Analysis of Local Culture in an English Textbook Used in Indonesian Junior High Schools

One of the kinds of culture that must be included in English teaching and learning is the local culture or the students’ own culture. Integrating this kind of culture in the English textbook can make it easier to bring this culture into the classroom. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the local culture in a junior high school English textbook. Descriptive qualitative design was employed to investigate culture in the textbook without any manipulation. A textbook written by local author used by junior high school students in Indonesia was chosen as the data source. Moran’s (2001) five dimensions of culture that include products, practices, perspectives, communities, and persons was used to analyze the data. The results of the analysis revealed that the textbook was filled with many references to local culture. 47.17% of the items containing cultural values were found to contain references to the local culture. Those cultural items were mostly presented in pictures and words containing references to the students’ own culture.