Analyzing culture in foreign/second language textbooks: Methodological and conceptual issues

Textbooks are often considered as one of the most accessible artifacts of language teaching, which lend themselves easily to evaluation and analysis. They are static and observable; they present an insight into language pedagogy at some point in time (through the activities they offer, the teaching guides they provide, etc.). They are time capsules in that they use texts as representational samples of the language and culture they focus on, which, together with the use of visual materials, provide insight into the values, ideologies-the “hidden curriculum” (McGrath, 2002; Snyder, 1970) that they are promoting. However, whose values or ideologies these are is difficult to pinpoint given the multiple stakeholders in the publishing industry (textbook authors, publishers, editors, visual designers, and educational authorities). Language textbooks also represent language and allow different linguistic analyses that can focus on several aspects, from syntax, morphology and lexis, to phonetics and other related fields (Tomlinson, 2012). Given the multiplicity of issues that present themselves for investigation, it is not surprising that there has been a continuous interest in the analysis of language textbooks. One specific area that has received prominent attention in recent years is how culture-cultural content and activities that promote cultural awarenessis incorporated in these teaching materials.