Research on Educational Media: Balancing between Local and Target Language Cultures in English Electronic Textbooks

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate the proportions of the local and target language cultures in government’s English electronic textbooks for junior high school students in Indonesia. The primary data were collected from English textbooks published by the Indonesian government. We analyzed ten English electronic textbooks with 2308 paragraphs and 3079 pictures. The Byram & Morgan’s (1994) model was used to analyze the paragraphs and pictures to examine local or target language culture categories. The findings indicated that in terms of paragraphs, of the ten textbooks, four textbooks showed a balanced proportion, while six textbooks were imbalanced in presenting local and target language cultures while for the pictures, only two textbooks promoted a balance proportion between local and target language cultures and eight textbooks presented imbalance proportions. The findings shed important light on the sort of evidence necessary for promoting a balance proportion between local and target language cultures in English electronic textbooks. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.