Sociologists believe that the hidden curriculum of a textbook is just as important as its explicit counterpart since it, ‘generates social meanings, restraints, and cultural values which shape students’ roles outside the classroom.’[1]
Implicit Hidden Curriculum
In the English language textbook ‘Blueprint: Upper Intermediate’ [Longman, 1993], its hidden curriculum exposes an exceedingly ‘Euro-centred’ textbook which highlights the exclusivity and privilege of the ‘English language’.
In Unit Five titled “A Letter of Application”, learners need to choose from a list of ‘jobs’ and discuss the questions:
- Have you ever done one of the following jobs?
- Did you enjoy it?
- Was it well-paid?
The list of jobs include working on a farm, washing up in a café or restaurant, being a waiter/waitress or renting sun umbrellas and sun loungers on the beach. Considering that the learners participating in this very exercise are studying English as a second language and generally ‘come from some kind of middle-class background’[2], such low-paying, and in some cultures, degrading jobs can be inappropriate for your students.
The scholar Burgess believes that exercises like that of Blueprint’s “Unit Five” prescribe particular roles for students to the point where the, ‘hidden curriculum prepares students for menial positions and teaches them the corresponding language of subservience.’[3] In this lesson the teacher clearly needs to supplement the exercise with other job titles and experiences in order to have a realistic and fair discussion.
Adapting Euro-Centred Textbooks for International Students
Another example of a ‘Euro-centric’ exercise in “Upper Intermediate” is Unit One called “Taking Risks”. These activities have students talking about rock-climbing and then filling out a survey titled ‘How daring are you?’ By doing this, students need to analyze the ‘have you’ and ‘do you’ interrogative constructions to discuss present perfect and past simple tense. The problem however is that the topic is targeted to a very specific learner, not just age but ethnicity also.
Asian students of Blueprint’s target age group (which form a large majority of ESL students), have generally had no interest, let alone any kind of participation, in activities such as rock climbing and parachuting. If the teacher is to follow with the successful method of meaning to form, it is vital that the unit is personalized and keeps the learner’s interest.
To adapt this unit, a teacher could use the reading as a warm up and then ask students to write their own questions in the present perfect and the past simple tense using their own experiences (with some initial examples on the board). In pairs they can then discuss and then report back to the class. In adapting textbooks effectively however, teachers ‘need to most of all be sensitive to their students’ interests, learning styles and motivation.’[4]
[1] Elsa Roberts Auerbach and Denise Burgess, ‘The Hidden Curriculum of Survival ESL’. TESOL Quarterly, Volume 19 September, 1985 Number 3.
[2] Alan Cunningsworth, ‘Choosing Your Coursework’. Oxford: Heienemann, 1995.
[3] Elsa Roberts Auerbach and Denise Burgess, ‘The Hidden Curriculum of Survival ESL’. TESOL Quarterly, Volume 19 September, 1985 Number 3.
[4] Alan Cunningsworth, ‘Choosing Your Coursework’. Oxford: Heienemann, 1995.
 |
