Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle VAL-projektet Examensarbete 15 högskolepoäng, grundnivå Historia i kursböcker för Engelska A och B History in English Course books An Analysis of four course books aiming for English at Upper secondary School in Sweden Ulrika Falk Lärarutbildning 90 poäng Examinator: Jan Anders Andersson 2012 -03- 12 Handledare: Nils Andersson 2 Abstract In this thesis I look at how the English Speaking countries´ history are presented in four English course books aiming for English studies at Upper Secondary School, courses English A and English B (EN1201 and EN1202). I have chosen to look at which countries that are mentioned in the course books and how much fact about the English speaking countries history that the course books have. I also wanted to see what images these texts gave the readers about the countries, a positive or a negative image. The results of my analysis are that the amount of facts in the course books varies, depending on which book you look at and also the choice of countries that are presented in the books. It is not only “factual” texts in the course books either; there are also extracts from different novels and poems that were written through the ages. This so the reader gets a “taste” of what literature was like back when. The English speaking countries that are included in the course books are as follows: the USA, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Jamaica, the Caribbean Islands and countries on the African Continent. Some of the English speaking countries´ are more frequent than others in the course books, for example the USA and Ireland, are mentioned in all four of the course books. The order in which the countries are mentioned above is due to the number of pages that they claim in the course books, putting the USA in the lead with most pages. The result of this is that the power structure of the world today is transferred to the course books at Upper secondary school in Sweden, that the USA is the most frequent country mentioned in the course books and also in world. This contradicts what Fairclough´s Critical Discourse Analysis (which I use in this thesis) is trying to do, namely to create a more equal world. 3 4 Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Aim and Research questions............................................................................................. 9 1.3 What is history? ................................................................................................................ 9 1.4 Previous Research........................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Method ............................................................................................................................ 11 1.5.1 Delimitation ............................................................................................................. 12 1.5.2 Execution ................................................................................................................. 13 2 A look at the textbooks .......................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Streams 1 and 2............................................................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Streams 1 .................................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Streams 2 .................................................................................................................. 19 2.2 Short Cuts 1 and 2 .......................................................................................................... 28 2.2.1 Short Cuts 1 .............................................................................................................. 28 2.2.2 Short Cuts 2 .............................................................................................................. 30 3 Analysis of the course books ................................................................................................. 35 3.1 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 43 List of references ...................................................................................................................... 45 5 6 7 1. Introduction To learn a new language is not only to learn vocabulary and grammar, it is to learn a new culture and another way of thinking. A language represents the people who speak it and their way of life, part of which comes down to history. Potentially to learn a new language is to open up a whole new world. In order to learn a new language and all that it represents, the learner must have some kind of background knowledge. This knowledge can be of help when learning and understanding the language. One important aspect of this is to have an insight into the country and its history. Since English is one of the foreign languages that we are taught in Sweden from a young age, it is necessary to learn about English history. The older the student becomes, the more they should know about the language (hence, about the history of the countries where they speak English) and they should therefore be able to obtain and to process more information. This is clear if we look the aims in the curriculum for English A and B at Upper Secondary school in Sweden The pupil should have some knowledge about the social structure and the tradition of culture and also how people live in English speaking areas. The pupil should be able to use this knowledge to compare different cultures to each other (SKOLFS:2000:4, my translation). In other words, the students at Upper Secondary school in Sweden should have some knowledge as to what kind of culture traditions that they have in English speaking countries or areas, and how they are different or alike ours, when they have finished the course. They should also know a bit about the social structure in those countries. The curriculum for English B also states that “the student should have knowledge about the social structure, the history and the cultures in countries where they speak English” (SKOLFS:2000:4, my translation). This means that when the student is finished with the course they should have some knowledge about the English- speaking countries´ history in addition to the social structure and cultural tradition in these countries. 8 The importance of knowledge about history and culture is conveyed in the curriculum for English A and B. In this work I therefore analyse four course books aiming for the courses at Upper Secondary School and how they are used for English learning in reference to the contents of culture and history. 1.1 Aim and Research questions The aim of this dissertation is to find out how the English speaking countries´ history is presented in four Upper Secondary textbooks in English in Sweden today. - Which countries´ are presented in the course books? - How much history is brought up in the course books? - What history is brought up? - What images of the English speaking countries does it convey? 1.3 What is history? According to the Swedish National Encyclopedia history is: partly a past reality, partly the description and study of that reality. The thing about history is that the reality that is explored cannot, directly, be observed or reached through experiment. It has to be investigated through the clues that people in the past has left behind. (Nationalencyklopedin, 2011, my own translation) I interpret history as a generic term for everything that has happened in the past, before today. As history is such a wide term I just want to clarify what I will look at in this thesis. My definition of history includes history of a country, language history and literary history. Literary history can give us a view of how it was during that time in history, when certain literary works was written. Many novels, short stories and poems were written, describing specific elements which we can tie to that particular period in time. Through literature we get a view of the past. The language history can be an indicator as to what happened in the countries at specific times in history, due to how the English language has developed and evolved. We should learn from history, because of history we are where we are today. History has shaped our future. 9 I have also restricted my research to include history of these three areas (the country´s history, literature history and language history) up until 1945, when the Second World War was over, because it seems like the world then had a new beginning after years of war and conflict. 1.4 Previous Research When looking for research previously done I have found two theses written by Weronika Höglund, Susanna DiMattia and Rebecka Svensson. Höglund has analysed a book aiming for English A, DiMattia and Svensson has looked a two course books that are aiming for English studies at the senior level of the Swedish “grundskola”. Even if DiMattia´s and Svensson´s thesis look at course books aiming for a lower level of studies, there is still a connection when it comes to the curriculum in English. This since the English studies they are looking at gives the students knowledge that they at an Upper Secondary level will develop with the help of, perhaps, the course books that I look at. Weronika Höglund