Cultural Content Analysis of an English Textbook under the Merdeka Curriculum for EFL Learners

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the cultural content in an English textbook entitled English: Work in Progress for Grade X SMA/SMK, based on the Merdeka Curriculum, and published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture in 2022. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method with a content analysis approach. First, the researcher thoroughly read the entire content. Second, identify and highlight sections. Third, analyze and identify. Fourth, describe the data. Fifth, draw conclusions. Lastly, validate the data using triangulation. Data were obtained from reading texts and images contained in the six chapters of the textbook. As the instrument, two theoretical frameworks were used in this study, that is, formulated by Cortazzi & Jin to identify types of culture (Source Culture, Target Culture, and International Culture) and Adaskou, Britten & Fahsi to analyze the sense of culture (Aesthetic, Sociological, Semantic, and Pragmatic sense). The analysis results show that Source Culture and International Culture both dominate with 22 items each (36.07%), while Target Culture appears only 17 times (27.87%). In terms of cultural sense, the Sociological and Pragmatic sense appear more frequently than the others, which are the Aesthetic Sense and the Semantic Sense.