A Systematic Review on the Investigation of Culture Representation in English Textbooks

Abstract

In the present era, cultural representation in foreign/second language textbooks has become a crucial issue in language research. This study examined previous studies' research designs, cultural categories and elements embedded in the EFL/ESL textbooks from 2011 to 2021. It also examined the source culture representation in Pakistani ESL textbooks. For this purpose, the study analytically searched all relevant publications in four accessible databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. A total number of 18 relevant studies were collected and analyzed. The findings also showed that qualitative studies outweighed the quantitative and mixed-method research designs. Content analysis (CA) was found to be the most frequently used research method to analyze the content of EFL/ESL language textbooks. Regarding culture representations, some major themes emerged: the dominance of the target culture, the paucity of source culture, multicultural disparities, and the imbalanced proportion of the world cultures. This study contributes to the literature by providing a detailed review of cultural representation in EFL/ESL textbooks and identifying the research gaps. In conclusion, the study proposes recommendations for future research to study cultural representation in textbooks.