An analyis of cultural content of the elt coursebook "Teenwise"

The use of English as a lingua franca in such a cross-cultural world where the borders between countries lose its significance with the effect of globalization has increased the importance of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language education. Therefore, integration of intercultural contents into coursebooks has become one of the main concerns in language education. In this sense, analysis of coursebooks is essential to evaluate whether they are qualified enough to represent intercultural elements. The study aimed to analyze the representation of cultural contents in English coursebook set "Teenwise" published by Ministry of National Education for 9th grade students in secondary education. Within the scope of the study, a content analysis exploiting quantitative method was employed to investigate cultural contents in terms of 'categories of culture' (source, target and international culture), 'aspects of culture' (products, practices, perspectives and persons), and 'themes of culture' (Big "C" and little "c" culture). The results obtained in the study indicated that a wide range of cultural contents promoting students' intercultural perspectives were portrayed in various forms as representatives for international culture. Yet, it was inferred that source culture (Turkish culture) was underrepresented. It was found that products and persons comprised great majority of cultural contents; however, practices and perspectives that are necessary to gain a clear understanding in daily life routines and worldviews of different cultures were poorly displayed. A well-balanced distribution was observed in representation of Big "C" and little "c" themes despite a slight tendency toward little "c" themes. However, great majority of activities were identified as culture free contents. This study indicates that although the coursebook set, to some degree, promotes students' intercultural communicative competence, its authors and publishers should revise and improve it in order to eliminate the existing imbalance in representation of cultural contents.