Keywords

1 Introduction

In most cases, educational policies have an impact on the production of curriculum materials, such as textbooks. Textbooks as silent partners (Orton 2010) shape interaction between students, a teacher, and instructional tools. This educational artifact is also called a structured and enacted curriculum that guides instructional activities and tasks on which both students and teacher work. From a critical perspective, textbooks are viewed as “ideological message systems for transmitting dominant values and beliefs of society” (Opoku-Amankwa et al. 2011, p. 293). This curricular text is not simply a curriculum document but a social and cultural artifact (Gray 2010; Xiong 2012), which features particular beliefs, culturally appropriate values, socially accepted norms, and ideologies either overtly or covertly portrayed in such curriculum artifacts, and they function to impose such things on learners (Curdt-Christiansen 2008; Gebregeorgis 2016a). Ndura (2004) reiterates that “[i]nstructional materials play the role of cultural mediators as they transmit overt and covert societal values, assumptions and images” (p. 143). This implies that textbooks are an instructional guide that helps learners engage with these value-laden texts in order to expect them to learn the appropriate ways of thinking, behaving, doing, valuing, and being in the world.

Thus, instructional textbooks always bring a baggage of values that both teachers and learners may be (un)aware of (Gebregeorgis 2016b). This value can be visually and verbally represented or discursively constructed in ELT textbooks, for instance. In this chapter, values embrace cultural and moral beliefs, social norms, and conventions that society members hold. In order to unpack these values in ELT textbooks, I argue that a critical micro-semiotic analysis of textbooks would give a broader and more detailed description of value discourses constructed in the textbooks. Additionally, to date, there is no or little investigative effort examining values in Indonesia’s secondary school English textbook(s) from a critical micro-semiotic perspective. For this reason, I would like to contribute to a better understanding of in what ways values are discursively represented in this textbook so that teachers and students gain heightened awareness that any texts in textbooks contain particular values drawn from a larger sociocultural context. In this respect, both students and teachers play roles as textbook assessors who see any English textbooks as both knowledge and value agents.

The present chapter is structured as follows. First, it touches on value or character education in Indonesia’s educational landscape. It moves on to present previous textual studies on English textbooks from moral or value perspectives. Then, I would like to present methodological consideration and discussion. Both pedagogical and empirical implications are also presented to furnish language teachers with insight into pedagogical values of this analysis. Drawing on this implication, language researchers interested in closer textual investigation into English textbooks can extend this scholarship. The outcome of this textual analysis can be a catalyst for designing value-based language materials locally situated in particular educational contexts.

2 Character Education in Indonesia

At the outset, it is important to define character and character education. Shumer et al. (2012, p. 43) argue that “Character” must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling and behavior.” When character is situated in an educational curriculum, character education is an attempt to instill in students important core values or virtues through the implementation of a school curriculum, for instance. These core virtues can take the form of cultural beliefs and knowledge, which may contain moral values, such as diligence, respect for authority, modesty, tolerance, and honesty (Liu 2005). These beliefs, values, and ideologies are socio-historically and socioculturally constructed (Gu 2016).

The cultivation of character or moral values is one of the educational goals (Lovat 2017). Character education acknowledges the existence of good and bad behavior and ethical choices. For example, in Indonesia, the character education policy enacted in 2011 penetrates all school subjects (Mambu 2015). In this respect, character education should be integrated explicitly into all school subjects including English. Though value-based education in ELT is not a new enterprise, the Indonesian Government would like to emphasize that value education is included in school subject curricula so that learners can inculcate character virtues or moral values (Qoyyimah 2016). This implies that textbooks, one of the curriculum artifacts, serve as a silent agent of moral or value education because both teachers and learners interact with this pedagogical artifact. In short, textbooks are not neutral but value-laden and socio-historically constructed to meet policy goals.

To understand the issue of character education in Indonesia, readers have to be privy to the sociocultural and political landscape of Indonesia. Indonesia is a home to diverse cultures (norms and traditions), ethnic groups, and religions (Widodo and Fardhani 2011). Indonesia officially recognizes such religions as Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddism, and Khonghucu (Confucianism). It also gives Indonesian citizens freedom to follow other faiths as long as they respect other faiths and religions. These different religious beliefs guide moral reasoning (knowing), feeling, and behavior (doing). Indonesian citizens with different religious beliefs hold different values. Aside from these religious beliefs, Indonesia also has different values historically, culturally, and socially anchored in ethnic traditions. For instance, Sundanese people hold different moral values from the Balinese do. For example, the value of Gotong Royong (working together) has a different meaning among ethnic groups (Gugur Gunung [working together to build public facilities] in Yogyakarta, Song-Osong Lombhung [working together to harvest salt among salt farmers] in Madura, Ngayah [working together for religious rituals] in Bali). Each of the ethnic groups in Indonesia also engages in different social practices guided by particular cultural values. For example, on Java, people have Slametan (the communal feast) along with prayer geared to celebrate “life cycle events, such as births, circumcisions, weddings, and deaths” (Newberry 2007, p. 1309). In this social practice, host families invite neighbors and close kins/relatives to attend this feast. In other words, Indonesian cultures are an amalgam of different ethnic cultures and religious identities.

In the educational landscape, one of the educational goals spelled out in Indonesia’s educational policy and curriculum documents is to cultivate students’ character virtues and moral values. This character education is part of the primary and secondary school curricula (Qoyyimah 2016). Along with this new paradigm, all schools have to incorporate character education into all school subjects. This has been implemented in school since mid 2011 (Pusat Kurikulum 2010). The Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia allows schools to manage and choose how character education is integrated into particular school subjects (Suparno 2011). Character education is the core of a school curriculum aiming to educate socially responsible pupils and students. The goals of character education (Pusat Kurikulum 2010) are to:

  1. 1.

    capitalize on student’s potential and teach students to behave morally, culturally, and ethically, thereby representing the nation’s culture and character;

  2. 2.

    strengthen national education that assumes social responsibility for harnessing student’s talent and capability; and

  3. 3.

    re-appropriate the nation’s cultures and other cultures, which suit the nation’s civilized cultural values and virtues.

Character traits or virtues that teachers need to incorporate into school subjects embrace (1) religiosity, (2) honesty, (3) tolerance, (4) self-discipline, (5) hard work, (6) creativity, (7) independence, (8) democracy, (9) curiosity, (10) patriotism, (11) nationalism, (12) respect for others, (13) friendliness, (14) peace-loving, (15) love to read, (16) environmental sensitivity, (17) social awareness, and (18) responsibility (Pusat Kurikulum 2010). Each school can add more character virtues to school subjects based on these psychological and sociocultural principles, including: (1) spiritual & emotional development, (2) intellectual or cognitive development, (3) physical & kinesthetic development, and (4) affective and creative development (Pusat Kurikulum dan Perbukuan 2011). These values can be implemented through routine teaching practices, spontaneous behaviors, and extracurricular activities (e.g., Scouting, Indonesian Red Cross clubs).

Given this policy, English language teaching (ELT) is no exception to the inclusion of character education. In ELT, teachers need to integrate character virtues as spelled out in the guidelines for the implementation of character education and the English language curriculum adopting a genre-based approach (Widodo 2016). They can select topics or themes, text types, and learning tasks, which contain virtues both explicitly and implicitly. For example, a teacher may teach a narrative text using “Kancil dan Timun” [Rabbit and Cucumbers], one of the most prominent Indonesian’s fables. The teacher and students can discuss character traits and moral values in the story. Teachers can also provide students with a variety of texts that expose students to different character virtues and moral values. For example, corporate vision and mission genres can be used to learn character values. To exploit these traits and values, students need to grasp the text at the outset. Certainly, the teacher can provide step-by-step scaffolding from integrated genre-based language learning tasks to character-driven language tasks (Widodo 2015). After the students have understood the text, the teacher can discuss the character virtues and moral values in depth. She or he can use open-ended questions and text-based discussion so that the students can engage in character-driven language learning tasks. Certainly, teachers can present and discuss different character virtues and moral values from different texts with different text types, such as information reports, descriptions, explanation, and argumentation and with different genres, such as corporate websites, children stories, and biographies. This text-based instruction can lead to critical thinking, language awareness, and values awareness (Widodo 2015).

3 Values Education in ELT Textbooks

Because of the inclusion of character education in English as a school subject, teachers need to explore more ELT practices, which facilitate students to learn character virtues and moral values in spoken, written, and visual texts (multimodal texts). One of the ways to do this is through the incorporation of character virtues into ELT textbooks. For this reason, textbooks can be a vehicle for channeling the teaching of values in all school subjects. These values can be manifested through texts, tasks (instructional prompts), and images (visuals). Texts, tasks, and images actively contruct a particular value of social practices.

There is a considerable body of studies, specifically investigating moral and character education in the area of English language pedagogies. In particular, many studies investigated cultural values or content in ELT textbooks around the world (see Dinh and Sharifian 2017; Gebregeorgis 2016a, b; Zia Tajeddin and Shohreh Teimournezhad 2015). To some extent, this cultural content is associated with moral values (e.g., hospitability and friendly behavior, respect for and being grateful to parents). This cultural content can take the form of perspectives, products, practices, and people (Yuen 2011). A few studies directly address how both cultural and moral values are represented in such curriculum artifacts.

For example, Lee (2009) examined sociocultural values and norms (e.g., freedom, hard work, equality) discursively depicted in 11 high school EFL conversation textbooks used in Korea. The findings of this study suggest the inclusion of different sociocultural values and norms in English textbooks so that learners have an enhanced awareness and knowledge of how people of different gender, age, religion and socio-economic status hold specific sociocultural norms and values.

Ma (2012) examined the extent to which the ‘emotion and attitude’ domain is discursively constructed in a Chinese primary school English textbook dictated by the new English language curriculum of China. She reported that even though the target objectives of the domain are manifested through a range of affect-related activities in the textbook, the language of the textbook is relatively emotion-free. The author also revealed that only a few of the recommended teaching strategies in the accompanying teacher’s guide reflect the strategies stipulated in the syllabus in order to develop positive affective factors.

Xiong (2012) uncovered cultural and moral discourses discursively portrayed in China-produced English textbooks. Using critical discourse analysis, he found that these textbooks, to some extent, contain dominant cultural and moral messages contested and resisted by competing discourses, such as perseverance and willpower versus natural aptitudes discourses and submission versus liberty discourses. These discourses are discursively represented through a myriad of generic and discoursive patterns, rhetorical strategies, lexical and grammatical choices, and images. These findings call for critical reading and critical pedagogy in order to unpack cultural and moral ideologies.

The most recent study by Gebregeorgis (2016b) investigated peace values depicted in English for Ethiopia Student Textbook Grade 9. It specifically looked at the content and activities of the textbook. By drawing on textual, contextual and sociological discourse analyses, it was found that the textbook mainly featured a positive self-concept, good health and compassion, tolerance, solidarity, social responsibility, respect for life in all its forms, and care for the environment (peace with nature). Despite the portrayal of these peace values, some activities and content of the textbook depicted gendered stereotyping and prejudice contradicting the peace value of equality. This study suggests some improvement in the areas of content and activities in the textbook so that this curriculum artifact does promote peace values.

These previous studies evidently regard moral or character education as an important element of the English curriculum. A textbook as a curriculum artifact canalizes a baggage of cultural and moral values that both teachers and students need to be aware of. The critical evaluation of textbooks is one of the ways to examine moral and cultural values particularly in ELT textbooks. As textbook evaluators, both teachers and students play a role as critical textbook users because they engage with the actual use of textbooks.

4 The Study

This study falls within the scope of critical discourse analysis because it examines character discourses of textbooks. A textbook is a curriculum or educational genre that contains a myriad of moral and cultural values that teachers and students of which may or may not be aware. These values have different meanings. In this study, one textbook, “Pathway To English For Senior High School Grade X” (General Programme) by M. Sudarwati and Eudia Grace was selected for a more in-depth analysis based on the following criteria:

  1. 1.

    one of the features of the textbook in the blurb emphasizes character building, that is, “exposing students to various moral values;”

  2. 2.

    this textbook is nationally adopted because this textbook is endorsed by the Indonesian Ministry of National Education;

  3. 3.

    this textbook is the manifestation of macro politico-educational forces in which the ministry of national education plays a role as an agent of such forces;

  4. 4.

    the textbook was written based on the 2013 Curriculum guidelines that stipulate the inclusion of character education and discourse competence in English curricula including English textbooks; The 2013 English Language Curriculum is the revised edition of the 2006 English Language Curriculum. It was enacted in mid 2013;

  5. 5.

    the English textbook for Grade X was selected because it contains learning exercises and activities, but the English textbook for Grade XII was excluded because the content of the textbook emphasizes test-driven exercises; another Textbook for Grade XI was not subject to analysis because it has the same pattern but different themes;

  6. 6.

    one of the core competences in the chosen textbook includes understanding moral values and attitudes in the introduction part and the enclosed syllabus in the textbook;

  7. 7.

    Penerbit Erlangga (Erlangga Press) is a major publishing outlet in Indonesia in which it regularly publishes school textbooks, and it is nationally accredited; and

  8. 8.

    the textbook was written by Indonesian writers who understand the context of ELT in Indonesia.

Because the chosen textbook is not just a curriculum document but also a cultural text, critical discourse analysis (CDA) best demystifies how such a text represents and constructs social reality contextually tied to a specific ideological (value) system through covert messages based on what is said and left unsaid. Additionally, CDA uncovers how this ideological system is (re)constructed by texts and social practices that (dis)privilege particular values in society (de los Heros 2009). For this reason, anchored in Halliday’s (1978) systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a lexico-grammatical analysis as a micro language analysis is particularly used to examine values through the choices of linguistic and visual elements in a discourse (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006). This SFL-informed language appraisal (Martin and White 2005) examines language use (e.g., language choices) in relation to its functionality within the social world or to social practices. These micro-level linguistic choices at the lexico-grammatical level have long been a key procedure for demystifying positions and values (Fairclough 1992, 1995; de los Heros 2009). These positions and values represent attitudinal discourses overtly or covertly encapsulated in cultural artifacts, such as school textbooks. These attitudinal discourses (Martin and White 2005) include affect (emotions: un/happiness, dis/satisfaction, in/security), judgment (social qualities: social esteem and social sanction), and appreciation (aesthetic qualities: reaction and composition). These attitudinal discourses can take the form of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs coherently constructed in texts. The present study provides a documentation of what and how the chosen textbook explicitly and implicitly portrays character virtues and moral values. Practically, for a thorough analysis, I selected a few of representative texts that contain values in the textbook. I, then, examined these texts to illustrate how some of the values are discursively represented in this curriculum document. Emotion, judgment, and appreciation systems (Martin and White 2005) were used to uncover such values.

5 Analysis and Discussion

In the selected textbook, a myriad of texts are both visually and verbally represented. The focus of this textbook analysis is placed on hidden values that both teachers and students need to be aware of. It is important to note that in the textbook, Pathway to English for Senior High School Grade X, is accompanied with the official syllabus. This syllabus spells out such values as politeness (social awareness), care (social awareness), sincerity, sympathy (social awareness), responsiveness (social awareness), love to read, peace-loving, honesty, self-esteem, nationalism, tolerance, struggle (hard work), responsibility, self-discipline, patriotism, and respect for others in each of the lesson units. The selection of these values is based on the Indonesian Ministry of National Education guidelines for character education (Pusat Kurikulum dan Perbukuan 2011). In other words, most of these values are officially recommended in the national character education guidelines. This suggests that the textbook writers attempt to translate the inclusion of character education policy into a curriculum document, a textbook. The writers also include more values, such as sincerity and self-esteem, which are not listed in the guidelines. The official curriculum allows teachers to include more values that they consider important to learn. The following analysis focuses on in what ways values are visually and verbally depicted in the textbook. Due to space limitations, some texts were selected based on lesson topics or themes, analyzed, and discussed. In this chapter, the bold and underlined words and phrases of the text serve as the units of analysis at a lexico-grammatical level.

5.1 Visual Representation of Values

In the textbook, the writers present particular values through a series of visual depictions. Visually, pictures and photographs as well as other visual artifacts (e.g., graphs, diagrams, and icons) represent values that both teachers and students need to realize. These visual artifacts, such as pictures, photographs, and diagram trees portray particular values that both teachers and students may go unnoticed or take for granted. Uncovering these values is intended to build and enhance teacher and student awareness of values represented in the textbook because the textbook is a value-laden curriculum document, and it is a silent partner that depicts legitimized or dominant values that certain societies hold. For this study, the selected textbook portrays visual representations of certain values as listed below. It is important to bear in mind that only visual presentations that are relevant to lesson themes were selected for a corpus of value discourses and for in-depth analysis due to space limitations.

Table 1 shows that visual artifacts portray a variety of values that both teachers and students can learn and discuss in order to build and enhance awareness of values that the textbook writers promote. In other words, the use of visual texts provides both teachers and students with the opportunity to discuss hidden values in the textbook. For example, in Lesson Unit or Chapter # 1, the family tree seems to be value-free, but it shows the value of two-parent families because in the pedigree tree, both Smith and his daughter are living in the same household. In the Indonesian family context, having two-parent families is more valued than one-parent families because a couple needs to maintain their marital relationships while bearing their children until they get old. In this social system, children are supposed to live with two parents although in some case, Indonesian children live with one parent because of divorce, a preference for single parenting, and spousal mortality. In terms of the number of chidren in one family, Smith got two children, and so does his daughter. This indicates a nuclear family. His son can be categorized into a nuclear family because he has three children. The number of children in a family imposes the reader on the value of a nuclear family. A nuclear family is part of the family planning program that aims to control population and stabilize population growth. In Indonesia, this family planning has been a government program since 1970s in order to improve family health and welfare, control a birth rate and population growth, and reduce reproductive problems. Additionally, having children whose gender is a boy and a girl represents parents’ preferences for mixed-sex chidren. In some case, Indonesian couples do not have any preference for sex of children. In the Indonesian family structure context, parents’ preferences for sex of children affects parents’ happiness (Palloni 2017), but this is not always the case depending on particular cultural and institutional values as well as individual tastes (e.g., Indonesian parents have no maternal gender preferences).

Table 1 The Portrayal of Values in the Textbook, Pathway to English for Senior High School Grade X
Full size table

From an occupational perspective, in the Smith family, the use of a lexical item, retired, indicates collar occupation. This implies that they got pension benefit-based collar occupation. In the Indonesian context, both government and non-government professional sectors offer pension benefits. This implies that senior high student readers should envision occupation that offers pension benefits. In Indonesian society’s larger social system, pension benefit-based employment is more valued than labour work. Smith’s daughter, son, daughter in law, and son in law are professionals. This lexical evidence demonstrates that the Smith family values collar occupation. In order to get this collar occupation (policeman in exception), pursuing higher education is needed. For example, Ann is a dentist, a white collar occupation that requires a specialist higher education degree. Another example is a typist that is referred to a professional secretary. This occupation requires a higher education degree in the Indonesian context. Thus, the discourse of the family tree encourages textbook readers, senior high school students, to envision nuclear family, higher education, and collar occupation. The text of the family tree not merely shows a family relationship but also represents family bonding. This family bonding emphasizes the importance of having a family. Thus, the family tree discursively represents different values that teachers and students need to recognize.

In Lesson Unit 8, the textbook presents photographs of world and local heritage sites (e.g., the Borobudur Temple, the Statue of Liberty, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah). These sites are part of social and cultural geography that represents cultural identity, national pride, cultural tourism, monumental creativity, and nationalism, for example. World and local heritage sites are not just architectural buildings situated in particular geographical locations, but they are sociocultural landscapes, which provide “symbolic and economic sustenance, meaning and dignity to human lives” (Assi 2012, p. 322). Heritage sites are a cultural icon that portrays monumental creativity that ancestors have treasured and preserved over time. This human-built treasure is national pride that can provide cultural and economic benefits through cultural tourism activities. Heritage sites are also associated with nationalism because they are part of nation’s treasure that represents an identity of a nation. In the textbook, the writers also present world heritage sites from other countries. This can help readers understand the wealth of other cultures and other people. This depiction can open the door to intercultural dialog or discussion between students and their peers and between a teacher and students. In addition, the romanticization of heritage sites provides a historical portrayal of how ancestors built such sites. These historical values give meaning to the importance of preserving heritage sites including buildings in order to respect the human rights of ancestors. Heritage sites also showcase an architectural creativity of ancestors (e.g., the Borobudur Temple). This fact shows a modern civilization of ancestors. For this reason, archaeological monuments (e.g., The Statue of Liberty that voices human rights) and sites (e.g., Taman Mini Indonesia Indah that represents cultural and ethnic diversity in Indonesia) should be preserved. In short, photographs of world and local heritage sites visually portray a variety of values that teachers and students glean from different perspectives, such as local culture, identity, and human rights.

In the last unit of the textbook, the writers feature four famous figures, such as Soekarno or Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta, Mother Teresa, and Raden Ajeng Kartini through photographic presentation. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the first president and vice president of Indonesia (1949–1967) are known as charismatic nationalist leaders who fought for the Independence of Indonesia colonized by the Dutch from 1602 (Palmowski 2008). Another national figure, Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879–1904) is a national heroine who fought for gender equity (female education) in the history of the Indonesian Struggle (Afrianty 2015; Robinson and Bessell 2002). For this reason, she is widely acclaimed as the icon of aspirations of Indonesian women and women’s empowerment in Indonesia (Drakeley 2005). Another figure, Mother Teresa (1910–1997), is famous for a Catholic nun and missionary who helped the sick and disadvantaged as well as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (see http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html).

The visual texts (close-up photographs) of the four international and national famous figures above represent biographical information on people. A biography is a narrative genre that depicts person’s life, and it represents a person’s story, which provides insight into the meaning of an individual’s lived experience. Biographic texts are a rich source of values because this genre discursively portrays values attached to people. Additionally, this visual text evokes a question or an inquiry (e.g., who are these figures?) if the reader is unfamiliar with these figures. This inquiry leads the reader to learn about these people. In other words, by learning biographic information on the four public figures as mentioned earlier, both teachers and students can explore different values gleaned from what these figures did during their life. Values that they can learn from reading biographies of the four public figures include leadership, nationalism, patriotism, humanism, generosity, charity (for Mother Teresa), altruism, perseverance, dignity, peacemaking, selfless caring, bravery, strength, and women empowerment (for Raden Ajeng Kartini), for example. In an SFL term (Martin and White 2005), a biographic text depicts the value of people in terms of social esteem (Normality: Is the person’s behaviour unusual, special, customary? Capacity: Is the person competent, capable? and Tenacity: Is the person dependable, well disposed? and social sanction (Veracity (truth): Is the person honest? and Propriety (ethics): Is the person ethical, beyond reproach?). Pedagogically speaking, biographies, a narrative genre, can be used to teach or learn a myriad of both religious values and secular values.

By drawing on these three examples of visual texts analyzed, visual texts are not value-free, but they contain value messages that teachers and students can learn. Semantically and pragmatically, a visual text gives a complete description of ideological values, which requires reader’s subjective interpretation; thereby, challenging teachers and students to use their background knowledge and experience. For this reason, background and experience (content knowledge construction) is a starting point for the construal of values in visual texts. It is important to bear in mind that visual texts can take the form of different text types (e.g., describing, explaining, instructing, arguing, and narrating) and genres (e.g., biographies, stories, news reports). Pedagogically, visual texts, such as photographs, pictures, icons, symbols, and other visuals, can be resources for learning values situated in different sociocultural contexts. In the textbook, both narratives and descriptions (information reports) were predominantly used.

5.2 Verbal (Written) Portrayal (with Visual Accompaniment) of Values

In addition to the visual portrayal of values in the textbook, the writers present verbal texts (sometimes accompanied with visual texts). In a semiotic design term, verbal text refers to spoken text and written text. In this textbook analysis, the verbal text pertains to written text. In the selected textbook, the writers explicitly list values, such as trust, respect, integrity, responsibility, work ethic, honesty, punctuality, professionalism, confidence, cooperation, and teamwork (see Page 211). These values are presented through a decontextualized vocabulary exercise. For in-depth analysis of reading texts in the textbook, three texts with different genres, such as an information report, a recommendation letter, and a biography, were selected.

To begin with, sample Text # 1 (page 14) talks about the success story of Liu Ching Hai as a new executive Chinese chef at one of the most popular Chinese restaurants.

Text 1: The New Chef at Shang Palace (The Figure visually presented through a close-up photograph)

The award-winning Shang Palace Restaurant has appointed Liu Ching Hai as its new executive Chinese chef. Named by Jakarta Kini Magazine as the most popular Chinese Restaurant in town, Shang Palace promises that Liu will bring a fresh and new spirit to the restaurant. Shang Palace is also famous for its sumptuous dim sum. Starting his career at the age of 15, Liu has more than 20 years of culinary experience. Liu won the Best Culinary Skills Award competition organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Association in 1989. (Jakarta Post 2006, Textbook 1, p. 140)

His name represents his ethnic identity as a Chinese who might encourage the reader to think of an ethnic affinity issue. The authority of being a Chinese may be associated with a place geography. Two themes of the text are Shang Palace and Liu Hai; Liu is associated with Shang Palace where he works. Readers of the textbook may be unfamiliar with this Chinese restaurant, but they recognize this by looking at this proposition, “Named by Jakarta Kini Magazine as the most popular Chinese Restaurant in town, Shang Palacae promises….” This Chinese restaurant is located in Jakarta. It is important to note that the source of the text was presented to make the reader aware that this information was taken from a national English-medium newspaper, the Jakarta Post. This genre could grab readers’ attention and encourage them to visit the restaurant. To assure this curiosity, the writers might challenge readers to find more information on this Shangri-La’s Shang Palace by googling this restaurant (http://www.shangri-la.com/jakarta/shangrila/dining/restaurants/shang-palace). The reader needs to read another text, the profile Shang Place on the Website of Shangri-la, which helps him or her to glean meaning from the text. This intertextuality assists the reader to increase the validity of the writer’s claims (Fairclough 2003) and build the reader’s curiosity to read more information. The value of love to read is manifested through making an intertextual reference by quoting another legitimate text or other voices of people with institutional or professional authority.

In terms of an occupational issue, in most of the visual and verbal (written) texts in the textbook, the writers value professional occupations as a preferred professional career. This leaves an imprint on the importance of pursuing this type of employment. These lexical choices, bring a fresh and new spirit to the restaurant and won the best Culinary Skills Award competition, indicate Liu Hai’s capacity to make a difference in a workplace and his achievement as a professional chef. The text also emphasizes that Liu Hai received professional recognition from a legitimate professional body. This ideological message suggests that professional workers, such as a chef, should make a significant contribution to a firm or an institution where they work in order to get work promotion and professional recognition both nationally and internationally. This information report text implies such values as professionalism, contribution, and achievement. The lexical choice of more than 20 years of culinary experience demonstrates Liu Hai’s solid culinary experience. Additionally, at 35, Liu Hai could achieve his career as an executive chef. Some people could pursue their professional career at an early age. This proposition is also indicated in the following phrase, starting his career at the age of 15. This textual discourse implies that it is better to pursue a career at a young age. This textual evidence was also found in Xiong’s (2012) textbook analysis. The value of “to succeed in a career at a young age” suggests the importance of starting to learn something at an early age regardless of social status and natural dispositions as long as they work hard; they can achieve their goals (Xiong 2012).

Another sample Text # 2 is a recommendation letter. This text provides a testimonial to the reader. Reference letters are defined as statements of support for a job applicant from referees (the ones who write a reference letter) nominated by the applicant (Bouton 1995; Heery and Noon 2008). These referees can be previous employers, academic supervisors, senior colleagues, or clients. Not only does a reference letter provide some factual information, it often includes personal and professional opinions about the abilities and qualities of the candidate. References can be useful when viewed as another genre, which provides a description of the overall profile of the candidate from different perspectives. In other words, recommendation letters portray how a referee values an applicant. A recommendation letter text, a promotional genre, also depicts a variety of values. The sample Text # 2 (in the textbook, see page 144), for example, features such values as achievement, leadership, personal development, maturity, hard work, perseverance, learning with others, time management, collaborative work, punctuality, persistence, intellectual integrity, and a role model. These values may be derived from personal and social interaction, participation, and engagement between a referee and an applicant. For example, leadership, hard work, collaboration, and punctuality are work ethics that a referee would like to emphasize so that a future employer has a good impression on the applicant. The referee holds particular values that qualify the applicant. Thus, a letter of reference can be considered as a persuasive text in which the referee convinces the search committee member that the applicant is an ideal candidate. It is obvious that reference letters are valued-laden because this persuasive text features the social evaluation of people from personal and professional angles.

Another biographic text depicts Mohammad Hatta, one of the most leading nationalist leaders in Indonesia during before and after the Independence of Indonesia. The following text was taken from Myhero.Com. The use of I signals personal opinions in the introductory paragraph. In Paragraph # 1, Mohammad Hatta is featured as an important person, a perfect person, a father of cooperative economic enterprises, and a political leader. These social roles qualify Hatta who has been an inspiration to the reader.

Text 3: Mohammad Hatta (Textbook 1, p. 199)

Mohammad Hatta is my hero because he is an important person in my life. He is almost a perfect person to me. He took us out from the darkness into the light. He is the father of cooperative economic enterprise in Indonesia. He was a political leader. I admire his thoughts about politics and economics. And there are many reasons why I became one of his admirers.

Mohammad Hatta was born in West Sumatra in 1902. He comes from an aristocratic family. Mohammad Hatta got the best education available in the Netherlands Indies. Then he continued his studies in economics at the Rotterdam School of Commerce. He joined the Indonesian Independence Movement and edited a journal, “Indonesia Merdeka." He was arrested in 1927 by the Dutch colonialists. He had a court trial, but he was released. Hatta returned to Sumatra in 1932 and he became the chairman of the Indonesia National Education (Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia), a nationalist organization. He was again arrested by the colonialists and exiled in 1935 for his activities.

Hatta, Soekarno, and other nationalist leaders decided to cooperate with the Japanese to further the purpose of Indonesian independence. So, on 17th of August 1945, Hatta and Soekarno joined in proclaiming the birth of the independent Republic of Indonesia. Soekarno became the president, and Hatta became the vice president. The Indonesian people were very happy because they got their freedom, but the Dutch colonialists resisted the nationalists. Hatta became premier and defense minister in 1948 to fight against the Dutch troops. Again he was imprisoned by the Dutch in 1948. Then he became a minister again, as before, as vice president of the republic… (http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=hatta_bandung)

Paragraph # 2 presents a historical biography of Hatta (1902–1980). “Hatta was the second most important leader of the nationalist movement, becoming Indonesia’s vice-president after 17 August 1945” (Post et al. 2010, p. 503). To begin with, the use of lexical choices such as my hero, to me, I, and his admirers represents personal views about Mohammad Hatta. West Sumatra indicates Hatta’s origin in order to give information on Hatta’s ethnic identity as Minangkabau. Another lexical choice, an aristocratic family, shows Hatta’s socio-economic status. Possibly due to these socio-economic status and willingness factors, Hatta had an opportunity to receive good education and further their studies into higher education overseas. During his studies in the Netherlands, Hatta engaged in political and journalistic activities. He became active in the Perhimpunan Indonesia (the Indonesian Independence Movement) and an editor of its magazine, Indonesia Merderka. Paragraph # 2 also portrays Hatta’s engagement in political and journalistic activities. The use of words such as arrest, a court trial, and exiled, depicts Hatta’s hardship because they had to fight for the independence of Indonesia. Despite this hardship, Hatta played an important role as the chairman of the Indonesia National Education. In Paragraph # 3, Hatta is portrayed as an independence fighter along with other nationalist leaders. The theme of the first clause in Paragraph # 3 is Hatta, Soekarno, and other nationalist leaders in order to emphasize Hatta’s and other nationalist leaders’ effort to achieve his political goal. This implies that what Hatta did represents patriotic and nationalist deeds. The use of resist and imprison and the use of passive voice demonstrates Hatta’s hardship because they fought for any colonial injustice and treatment at that time. This represents Hatta’s great effort and struggle for Indonesia’s independence. In other words, Paragraph # 3 features Hatta’s attempt to co-proclaim independence in 1945. Finally, he became Indonesia’s first vice president until 1956 and prime minister in 1948–1950.

Written texts along with visual artifacts (text authenticity) certainly portray particular values. In this case, the use of lexico-grammatical and discursive resources plays a crucial role in constructing and communicating such values. For this reason, both teachers and students need to understand meanings of these texts semantically, pragmatically, and ideologically because texts are not neutral but value-laden. In terms of micro-semiotic language analysis, the inclusion of selected experiences, ideas, and knowledge in textbooks portrays values that textbook writers hold. For this reason, English textbooks set value-laden norms and certain ways of thinking, behaving, doing, and being. To discern these values, it is important for teachers to equip students with experience (e.g., respecting others), knowledge (e.g., politeness), skills (e.g., politeness strategies), and attitudes (e.g., cultural awareness of politeness from a values perspective) so that the students can critically make sense or meaning of hidden values in texts. In other words, both teachers and students need to recognize the discursive construction of values in different texts.

6 Conclusions and Implications

This chapter has presented in what ways values are discursively portrayed in the textbook. The textbook writers claim that one of the textbook features includes character building, which aims to expose students to a myriad of moral values (e.g., nationalism, patriotism, professionalism). These values are represented through visual and written texts as well as multimodal texts (the use of both written text and visual text). The textbook analysis did not focus on learning activities because the textbook writers just list lexical items or vocabularies that depict values, such as honesty, trust, respect, responsibility, work ethic, honesty, punctuality, confidence, and cooperation. There is no explicit value-integrated English instruction. No instructional prompts engage students in value-based English learning activities or tasks (e.g., small-group discussion, critical analysis of value-imbued texts). For example, no value-based discussion tasks are included in the textbook in which teachers and students may discuss values depicted in visual and verbal texts. In other words, learning tasks or activities emphasizing the integration of values into ELT remain under-practiced.

The critical micro-semiotic textual analysis also reveals that visual artifacts seem to be considered as value-free texts. In fact, photographs, pictures, and other visual texts represent particular values that both teachers and students can discuss and learn. On another note, values are presented through narrative texts. This implies that teachers and students can learn values merely from narrative texts. This delimits the exploration of values in different text types, such as information reports, recounts, argumentation, explanations, reviews, and discussions. The present discourse study demonstrates that values can be portrayed in different genres and text types. For example, biographies and reference letters are pedagogical resources that can feature values because both are documented evidence on the social evaluation of people in addition to personal and historical accounts. Where language classroom materials provide teachers and students with unique value perspectives, both teachers and students need to critically see these perspective differences as a resource in order to recognize that people hold different values, which are socio-historically situated. Character education in language policy seems not to be critically translated into a curriculum document, such as a textbook. This suggests that textbook writers need to have the capacity to translate this policy into ELT in an educational setting (e.g., a school). This evidence has both pedagogical and empirical implications that teachers and researchers should take into account.

Pedagogically speaking, there is an urgent need for teachers to implement text-based language learning and content-based language learning in order to engage students with the critical exploration of values in English textbooks. Students can make use of varied texts in terms of text types (e.g., narratives, information reports, argumentation) and genres (e.g., biographies, reference letters, and a curriculum vita) so that they learn different values gleaned from different textual sources. This critical exploration enables students to build and enhance a critical awareness of in what ways values are discursively depicted in texts. By equipping students with critical language awareness, students are able to play roles as text users, participants, and analysts instead of being text consumers (Widodo 2017). With this in mind, students have to understand and use functional language analysis and critical discourse analysis. In this respect, students can learn how lexico-grammar, which operates in texts, represents values. This training plays a critical role in helping students recognize that lexico-grammar serves as a resource for communicating and canalizing values through texts. In this case, for instance, both teachers and students should be trained to use Halliday’s functional grammar analysis based on three meta-functional elements: ideational function (the construction of experience: knowledge, skills, and attitudes), interpersonal function (interaction, participation, and engagement between people including the sharing of knowledge, emotions, perceptions, and feelings), and textual function (the flow of information) (Widodo 2015, 2017). This functional language analysis helps students become aware that textbooks contain values that are socioculturally constructed or reconstructed. For example, when a teacher presents particular famous figures, she or he intends to portray values (e.g., humanity, charity, struggle for independence, nationalism) associated with these figures (e.g., Mother Teresa, Sukarno). Students need to recognize this intention. Teachers can utilize authentic texts as complementary materials, such as corporate vision and mission statements, corporate or institutional philosophies, and movies in order to explore more values that are ideologically embedded in these texts.

From an investigative viewpoint, there is a need for more critical investigation into English textbooks produced by different publishers and written by writers from other countries where English is still viewed as a foreign language or as an additional language. This investigation needs to include students’ and teachers’ perspectives on the use of English textbooks. The present discourse study calls for more critical textbook analysis along with (micro)-ethnography and micro-semiotic evaluation of how a textbook is enacted so as to explore value dimensions in textbooks as researchers or textbook analysts engage with teachers and students who use English textbooks. This enterprise will provide more rigorous evidence regarding the incorporation of values into ELT. Critical discourse analysis from different perspectives (e.g., critical feminism, critical morality, multimodality, critical narrative, post-structuralism) should be on the agenda in order to extend the scholarship of textbook evaluation, which unpacks the ideological, sociocultural, socio-political, and historical complexities and meanings of values grounded in these perspectives. Exploring in-depth teachers’ and learners’ reactions towards the inclusion of character education in English textbooks would be a worthwhile empirical venture as it can create mutual understanding between textbook writers and users. It is my personal belief that more critical investigation into English textbooks should be undertaken to explore how instructional prompts and activities/tasks in textbooks portray particular values because textbooks play a role as a value agent.