1.2.5. Connectedness
Connectedness concerns the features that are indications of
investment of what is assumed to be connecting people worldwide (Tomlinson,
1998; Chang, 2003) such as the examples of sport, music, travel, holidays,
Standard English, and other leisure activities.
Hence, the content analysis of H/I will focus on the themes of
inclusivity, inappropriacy, and connectedness in an attempt to explore the
«globality» of this textbook as an example of global coursebooks.
1.3. Research aims
The concern of this thesis is to explore the features of
«globality» in the global coursebook and the extent to which
publishers' concern in implementing inclusivity, avoiding inappropriacy, as
well as investing in connectedness is successful and attainable. It is
concerned also with the way learners perceive this «globality». Thus,
«globality» in this thesis is examined in terms of three main
features; preserving inclusivity, avoiding inappropriacy (Gray, 2002), and
investing in connectedness (Tomlinson, 1998; Chang, 2003).
1.4. Research questions
Considering the research aims mentioned above, a number of
research questions can be formulated to guide exploration of the analysis of
global content and perspective of global coursebooks by drawing on literature
on features of the global coursebook. In addition, learners' perceptions of
this «globality» will be explored in order to find out the extent to
which they perceive the coursebook as being global in terms of content. Thus,
two research questions are proposed as research focus in this thesis.
1. To what extent Headway Intermediate (Soars &
Soars, 2003) global?
2. What are the learners' perceptions of the global aspects of
H/I as a global coursebook?
To answer these questions, the researcher adopted two research
methods, which are the content analysis of H/I and the questionnaire
method that are described in details in Chapter Three.
1.5. Methodology
In order to explore the real «globality» of the
global coursebook in terms of its preservation of inclusivity, avoidance of
inappropriacy, and investment in connectedness, the analysis of the content of
a sample of global coursebooks is necessary. Additionally, in order to
investigate learners' perceptions of the international aspects of the global
coursebook, the questionnaire is an important tool. Therefore, two research
methods were adopted which are the content analysis method and the
questionnaire. These two means of eliciting data from the coursebook and the
respondents were adopted for their directness and credibility (Geer, 1991). The
full description of the reasons and the way the global coursebook chosen for
analysis (Headway Intermediate, Soars & Soars, 2003) was analysed
together with the presentation of the questionnaire are to be found in Chapter
Three entitled: `Methodology of the study'.
However, to sum them up, it could be said that the content
analysis was done systematically in the sense of exploring representation of
the features of inclusivity, inappropriacy, and connectedness in all the units
of the coursebook. While the focus concerning inclusivity was on gender balance
and representation of minorities, inappropriacy was explored in terms of the
frequency of mention of inappropriate issues as outlined by Gray (2002) and
(Phillipson, 1992). As to connectedness it was explored in terms of the
treatment of leisure activities, language varieties, and global
connectivity.
The questions in the questionnaire are of two types.
Closed-ended questions aimed at enabling students to choose from proposed
alternatives that concerned their perceptions of the global coursebook and the
issues related to it. Besides, open-ended questions aimed at extracting direct
information concerning some additional data that were not prescribed in the
alternatives. Two sections constitute the questionnaire. While
the first section provides background information concerning the learners, the
second section explores learners' perceptions of «globality» in the
global coursebook they are using. The global coursebook chosen for analysis in
this thesis is New Headway Intermediate (Soars & Soars, 2003). The
respondents of the questionnaire were 251 learners at IBLV in Tunis who are
receiving tuition in English and whose teachers are using H/I in class.
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