English as an international language and English language teaching: A critical analysis of cultural content in two coursebooks/Englisch als internationale Sprache (EIL) und das Lehren der englischen Sprache (EFL): eine kritische Analyse kultureller Inhalte in zwei Lehrbücher

Abstract

Given the international use of English, one of the most important goals of English language teaching (ELT) should be the development of students’ intercultural competence for communication with people from different cultures. By the same token, language teaching materials should reflect the changing face of English and bring the cultural complexity of English as an international language (EIL) into the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. In line with this view, the aim of this study is to explore to what extent cultural aspects in two EFL coursebooks reflect the EIL paradigm. Using descriptive content analysis, cultural references in a global and a local EFL coursebook were examined in terms of the type of culture, cultural dimension and approaches to culture teaching to determine whether the underlying principles are in accordance with recent trends in cultural instruction and EIL pedagogy. The findings suggest that the EIL paradigm does not seem to have a significant impact on EFL materials, which predominantly focus on the native English speaker.