1.2. Terminology
Five important terms will be defined in this section: the global
coursebook, «globality», inclusivity, inappropriacy, and
connectedness.
1.2.1. The global coursebook
Global coursebooks are English language coursebooks produced
mainly in the so-called «Inner Circle» (Kachru, 1985), labelled also
«core countries» (Pennycook, 1994), which are the USA, UK, New
Zealand, Canada, and Australia, These textbooks are, to use Kachru's (1985)
terminology, distributed in the Outer and Expending circles or in what
Pennycook (1994) calls «periphery countries». Put clearly, the global
textbook is «a kind of text designed to be used in English language
teaching worldwide» (Block & Cameron, 2002, p. 10).
The appearance of global coursebooks is most of the time
related to business and globalisation as «the need to cater to
international markets has given rise to the concept of «the global
coursebook», which can be used by students at a particular level and age
group anywhere in the world, regardless of culture» (Ranalli, 2003, p.
3-4). There are actually many coursebooks that are designed to be used
worldwide and one could mention Headway Intermediate (Soars &
Soars, 1986, 1996), Market Leader (Muskull & Heitler, 2007) and
Cutting Edge (Canningham & Moor, 2005) with their various levels
claimed to be designed to meet the needs of each targeted population of
learners. The present study will focus on one coursebook which is New
Headway Intermediate (Soars and Soars, 2003).
1.2.2. «Globality»
Schafer (2007) defines «globality» as the product of
the process of globalisation (p. 1). He depicts it as the end situation of the
worldwide spread of a particular item. For example, the «globality»
of English language is the situation that this language has reached as a
result
of the process of its globalization (ibid). In relation to the
present concern of this study, «globality» is taken to mean the end
situation resulting from the spread of the global coursebook; that is the
global aspect taken, by publishers or learners, to be one of the
characteristics of coursebooks marketed internationally. In brief, it is the
extent to which the coursebook is global.
1.2.3. Inclusivity
Inclusivity as stated by Gray (2002) means the tendency of
equally including and representing all members of society including women, age,
class, ethnic origin, and elderly people (p. 158). This concept is important as
it will be used in exploring the extent to which a coursebook is inclusive, in
the sense of paying special attention to depicting members of any given society
in the world.
1.2.4. Inappropriacy
Inappropriacy, as dealt with by Renner (1997) and Gray (2002),
concerns coursebook writers' attempt to provide «safe topics» (Gray,
2002. p 159) by avoiding culturally offending references. This notion is
important as it allows exploring the extent to which coursebook writers are
sensitive to offensive cultural content, which permits drawing possible
implications of the presence or absence of such sensitivity. Examples of
inappropriate cultural references include politics, alcohol, religion, sex,
narcotics, isms, and pork (Gray, 2002).
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