Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 21 (2019) 87–99

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Learning, Culture and Social Interaction

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lcsi

Textbook interaction: A study of the language and cultural

T
contextualisation of English learning textbooks
Pingping Huang
Institute of Education, University College London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, United Kingdom

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The impact and the role of textbooks in language learning and communication have not been
Textbook contextualisation paid enough attention. English textbooks have the potential to not just provide guidance for
Language learning learning language but can be a platform for introducing cultural diversity and tolerance and as a
Intercultural communication medium for integrating cross-disciplinary knowledge. Building on a social learning and socio-
Authenticity
cultural theory, this research considers whether English textbooks are contextualised enough to
English education
help with students' English learning and communication. This is achieved by analysing a set of
secondary English textbooks Project English used in China and discovering textbook users' real
experience of learning English and using English textbooks. The results show that topics, texts,
and tasks of textbooks are decontextualised in terms of authenticity, levels of communication,
diversity, and representation of cultures. Moreover, more attention is given to grammatical
functions of English language rather than its communicative functions. Suggestions towards a
more communicative and contextualised textbook content and pedagogy are provided.

1. Introduction

The language textbook, as one of the primary learning resources for language learning, is a significant factor influencing effective
language learning. However, researchers have found that many English language textbooks do not meet the needs of learners: they
are not contextualised and communicative enough, nor are they sufficiently relevant to students' lives (Andon & Wingate, 2013;
Boriboon, 2004; Ilieva, 2000). Contextualisation of textbooks to a great extent determines the potential for student interactions and
communications both with their peers and teachers, which in turn has an effect on students' experience and effectiveness of language
learning. If language textbooks are not sufficiently contextualised both socially and culturally, students will not see them as relevant
to their lives and this will affect their engagement with the language.
Few empirical studies have been conducted on the role of textbooks in interaction enhancement and the extent to which the
content is contextual and communicative. To fill this gap, both discourse analysis and content analysis were applied to a textbook
used in Junior high schools in China to explore the level of communication and contextualisation of the textbook content. This was
followed by interviews and questionnaires with the students. The following section is both a literature review and a presentation of
the theoretical framework that underpins the analysis. I argue for the importance of contextualisation, authenticity and culture in
second/foreign language textbooks, underpinned by the assumption that language learning is a sociocultural process. I then present
the context, methods and findings of the empirical study.

E-mail address: [email protected].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.02.006
Received 3 December 2018; Received in revised form 18 February 2019; Accepted 20 February 2019
2210-6561/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Huang Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 21 (2019) 87–99

2. Learning, culture and textbook contextualisation

Language learning was once regarded as a purely cognitive process, till Vygotsky's (1978) influential work. Vygotsky proposed
that learning generally and language learning in particular, is essentially a social activity and paid attention to the role that learners'
interactions with the social world plays in the process of learning development. He argued that it is only when learners interact and
cooperate with people in their environment that various internal developmental processes are awakened. He introduced the notion of
zone of proximal development (ZPD) that defines certain knowledge/capability/functions that have not yet been mastered by
learners but are in the process of maturation (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky's theory explains the significance of social contexts in
learning and emphasises learning not as a unidirectional activity concerning solely the cognitive domain, but as consisting of in-
teractions within social contexts. This is the foundation for the argument that language learning needs to be socially contextualised.
Broadly defined, social interactions in educational contexts consist of three complementary and overlapping dimensions: interactions
between people (student-student and teacher-student interactions), interactions between learners and social community, and in-
teractions between learners and learning materials. This paper focuses on the third dimension, bearing in mind, as Andon and
Wingate (2013) point out, that the classroom materials (in this case, the textbook) contribute greatly to the creation and maintenance
of learners' motivation through cognitive and affective engagement.
It is Bruner who, building on the work of Piaget and Vygotsky, introduced the idea that cultural context is also an essential factor
to consider in teaching and learning (Moore, 2012, p. 21). Bruner (2013) argues that culture in learning shapes pupils' minds. He
explains the relationship between learning, thinking and culture by stating that ‘learning and thinking are always situated in a
cultural setting and always dependent upon the utilisation of cultural resources’ (Bruner, 2013, p. 327). Language and culture are
therefore inseparable and inextricably intertwined (Pulverness, 2003). Therefore, cultural context is another vital element to be
considered in language textbooks. Based on perspectives of both social learning theory and socio-cultural theory, this paper focuses
on three dimensions of learning: interaction, content and incentive; and two aspects of textbook contextualisation: language con-
textualisation (level of authenticity and communication) and cultural contextualisation.
The interaction dimension of learning proposed by Illeris (2009, p. 11) acknowledges the benefits of personal interaction in a
society that provides ‘the impulses that initiate the learning process… builds up the sociality of the learner’. This interacts with the
two other dimensions of learning: the content dimension and the incentive dimension. The content dimension concerns ‘what is
learned’ (Illeris, 2009, p. 10), which lays a basic foundation for students to perceive the world, i.e. the cognitive domain. The
incentive dimension comprises elements such as motivation, emotion and volition, which provides the necessary mental energy for
learning, i.e. the affective domain. Personal interests and necessity can drive the content that people learn, and conversely, different
content can change their incentive conditions. Both dimensions shape interactions through the introduction of communication topics,
communication methods, communication experiences etc.
The three dimensions of learning provide a reference in the design of communicative and contextualised language textbooks. A
communicative and contextualised textbook contains content that is necessary and useful for language learners (content dimension),
arouses learners' interests and the desire to learn the language (incentive dimension), and enables learners to interact and com-
municate with other people in the society (interaction dimension). Alptekin (2002) considers language learners' life context as an
important element to be involved in English learning materials. Designing language textbooks with combinations of social contexts
can be an effective way to facilitate language communication. Contextualised textbooks help to foster communicative teaching and
learning, whereas, communicative instructions increase the level of contextualisation of language learning materials used in the
classroom. This illustrates the complementary relationship between the learner-society interaction, teacher-learner and learner-
learner interactions and the learner-resource interaction.

2.1. The level of authenticity

2.1.1. Text authenticity

Extending from Vygotsky's social learning theory, it is the real social context that is needed in the process of learning rather than a
fictitious world. Therefore, in evaluating textbook contextualisation, authenticity is taken as an essential element, since it is a pre-
condition of meaning-making in social interactions. Clarke (1989) lists text authenticity as one of the features of communicative
language teaching materials.
The authenticity of text content in textbooks can be divided into three levels: genuine (fully authentic), semi-authentic and
artificial. Widdowson (1978, p. 80) differentiates between genuineness and authenticity in that ‘genuineness is a characteristic of the
passage itself and is an absolute quality’, while ‘authenticity is a characteristic of the relationship between the passage and the reader
and it has to do with appropriate response’. This means that genuine texts, like fictions such as Wuthering Heights, are not originally
constructed for language learning, and thus they are not necessary to arouse language learners' responses. However, once a genuine
text is included in a language textbook, it is automatically endowed with educational purposes and aims to contribute to language
learning. I categorise genuine texts at the fully authentic level in order to differentiate from semi-authentic texts. Semi-authentic texts
refer to those texts adapted from genuine texts by textbook editors. The adaptation is necessary when genuine texts are too chal-
lenging for the targeted language learners or too long to be presented in a textbook. Artificial texts, as the name implies, are non-
genuine texts specially written by textbook writers for language teaching like the Jenny's story mentioned below. The level of
authenticity of materials can be increased if students can engage in the materials, treat them as discourse (Widdowson, 1978) and
acquire communicative abilities. It is the students' engagement in the process of learning that matters. Tomlinson (2003) defines
engagement as a willingness to investing energy and attention to achieve interaction between the text and the reader, which coincides

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with Illeris's (2009) three dimensions of learning that the content, the emotion and the interaction are interacted. The engagement
corresponds to the incentive dimension of learning.

2.1.2. Practical authenticity

The contextualisation of textbooks concerns not merely the authenticity at the textual level, but also the contextualised use at the
practical level addressed by Andon & Wingate (2013, p. 185), who argue for not only the provision of authentic texts and tasks, but
also ‘opportunities to use language to communicate’. Andon and Eckerth (2009) propose two concepts of authenticity: situational
authenticity and interactional authenticity. Situational authenticity refers to activities that reflect real-world contexts such as bor-
rowing books in a library, which students have a clear awareness of (Andon & Wingate, 2013). The presentation of situational
authenticity within textbook activities enables students to acknowledge the usefulness of learning and the relevance to their lives.
The definition of ‘context’ can be very broad; in this research it refers to scenarios of language use in second/foreign language
textbooks. In the narrow sense, the situational authenticity of a task is judged by whether the task introduces or creates a role/
scenario that is relevant to pupils or gives them a purpose of doing the task. If a task only gives instructional statements without any
contexts, it is then a decontextualised or unauthentic task, such as: Read the passage and fill in the blanks with the correct forms of the
given words.
Interactional authenticity is a characteristic of language activities that expect students to use valuable language and interaction
patterns in a range of situations (Andon & Wingate, 2013) such as expressing agreement, disagreement or a viewpoint, giving advice,
and asking for and offering help. Unlike situational authenticity, activities with interactional authenticity do not necessarily cor-
respond with real-world contexts. Telling stories by looking at pictures could be rare in real life except for those who work as, for
example, baby-sitters; nevertheless, the activity can contribute to using and processing second language in real conditions (Andon &
Eckerth, 2009). The interim goals of second/foreign language learning ‘may not fully resemble real-world language use, but are
pedagogic vehicles which aim to contribute towards the ultimate goal’—to be able to communicate in real world contexts in the
target language (Andon & Eckerth, 2009, p. 296). Ellis (2003) consents to this argument and notes that although interactional
authenticity activities may not be in accord with real contexts, the language behaviour (interaction) conforms to the real commu-
nicative behaviour and therefore is authentic.
Andon and Wingate (2013) highlight a third type of authenticity – personal authenticity. Personal authenticity is concerned with
whether the information is meaningful to learners and reflects their interests, personalities, lives and the society they are living in.
Textbooks with personal authenticity are of relevance and of interest to students such as providing opportunities to relate the
information to themselves, e.g. talking about their life experiences, personal significance, and encouraging to freely use language to
express ideas.
With respect to the type of authenticity, I would like to suggest a fourth type – information authenticity. By information au-
thenticity, I mean the information and knowledge other than the language itself needs to be correct, authentic and reliable. Language
textbooks do not merely teach the language, but also involve interdisciplinary knowledge such as history, geography, literature, and
science through various vehicles such as pictures, texts, and dialogues. The role that language textbooks serve as a medium for
delivering knowledge and exchanging information needs to be acknowledged and valued. It will hardly benefit knowledge enrich-
ment if textbooks offer inaccurate information.

2.2. Level of communication

The shift in people's understanding of learning from a purely cognitive process to a social process (Murata, 2015) requires
education to keep abreast of the society, which recognises the role of social interactions and contextualisation in effective learning.
Similarly, in terms of language textbooks, they are not simply expected to provide content for teaching enough cognitive knowledge,
but also expected to be interactive and communicative, especially considering language is an essential ingredient in the process of
interaction. The level of communication, thus, becomes one of the indicators of language textbooks' level of contextualisation.
Some language practising tasks in textbooks serve cognitive practice and assessment, while others focus more on communicative
features (Littlewood, 2004). In this paper, a task refers to an activity or exercise that appears in the textbook regardless of its
orientation towards cognition or communication. Although the more authentic a task is, the more communicative it would be, issues
of the level of communication are more complicated than simply concerning the authenticity. To demonstrate levels of commu-
nication of various tasks, Littlewood (2004) proposes a continuum from focus on form to focus on meaning. Form-focused tasks are
concerned with the cognition of the language such as grammar structures and vocabulary meanings, while meaning-focused tasks are
more communicative. He divides the dimension of focus on form or meaning into five steps (see Fig. 1), ranging from absolutely non-
communicative, for example, an ‘uncontextualised grammar exercise’, to entirely communicative (Littlewood, 2004, p. 322). Non-
communicative learning tasks concentrate on grammatical structures and literal meanings of language, aiming at assessing students'
linguistic knowledge without any communication. For example, students choose a correct form of ‘be’ to complete the sentence: He
am/is/are a student. Pre-communicative language practices focus on forms and structures as well, showing signs of communication
such as answering questions; however, usually the answers are fixed, and new messages do not need to be provided. For example, to
answer the question ‘Is it your pen?’, students need to respond either ‘Yes, it is.’ or ‘No, it isn't.’ No other options or a longer answer
are expected. In contrast, communicative language practices encourage personalised questions and answers, although the commu-
nication is predictable, e.g. ask students to describe their real weekend plans by applying ‘be going to’. Structured communication
tasks provide more space for students to develop language such as structured role playing in which some expressions are un-
predictable. Authentic communication tasks are entirely meaning-focused tasks; they provide the fewest restrictions on language use

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Fig. 1. Littlewood's continuum.

(Littlewood, 2004, p. 322).

and therefore are unpredictable.

In addition to the tension between form and meaning, communicative and contextualised tasks are not only expected to be
relevant and meaningful for students, but also provide opportunities to apply what they have learnt in actual communication and to
overcome appropriate challenges. Therefore, in the following analysis of textbook tasks, besides Littlewood's (2004) five categories of
communicative levels, I would like to introduce three other essential indicators: the space that tasks offer for students to express their
own ideas, the level of difficulty/challenge and students' preference.

2.3. Cultural contextualisation

Culture is inseparable from language and language learning. However, the recognition of the essential role of culture in language
communication does not guarantee good representation of diverse cultures in textbooks. The existence of cultural tensions in lan-
guage textbooks could hinder the achievement of effective intercultural communication. These cultural tensions mainly centre on two
aspects: local culture versus the target culture, and international culture versus the target culture. For example, English learning
textbooks aiming at teaching English as a second or foreign language are likely to primarily display English-speaking countries'
cultures but downgrade the local culture, which strengthens the tension between local and target culture in that it alienates students
from western cultures (English language culture) rather than encouraging integration (Ilieva, 2000). Ilieva (2000) stresses that it is
necessary to prevent textbooks from portraying western cultures in a unitary way. As emphasised by personal authenticity, when
applying to cultural contexts, students' language skills can be improved when the opportunity to express their own culture in the
target language is provided (Alptekin, 2002).
On the other hand, the tension between international culture and the culture of English-speaking countries derives from the role
of English as a lingua franca, which determines that English serves not just communication between native and non-native speakers of
English, but also serves as a means of communication between non-native speakers of English (Gilmore, 2007). The definition of
native and non-native speakers is contested as is the categorisation of English speakers into three dimensions: inner, outer and
expanding circle (Shin, Eslami, & Chen, 2011). It is unclear whether people from ‘outer circle’ countries such as India, Philippines and
Nigeria in which English is an official language, can be defined as native speakers of English. Nayar (1994) proposes that they can be
native speakers of their particular variety of English and non-native speakers of other varieties. What is less controversial is that
people from inner circle countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are native speakers of English and people
from expanding circle countries like China, Japan and Korea where English is a foreign language are non-native speakers of English.
To avoid confusion and to make the discussion more approachable to the object of this study, i.e. Chinese students, I would like to
take the outer circle case as an exception in this paper.
Shin et al. (2011, p. 256) suggest that the relation between local, target and international cultures in the localisation of textbooks
is necessary, but it is also important to ‘include target and global culture to facilitate learners' intercultural competence’. Herder
(1997) insists on the need to consider ‘cultures’ in the plural rather than ‘culture’ in the singular. Culturally contextualised language
textbooks can help student to perceive not only the differences but also the similarities between home culture, target culture and
global culture, to equip them with intercultural communication ability, the tolerance and respect of different cultures.

3. Research background and methods

In China, English is both a compulsory school subject and the de facto lingua franca. Textbooks are a central resource in Chinese
schools. They are state-approved, fully funded by the government and selected by provincial or municipal level administrative
departments to be used in all formal schools in the corresponding administrative areas. Textbooks in China, thus, are designed for a

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large number of students with various backgrounds, rather than a specific type of students or a specific school. It is unlikely that a set
of textbooks will fulfil every single student's learning needs; so it is then down to educational practitioners to use the textbooks in a
contextualising way or make appropriate adaptations to make them more contextualised.
There are eight versions of junior high school English textbooks accredited and Project English is one of them (Ministry of
Education, 2016). It has been chosen for the purposes of this analysis because it is a zero-based and widely-used version. Some others
are specifically designed for students whose English proficiency is much higher than most students in other places of China (e.g.
students in Shanghai), which are not zero-based or not widely-used, and thus are not representative enough. Project English is edited
by Beijing Ren'ai Educational Institute and designed for junior high school students from Year 7 to Year 9 and consists of six volumes:
7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 9A, and 9B. The research comprises of two main parts: an analysis of the whole set of textbooks, i.e. the total six
volumes and investigation into the perceptions of the textbook users in a junior high school in China who need to take the senior high
school entrance examination organised by city-level educational bureau at the end of compulsory education (i.e. Year 9). It is an
important high-stakes summative assessment that determines which senior high school a student can go to after completing com-
pulsory education. For the sake of fairness, school students in the same city attend the same senior high school entrance examination
and use the same version of textbooks, as questions and answers in the examination will refer to the corresponding textbooks students
use in schools.
The textbook analysis focuses on exploring the level of language contextualisation and cultural contextualisation and lays the
foundation for the design of the follow-up questionnaire and interview questions. The analysis began with a thematic analysis of
topics, texts, and tasks. Topics were categorised into themes such as hobbies, family and festivals. Texts were categorised into
different types (e.g. essays, letters, and diaries), divided into different levels of authenticity (e.g. artificial texts, semi-authentic texts
and authentic texts), and distinguished based on different functions (e.g. linguistic functions and communicative functions). Tasks
were categorised from the contextualised to the decontextualised, and from the communicative to the un-communicative. Both
discourse analysis and content analysis were applied to explore the authenticity and the level of communication of the textbook
content. The analysis of topics concerns their relevance to students and students' willingness to communicate them. Text analysis
included types, authenticity and functions. The communicative and interactive characteristics, level of difficulty and students' pre-
ference were considered as criteria for evaluating the tasks. The number and proportion of each category and section were counted
and calculated. In terms of the culture, representations of real features of China (source culture), English-speaking countries (target
culture) and non-English-speaking countries (international culture) in textbooks were recorded and analysed.
The empirical study, consisting of questionnaires and interviews, was conducted after the completion of textbook analysis to make
sure that I was familiar enough with the textbook when collecting data in the school. The empirical study was conducted in a co-
educational secondary school in Fuzhou, China, where Project English is used. Students in Year 8 and 9 (14 to 15 years old) were
selected, because they had used Project English for at least one year, while Year 7 students had not yet had enough experience of using
the textbook. 65 completed questionnaires from students (47 from Year 8 students and 18 from Year 9 students) were received. I then
interviewed 15 volunteers to gain more in-depth learner perspectives (30 to 45 min each). Both general and open-ended questions
were prepared, focusing on the students' opinions about and experiences of using the textbook and specific questions based on
individual students' answers in the questionnaire. The language used in both questionnaires and interviews was Chinese (Mandarin).
Audio recordings were used with consent in the interviews, and were transcribed and then translated into English by myself. The
integration of thematic analysis and discourse analysis was applied in the analytical process of empirical data.

4. The level of textbook contextualisation

4.1. Language contextualisation: the level of authenticity

The findings are organised thematically, beginning with an analysis of the range and function of text types and then moving on to
an analysis of authenticity. In each case, I begin with text analysis and then triangulate with students' views as reflected in the
questionnaire and interview responses.
The analysis of authenticity at the textual level concerns the range and distribution of text types, text functions, and text content.
Besides counting each text type that appears in Project English, I asked students to grade the frequency at which they are exposed to
different text types and their preferences from 1 (least often/dislike) to 5 (most often/like most) in the questionnaire. The purpose of
this was to find out whether there is a gap between the presentation of text types in textbooks and text types students are fond of and
can easily get access to in their daily life. The result shows that the frequency of students' daily reading inputs and their reading
preferences differ significantly from the frequency of the range of text types that appear in Project English. Students have more
exposure to stories, essays/articles, magazines, song lyrics, letters, newspapers, websites and emails than other text types. As for
students' preferences, stories, magazines, song lyrics, and newspapers are their most favoured text types. In addition, social network
information, plans, essays/articles, and websites rank in the top ten. Therefore, text types such as stories, magazines, song lyrics,
newspapers, essays/articles, and websites are not only easily accessible for students, but also interest them. As can be seen in Fig. 2,
although Project English includes a wide range of text types, the distribution is heavily imbalanced towards essays/articles and
dialogues, while little use is made of diaries, stories, menus, plans, and online forums. Some common and popular text types such as
newspapers and magazines are entirely absent.
Besides text types, text functions in Project English are not well distributed. Table 1 shows the percentage of different text functions
in Project English. Texts with a linguistic function are designed with the purpose of learning grammar, tenses and pronunciation, while
non-linguistic purposes include communication, values and cultures. Although there is a 14% content of non-linguistic purpose texts,

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online forum 1
proposal 1
bill 1
questionnaire 1
report 1
postcard 1
plan 2
menu 2
presentation 2
note 2
interview transcript 2
shopping list 2
notice 3
stories 3
Project English
diary 4
map 4
schedule/timetable 4
telephone message 4
name card 6
mind map 8
poster 10
email 9
letter 14
chant/song 21
learning tips 118
article/essay 119
dialogue 141
0 50 100 150

Fig. 2. The range of text types in Project English.

Table 1
Functions of texts.
Functions of texts Quantity Percentage

Linguistic 247 51%

Non-linguistic 70 14%
Both 169 35%
Total 486 100%

they all consist of ‘learning tips’, which are independent of the curriculum knowledge in textbooks. Aside from learning tips, none of
the texts are presented with non-linguistic purposes. 35% of texts have both linguistic and non-linguistic functions. Most of these
consist of written dialogues designed for both grammar learning and communication enhancement, which aims to achieve a balance
between fluency and accuracy. However, in Project English, accuracy tends to be emphasised, while little attention is paid to fluency.
In terms of the perceptions of students, textbook dialogues were seen as created for teaching grammar:

Student C: The dialogue is created for learning grammar, rather than extracting grammar points from real dialogues.
Student A: I don't understand why we should apply sentence patterns mechanically to speaking. Do we always need subject, verb, object when speaking? No!

This highlights another problem — conversations consist of full, grammatically perfect sentences, making dialogues very formal,
and more like written language than spoken language:

Student H: It's not necessary to be so serious. They can use some buzzwords that foreigners usually say.
Student D: Foreigners don't speak in the same way as what English textbooks show.

The focus of the remaining 51% of texts is mainly grammar, with a small number of them focusing on pronunciation. They are
obviously artificial in nature and lack readability and authenticity. For example:
Jenny lives in London with her parents. When she was three, she could play the piano a little but she couldn't write at all. At the
age of five, she could play the piano very well, but she could only write a few words. When she was six, there was something

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Table 2
The authenticity of text content.
The authenticity of texts Number Percentage

Artificial 474 97.53%

Semi-authentic 4 0.82%
Authentic/genuine 8 1.65%
Total 486 100%

wrong with her eyes. Jenny could not see anything anymore. Life was very hard for her!
With her mother's help, Jenny can write well now. She is writing her first book. She wants to be a great writer.
(Project English 7B, p. 69)
The above text features ‘could’, ‘could not’, ‘couldn't’, and ‘can’, aiming at teaching students that ‘could’ is the past tense of ‘can’,
and ‘couldn't’ is the contracted form of ‘could not’. The text is not organised logically as a whole. At the beginning, it emphasises
Jenny's piano-playing talent and lack of competence in writing. However, she became blind. Readers may assume that Jenny would
become a good pianist even if she was blind. In contrast, in the end she becomes a writer without mentioning anything about the
piano. There is a lack of congruence, with the content having the sole function of teaching a grammatical point.
Table 2 indicates the number of texts at each level of authenticity in Project English. 474 texts, which make up 97.53% of the total
texts, are artificial. Only eight texts consisting of children's song lyrics can be seen as fully authentic. Textbook editors even make
information up in simple texts like these. For example, in Unit 3 of Project English 9A, students are invited to write back to Li Ming
who asked a question in the “Ask about English” column on BBC Learning English website. The question from Li Ming is made up by
textbook writers, which greatly weakens the meaningfulness and authenticity of the online forum. The four semi-authentic texts in
Project English come from song lyrics and stories, which is also far from sufficient. The effectiveness of using songs for language
learning is acknowledged (Shen, 2009), but the selection and arrangement of song lyrics in textbooks is ill-considered. Presented
songs such as the ABC Song and Do Re Mi are too childish to interest junior high school students, as Students D and H point out:

Student H: Singing those songs in class is very embarrassing.

Student D: These songs are too…too disgusting, too childish, boring.

The textbook editors may have only considered the level of difficulty of song lyrics, while neglecting that students between 14 and
15 years old are becoming mature and are less likely to be interested in childish songs.
The above reflects a low level of textual authenticity in Project English in terms of text types, text functions and text content. If the
presentation of text types, functions and content in English textbooks hardly synchronises with students' real life and learning needs,
it hinders rather than motivates social interactions for learning, as argued by Vygotsky (1978). Considering the three dimensions of
learning (Illeris, 2009), the content dimension will fail to be well achieved if textbook content is inauthentic, which in turn obstructs
the building the real sociality of learners (i.e. interaction dimension) and as a result, the incentive dimension cannot be guaranteed.
In relation to the level of contextualisation, authenticity at the practical level concerns situational authenticity, interactional
authenticity, personal authenticity and information authenticity. In order to know students' preference in terms of situational au-
thenticity, I modified a task in Project English 7B to make it more contextualised and asked students to compare it with the original one
in the questionnaire. Picture 1 is the original version of the task (Task 1) with an uncontextualised instructional statement: ‘look at
the map and answer the following questions’ and a map with a made-up scene. In the modified version (Task 2, Picture 2), the scene
has been changed to the surroundings of the students' own school which they are familiar with, and the instructional statement has
been edited to: ‘You are a student of The Times Middle School (anonymity here). In front of the school gate, two visitors ask you for
the way to somewhere. Look at the map and help the visitors.’ This is intended to give students a role and a purpose in completing this
task.
In the questionnaire, students graded Tasks 1 and 2 from 1 (dislike) to 5 (like very much). The average grade is 3.00 for Task 1 and
3.65 for Task 2. This result presents some important information. Of the two tasks, Task 2 received a much higher mark, which
showed students' greater preference for Task 2 than Task 1. And thus, the higher situational authenticity the task achieves, the more
contextualised the task is, and the more likely it is to interest secondary school students. In interviews, students who liked Task 2
explained that it is related to their lives and not examination-oriented. They valued the practicability and connections of a task to
their lives.

Student I: This (Task 2) is more practical. For example, a foreigner comes to our school, he/she may ask these questions… But the only meaning of this task
(Task 1) is for examinations.
Student F: The first looks just like a question, but this one (Task 2) can apply into our life.
Student A: This one (Task 2) isn't designed for examinations.

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Picture 1. Task 1 the original version.

(Project English 7B, p. 53).

Picture 2. Task 2 the modified version.

Interactional authenticity will be further discussed in the following cultural section. Personal authenticity is discovered through the
presentation of topics in textbooks. The full set of Project English consists of 22 units (topics) with three sub-topics for each unit, meaning
that a total of 22 main topics and 66 sub-topics are presented. Topics such as shopping, school life, birthday parties, weather, hobbies,
sports and food are closely connected with students, and thus provide opportunities for students to share with peers. However, some
topics, although relevant to students' life, appear to demotivate students in discussion and are therefore inappropriate in the way they
are presented. For example, describing parents' occupations and making comparisons between peers may unintentionally bruise stu-
dents' self-confidence and self-esteem. Project English 7A includes an activity that requires students to survey their classmates about their
parents' jobs and workplaces. This may embarrass students as they may not be willing to talk about their family backgrounds. The first
reason can be traced back to a Chinese hot word ‘拼爹’ (pinyin: Pindie). It can be translated as ‘compare daddies’ or more precisely,
‘compare the power of daddies’ (Yan, 2013). It reflects a social situation in China in which young people compete with each other
through the power of their parents. Pindie is negative and usually connected to the ‘rich second generation’ and the ‘official second
generation’. People who are fond of Pindie are regarded as show offs and are therefore very likely to be isolated by their peers. Therefore,
students prefer to avoid competition around the issue of parent privilege. The second reason may relate to another term ‘关系’ (pinyin:
Guanxi), which means ‘relationships’ or ‘connections’ and contains a negative and dishonourable meaning. Establishing a good Guanxi
means creating a wide network of beneficial relationships (Hope, 2014). To establish a Guanxi, a person's wealth, power and network
are main factors. This also relates to Pindie, since they concern the wealth and power of people (parents). In interviews, students
commented on this issue and expressed their unwillingness to talk about their parents' occupations:

Student A: …We are not willing to disclose too many things about our family.
Student B: It's our private matters. It's not necessary to tell others.
Student C: ...It's impolite to discuss others' parents' jobs. And also, normally, you won't ask your classmates.

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Project English presents another scenario through a text in which students cook food for the Food Festival: ‘Maria cooked very
successfully … Jane cooked more successfully … I cooked the most successfully …’ (Project English 8B, p. 75). The text ranks the
success of the food students have made based on the quantity of dishes they have sold in the Food Festival. However, the main
purpose of organising a Food Festival is to advocate students' participation instead of making comparisons. The interviewed students
also criticised meaningless comparisons:

Student E: In real life, it seems to be meaningless to talk about these things…

Student F: If you make comparisons, there must be a worst one. It's not necessary to do this.

The above scenarios under relevant topics appear to hinder peer discussions and fail to interest students because of the lack of
meaning in their lives and possible emotional vulnerability.
As for information authenticity, a student doubted the reliability of the information mentioned in a text about how to protect
ourselves in an earthquake in Project English 8A:

Student G: The textbook misadvises people. In the final exam of last term, I copied the tips about how to protect ourselves in the earthquake mentioned in the
English textbook to answer questions in geography exam paper. But, all of my marks were deducted, ALL!…

It is confusing when English textbooks and geography textbooks deliver different information about the same issue. The answer to
the question about the earthquake is not the main concern of the discussion here, but rather, the information gap about the same issue
in different subjects' textbooks that students are using.
Situational, interactional, personal and information authenticity make higher demands on the quality of the authenticity, instead
of being simply a matter of whether certain information is authentic or not. As a social activity, learning requires not only authentic
but also high-quality social interaction.

4.2. Language contextualisation: level of communication

In the questionnaire, I selected five tasks from Project English that correspond to the five categories Littlewood (2004) describes.
Alongside the real tasks appearing in their textbooks, students are also given the definition of each type of task (Table 3) in the
questionnaire and requested to evaluate each type in terms of the space, the level of challenge, and how much they like it by grading
from 1 (no space/not challenging/dislike) to 5 (sufficient space/very challenging/liked very much). Fig. 3 shows the general average
grades that students gave for each type of task with visual presentation. It is obvious that from Task A to Task E (i.e. from non-
communicative to authentic communication), students thought the task became increasingly challenging and provided more and
more space for them to express their own ideas. However, it is interesting to note that providing more space and being more
challenging do not mean that students enjoy them more. It can be seen that Tasks A and B, and Tasks D and E received a similar grade,
with a slight preference for Task D, while Task C is the least popular. Students' interpretations in interviews, to some extent, explain
why Tasks A and B, and Tasks D and E are more popular than Task C.
Students explained their preference and rationales during interviews. Students who liked Tasks A and B were more examination-
oriented. They could easily get higher marks in examinations and finish assignments quickly if tasks were less challenging. They paid
more attention to getting the correct answers and regarded tasks as their assignments rather than as a chance to learn the language.
The reason why exam results are so important is that school exam results are indicators of their estimated performance in the senior
high school entrance examination, which determines which senior high school they can go to.

Student D: If this kind of task appears in the exam paper, everybody can get 100. We like it when taking exams. We also like it when doing assignments.

However, when they were asked if their purpose was to learn the language instead of passing examinations, students gave

Table 3
The five tasks with different levels of communication.
Type of tasks Definition

A Non-communicative learning Tasks that test your knowledge about the structure of language and how it is formed.
B pre-communicative language practice Tasks that focus on the form of language, but you need to know the meaning of words before you do the task.
C Communicative language practice Tasks that provide you with some sample languages, language forms and guidelines, but you need to apply them
and communicate with others (e.g. classmates) to get information.
D Structured communication Tasks that only provide you with a situation and some information, but do not restrict the use of language and
langue forms. You have freedom to create your own within the context.
E Authentic communication Tasks that only provide a topic for you to discuss. You have freedom to use different language forms, express your
own opinions, and add details.

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Fig. 3. The grading of five communicative levels tasks.

opposite responses. It is a pity that the pressure of examinations hinders their pursuit of communicative language learning. Students
who preferred more communicative tasks (Tasks D and E) thought Tasks A and B were grammar-oriented, not challenging enough,
and thus very tedious and did not help with English communication. In contrast, Tasks D and E helped to broaden their thought, gave
more freedom to develop their ideas, contributed to improving their English communication skills, improved their language orga-
nisation abilities, and were more relevant to their lives. Therefore, students who liked Tasks A and B focused more on their academic
achievements in examinations, while those who were in favour of Tasks D and E, were more concerned with language development.
Task C is not as easy as Tasks A and B, so tasks like Task C hinder examination-oriented students from getting high marks, while
communication-oriented students feel that Task C provides too many restrictions compared to Tasks D and E. Hence, Task C was the
least popular among the five categories. Tables 1 and 2 indicate that most of the texts in Project English are artificial and serve
linguistic purposes such as learning grammar and vocabulary. As can be expected, most of the tasks in Project English belong to form-
focused non-communicative and pre-communicative language practice steps, whereas structured communication and authentic
communication tasks rarely appear in textbooks.

4.3. Cultural contextualisation: source, target and international cultures

In Project English, textbook editors do not explain very well the cultural differences between speaking Chinese (source culture) and
English (target culture), which prevents students from achieving interactional authenticity in second/foreign language commu-
nication. Some students proposed that textbook conversations do not conform to their speech habits:

Student F: For example, if you ask “why don't we + a sentence”, in our life, it's not necessary to say “that's a good idea”. But in textbooks, every time, people
answer “that's a good idea” even if it's not a good idea.

Students do not realise the differences between speaking Chinese and speaking English from a cultural perspective. English-
speaking people tend to give a positive answer before refusing an invitation, such as ‘I'd like to, but …’, and ‘that's a good idea, but…’
while Chinese people may directly say ‘sorry, I can't come because…’ without showing a positive acknowledgement. They may feel
confused like Student F if textbook editors and teachers do not point out the interaction pattern differences from the perspective of
culture. Moreover, cultural differences such as contrasting traditional Chinese festivals (e.g. the Spring Festival and the Dragon Boat
Festival) and western festivals (e.g. the Christmas and the Easter) are paid much more attention, while cultural similarity is rarely
addressed in the textbook. This highlights the uniqueness of individual culture but neglects the cultivation of students' awareness of
being a global citizen.
Furthermore, Project English promotes the cultural dominance of the United Kingdom and the United States, by under representing
knowledge of other English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries. The analysis of the representation of target and interna-
tional cultures is through the frequency of occurrence of different countries' cities, famous people, movies, literatures, festivals, and
costumes in pictures and texts of textbooks. Table 4 shows the number of each item relating to a specific country is unequally
presented in Project English. Of the foreign characters with names, five are from the USA and six from the UK, while only two are from
Canada, and only one is from India, Cuba and Japan respectively. None of the characters with names are from other foreign countries.
Three cities in the USA: New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles are introduced while many other countries' famous cities are
excluded. The vast majority of the famous people come from the USA and the UK. The results for the category of Others, including
literature, movies, festivals and so on, is very similar to the previous categories. Although the USA is the most present, the UK also
accounts for a large proportion of this section. Song (2013, p. 385) also found that Korean English textbooks ‘favour American white

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Table 4
The presentation of world-wide countries in Project English.
International country Main character City Famous people Others (movie, literature, festival…)

USA 5 3 8 26
UK (England) 6 1 6 14
USA & UK in total 11 4 14 40
Other countries in total (exclude USA & UK) 5 4 10 24

cultural representations over all others’. The USA and the UK hold primary place among all international countries. The textbooks
tend to advocate their cultural features while excluding or neglecting the others.
However, although the cultures of the US and the UK attract a lot of attention, they are introduced in a one-sided way. Messekher
(2014) notes that English textbooks take a simplistic approach to representing cultures since they generally introduce mainstream
cultures, and critiques the fact that various sub-cultures such as African-American are excluded. There are few representations of
African-American culture in Project English. Regarding British culture, only England is mentioned, while Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland are not represented. One or two cultures related to English are not able to represent the characteristics of English in
the world as a lingua franca against the background of globalisation. Many English learning textbooks like Project English are
dominated by cultural viewpoints from inner circle countries (Ilieva, 2000), which does not help with communication between non-
native speakers of English from the expanding circle (Alptekin, 2002) and improving intercultural competence, including sensitivity
to culture differences, tolerance of cultural differences and flexibility in dealing with cultural differences (Wen, 2012).

5. Discussion

A crucial issue regarding textbook contextualisation is the level of authenticity. The focus of learning a language is not merely to
learn the form, but also to enable students to ‘use authentic cognitive, interactional, and communicative processes when carrying out
activities’ (Richards, 2014, p. 25). Yet a large number of texts and dialogues in Project English do not reflect how English is used in real
contexts. The interviewed students favour authentic reading texts instead of those that are artificially grammar-oriented. Some may
argue that authentic texts are too difficult for beginners, while artificial texts are constructed in a simple way and more suitable.
However, there are simple fully authentic texts, for example zoo show schedules and restaurant menus and bills, that consist of short
phrases and have a relatively low requirement on both grammar and vocabulary volume.
Students favour tasks with situational authenticity because these tasks remind them of their own life experiences and give a clear
purpose for doing it. In contrast, tasks that merely provide instructional statements are designed without communication purposes,
like those teaching-to-the-test tasks that are created without a role or scenario for students. Personal authenticity focuses on the
meaningfulness of the information to language users. Some topics are relevant to students though they may not motivate them to
communicate with their peers, due to the topic being antiquated, sensitive or offensive. As for interactional authenticity, as can be
seen from interviews, some expressions such as ‘that's a good idea’ sound very awkward for Chinese students when it is not a good
idea, but native speakers of English are more likely to give a positive response before refusal to express disagreement. This connects
with the cultural issue of language contrasts. Lopez-Barrios and Villanueva de Debat (2014) note that if two languages are more
distant, students need textbooks to help them explore differences. Otherwise, students may keep applying Chinese speaking rules in
English interactions, which makes no contribution to intercultural communication and achieving interactional authenticity. Last but
not least, it is appreciated that English textbook editors attempt to convey cross-disciplinary knowledge in textbook content.
However, it would be dangerous if information authenticity cannot be guaranteed, as no one would advocate the provision of
incorrect information in textbooks (Richards, 2014).
In terms of the level of communication of tasks, it was expected that students would favour communicative tasks rather than non-
communicative tasks; the results, however, differ somewhat from expectations. Students who were more concerned about their
examination scores preferred easier and less challenging non-communicative tasks while students whose aim was language devel-
opment wished for more communicative practice. The unified examination in China serving selective purpose results in a realistic
dilemma for language learners between exam-oriented learning and learning for language development, which reveals the dual
function of textbooks for academic achievement and language enhancement from the perspective of textbook users. In real contexts,
due to the pressure of examination, the academic achievement is usually magnified and overwhelms language development. Both
Chan (2013) and Andon and Wingate (2013) encountered a similar situation in that the language textbooks they investigated in-
volved many form-focused tasks. Carless (2007) suggests that non-communicative and pre-communicative teachings are likely to be
most suitable for language learners, as tasks at the authentic communication level are too demanding. However, this paper does not
aim to address a debate about which type of task is better or superior nor to argue against grammar practising, but to argue for
contextualised language learning and practising and a more balanced presentation of different levels of communication tasks to meet
the real needs of textbook users.
The imbalanced and inappropriate presentation of tasks embodies the insufficient diversity in Project English. This not only
pertains to a lack of diversity of topics, texts and tasks, but also the lack of diversity in terms of representation of cultures. Common
scenarios such as booking hotels/tickets and airport communications are absent, considering that traveling abroad could be one of
the more common contexts for most Chinese students to speak English. The variety of text types in Project English is limited and the

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frequency of popular text types such as letters, menus and schedules is insufficient. Moreover, given the background of globalisation,
the role of English textbooks is in need to be seen as a source for introducing cultural diversity. Instead, British and American
mainstream cultures are more valued than those of others in Project English, which weakens the function of textbooks for helping with
students' intercultural competency. The role of English as a lingua franca requires learners to be able to appreciate and respect
cultural diversity around the world. Textbooks that demonstrate a culture bias may influence students to have a biased worldview
and lead to discrimination in relation to a certain culture instead of its appreciation (Song, 2013).
Murata (2015) emphasises the importance of diversities in expanding the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) at both classroom
and the individual level, including the diversity of students' academic levels, teachers' instructions, and social interactions. She argues
for taking advantage of diversity to both improve students' academic achievements and promote social development in that with
multiple students' individual ZPDs connected and orchestrated, the classroom ZPD can extend and stretch further than each in-
dividual ZPD. This indicates that diversity can contribute to raising the lower and upper limit of learning in a social community, i.e.
developing an extended ZPD, which in turn supports and extends the individual's ZPD. As an important aid and medium for learning,
instruction and interaction, textbooks with knowledge and instructional breadth can contribute to maximise the potential benefits of
diversity for learning. A contextualised learning environment with diverse students, educational materials and wide instructions
differentiates educating from schooling.
This research also addresses the possibility of integration between English learning and moral education in textbooks, for example
by avoiding the appearance of inappropriate scenarios like the comparison of the most successful person in the Food Festival or the
survey of family background mentioned above. Unnecessary comparisons in class would be made overtly or covertly between stu-
dents with the evocation of those scenarios. In terms of discussing a topic like occupation, asking students about their ideal jobs in the
future would be more encouraging and less threatening. Interviewed students also agreed that they would be more motivated if they
were invited to share their ideal jobs instead of their parents' jobs.
On the other hand, the possibility of integrating English and cross-disciplinary knowledge signifies a progression in learning. The
application of English in real social contexts usually connects with information about other disciplines, instead of being independent
from them. For instance, English is used to discuss various disciplinary issues. Scott (2017) positions curriculum integration as one of
the fundamental components of pedagogic transformation of knowledge. A successful education requires learners to internalise
different disciplinary knowledge and then be able to externalise knowledge in an integrated, connected and developmental way (i.e.
the transformation of internalised knowledge).

6. Conclusion

The findings from this research point to a number of considerations for textbook writers and editors. Firstly, the contextualisation
of textbooks concerns both the contextualised textbook content and the practical use of textbooks. In this regard, more attention
needs to be given to contextualised interactions between learners and learning materials, alongside the teacher-student or student-
student interactions and the interaction between learners and their social community. Secondly, in terms of textbook content,
textbook writers and editors, as the producers, need to consider authenticity at both textual and practical level. In terms of au-
thenticity, texts in textbooks need to provide opportunities for students to learn more about language usage in real life. Complex
genuine texts such as newspaper, magazine articles, and English literatures that are too difficult or too long can be edited to fit to
students' levels of proficiency. Thirdly, cooperation with other subjects' textbook editors or specialists needs to be strengthened to
ensure the reliability of information. Lastly, cultural nuance in terms of interaction patterns needs to be pointed out and tensions
between source, target and international culture in language textbooks need to be weakened rather than strengthened so as to
facilitate meaningful communication between people with varied cultural backgrounds and to improve intercultural competence.
As for the practical use of textbooks, teachers, as the users, can improve textbooks by adaptations, as one set of textbooks are
hardly able to fulfil needs of all student users. Bosompem (2014) suggests four adaptation methods: addition, modification, re-
placement and deletion that teachers can apply to make improvements. Changing from Task 1 in Picture 1 to Task 2 in Picture 2 is a
vivid example of modification, and the positive effect is apparent based on students' grading. English textbooks have the potential to
not just provide guidance for learning language, but can be a platform for introducing cultural diversity and tolerance and as a
medium for integrating cross-disciplinary knowledge. Textbooks that fail to address these may fail to be both contextualised and
communicative.
In addition, this research has raised the issue of integration in aspects such as the integration between moral education and
language learning and the integration between English and cross-disciplinary knowledge. Moral education is not restricted to how to
get on well with others, but involves global citizenship through achieving better understanding of cultures and values in world-wide
countries. English learning textbooks can serve as a good platform to introduce related cultural topics and moral values such as being
a global citizen and appreciating cultural differences. In turn, this can help students to enhance a whole-person development, in-
cluding social awareness, emotional well-being, and a tolerant world view.

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