Analysing cultural aspects in EFL textbooks: a skill-based analysis

Abstract

In teaching/learning English as a Foreign Language, one of the goals is to develop interculturally competent citizens. Consequently, culture must play a major role. As textbooks are carriers of cultural information, special attention should be paid to the cultural content of textbooks. This article compares the cultural content of six B2-level textbooks for English language teaching in Spain. The editions range from 1992 to 2013 and were distributed by well-known publishing houses. The purpose of the study is to identify whether cultural content (general, big ‘C’ and small ‘c’) has been incorporated in newer editions to answer to globalised needs and, secondly, to determine which skill is used preferably to do so. The author has adopted a culture learning model developed by Lee (2009) and design a three-fold cultural checklist. Then, content analysis methodology (Krippendorff 2004) has been used to quantify qualitative data. Data suggest that even in newer editions, products, artefacts and external behaviours are used more frequently when trying to portray a specific culture, leaving aside general cultural content and internal culture (small ‘c’). It was also found that skill usage is different depending on the type of culture learning.