Realization of Culture in Iranian English Textbooks at Junior Secondary School: Should the Textbooks Foster National Identity or Cultural Awareness?

In today's age of communication, knowing a language is not simply mastering itsvocabulary and grammar rules. Language learning has a social dimension and to besocially competent users of a target language, learners need to be aware of thetarget culture. The present study attempts at investigating the place of culture inIranian English textbooks entitled Prospect Series studied at Iranian junior highschools. The major purpose is to see whether the cultural elements included in thebooks, are conducive to the creation of a rich cultural awareness among learnersand an increase in their level of intercultural communicative competence.Additionally, the paper is to review Iranian English teachers' attitudes towardsculture learning in language classes. The content analysis of Prospect books wascarried out using "L۲/FL/EFL/ESL/EIL Culture Teaching/Learning Tree".Interviews were also conducted to obtain teachers' perspectives regarding thenecessity and importance of teaching culture. The findings indicated that thecontent of the English books taught at Iranian junior secondary schools was notrich enough to lead learners in their path towards the acquisition of suitable andsufficient cultural competence. Moreover, ۱۵ teachers who taught the same books were interviewed about thebooks' cultural content. They supported the need for revising the books, specifyingthat cultural content can be improved much without endangering learners' nationalor religious identity.

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Keywords: Culture , English textbooks , Content Analysis , English Language Teaching (ELT) , Iranian junior secondary schools national (religious) identity