The term `content' refers to the linguistic and
non-linguistic constituents of coursebooks including topics, pictures, and
characters used and represented in these teaching materials (Barrios, 2008).
Cook (1983) differentiates between two kinds of content; real (i.e. taken from
real life) and imaginary (i.e. invented by the authors) contents (p. 230).
Content can be investigated using the content analysis method
described in details in Chapter Three. In their attempt to cater for a global
market, coursebook writers tended towards investing in images from the entire
world (Gray, 2002; Chang, 2003). They invested in the content, the issues that
are assumed to be shared between people around the world, in other words, using
what connects people all over the globe (Gray, 2002).
Connectedness, then, is an important element in the design of
ELT coursebooks marketed globally. It is, in fact, closely related to
globalisation being, as put by Giddens (1990), «[t]he intensification of
worldwide social relations linking distant localities in such a way that local
happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa»
(qtd in Wilson, 2005, p. 2). Such a definition suggests that connectedness is a
state resulting from peoples' ability to communicate and share their
experiences, artefacts (including ELT textbooks), and flow of humans and
products across borders (Derbel & Richards, 2007).
Hence, as a result of the continuous globalisation of the
human experiences, there appeared evolving connections between people around
the world (Derbel, 2004, p. 227). Such connections have been exploited by
global ELT coursebook writers in order to cater for world audiences. Defining
globalisation, Derbel and Richards (2007) explain that it is «a postmodern
condition whereby ideologies (1) continuously flow between the culturally
dominant and less dominant, though more
insistently/aggressively from former to latter and (2) are conveyed primarily
by means of English in its many local manifestations» (p. 22).
Derbel and Richards (2007) emphasise the continuity and
mutual inter-influence (i.e. connectedness) between the powerful and the less
powerful forces. It is from this perspective that connectedness can be seen as
a fact that promotes «globality» of content in ELT materials.
The process of investing in globally connecting issues
(Chang, 2003) in ELT global coursebooks is related to the standardisation of
their content (Gray, 2000, 2002), which is a feature of «globality»
in global coursebooks. In the same vein, Derbel (2004) argues that English can
serve as a connecting rather than a dividing force between `native' and
`nonnative' speakers. The following sub-section will define the notion of
connectedness and track its features in global coursebooks.
Connectedness as a principle in ELT global coursebooks has
been dealt with, although not thoroughly and directly, by Gray (2002) as well
as Chang (2003). It could be said that the term refers to the fact that
coursebook writers tend to talk about topics that are considered to be shared
by their global audiences. This understanding results in the content of the
global coursebooks being dependent only on the issues that are considered to be
shared worldwide. As suggested in the definitions of globalisation put by
Giddens (1990) and Derbel and Richards (2007) that emphasise social
inter-influence, connectedness is linked to globalisation because the first
could be considered the result of the second. The following sub-section will
explore the features of the investment of coursebooks in what is considered
global. The focus will be on the issues of travel, holidays,
tourism, fashion, leisure activities, and `Standard English'.
