1. Integrating Global Issues in Genre Based Approach
to Introduce Culture in the EFL Classroom
By:
TITIK WINARTI
I. INTRODUCTION : THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE IN EFL
Culture is a term that has various meanings. Culture is the way people
approach and resolve dilemmas. One of the key components in language teaching
is culture. Culture helps guide an individual how to use the language. According to
Samovar (1981:11) Culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and
how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode
messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and
circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or
interpreted. Culture is the foundation of communication.
The concept of culture and how it is to be described and understood is
widely debated, as is the idea of cultural practices. de Haan (1999: 22) says that
culture can be understood as those features of social practice that sustain and
represent practice, and that at the same time are able to reproduce and
reconstruct it. Social practices are negotiated forms of interaction with the (social
and natural) world within recognized contexts of interaction.
Liddicoat et al. (2003:45) define culture as a complex system of concepts,
attitudes, values, beliefs, conventions, behaviours, practices, rituals, and lifestyles
of the people who make up a cultural group, as well as the artefacts they produce
and the institutions they create.
Based on the theories above, it can be concluded that culture is a term
that has various meanings. Culture is not only a learned set of shared messages,
meanings, and interpretations but also about beliefs, values, and norms that
affects the behaviour of a relatively large group of people.
Culture, however, varies from one country to another and from one
community within that country to another. Due to the diversity of culture, it is
imperative for teachers to know which culture to teach in the language-learning
classroom.
According to Lazar (1993:66), our students' comprehension is frequently
impeded not by linguistic features in a literary text, but by cultural ones. We owe
it to them to help them understand what these might be. Language can never be
divorced from culture.
Kramsch (1993:8) claims that culture awareness must be viewed both as
enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language
proficiency. Omaggio (1993:358) says that a teacher’s role is not to impart facts

2. about the target culture, but to help students obtain the skills to understand the
facts that they will discover for themselves in studying the target culture. In this
way, students will be prepared for various cultural situations they have never
previously encountered. Mitchell and Myles (2004:235) argue that language and
culture are not separate, but are acquired together, with each providing support
for the development of the other. Language and culture interact with each other
in a way that culture connects to all levels of language use and structures.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that language learners
need to develop not only their linguistic competence but also their intercultural
communicative competence to overcome both linguistic and cultural barriers they
may encounter in interaction with people from other cultures. It seems that
students with better linguistic competence should have more cultural knowledge
and awareness or vice versa.
EFL, English as a foreign language, indicates the use of English in a non–
English-speaking region. Study can occur either in the student's home country, as
part of the normal school curriculum or otherwise, or, for the more privileged
minority, in an Anglophone country that they visit as a sort of educational tourist,
particularly immediately before or after graduating from university. Typically, EFL
is learned either to pass exams as a necessary part of one's education, or for
career progression while working for an organization or business with an
international focus.
There are many things teachers should consider when including cultural
information in their classrooms. Culture in EFL classrooms encompasses many
areas. The best instructional practices help students negotiate unfamiliar
situations while still recognizing the importance of their own cultures.
Cultural awareness helps learners broaden the mind, increase tolerance
and achieve cultural empathy and sensitivity. According to Tomalin and
Stempleski (1993: 5), cultural awareness encompasses three qualities:
1. Awareness of one’s own culturally-induced behaviour
2. Awareness of the culturally-induced behaviour of others
3. Ability to explain one’s own cultural standpoint
Teaching in EFL classrooms from an intercultural perspective involves
developing in learners critical cultural awareness of their own culturally-shaped
world view and behaviours as well as the skills and attitudes to understand and
successfully interact with people from other cultures, that is, to become
interculturally as well as linguistically competent. EFL teachers therefore need to
shift from a traditional stance to an intercultural one to develop both linguistic
and intercultural competences of learners.

3. II. GLOBAL ISSUES
As language and culture are symbiotic, cultivating global issues for a
peaceful world is one of the most urgent tasks for teachers. Global awareness,
respect for other cultures and communication skills, especially communicative
competence in English will be more vital for multicultural citizens of the world.
Cates (1990) states that a global issues curriculum aims to enhance students’
linguistic skills while also providing them with the knowledge and skills required
to deal with world problems.
On the other hand, imitation without any filter of a foreign culture is a
suicide. People should respect themselves without copying every culture they
get. We establish good relationships with people from different cultures of the
world but young people tend to pretend to be someone else due to a sense of
inferiority complex and adoration for Western cultures. In the age of
globalization, we need to be proud of being ourselves and contribute to the
world, representing our own culture and traditional values.
A review of the relationship between language and culture reveals that
the integration of culture into the EFL curriculum with a view to fostering cultural
awareness seems important and necessary. Being aware of the foreign language
cultural norms does not mean that EFL learners have to become native-like,
rather such a cultural awareness allows them to develop an understanding of the
nature of the target culture as well as their own culture.
Haratmeh (2003) says that the importance of developing intercultural
communicative competence alongside linguistic competence has resulted from
learners’ needs for acquiring intercultural skills for cross-cultural communication
in which they may encounter linguistic and cultural barriers.
According to Nakamura, there are some rationales why teachers should
include global education in the syllabus. First, world problems, especially global
issues affect every member of the human family on this planet. Second,
globalization has created an interdependent context on the earth, namely what
happens in one place affects others in different parts of the world. Third, the
attitude of many young people in the "North" is that they need little knowledge
about other cultures. Fourth, in the "South" young people tend to copy their
peers in the North without giving a critical thought of the effects such a life style
has on their families, communities and the earth. Fifth, teaching of intercultural
tolerance towards diversity and respect of nature and human rights must start as
early as possible at school. With these five rationales in the midst of today’s
confused world, it seems self-evident that EFL instructors should be encouraged
to play key roles in integrating controversial global issues into the EFL class as a
part of global education (Nakamura, 2002).
It is hoped that students will enjoy studying global issues and at the
sametime they are able to improve their linguistic skills.

4. III. GENRE BASED APPROACH
Genre based approach started with the Systemic Functional School of
Linguistics inspired by the work of MAK Halliday during the 1960s and 70s. They
viewed language as a resource for making meanings, and so started looking at
whole stretches of discourse in context rather than looking at isolated chunks to
uncover a set of rules. So far, so familiar. Their claim, however, is that all
extended discourse can be categorised into just seven basic types. These seven
genres are recount, narrative, information report, discussion, exposition,
explanation, and procedure. (http://www.findaproperty.co.uk)
Furthermore, genre based approach developed in the 2004 English
curriculum include transactional conversations (to get something done),
interpersonal conversations (to establish and maintain social relations), short
functional texts (announcements, greeting cards etc.), monologues and essays of
certain genres. In other words, these are the communicative competence to be
developed.
Along with the competence, the literacy levels are also determined based
on the government regulation that senior high school graduates are supposed to
be ready for handling the kinds of text they face at university level. In other
words, they are supposed to be able to access accumulated knowledge typically
obtained at higher learning institutions. For this reason, the text types
determined for senior high school levels include recount, descriptive, report,
news item, narrative, discussion, explanation, exposition, and review.
The short explanation and examples of text about famine as global issues
gives an idea of what each one means in more detail.
Recount
Purpose: to retell events in order to inform.
Generic Structure : 1. Orientation/scene-setting
2. Retelling of events
3. Reorientation
Kevin Carter was born in apartheid South Africa and grew up in a
middle-class, whites-only neighborhood. In March 1993 Carter made a trip
to Sudan. Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had
seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children
suffering from famine. One of his photographs was sold to The New York
Times where it appeared for the first time on March 26, 1993. Practically
overnight hundreds of people contacted the newspaper to ask whether
the child had survived, leading the newspaper to run a special editor's
note saying the girl had enough strength to walk away from the vulture,
but that her ultimate fate was unknown.
On April 2, 1994 Nancy Buirski, a foreign New York Times picture
editor, phoned Carter to inform him he had won the most coveted prize
for photojournalism. Carter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature

5. Photography on May 23, 1994 at Columbia University's Low Memorial
Library.
(Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org)
Narrative
Purpose : to retell events in order to entertain.
Generic Structure : 1. Orientation
2. Complication
3. Resolution
Sudanese Girl Dying of Hunger as a Vulture Patiently Waits
Kevin Carter went to Sudan to capture images of that nation’s
dismal and unending civil war in 1993. One of the pictures he took was of
a starving little girl, she had collapsed in the bush and a vulture nearby
seemed to be waiting for her to die. The photo was reproduced all over the
world, touching thousands of people, becoming an icon of African misery,
winning a Pulitzer Prize, and, a year later, apparently contributing to
Carter’s own suicide.
Carter only spent a couple of days in Sudan. According to Susan D
Moeller, who tells Carter’s story in Compassion Fatigue: How the Media
Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death, he had gone into the bush seeking
relief from the terrible starvation and suffering he was documenting, when
he encountered the emaciated girl. When he saw the vulture land, Carter
waited quietly, hoping the bird would spread its wings and give him an
even more dramatic image. It didn’t, and he eventually chased the bird
away. The girl gathered her strength and resumed her journey toward a
feeding centre. Afterwards, writes Moeller, Carter “sat by a tree, talked to
God, cried, and thought about his own daughter, Megan.”
When the image of the prostrate girl and the patient vulture
appeared, many people demanded to know what had happened to her. The
New York Times explained in an editors’ note that while she resumed her
trek, the photographer didn’t know if she had survived. Carter stood
accused; callers in the middle of the night called him unethical and
denounced him. The girl began to haunt the photographer. In June 1994,
Carter, beset by difficulties, killed himself.
His suicide note read: "I am depressed … without phone … money
for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I
am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain …
of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of
killer executioners…I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."
(Taken from: P.A.P.-BLOG – HUMAN RIGHTS ETC.)
Descriptive
Purpose : to describe a particular person, place or thing.

6. Generic Structure : 1. Identification
2. Description
Report
Purpose: to describe the way things are
Generic Structure : 1. General classification
2. Description: qualities, parts & their function, habits,
behaviour, uses
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any
faunal species. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by
regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality.
Emergency measures in relieving famine primarily include providing
deficient micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, through fortified
sachet powders or directly through supplements.
Food shortages in a population are caused either by a lack of food
or by difficulties in food distribution; it may be worsened by natural climate
fluctuations and by extreme political conditions related to oppressive
government or warfare.
Famine strikes Sub-Saharan African countries the hardest, but with
exhaustion of food resources, over drafting of groundwater, wars, internal
struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide
problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering. These famines
cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment; the famine in
Ethiopia in the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines
of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls.
Modern African famines are characterized by widespread
destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young
children. The demographic impacts of famine are sharp. Mortality is
concentrated among children and the elderly.
Famine may thus be viewed partially as a social phenomenon,
involving markets, the price of food, and social support structures. A
second lesson drawn was the increased use of rapid nutrition assessments,
in particular of children, to give a quantitative measure of the famine's
severity. Since 2004, many of the most important organizations in famine
relief, such as the World Food Program and the U.S. Agency for
International Development, have adopted a five-level scale measuring
intensity and magnitude. The intensity scale uses both livelihoods'
measures and measurements of mortality and child malnutrition to
categorize a situation as food secure, food insecure, food crisis, famine,
severe famine, and extreme famine.
(Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org)

7. News Item
Purpose : to inform about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or
impotant.
Generic Structure : 1. News worthy events
2. Background events
3. Sources.
Famine haunts the population of Simeuleu Island
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Famine haunts the population of Simeuleu
Island. So far no one has come to the rescue of the small island of 73,000
people.
According to Indonesian daily Kompas, no relief and humanitarian aid
has reached it since Sunday, December 26. The paper reports that people
on the island are already going hungry and might soon suffer from epidemic
outbreaks because of lack of medicines.
Simeuleu is a small island off Banda Aceh near the epicentre of the
quake that struck the Indian Ocean on December 26. Whilst survivors in
Banda Aceh have started building makeshift shelters out of salvaged
material from the city's ruins, residents on Simeuleu seem to have been
forgotten.
Ibnu Abbas, Simeuleu' Deputy Mayor, reached Kompas by satellite
phone to complain that the island is being neglected. "We are very
concerned about the government's statement that Simeuleu is not urgent,"
Mr Abbas is quoted as saying. "This is very wrong since this island was one
of the most tsunami-affected areas. If humanitarian relief does not come
soon, there will be mass famine among the island's 73 thousands people."
The Deputy Mayor added that although the "number of victims is very
'small' with only six people dead and 50 badly injured, the main problem is
how people will survive [when] 50 percent of the island's 15 thousand
homes have been destroyed by the tsunami".
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported today that "at least 500,000
Indonesians have become refugees".
At the same time, aftershock are still been felt. In Banda Aceh people
were woken by a 5.7 quake measuring at around 1.30 am. No victims were
reported.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday visited Aceh
bringing heavy machines. US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida
Governor Jeb Bush travelled to Banda Aceh. Strong criticism is now being
voiced at former presidents B. P. Suharto, B. J. Habibie, A. Wahid and M.
Sukarnoputri who so far have said little or nothing about the national
tragedy.
Only B. J. Habibie, who is now living in Germany, released a statement
today through his Jakarta-based Habibie Center saying that it would soon
help tsunami victims through a foster parent plan.

8. (Taken from http://www.asianews.it)
Discussion
Purpose: to present arguments from different viewpoints.
Generic Structure : 1. Statement of the issue
2. Argument(s) for+ evidence
3. Argument(s)against +evidence
4. (recommendation-summary/conclusion)
Explanation
Purpose: to explain natural or social processes, or how something works.
Generic Structure : 1. General statement of introduction
2. Series of logical steps
Exposition
Purpose: to promote a particular point of view
Generic Structure : 1. Opening statement of position (thesis)
2. Arguments - point+elaboration
3. Restatement of opening position
Why is there mass starvation?
Why is there mass starvation? The answer seems obvious – mass
starvation occur because of a mass scarcity of food. The obvious answer,
however, is wrong. Sometimes mass starvation occurs when food per
capita is low but mass starvation has also occurred when there was plenty
of food per capita.
Famines occur not only from a lack of food, caused by drought, crop
failures or floods, but also from a lack of information. Rumors of a famine,
even false rumors, are often enough for people to start hoarding and panic
buying, which pushes up the price of goods, and which makes it impossible
for poor people to get enough food. As a result, they may starve in the
midst of abundance. A war may have the same effect or make it worse.
Moreover, so can ineffective food distribution mechanisms.
While Famines involve widespread acute starvation, there is no
reason to think that it will affect all groups in the famine-affected nation.
Indeed, it is by no means clear that there has ever occurred a famine in
which all groups in a country have suffered from starvation, since different
groups typically do have very different commanding powers over food, and
an over-all shortage brings out the contrasting powers in stark clarity.
Free information can counter these risks. It can debunk myths and rumors
about food availability. It can inform accountable governments of certain
risks and force them to act in order to remedy the food distribution, to
impose price controls etc.
Price controls, however, are a risky business. Higher food prices
may lead to a larger volume of food production because food producers
will be encouraged to produce. Hence, higher prices may increase the
overall availability of food and reduce the risk of famine.

9. However, as we have seen, availability is not enough to stop
famines. Distribution and equality of availability is just as important, and
higher prices may result in very unequal availability and may put poor
people at risk. Then, again, these poor people may find a better paying job
in food production if food prices are higher. This is all very complicated
indeed.
(Taken from: P.A.P.-BLOG – HUMAN RIGHTS ETC.)
The Coming World Famine
A "perfect storm" of circumstances is coming together that is
leading many agriculture experts to predict that we will soon be
experiencing a worldwide food crisis of unprecedented magnitude.
Even in such technologically advanced times, the reality is that the
food supply is not immune to droughts and plagues. Even the United States
has been dramatically affected. Just consider the following examples.
All time record breaking heat and drought continues to plague the
state of Texas. In fact, extreme drought conditions can be found in many
agricultural areas throughout the United States this summer.
In addition, farmers all over the United States are reporting very
disappointing harvests. For example, the very weak wheat harvest this year
is seriously disappointing farmers across the state of Illinois.
But it is not just the U.S. that is experiencing serious
agricultural problems. In fact, the news from the rest of the world is even
more troubling.
Agricultural scientists fear that Ug99, a devastating wheat fungus
also known as stem rust, could wipe out over 80 percent of the world's
wheat crop as it spreads out from Africa.
Harvests all across the globe are frighteningly low.
When you add up all of the recent agricultural news stories it means
one thing: a massive food crisis is on the way. Harvests around the
world are going to be much smaller at a time when world demand for food
is at an all-time high. In other words, there are going to be food shortages.
Very serious food shortages.
Are you all starting to get the point? In just a few months, the world
is going to have a lot less food than what it needs. When people around the
world find that they can't feed their families, there will likely be food riots.
In the United States, there will not be shortages of food - at least at first.
But what this will mean is that there will be dramatic price increases at the
supermarket.
Are you ready? Now is the time to ensure that you and your family
are prepared for the food crisis that is ahead. We encourage you to take

10. advantage of the low prices on emergency food that are out there right now
while you still can.
(Taken from http://theemergencyfoodsupply.com)
Review
Purpose: to critique or analyze and evaluate an art work and make your point of
view know.
Generic Structure : 1. Orientation
2. Interpretative Recount
3. Evaluation
Procedure
Purpose: to explain how to do something
Generic Structure : 1. statement of what is to be achieved
2. list of materials/tools needed
3. sequence of instructions
4. (diagram,illustration)
Senior high school graduates are expected to achieve the informational level
where they can carry out more extended and interpersonal conversations, and
deal with texts to access knowledge at university level and self-study.
To implement the 2004 English curriculum the two cycles and four stages
recommended are represented in the following diagram:
Diagram: Cycles and Stages of Learning (Hammond et al. 1992:17)

11. IV. INTRODUCING CULTURE THROUGH GLOBAL ISSUES-TOPIC TEXT
Teaching English in EFL Classroom presents global issues as part of cultural
studies. It can help students become familiar with common elements of popular
culture and make them more critical consumers of other cultures. Another way to
look at culture in EFL classrooms is as a means of providing opportunities for
students to share aspects of their own cultural backgrounds. For instance,
Robinson (1985) proposed that reading about the target language’s culture could
help these students come to terms with what they experience in the target-
language country, and therefore, be better prepared for it.
Global issues can be serious and gloomy. It is a challenge to teach about
conflict, famine, poverty and discrimination without the classroom atmosphere
becoming heavy and the students depressed. One of the keys to maintaining a
positive attitude towards the class is to focus on solutions to the problems.
Moreover, it is hoped that studying global issues made students more
enthusiastic to learn English. Although students found studying a content-based
curriculum challenging, they believed that learning about other countries and
cultures enhances their understanding of the world. Students also thought
studying global issues will be of practical benefit to them in the future.
Some practical activities to introduce culture through global issues-topic
text in EFL classroom.
A. Pre-Reading
1. Teacher explains the communicative competence to be developed in the
text.
2. Teacher surveys the text with the students, looks at the title and pictures
in the text. While students are reading the text, they can guess what the
text is about.
3. Teacher can turn the title into a question. The questions prepare the
teacher to help the students make predictions about the text by asking,
"Given text entitles Sudanese Girl Dying of Hunger as a Vulture
Patiently Waits, what do you think the text will be about?” Teacher asks
students, "Why do you think that?" to encourage them to justify their
responses and activate prior knowledge.
4. Teacher asks students to watch and give comment about ‘real life’
presentation which has correlation to the text. Moreover, teacher can ask
students to make a small group, they can discuss and make comparison
between Sudanene and their own condition.
B. During Reading
1. Teacher asks students to read text at a time, keep their questions in mind.
As students read each section, try to find answers to their questions. They
reread all the paragraphs.
2. Students pay attention to any words that are difficult to understand. They
study the pictures and other visual aids. Teacher asks the students what

12. they already know about any of the main ideas. If a passage is more
difficult, teacher can ask students to read slowly.
3. Teacher asks the students to say or write what they have read about each
paragraph in their own words.
4. At the end of this section, teacher asks students to look up from the text
and in their own words recite an answer to their questions for that
section. They can write down their answer. Teacher provides examples
that support it. Finally, recite the answer in students’ own words and jot it
down. The written questions and answers can help students study in the
future.
C. Post-Reading
1. After completing the questions, teacher can review students’ notes.
Identify the main points by looking for the most important idea in each
section.
2. After the students finish reading, students can then exchange them to see
if they can guess what genre was being attempted, and identify the
elements of the text that tell them why.
3. Teacher explains that the text is a narrative because it not only tells us
about some past event but also contains the complication that Kevin
Carter got.
4. Teacher can discuss what different condition and culture that students
know after watching ‘real life’ presentation and reading text entitles
‘Sudanese Girl Dying of Hunger as a Vulture Patiently Waits’; furthermore,
teacher can give closing by playing ‘something bothering’ presentation.
5. Finally, teacher can convey a great sense of sympathy about Sudanese
condition to the students.
V. CONCLUSION
Teaching in EFL classroom should develop both students’ linguistic
competence and their intercultural communicative competence. Culture is not
only a learned set of shared messages, meanings, and interpretations but also
about beliefs, values, and norms that affects the behaviour of a relatively large
group of people. Cultural awareness helps learners broaden the mind, increase
tolerance, and achieve cultural empathy and sensitivity. Global awareness,
respect for other cultures and communication skills, especially communicative
competence in English will be more vital for multicultural citizens of the world. A
review of the relationship between language and culture reveals that the
integration of culture into the EFL curriculum with a view to fostering cultural
awareness seems important and necessary. There are some reasons why teachers
should include global education in the syllabus such as world problems and

13. globalization. Genre based approach views language as a resource for making
meanings and looking at whole stretches of discourse in context rather than
looking at isolated chunks to uncover a set of rules. This approach claims to be
able to show EFL students where they are going wrong, not only in terms of
grammar or lexis, but also in how they string things together at sentence and
clause level. Furthermore, students will have good intercultural competent as
well as linguistics competent.
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cates, K. 1990. Teaching for a better world: Global issues in language education.
The Language Teacher, 14(5), 3-5.
de Haan, M. 1999 Learning as Cultural Practice: How Children Learn in a
Mexican Mazahua Community. Amsterdam: Thela Thesis
Hammond, J, A. Burns, H. Joyce, D. Brosnan, L. Gerot. 1992. English for Special
Purposes: A handbook for teachers of adult literacy. Sydney: NCELTR,
Macquarie University.
Kramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching . Oxford, UK :
Oxford University Press.
Lazar, G. 1993. Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP.
Liddicoat, A.J., Papademetre, L., Scarino, A., & Kohler, M. 2003. Report on
intercultural language learning. Canberra ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Marzieh Sharifi Haratmeh PhD Incorporating Culture into the EFL Curriculum.
Foreign Language Teaching Journal No.84.Fall.Vol.22 pp.58.
Nakamura, K. 2002. Developing Global Literacy through English as an
International Language (EIL) Education in Japan. International Education
Journal Vol.3, No.5, 2002. WCCES Commission 6 pp.63-74.
Omaggio, A. 1993. Teaching language in context . Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Samovar, 1981. Understanding intercultural communication Wadsworth Pub. Co.
Tomalin, B., & Stempleski, S. (1993). Cultural awareness. Hong Kong: Oxford
University Press.
http://www.findaproperty.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.asianews.it
http://theemergencyfoodsupply.com
P.A.P.-BLOG – HUMAN RIGHTS ETC.