The Narratives of Culture in Junior High School English Textbooks: A Crossed Border and Remaining Issues

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the issues of teaching culture in Junior high school textbooks of English. Teaching “culture” has been one of the tasks in postwar English education, and, as Erikawa (1992) or Enomoto (2006) clear, its ranges and roles have changed. In this paper, I confirm the changes based on Erikawa (1992) and Enomoto (2006). Then, I will analyze the “culture” spoken by main characters in current junior high school English textbooks, and elucidate whether they are on the same horizon and have the same issues with the previous researches. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the target junior high school English textbooks kept the similar issues with what Enomoto (2006) pointed out, while some were improved. Also, this study found some elements to strength the relationship between nation and culture, and points out those may provoke the view of cultural essentialism.