülü Özcü (Olmayan) Kültürel Söylemlerin Eleştirel İncelemesi

Kültürlerarası iletişim için İngilizce kullanımlarının yansımasının ön plana çıktığı günümüzün çeşitli dil öğrenme bağlamlarında ister sanal ister yüz yüze olsun, dil sınıflarının temel kaynakları hâlâ ders kitaplarıdır. Bu nedenle, ders kitaplarındaki çoklu biçimli bileşenleri yapılandırırken sergilenen tutum, dil öğrenenlerin hedef dil topluluğu ile ilgili uluslararası bir bakış açısına uygun bir anlayış geliştirip geliştirmeyeceğini etkileyecektir. Bu bağlamda çalışmamız, dördüncü basım “İngilizce Dosyası- English File” temel seviye, orta seviye öncesi ve orta seviye öğrenci kitaplarının görsellerindeki ve metinlerindeki kültürel temsillerdeki temel özcü (olmayan) kültürel söylemlerin eleştirel bir incelemesidir. Hem göstergebilimsel hem de sosyal-tarihsel retorik anlamda çoklu biçimselliği göz önüne almak ve ders kitaplarının pedagojik-didaktik doğasını kabul etmekle birlikte, bu makale kapsamında görseller ve metinler gibi farklı anlam oluşturma araçlarına ve bunlar arasındaki etkileşime odaklandık. Sonuçlar, onların, yeni-özcü bakış açılarını ele alan bazı metinlerin yanı sıra, çoğunlukla “Batılı”, özellikle İngiliz ve Amerikan kültürel temsillerini destekleyen özcü bir kültürel bakış açısını sürdürdüğünü gösterdi. Temel seviye kitabı, “Batı” konusunun sürekli olarak anlatıldığı ve vurgulandığı en çok özcü metin sayısına sahipken; orta seviye öncesi kitabı, eleştirel bakış açısına sahip birkaç metin içerse de, yoğun bir şekilde vurgulanan "Merkez-Batı" konulu metinlerin yanı sıra, çoğunlukla yeni-özcü unsurlardan oluşuyor. Son olarak, orta seviye kitabı, diğerleri arasında en özcü olmayan kitap olarak görülebilir, çünkü dizide hem önceden tanımlanmış hem de tanımlayıcı bir kültürel alana özel bir atıfta bulunulmaksızın kişilerarası ve kültürlerarası alışverişlerle ilgili metinler açısından en yüksek orana sahiptir; ancak bu kitaptaki metinlerin yarısı da yine “Batılı” ülkelere atıfta bulunmaktadır.

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF (NON-) ESSENTIALIST CULTURAL DISCOURSES EMBEDDED IN THE TEXTBOOK SERIES “ENGLISH FILE”

In today’s various language learning contexts in which the reflection of English language uses for intercultural communication becomes prominent, the core resources of the language classrooms, be they virtual or face-to-face, are still textbooks. Therefore, the stance taken while constructing the multimodal components in the textbooks would influence whether language learners will develop an understanding of the target language community in line with an international perspective or not. In this vein, our study is a critical examination of (non)-essentialist cultural discourses in cultural representations in the visuals and the texts of English File Fourth Edition Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate Student’s Books. Taking account of multimodality in both semiotic and social-historical rhetorical senses and acknowledging the pedagogic-didactic nature of the textbooks, we focused on different meaning-making tools like images and texts and the interaction between them within the scope of this article. Findings showed that the textbooks mostly perpetuate an essentialist perspective of culture, favouring “Western”, especially British, and American cultural representations, besides some texts addressing neo-essentialist perspectives. The elementary book has the highest number of essentialist texts in which “the West” is described and emphasised constantly, while the preintermediate book, albeit with a few texts from a critical perspective, is mostly composed of neo-essentialist elements. Lastly, the intermediate book can be viewed as the most nonessentialist one among others, since it consists of the highest proportion of interpersonal and intercultural exchanges without a specific reference to a cultural arena that is both predefined and defining in the series, though half of the texts still make a reference to the “Western” countries in the intermediate book as well.

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