Culture in English language teaching textbooks: the emergence of a synergistic blueprint

Abstract

ABSTRACTCulture has long proven to be inextricably intertwined with language and has attracted a plethora of studies in the realm of applied linguistics. However, its representation in textbooks, English textbooks in particular, has only recently been touched on. The reason behind this belated attempt lies in the fact that there exists no all-agreed model which explicates how culture should be represented in English textbooks. As a prime example, some scholars hold that even the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages fails to offer a specific plan for the representation of culture in textbooks. Therefore, in this article, after revisiting a number of studies and theories regarding the representation of culture in English textbooks, we propose a blueprint for such a representation. In fact, the blueprint is synergistic in that it embraces a number of major theories and findings which only make sense if they are seen as a group .