Representations of source culture and target one in EFL coursebooks (on the basis of content analysis of “English File”)

As an international language, English has gained more importance in international contexts to convey cultural messages. Hence, being proficient in the English language does not only require learners to be competent in the forms and functions of the language, but they also need to consider sociocultural values. In this regard, it is significant to be aware of the differences and similarities between the source culture and target cultures to build cultural awareness and have intercultural communicative competence. Being one of the most used teaching materials, coursebooks play a crucial role to develop intercultural communicative competence by introducing various cultures. Due to the importance of coursebooks in terms of representation of cultures, this study aims to examine the frequency of appearances of source culture, target culture, and international target cultures in reading texts of “English File Elementary” and “English File Pre-Intermediate” prepared by Latham-Koenig, Oxenden, Lambert, and Seligson (2019) and identify the topics through Byram’s criteria (1993). Employing content analysis method and mixed-methods, the study revealed that the representation of source culture is highly neglected while the target culture is frequently represented in the reading texts. Also, it was concluded that concepts and activities related to social life in various cultures is the most introduced topic in the reading texts. Keywords: intercultural communicative competence; coursebook content analisys; cultural representation; Byram’s criteria for coursebook evaluation; source culture; target culture.