In learning a language, learners need to know and understand the culture of the language in order
to avoid cultural misunderstanding, as well as cultural and language shock. In addition, learning
culture gives a broader overview of language learning. The languages and their cultures can be
learned through class activities by integrating cultural elements into the language-teaching
textbooks. Cultural integration in language teaching, especially in the English language, has
recently gained greater attention and importance based on both the sociocultural theory that
portrays learning as a social activity and the idea that culture and language are strongly attached.
It has also been shown to be more important because English is considered an international
language and a lingua Franca in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, new directions have
arisen in teaching English such as improving intercultural competence. This study aims to shed
light on the evaluation of the intercultural aspects in English textbooks used for the 4th grade of
the secondary stage, of international private schools in Turkey (Samsun). It has been shown that
the main objective of modern language education is to provide students with the necessary skills
in order to communicate with people from different cultures; therefore, teaching materials and
language teaching textbooks should not be limited to those which exemplify native English
speaking cultures only (Alptekin, 2002; Cortazzi & Jin, 1999), but also must contain other
cultures with the consideration of the target language as well the geographical location. This
study is a content analysis study based on analyzing the textbooks set by the Iraqi Ministry of
Education, the textbook “ English for Iraq” is used for the purpose of teaching English for the
secondary stage in these international schools in Turkey. The findings and results of this study
will indicate whether these textbooks contain a full description of the intercultural elements
according to Patrice Moran’s five dimensions of culture ,and Byram’s model of intercultural
communicative competence . The last part of the findings and discussion will indicate whether
there is sufficient information about Turkey and Turkish culture regarding to the location that
these international schools located at . If it is understood that there is no information available,
suggestions will be made to review the English Iraqi textbook series used in private international
schools in Turkey in this matter. ORCID NO: 0009-0004-3868-7685
Anahtar Kelimeler: Culture, Culture and Language, Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), Textbook Evaluation .
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