INTERCULTURAL LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TUNISIAN TEXTBOOKS FOR EFL LEARNERS

392 Pages·2013·6.52 MB·English

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THÈSE DE DOCTORAT EN COTUTELLE
PRÉSENTÉE À L’UNIVERSITÉ DE SFAX

En vue de l’obtention du grade de :

DOCTEUR EN LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUÉE

DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE SFAX, TUNISIE

ET

L’UNIVERSITÉ DE LORRAINE, FRANCE

Par

NADIA ABID

INTERCULTURAL LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TUNISIAN
TEXTBOOKS FOR EFL LEARNERS: 6th,
7th, 8th and 9th form BASIC EDUCATION PUPILS AS A CASE
STUDY

Mounir TRIKI, Professeur de la FLSH, Université de Sfax Directeur de thèse

Guy ACHARD-BAYLE, Professeur de l’Université de Lorraine Directeur de thèse

Akila SELLAMI–BAKLOUTI, M.C. de la FLSH, Université de Sfax Rapporteur

Fred DERVIN, Professeur de l’Université de Helsinki . Rapporteur

Habib ABDESSALEM, Professeur de la FLAHM, Université de la Manouba Président du Jury

Richard DUDA, Professeur Emérite de l’Université de Lorraine Président du Jury

2012-2013
« I do not want my house to be walled in on all
sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all
the cultures of all lands to be blown about my
house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be
blown off my feet by any.”

Mahatma Ghandi
To the soul of my father whose love and support I cannot
forget.
To the soul of my brother Riadh

To my wonderful mother, I could not have achieved any
success without her support and sacrifice
To my lovely sister Donia and my dear brother Amine
Aknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to Pr. Guy Achard-Bayle, my French supervisor, for having accepted to
supervise my work, for his valuable guidance, for his concern with my topic and for his help
all along my stays in France. He never hesitated to give a hand either with administrative stuff
or with seminars and conferences I took part in.
I would like to thank my Tunisian supervisor, Pr. Mounir Triki for his guidance and
encouragement.
I am especially indebted to my friend Pr. Akila Sallemi-Baklouti without whom I could not
have progressed in my research. I owe much of my success to this great woman and
researcher who has always been there for academic as well as personal assistance.
I am very grateful to the people who helped me conduct my investigation, namely the English
teachers and the headmasters in Sakiet Eddaier, Sfax and Bouzguem primary and preparatory
schools who kindly accepted to allow me to use their classes and interview their pupils.
Many thanks to my friend Ameni Yengui who sacrificed much of her time and energy to do
the task of formatting, word processing and statistics.
My thanks also go to my friend and colleague Mondher Chaaben for the time and energy he
spent on proofreading my dissertation.
Many thanks go to my friends and colleagues in ISEAH of Sbeitla for their encouragement.

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Abstract
Since the 1990‟s foreign language pedagogy has found it necessary to adapt the currently-
used teaching approach i.e. Communicative Language Teaching (henceforth CLT), the
teaching materials and the assessment means to the requirements of the present era. It is an era
marked by people‟s high mobility, sophisticated means of transport and developed
communication media, hence, an increasing need for intercultural communication. The
outcome of intercultural educationalists‟ studies was the adoption of Intercultural Language
Learning (henceforth IcLL) and a modified version of the Communicative Competence that
encompasses an intercultural component enabling language learners to communicate
successfully interculturally. The aim of this study is to investigate the role that Tunisian EFL
textbooks‟ cultural content and tasks play in the acquisition of Intercultural Communication
Competence by Tunisian basic education learners in two regions: Sfax (an urban area) and
Bouzguem (a rural area). Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data
collection instruments, namely a questionnaire and an interview, the empirical research was
conducted on four groups of EFL learners belonging to two different levels of education and
regions. This has allowed the comparison of the effect of textbooks on their knowledge of and
attitudes towards the British culture in terms of both variables: the learners‟ level of education
and their regional belonging, whether rural or urban. Textbooks were evaluated against
criteria adopted from Risager‟s (1991) and Sercu‟s (2000) models of textbook evaluation.
Pearson correlation test was applied to measure the strength of the relationship between
textbooks and pupils‟ attitudes and knowledge of the British culture. Textbook passages were
selected for a qualitative analysis to validate data obtained from pupils as well as the
quantitative analysis of textbooks. Results obtained from pupils and textbooks have shown
that Tunisian EFL textbooks did not play a role in shaping learners‟ attitudes towards and
knowledge of the British culture and people. In fact, pupils‟ answers show no significant
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relationship between textbooks‟ representation of five selected cultural topics and their
knowledge and attitudes. In terms of attitudes, pupils‟ responses to the interview and
questionnaire have revealed that pupils in both regions hold slightly- positive attitudes and
that 9th form pupils did not differ much from their 6th form counterparts despite learning
English and using the textbooks for four years. In terms of knowledge, 9th form pupils‟ have
expressed more knowledge than 6th form pupils. Sfax pupils have more information about
British people than those in Bouzguem However, their answers are not always right and they
mentioned sources for their knowledge of Britain and British culture other than the textbook.
Textbooks‟ representation is unbalanced and unreal, which may also explain pupils‟ lack of
knowledge of the British culture. This is validated by their answers to the questionnaire and
interview in which they mentioned other sources of information such as TV, films and family,
friends and relatives. The analysis of intercultural tasks has demonstrated that those tasks are
far from being intercultural or promote intercultural learning. This is further confirmed by the
results of the correlation test that there is no significant relationship between textbooks and
pupils‟ attitudes and knowledge. In a word, Tunisian EFL textbooks can be said to fail in
equipping learners with ICC, i.e, knowledge, positive attitudes and intercultural skills. Some
recommendations are suggested as an attempt to modify textbooks‟ cultural content and tasks
so that they can teach language-and-culture and meet the expectations of future intercultural
communicators.
Key words: Intercultural Language Learning, Intercultural Communicative Competence,
knowledge, attitudes, intercultural skills, textbooks.

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TABLES OF CONTENTS

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………..……………………………. i
ABSTRACT …………………...……………………………………………… ii
TABLES OF CONTENTS …………….…………………………………….. iv
List of tables ....................................................................................................... vii
List of figures ...................................................................................................... ix
List of abbreviations .......................................................................................... xii
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1. Background ..................................................................................................................... 1
2. Statement of the problem ................................................................................................ 7
3. Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 8
4. Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 9
5. Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................... 10

Part I. Literature Review.................................................................................. 13
Chapter 1: Intercultural Language Learning ............................................... 14
1.1.1. Definition ................................................................................................................... 14
1.1.2. Context of IcLL .......................................................................................................... 18
1.1.2.1. Foreign language Learning ...................................................................................... 19
1.1.2.2. Education ................................................................................................................. 21
1.1.2.3. The classroom ......................................................................................................... 24
1.1.3. The Tunisian Context ................................................................................................. 25
1.1.3.1. IcLL in Tunisia .................................................................................................... 25
1.1.3.2. English in the Tunisian Educational System ....................................................... 27
1.1.3.3. The Tunisian Learner .......................................................................................... 30
1.1.4. Theoretical Foundations of IcLL ................................................................................ 31
1.1.4.1. Cognitive Developmental Theory ....................................................................... 32
1.1.4.2. Socialisation Theory ............................................................................................ 38
1.1.4.3. Information Processing Theory ........................................................................... 42
1.1.5. The Content of IcLL ................................................................................................... 45
1.1.6. The Methodology of IcLL .......................................................................................... 49
1.1.7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 53

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Chapter 2. Reasons and objectives of IcLL .................................................... 54
1.2.1. Reasons for IcLL ....................................................................................................... 54
1.2.1.1. Interrelationship between language, culture and communication ....................... 55
1.2.1.2. Motivation and Willingness to Communicate ..................................................... 62
1.2.2. The Objectives of IcLL .............................................................................................. 65
1.2.2.1. Developing Positive Attitudes ............................................................................. 65
1.2.2.2. Raising Intercultural Awareness ......................................................................... 78
1.2.2.3. Empathy .............................................................................................................. 82
1. 2.2.4. Effective Intercultural Communication .............................................................. 83
1.2.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 88

Chapter 3. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) ...................... 89
1.3.1. Communicative Competence ..................................................................................... 89
1.3.2. Intercultural Communicative Competence ................................................................. 96
1.3.2.1. Byram and Zarate‟s Model of ICC ..................................................................... 96
1.3.2.2. Components of ICC ............................................................................................. 99
1.3.3. Objectives of ICC ..................................................................................................... 102
1.3.3.1. Attitudes ............................................................................................................ 102
1.3.3.2. Knowledge ........................................................................................................ 103
1.3.3.3. Skills .................................................................................................................. 104
1.3.4. The Intercultural Speaker ......................................................................................... 105
1.3.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 109

Chapter 4. Textbooks ...................................................................................... 111
1.4.1. Language Textbooks ................................................................................................ 111
1.4.2. Textbooks and IcLL ................................................................................................. 112
1.4.3. The Cultural Content of Textbooks .......................................................................... 114
1.4.3. 1. Realism ............................................................................................................. 117
1.4.3.2. Authenticity ....................................................................................................... 119
1.4.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 122

Part 2: Case Study ........................................................................................... 124
Chapter 1: Methodology ................................................................................. 125
2.1.1. Analytic Framework ................................................................................................. 125
2.1.2. Data collection .......................................................................................................... 131
2.1.3. Subjects .................................................................................................................... 132
2.1.4. The corpus ................................................................................................................ 134
2.1.5. Instruments ............................................................................................................... 136
2.1.5.1. The questionnaire .............................................................................................. 137
2.1.5.2. The semi-structured interview ........................................................................... 140
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2.1.5.3. Content Analysis ............................................................................................... 142
2.1.5.4. The learning tasks .............................................................................................. 144
2.1.6. Statistical tools ......................................................................................................... 146
2.1.7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 146

Chapter 2: Results and Discussion ............................................................... 148
2.2.1. Pupil‟s data ............................................................................................................... 148
2.2.1.1. Pupils‟ contacts with the British culture ........................................................... 148
2.2.1.2. Pupils‟ attitudes (Questionnaire data) ............................................................... 153
2.2.1.3. Pupils‟ attitudes (Interview data) ...................................................................... 157
2.2.1.4. Pupils‟ knowledge of the British culture and people ........................................ 175
2.2.1.5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 235
2.2.2. Textbooks Data ........................................................................................................ 236
2.2.2.1. Presentation of culture ....................................................................................... 236
2.2.2.2. The evaluation of intercultural tasks ................................................................. 260
2.2.3. Relating data ............................................................................................................. 275
2.2.3.1 The correlation between textbooks‟ data and pupils‟ attitudes .......................... 275
2.2.3.2. Qualitative analysis of textbook passages ......................................................... 280
2.2.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 320

Conclusion and recommendations ................................................................. 323
List of references ............................................................................................. 332
List of Appendices ........................................................................................... 358

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