An intercultural analysis of English language textbooks in Iran

Abstract

With the rise of English as an international language and the close association between language and culture, attaining intercultural competence has become necessary in English language teaching enterprise. Intercultural competence, as one of the components of communicative competence, is defined as the ability to interact with people from differing cultures using a foreign language (Byram, 1997). Meanwhile, textbooks are the main sources of input for many L2 learners in most EFL settings like Iran. As such, the present study aimed at examining the newly developed ELT textbooks used in Iranian junior high schools in terms of the representation of cultural points in them and also the extent to which the textbooks can develop intercultural competence in the learners. The sample was the three textbooks including English Prospect 1, 2, and 3. Content analysis of the lessons was done adapting a framework used by Hillard (2014). Results of the analyses revealed that the range of cultural topics represented in the series is rather narrow. The findings also showed that the series is very limited in its account

Examining International and Intercultural Issues in Palestinian English Teaching Textbooks

“…Similar findings have been reported in a study by Pasand et al (2018). Three EFL textbooks used in Iranian junior high schools were analysed using Hillard's (2014) framework.…”

“…The fact that the English for Palestine textbook series lacks sufficient and adequate representation of international and intercultural issues indicates that the textbook series does not support students' acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to succeed in intercultural communication. This unbalanced representation, as argued by Pasand et al (2018), can encourage "a one-sided worldview in which learners prefer particular nationalities, groups, races, and genders over others" (p. 65). To address this issue, Murray (2022) stresses that avoiding the formation of such one-sided perspectives requires incorporating multiple voices and opinions about a wide variety of minorities and nationalities in school textbooks.…”

Iran’s High School English Textbooks (Vision Series) and Organizational Knowledge as a Component of CLT Model

“…Almost every new textbook claims to be communicative" (Grant, 1987, p.13). Some researchers such as Gholamipasand and Ghasemi (2018) believed that the authors of newly developed books did not apply all aspects of teaching and learning language based on the CLT framework. This statement supports the results of this study because organizational knowledge as a component of the CLT model was not presented in the Vision series thoroughly.…”

Cultural awareness in an Iranian English language classroom: A teaching intervention in an interculturally “conservative” setting

“…Furthermore, national culture was often described in reference to behaviours or beliefs with religious roots or regulations implemented in Iranian society (see Extracts [3], [4], and [5]). Considering the emphasis on Iranian-Islamic culture in the national curriculum and educational syllabi at schools following the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979, this is not surprising (Pasand and Ghasemi 2018;Tajeddin and Teimournezhad 2015) and can be interpreted as illustrating the effect that context has in people's understanding of culture.…”

“…In line with this, in the most recent change of policy, the teaching of English in primary schools has been banned (Oppenheim 2018). Unsurprisingly, ELT materials, which are all produced locally, hardly include any cultural references except for Iranian and Islamic values (Pasand and Ghasemi 2018;Tajeddin and Teimournezhad 2015). Therefore, due to the dependence teachers have on textbooks to structure the lessons (Boyle and Salah 2017) and the focus of culture at a superficial and local level in textbooks, there is a lack of intercultural language education in Iranian state schools and the educational system fails to develop students' levels of CA and ICA or awareness of Global Englishes.…”