The place of intangible cultural heritage in English language teaching coursebooks

The aim of this present study is to investigate the place of Intangible Cultural Heritage within the EFL /ESL coursebooks. Besides revealing the extent of covering cultural elements, the study also aims to find out to what extent EFL/ESL coursebooks take into consideration to Intangible Cultural Heritage. Adapting document analysis of qualitative research techniques, the study focuses on in total 12 English coursebooks published in Norway, Austria, India, Japan and Turkey. The countries were selected through the criteria of having a heritage in the list of UNESCO Intangible cultural heritage, accepting or ratifying Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and English proficiency index 2017 prepared by Education First. Within the scope of the study a coursebook set from Turkey and two English coursebooks from each country were evaluated. Also, in order to make a comparison, an English coursebook of an international publishing house was also analyzed. For the data analysis, Kachru (1985)'s three circle model and domains of intangible cultural heritage were taken as a base. The analyses of 12 coursebooks showed that in general the inner circle was presented more than other circles. Inner circle was followed by expanding circle and the presentation of outer circle was found to be very low. In terms of intangible cultural heritage domains, oral traditions and expression was the mostly covered domain in the coursebook. It was followed by knowledge and practices concerning nature and universe. The least covered domains were found to be performance arts and traditional craftsmanship. Taking into consideration the global usage of English language, it is important for the coursebooks, the main teaching materials, to provide cultures variety and play a role in safeguarding and transfer of cultural heritage. Thus, it is crucial for the writers to bear these in mind while designing the coursebooks. Key Words: English Language Teaching, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Coursebook