Evaluation of textbook series ‘Life’ in terms of cultural components

Ayça Berna Böcü, Salim RAZI

Abstract


This study aimed to identify elements related to 'intercultural communicative competence' in the textbook series Life at A1 and A2 level published by National Geographic Learning which incorporates plentiful photographic content. Activities in the textbooks, based on the four skills and visuals, were analyzed through a checklist focusing on source, target and international cultural elements as well as big c and little c features. To explore opinions about the cultural content of the textbooks, a questionnaire was applied to six lecturers from two universities in Istanbul who used them in their English preparatory classes. An adapted version of the instrument was also applied to 26 students. Four of the six lecturers were interviewed. Findings indicated that the textbooks were quite rich in terms of covering a variety of cultures except for direct references to the source culture, which is Turkish. Big C and little c themes were found to be fairly balanced except for overrepresentation of geography due to the textbooks’ National Geographic content. While the textbooks were generally satisfactory, guidance for teachers needs to be more developed for their effective implementation in the classroom in order to integrate cultural components into lessons.

Keywords


Cultural components, English as a lingua franca (ELF), intercultural communicative competence, teaching culture, textbook evaluation

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References


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