Situating Moral and Cultural Values in ELT Materials The Southeast Asian Context

This volume accentuates how ELT materials can be a mediation of capitalizing on moral and cultural values, which are more locally-grounded in respective Southeast Asia (SEA) countries. It features critical studies on locally-produced ELT materials (textbooks) situated in the following SEA countries: Timor-Leste, The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. The chapters, written by experts who know the ELT context of their respective SEA country, critically examine the design and use of ELT materials widely used in local and national contexts. Thus, the volume provides fresh insight into how values are uniquely manifested in language classroom materials. The present text also brings together empirical, conceptual and practical grounds for incorporating moral and cultural values into ELT materials development in such a way that it views morality and culture as a mutually complementing entity. This much-needed volume will be a valuable resource for those interested in the design and use of language materials in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts, such as in the Asia Pacific, America, Africa, and Europe.

Introduction: Incorporating Cultural and Moral Values into ELT Materials: The Southeast Asian Context (SEA) by Handoyo Puji Widodo, Marianne Rachel Gutierrez Perfecto, Le Van Canh, & Adcharawan Buripakdi.- (East Timor) Addressing Sexual Moralities in ELT Materials: When Diverse Cultures Meet by Roslyn Appleby.- (The Philippines) Critiquing Culture in Reading Materials Used by ESL Private Middle Schools in the Philippines: A Critical Literacy Perspective by Marianne Rachel G. Perfecto & Michelle G. Paterno.- (Singapore) ELT Materials as Sites of Values Education: A Preliminary Observation of Secondary School Materials by Wu Siew Mei & Gene Segarra Navera.- (Malaysia) Analysing the Integration of Moral and Cultural Values through ELT Reading Materials in Malaysian ESL Classrooms by Gurnam Kaur Sidhu, Sarjit Kaur, & Chan Yuen Fook .- (Cambodia) A Sociocultural Analysis of Cambodian Teachers’ Cognitions about Cultural Contents in an ‘Internationally Imported’ Textbook in a Tertiary English Learning Context by Sovannarith Lim & Chan Narith Keuk.- (Vietnam) A Critical Analysis of Moral Values in Vietnam-Produced EFL Textbooks for Upper Secondary Schools by Le Van Canh.- (Indonesia) A Critical Micro-semiotic Analysis of Values Depicted in the Indonesian Ministry of National Education-Endorsed Secondary School English Textbook by Handoyo Puji Widodo.- (Thailand) Integrating Moral Education into Language Education in Asia: Guidelines for Materials Writers by Saneh Thongrin.- Re-contextualizing ELT Materials: The Case of Southeast Asia (SEA) by Handoyo Puji Widodo, Marianne Rachel Gutierrez Perfecto, Le Van Canh, & Adcharawan Buripakdi.