The Question of Re-Presentation In EFL Course Books: Are Learners of English Taught about New Zealand?

Increasingly intercultural dimension of communication in the 21st century has brought about challenging aims in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) pedagogy, such as ascertaining the enhancement of the learnersʹ intercultural awareness and promoting their ability to communicate in intercultural settings. Taking the disadvantage of EFL environment in terms of intercultural input into account, course books can be considered as one of the most crucial tools used in these settings. Thus, the links between culture, language teaching, and course books deserve a closer investigation carried out with a critical eye. Hence, the present study was conducted: (1) to explore the extent and number of the cultural representations present in course books (2) the distribution of cultural representations across different English-speaking countries (i.e., the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand). To this end, 17 English course books written by international publishers and used at preparatory English schools of universities in an EFL setting were examined by using a quantitative content analysis. The results were discussed and implications were made.