Critical Reflection on English Readings Used in Korean Universities: Stories of Diverse Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which three reading textbooks used in university reading classes in Korea are including stories of a diverse world and how those stories are addressing the world. For the analyses, three of the representative reading textbooks used in universities in Korea were analyzed by quantifying which country or nationality was incorporated and were critically examined by micro-analyzing how the country was addressed in the materials. The results of the study show that in spite of the seeming multicultural approach that ELT (English Language Teaching) publishers have taken by introducing stories of various countries from the West to the East, the textbooks continue to be “stubbornly Anglocentric’ (McGrath, 2002, p. 213) by highlighting the dominance of western countries (in particular the U.S.) and, at the same time, downplaying the emergent or advanced qualities of non-western countries. To conclude, the authors suggest some pedagogical implications of the study highlighting the importance of in-depth materials evaluation for textbook selection and teaching students to gain critical perspective in perceiving and digesting assorted culturally embedded materials.