uuuuu

CURRICULUM AND ISLAMIC VALUES 1

CURRICULUM AND ISLAMIC VALUES 3

3. Literature Review

The main reason behind the selection of " The impact of the linguistic hegemony of English on the Islamic values of English text books in Saudi Arabia: evaluating the content of English textbooks of secondary stage (Super Goal)" is a great a statement mentioned by a muslim scholar who is Shafi (1983),its content is “The English language, therefore, has a crucial role to play in the achievement of the ultimate aim of Muslim education,” which is the spreading of Islam(p. 35).Moreover, as a teacher I faced a lot of Western practices among my student in secondary stage which are against our religion such as birthday celebration and the gossip that they considered it as freedom of express other. Most of my students also have fully conviction it the spreading of Islam is the role of religious personalities and there is no relation between English and Islam. My reasoning for those convictions was an entrance to this research. Moreover, search engines had a great role when I catch the information. Each stop is a unique document that was provided me varied experiences and knowledge through a web page, a PDF, JPG, or other file in Google Scholar, Saudi Digital Library and Academia web. Finally, these articles are related to each other in one point that is different ideologies can leave a strong influence on textbooks.

Throughout the history, there have been a number of studies that discussed the impact of the linguistic hegemony of English on the Islamic values of English text books. These studies have applied different reforming regarding English text books. They will be addressed as following:

Elyas, T. (2008). The attitude and the impact of the American English as a global language within the Saudi education system. Novitas-Royal, 2(1), 28-48.

A study conducted by Elyas (2008) which addressed mainly on how the September 11 terrorist attacks effect on the English teaching system in Saudi Arabia, and how far the Saudi society had different attitudes and the impacts toward these events as well as the Karmani's and Kabel's claim which ensures the issue of more English less Islam. This study focuses on a group of Saudi-English freshmen students at King Abdul Aziz University. 65 participants aged 21 years were surveyed. The researcher used questionnaires with 12 items to do the study perceptions of Saudi students studying the New English Curricula in their second semester. Elyas (2008) outlined the steps used to analyze the questionnaire were Likert scale that include a five-point Strongly Agree (SA), Agree(A), Neutral (N), Agree (A), and Strongly Agree (SA).Each item has been translated into Arabic that being the language that carry the correct meanings to Saudi students. The author reports that a study on the participants’ responses demonstrated Saudi students believe that it is important to study English language together with its culture in if they are to develop adequate English comprehension. To that end, Saudi students do not perceive English as an emblem of imperialism serving the purpose of westernizing the Arabic identity of international Saudi students. According to the Elyas, not all Saudi students who participated disputed the idea of Western ideology because some students felt that learning English and the English culture contradicted their Islamic and Arabic identity. Most Arabic students feel that learning English as well as the Western culture of English is necessary and leaves the Saudi Arabian cultural and Islamic identity is unscathed. With the inevitability of globalization, the demand for English will increase. With rising discrimination especially against Arabs in America, it is important to learn English to be able to know what is being said about them. An understanding of the English language and culture will help Arabs understand the motives and perceptions of the people they interact with. A good understanding of English is also essential to understand how to interact with people from other cultural backgrounds because English is almost becoming a global language. People from different corners of the world are restructuring English language to suit their needs. The Arab world therefore faces a challenge of adapting to the demands of globalization by creating their own version and culture of the English language or accepting the current English Culture of the Western.

Karim, S., &Haq, N. (2014). Culture of language learning: A comparative study of English language textbooks used in Pakistan. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 10(2), 157-168.

Language learning materials are sources of linguistic knowledge and also carry some cultural messages. This study focuses on what culture of language learning is promoted by English textbooks used in the educational setup in Pakistan. It shows the role of textbooks in English Language Teaching (ELT) and the educational context in Pakistan.

The target materials were the Oxford Progressive English (OPE) vol. 9 and 10 and the English Course Book (ECB) vol. 9 and 10. The books were selected because they were prescribed for the two learning systems used in Pakistan, they target the same level of learning, have the same year of publication thus variables are controlled and also because the learners using these two books in the two distinct systems of education show a striking difference reflected in terms of their enrolment in higher studies. The principle used for selection of the units is done on the basis of similarity of topics.

In-depth evaluation was the methodology used. There was a difference in the lay-out of the text of the two books with OPE clearly identifying the genre at the beginning of each unit while ECB does not contain an identification of genre at the text. The ECB seems to promote some moral and religious events of the Muslims while the OPE does not seem to promote any religious or social ideology. The units in OPE are written in first person narrative while that of ECB uses mainly description of events, places, dates and personalities. They both use different approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning. OPE does not promote memorization as ECB does. The questions given in ECB require only specific information that can be traced or copied directly from the text. OPE contains marked sections representing each of the language skills while ECB while does not explicitly focus on any of the four language skills. OPE has a well-structured content and exercise free from social or religious bias while ECB focuses on a traditional structural approach.

Mahboob, A. (2009). English as an Islamic language: A case study of Pakistani English. World Englishes, 28(2), 175-189.

In Pakistan, despite English being the colonizing language, the English used in Pakistan reflects Islamic values and incarnates the South Asian Islamic sensitivities. The main research questions addressed in the study are: if Muslim countries should use English in their educational institutions, if Muslim countries can harness the English language in order to gain access to the knowledge/s that is currently available in English language and what the role of Muslim intellectuals is in English. To address the research questions, first the discourses of colonialism in the English language and English language teaching are examined. The relationship of Christianity and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) was considered. Finally, the paper gave a detailed historical and linguistic description of Pakistani English as an example of a vibrant new variety of English which carries the weight of Muslim culture in a South Asian society. The methodology used is not clearly shown.

The findings of the study showed that English language had been an integral part of Pakistani official, economic, educational and social life. English language was about to be scraped by religious leaders but were unable since there was insufficient material produced in local languages to use in the various types and levels of educational institutions, there were no other politically ‘neutral’ languages that could replace English, the religious parties did not have sufficient political power and the groups with economic, social, and political strength believed that English was essential for future development. This made it hard to scrap English despite being againstit. The conclusion for the research shows that English is considered a powerful language globally thus plays vital role in education. The author proposes a framework that could be used to study the relationship between local Islamic values and the English language.

Mosleh, E., &Firwana, S. S. (2015). Value-based Content Analysis of ‘English for Palestine’8 th Grade Course Book and Suggested Value Enrichment Material. Unpublished master thesis. Islamic University, Gaza.

The English textbook for the eighth grade is analyzed depending on the values discussed in the textbook. The researcher used previous knowledge and research on this topic to perform a scientific descriptive procedure that classified the values found in the textbook to eight categories followed by the percentage of appearance between parenthesis: cultural (37.8%), social (22%), economic (12.2%), environmental (11.8%), national (6.3%), religious (2.4%), political values (0.96%), and miscellaneous (6.54%). The analysis took to consideration everything in the book including but not limited to words, graphs, and pictures. The researcher concluded from the study the need for improvements in the categories that are underrepresented such as religious and political values. Also, he found out the need for common standard to use while creating a future curriculum to balance values throughout the content.

Rashid, R. S. A. A., & Ibrahim, E. H. E. (2018). English Language Textbooks and Portrayal of Culture: A content analysis. In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 150, p. 05076). EDP Sciences.‏

Textbooks play a vital role in the learning and teaching especially in foreign language classrooms. In order to develop the right learning materials for students in Muslim societies, it is required to look at social psychological theory of foreign language acquisition. This study looks at how English Learning Teaching (ELT) materials from socio-cultural perspectives and its appropriateness to Muslim learners to ensure that the materials complement learners’ needs and the vision and mission of the institution. Data for this study was collected through document search, conceptual content analysis and content categorization. The author outlines the steps used to analyze the data which entailed the data type to be analyzed-textbooks and how western culture elements related to Islam and Muslim, evaluating the selected textbooks to find out Islam and Muslim was portrayed. Five textbooks were used. The first had neutral content where thirteen contents that had a neutral portrayal of Islam and Muslims. The second had positive portrayal where stereotypes and national identity of Islam and Muslims was found. The third book had a negative portrayal where seven contents had negative portrayals of Islam and Muslims.The study of the textbooks proved that it was impossible to have textbooks that were neutral to socio-cultural ideologies and that the students’ motivation was negatively affected if the materials were contradictive to what they knew or felt offended with and that most frequent cultural values were related to American cultures. It shows that the most important prospect of the Arab culture was hospitality and that the evaluated textbooks had most of the western culture. The study of the textbooks showed some fondness towards some foreign cultural values at the expense of the Islamic culture. The content in the textbooks chosen had Islamic and Muslim culture in them. For thesereasons, publishers should publish local editions of their textbooks and to consult experts on the cultures depicted in their textbooks to cater for students’ needs.

Sajid, M. (2015). Ideology in Text Books. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 03-06.

Shah, S. K., Tariq, W., & Bilal, M. Ideology in English Textbooks: A Case Study of Matric Level Books in Punjab.

In this article" Ideology in English textbooks: A Case Study of Matric Level Books in Punjab "Shah (2013) explored the critical analyzing of national, religious and democratic ideology in English textbooks used in Pakistani high schools, he focused on English textbooks of both 9th and 10th classes. Shah's major questions were about the essence values that being included in English textbooks in Punjab and he also was asked if the English textbooks in Punjab support an Islamic ideology or promoted bias and fanaticism against the other. Moreover, Shah used Teun A. Van Dijk’s model “Socio cognitive analysis” as a qualitative analysis to explore Ideological visions of reliable people and a converting that will happen in this ideology for next generation. In addition, Van Dijk’s model has a special feature in which it displays the whole structure of ideological analysis from socially shared to personal level. Additionally, the author used quantitative analysis to know how often religious lexical items were mentioned and its context by using the software Antconc 3.2.4 that is able to create and order alphabetical lists from the file(s) loaded. The text also has been converted into clear text format suitable to be processed with concordance software. Shah's results in both textbooks of 9th and 10th showed clear belonging to Islamic bringing up, Islamic faith and oneness of Allah. It should have awareness of respect for religious personalities. Moreover, the material taught in Punjab by theological vision that is agreed with ideology of Pakistan. Religious Education and knowledge of other disciplines are interrelated with each other so it is hard to put boundaries between them. In addition, all instructional materials are presented through Islamic perspective. One of the based-evidence is that all the examples are a sample of lives of religious figures like Hazrat Muhammad as an Educationist and events from the life of Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed and Simplicity of Hazrat Ayesha.