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Souryana Yassine - 54 - Revue Annales du patrimoine Thus aiming to examine the development of Algerian textbook designers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of foreign and cultural components as parts an d contexts of the teaching / learning process, we are interested in two English textbooks: Spring One and Spotlight on English. As stated in the introduction, we have opted for these textbo oks mainly because they are meant for beginners believing that the early contact with the foreign language is of determinant consequences to the success of any language course. 1. Description of the Textbooks: Here are broad descriptions of Spring One and Spotlight on English that constitute the main materials of our study. 1 - Spring One: Spring One is the English textbook conceived for the beginners and issued in (1900). It is intended for all the pupils in their first year of English langua ge study in the Basic School. It contains twenty units. The texts of the units are presented in forms of dialogues, interviews and personal accounts. Different sorts of activities and practices are related to these texts. Through the twenty units Rafik, th e main character, is presented in different situations though constantly evolving in a typically Algerian context. The content is organized around six main language functions: Description, Narration, Socializing, Instructing, Questioning, and Planning. Each unit comprises seven sections: Input, Communicate, Consolidate, Read, Understand, Write, and Relax. The chief aim of the textbook being to develop the communicative abilities of the pupils and make them fluent in English. 2 - Spotlight on English: Spotlight on English is the official textbook designed by the Ministry of Education for the pupils in their first year of English study in the Middle school. The manual is a pedagogical

Culture issues in FLT towards the fostering of intercultural awareness - 55 - N° 5, March 2006 document that handles the new official syllabus adopted within the framework of the recent Education Reform. The syllabus is communicatively oriented and thematically organised. It is developed through a pre-file followed by seven files: Hello, Family and Friends, Sports, In and Out, Food, Inventions and Discoveries, Environment. Each file is presented with varied colourful illustrations. The pre-file entitled "You know English" includes some basic notions and terms in English. The re st of the files is made up of the following sequences: Listenin g Scripts, Learn about Culture, Check and Your Project. 2. The Textbooks’ Cultural Contents: The evaluation of the textbooks cultural content is based on Ferit Kilickaya’s (2004) "Guidelines to Evaluate Cultural Content in Textbook" (see appendix 1). A contrastive study of the two textbooks reveals many results that are summed up in the following. 1 - Analysis Results: The designer’s notes: the designers’ fore word in Spring One consists of a short text in English that describes the objectives of the textbook. It does not include any explicit or implicit reference to the manual’s cultural content. There is no indication to the way the textbook would be used. On the contrary, in Spotlight on English the fore word consists of a relatively long text in Arabic addressed to the learners explaining to them their active role in the learning process. It overtly deals with the notion of culture setting it within an intercultural perspective. 2 - Culture: While Spring One includes exclusively national culture in Spotlight on English the perspective is rather one of intercultural scope. In the first manual all the settings and characters are made up Algerian. There is hardly a reference to a foreign character. But Spotlight on En glish adopts an intercultural perspective. Reference is made both to the learners’ first culture

Souryana Yassine - 56 - Revue Annales du patrimoine and to a set of other foreign cultures. It points to the parallels that are to be drawn among vari ous world cultures. International communication too is present through Internet chat. Types of Activities: Spring one includes sets of drills generally taking the forms of dialogues to memorise and to practise by repetition. Although claiming to follow on the communicative approach the lingui stic content and the types of activities tend more towards a structural audiolingual methodology. Whereas, Spotlight on English designed along the principles of the Competency-bas ed approach offers through the projects more opportunities to th e learners to interact using the English language. 3 - Supporting Texts: The authentic texts in Spring One are rare and generally related to scientific subjects or to introduce prominent scientists. They try mainly to present specif ic subjects the learners study elsewhere so as to felicitate their understanding. The aim of such texts is mainly to reinforce the idea of studying English as a means to gain access to scientific content. However, in Spotlight on English the authentic texts deal with a varied set of topics related to different cultural facets such as music and food. There are also portraits of artists. 4 - Discussion: The analysis of the explicit and the implicit content of these textbooks would sort out which values they hold. It hence, explains the implied and unjusti fied fear from the learners’ acculturation if exposed to the fo reign culture translated by an open rejection of all that comes from the other culture in Spring One. It further reveals negative attitudes towards cultural content resulting in a kind of ov er "instrumentalization" of the English language. The latter is almost reduced to a set of structures and the learners nearly never know when, where, how and with whom to use this new language they are ta ught. What is illustrated by the

Culture issues in FLT towards the fostering of intercultural awareness - 57 - N° 5, March 2006 choice of authentic scientific text s assuming that in multilingual context where many national varieties are at use, the foreign language is merely meant as a means to access scientific and technological advances. K. Tale b Ibrahimi (1997) reaches the same conclusion in her study of the Algerian sociolinguistic scene. These negative attitudes are also the result of different and often conflicting social projects that are trying to influence the curricula. The debate is one of political interests and reflects the sociolinguistic reality where the status and the place of foreign languages in general and that of English in particular are far from being settled. However, the change in the adopted paradigm in the context of the recent Educational Reform can explain the emerging of positive attitudes towards the foreign culture which is no longer seen as a threat. The move from a structural approach to a communicative an d even to competency-based paradigms can account for fostering of a certain intercultural awareness. In fact, the competency-based teaching relies basically on project works, problem-solving situations and task-based- teaching or practices that require more interaction and call for cultural competencies to cope with new situations and negotiations. It is then for the sake of intercultural awareness that Algerian textbook designers have included an important amount of the national culture besides to the others cultures within the materials for the teaching of foreign language. This may explain the recent "culture-s ensitive" approach to ELT which needs ethnographic action research to be successful. Throughout the analysis of the two textbooks and the examination of their hidden curricula it comes clear that the attitudes towards the foreign culture are becoming more positive. More important than this, it stands plain that the perspective is one of fostering intercultural awareness. The pupils are guided towards this intercultural perspective in order

Souryana Yassine - 58 - Revue Annales du patrimoine to gain self-esteem and to learn the respect of the others, in other words, to be more tolerant. Notes: 1 - H. Ansary and E. Babaii: "Universal Characteristics of EFL/ESL Textbooks: A Step Towards Systematic Textbook Evalua tion", in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, N° 2, February 2002. 2 - M. Byram, B. Talkington and L. Leng el: "Setting the Context, Highlighting the importance, Reflections on Interculturality and Pedagogy", 2004, in (www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk). 3 - R. Crawshaw: "Intercultural Awar eness as a Component of HE Modern Language Courses in the UK", 2004, in (www. lang. ltsn.ac.uk). 4 - Duranti: Linguistic Anthropology. Oxford University Press 1998. 5 - P. Kerr: "Thinking about Culture in Language Teacher Education", 2004, in (elt.britcoun.org.pl). 6 - C. Kramsch: Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press 1993. 7 - C. Kramsch : Language and culture. Oxford University Press 1998. 8 - C. Rose: "Intercultural Learning", 2004, in teachingenglish.org.uk. 9 - Stern: Fundamental Concepts, in La nguage Teaching. Oxford University Press 1983. References: 1 - Ansary, H. and E. Babaii: "Universal Characteristics of EFL/ESL Textbooks: A Step Towards Systematic Textbook Evalua tion", in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, N° 2, February 2002. 2 - Byram, M., B. Talkington and L. Leng el: "Setting the Context, Highlighting the importance, Reflections on Interculturality and Pedagogy", 2004 3 - Crawshaw, R.: "Intercultural Awar eness as a Component of HE Modern Language Courses in the UK", 2004. 4 - Duranti: Linguistic Anthropology, Oxford University Press 1998. 5 - Kerr, P.: "Thinking about Culture in Language Teacher Education", 2004. 6 - Kramsch, C.: Context and Culture in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press 1993. 7 - Kramsch, C.: Language and culture, Oxford University Press 1998. 8 - Rose, C.: "Intercultural Learning", 2004. 9 - Stern: Fundamental Concepts, in La nguage Teaching, Oxford University Press 1983. o