A Critical Examination of Pictorial Representation of Culture in Iranian EGAP Textbooks

Given the interconnectedness of language and culture for fostering effective intercultural communication, analyzing textbooks from a cultural perspective enhances educators' and researchers' understanding of their role in language education. This study examined how culture is represented pictorially in locally developed English for general academic purposes textbooks in Iran. To this end, ۱۱ textbooks designed for the General English course were purposively selected for content analysis, using a modified version of Ramirez and Hall’s (۱۹۹۰) model and Ajideh and Panahi’s (۲۰۱۶) coding scheme, which itself was adapted based on Aliakbari’s (۲۰۰۴) study. The analysis focused on the cultural content in a total of ۸۶۶ pictures. Results indicated that the majority of pictures were culturally neutral (۴۴.۳%), followed by culture-general pictures (۳۲.۴%), pictures referencing the target culture (۱۵.۵%), and the source culture (۷.۷%). The findings suggest that these textbooks are insufficient for promoting the ultimate goal of language learning, namely intercultural communicative competence, as they do not adequately prepare students for intercultural communication in today’s increasingly globalized and interconnected world. The study recommends changing ELT policies and revising textbook content to support language learners in multicultural environments effectively.

کلیدواژه ها:

cultural representation ، culture in language education ، EGAP ، intercultural communicative competence ، textbook analysis