Representation of different cultures in IBDP language B literary texts

Abstract

English is one of the languages taught in International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme as a Language B course. English includes examples of culture within itself as it is the most widespread language in the world (Nault, 2006). International Baccalaureate has the objectives of “developing students’ intercultural understanding” and “encouraging, through the study of texts and through social interaction, an awareness and appreciation of the different perspectives of people from other cultures” in English courses (IB, 2011). This study explored the cultural elements embedded in sample literary texts studied in IBDP Language B English courses, Fahrenheit 451 and The Catcher in the Rye. These literary texts were analyzed by using content analysis within the conceptual framework of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning (Appendix A) which was originally designed by US Department of Education and the National Endowment in 1996 and was adopted by Yuen (2011) by using another category from the study of Moran (as cited in Yuen, 2011). The results of the study showed that American and British cultures are frequently represented in sample texts in addition to appearance of some other cultures. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that there is a need to reevaluate the use of these literary texts considering the aims of the programme.