Exploring Foreign Culture Representation through Textbooks’ Literary Texts Case Study:

Abstract

This research study is concerned with the analysis and evaluation of the Algerian third year secondary school textbook of English ‘New Prospects’ where the focus will be on the book’s EFL cultural content reflected in literary texts. More precisely, this study aims at exploring whether or not the target culture is sufficiently represented in the textbook through literary texts. It also emphasizes the role of culture in enhancing learners’ language acquiring merely through literature. It is thereby hypothesized that ‘New Prospects’ may display insufficient EFL cultural knowledge through literary texts. To reject or confirm the aforementioned hypothesis, and answer the theoretical questions of the research, two research tools are going to be conducted during this study, namely; a textbook evaluation of ‘New Prospects’, using both a quantitative and qualitative checklists, and a teachers’ questionnaire administered for Secondary School teachers who already have an experience in teaching third year classes. A total of 75 secondary school EFL teachers of Guelma were involved in the questionnaire’s sample. The findings obtained from the textbook analysis and evaluation confirmed the lack of EFL culture representation through literary texts, this is further reinforced by the majority of participants who asserted this claim. Therefore, textbook designers ought to take into serious account the integration of EFL culture in school textbooks