EJAL Article template Available online at ijci.wcci-international.org International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226-244 IJCI International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction An analysis of Turkish EFL coursebooks in terms of intercultural communicative elements Arif Sarıçobana *, Özkan Kırmızıb a Department of English Language and Literature, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey b Department of English Language and Literature, Karabuk University, Karabuk, Turkey Abstract The present study was undertaken in order to analyze two elementary school coursebooks in terms of their intercultural content. The analysis was based upon Yuen’s (2011) framework, which comprises of products, practices, perspectives, and persons. The category of products involves tangible products such as books or paintings as well as abstract products, such as oral tales or traditional dances. Based on this framework, it is possible to categorize food, entertainment, tools, dwellings, clothing, laws, education, religions, or travel as products. The category of practices encompasses the behavioral patterns of a particular society such as customs and information about daily life, forms of address, use of personal space, and rituals. The third category, perspectives, is related to the underlying beliefs and values, inspirations, myths, superstitions, and world views of a given society. Finally, the category of persons includes famous individuals and fictitious or unknown people from a particular society. The present study aims at analyzing the cultural content in Turkish high school coursebooks, namely Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 8, based on this framework. The rationale behind sticking to Yuen’s model is that it allows cultural content to be analyzed in an explicit and understandable way. © 2017 IJCI & the Authors. Published by International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction (IJCI). This is an open- access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Keywords: intercultural communicative competence (ICC); ICC models; elementary school coursebook 1. Introduction 1.1. Introduce the problem Today, there is a wide consensus that interaction entails the ability to be able to accommodate conversations in intercultural contexts and, as Baker (2015) states, knowledge of lexis, grammar and phonology of one language does not guarantee effective communication. Moreover, with its incredibly huge number of speakers and geographical * Arif Sarıçoban E-mail: saricobanarif@selcuk.edu.tr Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 227 reach, English provides communication over boundaries and assumes the role to “convey national and international perceptions of reality which may be quite different from those of English-speaking cultures” (Alptekin, 2002, p. 17). In a sense, the concept “interculturally competent” entails becoming knowledgeable about culture, social attributes, and thought patterns of different pertaining to groups of people from other countries along with their languages and customs. Accordingly, intercultural competence can be viewed as one of the most important ingredients of communicative competence in addition to other competencies such as linguistic, discourse, and pragmatic competence. It is estimated that roughly 1.5 million people speak English as a foreign or second language worldwide (Crystal, 2012), a number that far surpasses its native speakers. Therefore, as argued by Alptekin (2002) and Cortazzi and Jin (1999), the cultural values of the core countries should not be the only materials that are represented in language teaching materials. As a result of this, the focus in foreign language teaching has gradually proceeded towards intercultural aspects of learning, and the term “intercultural communicative competence” (ICC) has steadily encompassed the concept of communicative competence. The terms “intercultural speaker” (Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 1993), which covers abilities such as self-reflection and being able to “mediate/interpret the values, beliefs and behaviours (the ‘cultures’) of themselves and of others and to ‘stand on the bridge’ or indeed ‘be the bridge’ between people of different languages and cultures” (Byram, 2006: 12). The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference (2001) also makes reference to these “intercultural skills” and views them as essential competences. Recently, cross-cultural communication emerged as the most common way of communication as a result of the developments such as globalization, the development of the technology, and the like (Zheng 2014). According to some prominent researchers, the nature of foreign language education has changed substantially as a result of the social and technological developments that occur worldwide and this puts a remarkable emphasis on the term intercultural communicative competence (Baker, 2012; Houghton, 2009; Jenkins, 2009; Rajagopalan, 2004; Seidlhofer, 2005; Sowden, 2012, Noviyenty, Morganna & Fakhruddin, 2020). In a similar vein, Byram & Wenger (2018) state that more contact with multicultural users pave the way for intercultural dimension of the use of English worldwide. Therefore, it is acknowledged that one of the basic objectives of language teaching must be to equip students with the necessary skills in terms of cultural elements (Kramsch 2013; Jin 2014). The close connection between language and culture has been extensively voiced. Byram (1991), for example, states that “language should ‘unlock the door’ to the culture” (p. 17), indicating that learning a foreign language means being engaged in the associated culture, such as aesthetics, philosophy, history and science. In a similar vein, according to Butjes (1991), the educational output of integrating culture in language classrooms 228 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 must be conducive to the “individual’s enrichment through the acquisition of a wider world-view and through an access to the non-native cultural capital” (p. 8). Therefore, most scholars or practitioners underline the need for a thorough and comprehensive understanding of language and culture so that their intercultural communicative competence can be improved (Hişmanoglu, 2011). One recent term that has received attention quite recently is ‘intercultural awareness’, put forward by Baker (2012). The term ‘cultural awareness”, which is related to national conceptualization of culture, focuses on both the ‘intercultural’ and ‘transcultural’ dimension. This means breaking away from cross-cultural comparisons, in which cultures are treated as particular entities that can be compared with each other, such as British culture or Italian culture. As opposed to this, an intercultural approach explores communication on a platform where cultural differences are relevant to understanding but does not make a priori assumptions about cultural difference. In addition, as Baker (2015) puts it, through the term ‘intercultural awareness’, it is possible to explore knowledge, skills and attitudes in a more holistic alternative, and thus avoids the problematic competence-performance distinction. To get an understanding of how ‘intercultural awareness’ is implemented in the classroom, it would be wise to examine the relationships between culture, language and communication through: exploring local cultures; exploring language learning materials; exploring the media and arts both online and through more ‘traditional’ mediums; making use of cultural informants; and engaging in intercultural communication both face to face and electronically (Baker 2012). One of the most common and comprehensive Intercultural Communicative Competence models was proposed by Byram (1997), which views intercultural communicative competence in terms of four dimensions: knowledge, attitude, skill, and critical cultural awareness. Knowledge dimension is related to knowledge of one’s own culture and the target culture. Attitudes imply “curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and beliefs about one’s own” (p. 50). The term “skill” is related to the ability to interpret a document or event and seeing the connections between this event and one’s own culture. Critical cultural awareness can be viewed as the ability to evaluate critically one’s own and other cultures and countries. In order to clarify the concept of ICC, Byram (2000) stated the following: [. . .] someone with some degree of intercultural competence is someone who is able to see relationships between different cultures - both internal and external to a society - and is able to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for other people. It is also someone who has a critical or analytical understanding of (parts of) their own and other cultures someone who is conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspective is natural. (p. 10) Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 229 It can be said that ICC models are primarily concerned with socio-cultural appropriateness and communication strategies; nevertheless, as put by (Byram 1997), they still suffer from an overreliance on an “idealized native speaker”. In the process of language teaching, practitioners most of the time assign a restricted focus on a closed system of syntax, lexis and phonology based on an idealized model of a ‘native speaker’. Moreover, as indicated by Leung (2005), even in cases where it is claimed that social context and social rules of communication are taken into consideration as a narrow set of ‘native speaker’ norms derived from the intuitions of teacher trainers or material writers. They ultimately boil down to a narrow set of ‘native speaker’ norms derived from the intuitions of teacher trainers or material writers. According to Baker (2015), this clearly shows what forms a very weak picture of successful communication. 1.2. Literature review A number of educators dealt with the monocultural content of locally published coursebooks in Turkey. One such study was conducted by Çakır (2010), in which the researcher focused on three English language teaching texts, Spring 6, Spring 7, and English Net 8 in order to see their culture-specific elements. The results of this study indicated that cultural elements, such as idioms, superstitions, and other cultural references were not represented in these teaching materials sufficiently and this demonstrates that the target language culture was not the primary focus of the writers. One recent and insightful study was conducted by Bada and Ulum (2016), in which the researchers focused on Turkish-authored coursebooks. They reached two important findings. One is that cultural elements from outer circle were frequently employed in the course books and cultural elements from outer circle countries mainly consisted of social, economic, political, geographical, entertainment and touristic. Another recent and meticulous study was conducted by Toprak and Aksoyalp (2014). The researchers analyzed 14 coursebook published by Oxford University Press and Longman. Their study found that the core countries such as the UK and the USA were over-represented in course books. Another interesting finding of the study was that there was a positive correlation between level and frequencies of cultural elements. Similar cases are reported in other countries. Pasand and Ghasemi (2018) put forward that previous studies conducted on coursebooks and cultural representations indicate that culture is represented in a one-sided manner in most coursebooks and this is a point of criticism. Besides, Lang (2011) claims that coursebooks abstain from drawing a negative picture of the target culture so as to keep away from controversies. In Iran context, for example, Pasand and Ghasemi (2018) state that the Prospect Series was examined in relation to the teachers’ attitudes toward the usefulness; nevertheless, there are no studies that focus on the intercultural elements presented in these series. Pasand and Ghasemi’s (2018) study found that cultural subjects are adequately represented, and 230 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 the series focused more on local matters instead of intercultural elements. The authors argue that in order to foster students’ intercultural competence more these coursebooks must include more activities or tasks pertaining to other cultures. Various methodological pathways have been followed in studies conducted on ICC in Turkey. Sarıçoban & Öz (2014) study aims at exploring pre-service English teachers’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in a Turkish setting and examining whether such factors as study abroad, gender and academic achievement reveal any differences in their ICC in general. Korkmaz (2009), for example, analyzed coursebooks based on four criteria, namely fictional or non-fictional texts, visual references, conversational items and listening parts. Çakır (2010) conducted a study on course books by sticking to idioms, proverbs, and some festivals. In addition, Çelik and Erbay (2013) based their study on Yen’s framework, which consists of products, practices, perspectives, and persons. In a recent study, Çalman (2017) employed two different models to analyze a course book that was used for ninth grade high school students in English language teaching. The present study stuck to Yen’s model in its analysis of the two course books written for Grade 8 students in Turkey. In another recent study, Koç (2017) also used Yen’s framework to analyze course books written for young learners and found that cultural elements in We Speak English (5th grade) were frequent and have a relatively balanced focus on home, target, and international cultures while Upturn in English (8th grade) included few cultural elements. 1.3. The rationale behind studying course books There is no doubt that course books are the primary content providers in language teaching process. They provide the general and specific learning objectives of language learning in a tangible way. Therefore, coursebook selection assumes great significance. Tomlinson (2013) quite rightly puts forward that language teaching materials are supposed to reflect both the home culture and the target culture. In a similar vein, Shin et al. (2011) claim that the incorporation of various cultural and racial backgrounds must be among the fundamental purposes of coursebooks. The basic argument of earlier course books was to focus on the target culture only or native culture. Today, however, this approach is not sufficient. As regards course books and intercultural elements, Kramsch (1988) stated that besides quantitative aspects, qualitative aspects also assume importance. That is to say, the nature of culture to be taught is also important. Hence, aside from whose culture to include, how culture is represented is also an issue and tends to be highly selective. Elissondo (2001), for example, indicates that in course books Latino cultures are represented in the form of middle-class, light-skinned Europeans, whereas indigenous or black groups are presented as exotic or having assimilated to the otherwise homogeneous cultural image. Another finding of Elissondo’s (2001) study was that the dominating Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 231 middle class is shown as engaging in activities similar to globalized world cultures or stereotypical activities pertaining to specific cultures or groups. On the other hand, course books fail to include parts of the complexities of the lives of people in Latin societies. Therefore, there is a need to examine course books in terms of how they represent culture. Studies that focus on cultural representations in language textbooks have proliferated as a consequence of increasing attention paid to the significant role of culture and intercultural competence in language teaching. Viable international communication requires gaining insights into the “us” versus “them” dichotomy (Kramsch, 2005). Therefore, an important element of successful intercultural communication is to gain an understanding of other people’s language and their culture and maintain one’s own cultural beliefs. As such, the mastery of a pre-defined set of syntactical, lexical and phonological features is only one facet of successful communication (Spencer-Oatey & Franklin 2009). These approaches and views have three fundamental aspects which, according to Baker (2015), include; a. knowledge of different communicative practices in different socio-cultural settings; b. the skills to be able to employ this knowledge appropriately and flexibly; and c. attitudes towards communication that involve the ability to de-centre and relativise one’s own values, beliefs and expectations. In this sense, the decisions regarding whose culture to include to what extent are to be made by policy-makers and materials developers. 2. Method The course book analysis within the scope of the present study was conducted based on descriptive content analysis through Yuen’s (2011) intercultural communicative competence model. This framework divides cultural content into four main categories, namely products, practices, perspectives, and persons. Products are related with concrete products such as books or paintings in addition to intangible products such as oral tales or traditional dances. Within the context of the study, elements related to food, entertainment, merchandise, print, tools, dwellings, clothing, laws, education, religions, and travel were considered as products. It can be said that there are overlapping components in various ICC models. Products in this framework, for example, can be seen similar to the concept of “big C culture” put forward by Adaskou et al. (1990). By the term “big C culture”, Adaskou et al. (1990) refer to the media, the cinema, music, or literature. The second category is practices, which include the behavioral patterns of a particular society; these include its customs and information about daily life, forms of address, use 232 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 of personal space, and rituals. In a similar vein, this category can be likened to the concept of “lower case culture” again put forward by Adaskou et al. (1990). By this term, Adaskou et al. (1990) basically mean the organization and nature of family, of home life, sense of interpersonal relations, material conditions, work and leisure, customs and institutions. The next category is perspectives, which covers the fundamental beliefs and values, inspirations, myths, superstitions, and world views of a particular society. Finally, the last category is persons. This category encompasses well-known individuals and fictitious or unknown people from a particular society. In the present, study, the target culture countries were considered as UK, Scotland, Ireland, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. In addition, personal names, city names, names of schools or similar institutions were included and counted as one unit. All the components of the series, namely Teachers’ Book, Students’ Book and Workbook, were included in the analysis. In the presentation, cultural elements pertaining to home culture, target culture, and international culture were presented so that comparisons can be drawn. 2.1. Selected course books Within the scope of the study, coursebooks titled as Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 8 were chosen. These books are designed from elementary schools. The books were written in 2017 and were selected as course books for five years as of 2017-2018 education year. One reasons for selecting this series is that they are selected as course books by the Ministry of National Education. Both books contain 10 units. The units covered in both course books are given in the table below. Moonlight 7 was designed for elementary school Grade 7 and Moonlight 8 was designed for Grade 8. 3. Results Table 1. Topics covered in Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 9 MOONLIGHT 7 MOONLIGHT 8 UNIT 1 Appearance and personality UNIT 2 Biographies UNIT 3 Sports UNIT 4 Wild animals UNIT 5 Television UNIT 6 Parties UNIT 7 Superstitions UNIT 8 Public buildings UNIT 1 Friendship UNIT 2 Teen Life UNIT 3 Cooking UNIT 4 Communication UNIT 5 The Internet UNIT 6 Adventures UNIT 7 Tourism UNIT 8 Chores Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 233 UNIT 9 Environment UNIT 10 Planets UNIT 9 Science UNIT 10 Natural Forces Table 1 clarifies the topics that are covered in both coursebooks. As can be seen, the coursebooks follow a topic based fashion. Topics seem to have been chosen from daily life. In particular the units titled as Appearance and personality, Sports, Public buildings, Environment, Teen Life, Cooking, The Internet, Chores are highly relevant for daily life. In the analysis, it was seen that in “sports” unit, the target culture was predominant. In this unit, the sports “wingsuit flying”, a sports peculiar to France, was included as a part of intercultural knowledge. Apart from that, some sports which have become common knowledge were not included in the analysis. Nevertheless, peculiar sports such as “zorbing”, which is peculiar to New Zeeland, were counted as elements of cultural knowledge. In terms of TV programs, target culture is overwhelming. In one activity, Professor Mehmet Öz (a Turkish medical professor located in America) was included as an element of home culture. In “animals” unit, no peculiar information was given about any peculiar animals in different cultures. The “parties” unit is also overwhelmingly composed of target culture elements. However, explanations are weak as to various kinds of parties. The “buildings” unit could have included some specific architectural aspects from different cultures. Brief information could be provided for them. The unit could also include common places where people pass time such as coffee houses or what people from different cultures do in the mornings and what they eat or drink. Apart from these, the unit about “food and drink” in Moonlight 8 covers home culture, target culture, and international culture elements rather satisfactorily. For instance, it talks about how to make “Mexican Omlette”, which is a cultural element. Table 2. Purposes reported in “intercultural awareness” sections in Moonlight 8 UNIT PURPOSE ACTIVITY & TASK Unit 1 ---- ---- Unit 2 Being able to recognize similarities and differences in teen culture in other countries by comparing music, movies, free time activities and home life listening & reading Unit 3 Being able to recognize cultural diversity in food choices through readings and discussion listening & reading 234 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 Unit 4 ---- ---- Unit 5 ---- ---- Unit 6 ---- ---- Unit 7 ---- ---- Unit 8 --- ---- Unit 9 Being able to recognize science as a common human endeavor. listening & reading, preparing a poster about inventors of the world Unit 10 ---- ---- Table 2 presents the details about whether the coursebook includes any purpose statements about intercultural awareness and how these are catered for. It seems that only in three units there are objectives stated regarding intercultural awareness. In Unit 2, the objective is to help learners recognize similarities and differences in teen culture in other countries by comparing music, movies, free time activities and home life. In Unit 3, the objective is to help learners recognize cultural diversity in food choices through readings and discussion. Finally, in Unit 9 the objective is to help learners recognize science as a common human endeavor. These stated intercultural awareness objectives are catered for through listening and reading activities. Table 3. The products category in Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 8 Coursebook home culture target culture international culture total Moonlight 7 13 (12%) 72 (66%) 24 (22%) 109 Moonlight 8 18 (19%) 50 (52%) 29 (30%) 97 total 31 (15%) 122 (60%) 53 (26%) 206 Table 3 presents the findings about the products category. As we can understand from the figures, in Moonlight 7 home culture elements are represented 13 times, target culture elements are represented 72 times and intercultural elements are represented 24 times. In total, there are 109 cases of cultural and intercultural elements in Moonlight 7. In Moonlight 8, the number of home culture elements is 18, target culture elements are 50, and intercultural elements are 29. In total, there are 97 instances of cultural and intercultural elements in Moonlight 8. Table 4. Sample list of products Moonlight 7 Home culture Target culture International culture Şahika Ercümen Göktürk NBA Walt Disney Marie Curie Ana Ivanovic Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 235 Tübitak underwater rugby zorbing (New Zeland) The Oprah Winfey Show the Vampire Diaries movies such as: • Avengers • Grown ups • Hobbit Movie world Halloween NASA Apollo wingsuit flying European football championship African Safari Table 4 presents sample items regarding products category. As was stated, products are related with concrete products such as books or paintings in addition to intangible products such as tales or traditional dances. Technological devices can also be studied under this title. From Table 4, it can be seen that the number of target culture elements seems to outweigh the ones pertaining to home culture and intercultural elements. As for home culture, the coursebooks include an important sports person (Şahika Ercümen), a satellite (Göktürk), and a scientific body (Tübitak – Turkish Scientific Institution). As for target culture elements, the coursebooks include a lot of issues ranging from NBA (National Basketball Association), Walt Disney to movies such as Avengers, Grown ups, or Hobbit, and Halloween or NASA. Finally, intercultural elements include products like Marie Curie, Ana Ivanovic, or European football championship and African Safari. The results indicate that the number of target culture elements are still high. Table 5. Sample list of products in Moonlight 8 Home culture Target culture International culture Cappadocia Hagia Sophia Patara Beach Mount Nemrut Göreme Fairy Chimneys Survivor Big Ben London Eye Mount Etna the Pyramids of Giza the Great Wall Felix Hoffman Sample list of products found in Moonlight 8 can be found in Table 5. From this table, we can understand that the number of home culture and international culture elements seem to be more than target culture elements. As for home culture elements, we can see Cappadocia (a touristic place of natural beauty), Hagia Sophia (a religious bulding), 236 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 Patara Beach (a beautiful beach in the South of Turkey), etc. When it comes to target culture elements, we can see that there are three items, namely survivor, Big Ben, and London Eye. Finally, regarding intercultural elements we can see that Moonlight 8 includes Mount Etna, the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall, and Felix Hoffman. Table 6. Content about practices in the series Coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total Moonlight 7 ---- 1 (100%) ---- 1 Moonlight 8 1 (10%) 6 (60%) 3 (30%) 10 total 1 (9%) 7 (64%) 3 (27%) 11 As was stated, practices refers to behavioral patterns, customs, daily life, information about forms of address, the use of personal space, or rituals. In terms of practices, Moonlight 7 includes only three instances and Moonlight 8 includes nothing about practices. In Unite 2, there is a part about Barış Manço. In this part, a short section or a reading passage about music habits of different cultures or the home culture could have been included. In “television” unit, “Tv viewing habits of different cultures” could be included. In this unit, “address forms” could have been studied. Moreover, a group work could have been designed in which students are assigned different cultures and they could be asked to present short monologues. In short, the “television” unit, could have been used more productively. In Unit 2 in Moonlight 8, there is a reading and listening exercise about “Teenage life in Britain”. It can be seen a good example within the context of practices. It talks about the daily lives of teenagers in Britain and give detailed information both on teenagers and British families. Apart from that, there is no mentioning of “forms of address” in both series. Table 7. Content about perspectives in the series Coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total Moonlight 7 1 (33%) 1(33%) 1 (33%) 3 Moonlight 8 0 0 0 0 total 1 (33%) 1 (33%) 1 (33%) 3 As was stated, perspectives is related to underlying worldviews, beliefs, values, inspirations, myths, or superstitions of a group of people or a culture. The findings related to this dimension are given in the table above. As we can understand from the table, the Moonlight series seems to be fundamentally weak in terms of perspective. In fact, there is nothing about perspectives in Moonlight 8. In terms of perspective, some Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 237 informative and exemplary texts could be incorporated from the literature of different countries. They can be devised in the form of listening or reading texts because literature reflects the worldview of a culture. Table 8. Content about persons in the series Coursebook home culture target culture intercultural total Moonlight 7 7 (35%) 9 (45%) 4 (20%) 20 Moonlight 8 1 (50%) ---- 1 (50%) 2 total 8 (36%) 9 (41%) 5 (23%) 22 Finally, findings about the persons category are given in Table 8. As we can understand from the table, the number of persons in target culture outweighs those found in home culture or international culture. Interestingly, in Moonglight 8 there are only two persons. In this category, by persons, famous people are meant. Table 9 gives examples of home culture, target culture, and intercultural culture persons. Table 9. Sample list of persons in Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 8 Home culture Target culture International culture Barış Manço Aziz Sancar Neslihan Demir (volleyball) Şahika Ercümen (scuba diving) Beyonce Will Smith Brat Pitt Meghan Tramer The Wright Brothers Marie Curie (France) Anna Kornikova (Russia) Ilker Casillas (Spain) Ana Ivanoniç (Serbia) 4. Discussion In literature, there is a common view that intercultural competence is rather undervalued within the context of communicative language teaching practices (Tajeddin & Teimourizadeh, 2014). The worldwide spread of English as a lingua franca, the towering status of the native speaker is questioned, and it is advised to include more elements from different cultures. However, as the present study indicated, the native speaker is still here to stay, and the target culture still dominates materials in language teaching. The present study found a dominance of target culture norms. Similar results are reported in other studies in Turkish context. Arslan (2016), for example, worked on 3rd and 4th grade course books and found that home culture is the least represented and target culture elements are represented more than intercultural elements. The findings in the present study indicated that the Moonlight 7 and Moonlight 8 have a considerably higher emphasis given to target culture elements. This is in line with a number of studies conducted in Turkish context (e.g. Çakır, 2010). There are also other 238 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 studies which found a relatively well-balanced emphasis attached to intercultural element, home culture elements, and target culture elements. Çelik & Erbay (2013), for example, studied Spot on 6, Spot on 7, and Spot on 8 series and found a well-balanced focus of cultural elements. Similar to the findings of the present study, their study also found very little attention paid to practices and perspective. Within this framework, the practice dimension especially assumes importance in that it covers behavioral patterns, customs, daily life, information about forms of address, use of personal space, rituals. However, in the analysis, it was seen that this is the weakest part in coursebooks. It can be said that there is almost no reference made to practices or perspectives in home culture, target culture, or international culture. Particularly, there is no reference to personal space in neither of the series, for example. However, this is highly important in communication. One explanation for this could be that teaching products is easier than focusing on practices or perspective, or secondary school children may be too young to grasp practice or perspective. However, as Çakır (2010) also argues, materials should include lively aspects of culture such as superstitions, idioms, proverbs, sayings, and the details of daily life so that students’ awareness can be raised in these important features. These cultural elements could be studied comparatively by giving more examples from local culture. In a similar vein, Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) put forward that coursebooks and other materials are supposed to provide access to and insights as to the language and culture. Therefore, a course book is expected to present forms of language along with ways of connecting language and culture. They suggest that target-culture perspectives and discourses should also be presented to learners. Kramsch (1988) argues that the nature of how cultures are presented also assume importance along with the discussions related to whose culture to include in course books. It was mentioned in the introduction part that Elissondo (2001) found that course books mostly focus on middle-class, light-skinned Europeans in relation to Latinos while indigenous or black groups are given as having assimilated to the otherwise homogeneous cultural image. In the present analysis, however, no reference was made to the lifestyles of target culture or other cultures. Intercultural communicative competence can also be discussed within the context of English as a Lingua France (ELF). EIL implies that English is not connected to any nation or culture. This means that cultures of Inner Circle countries are not any more relevant in the teaching of English as the source cultural content. In such a case, the required methodology does not have to be dependent on a particular culture but rather needs to implement more locally oriented cultural aspects. What leads many a scholar or researcher into the assertion that English must be viewed as an international language is the explosive growth of English around the world. Notably, the number of native speakers is expected to fall behind the number of second language speakers (Graddol, Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 239 1999). In this case, ELF can be seen as, ‘fluid, flexible, contingent, hybrid and deeply intercultural’ (Dewey 2007; Jenkins et al. 2011: 284) and therefore has comprehensive implications for English language education and pedagogy. Therefore, utmost attention should be paid to include international cultural elements in terms of not only products but also practices or perspectives so that, as suggested by Baker (2012), culturally enriched activities can foster the interaction between global and local communication. Moreover, intercultural communication and competence is also an area of study for translation studies. Köksal and Yürük (2020), for example, stress the vital role of translation in regard to intercultural communication and intercultural competence. When it comes to testing, Davidson (2006, p. 709) makes the following point with regard to testing issues: There is a well-established and legitimate concern that large, powerful English language tests are fundamentally disconnected from the insights in analysis of English in the world context. These exams set forth linguistic norms that do not necessarily represent the rich body of English variety spoken and used in contact situations all over the world. There are a number of drawbacks of selecting an international variety of English. In the first place, selecting an international variety fails to take into account the reality of international communication and the use of EIL. Secondly, in cases of international communication, each speaker brings with him or her a special variety like Chilean, Indian, English, or American English (Matsuda and Friedrich, 2012). Therefore, it will not be possible to provide a standard variety. More importantly, as the authors pointed out, sticking to one international variety will give rise to a super-national variety, which may turn out to be impractical and inappropriate. EIL pedagogy “must consider the specific goals that lead learners to study English and not assume that these goals necessarily involve attaining full proficiency in the language” (McKay, 2003, p. 5). According to Hino (2012), it is not correct to label Outer Circle as “norm-dependent” since this requires a slavish adherence to “norm-developing” Inner Circle countries. Likewise, due to the international language status of English, McKay (2002) suggests that the international status of English is not solely confined to a great number of native speakers. Thus, rather than sticking to the norms of the Inner Circle, Hino suggests that original varieties may emerge, allowing local forms to be expressed in a more peculiar way. Another important point that merits attention is that despite the fact that these series includes elements from international cultures, these cultural representations pertain to cultures of Europe, particularly Germany, France, and Italy. Cultural aspects from Asian countries such as Japan or China are severely few and almost no attention has been paid to African cultures. 240 Sarıçoban& Kırmızı/ International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 12(2) (2020) 226–244 It is common knowledge that learners become more motivated to learn the target language on condition that cultural knowledge is presented to them in contexts relevant to their lives. This is supported in literature. For example, Badrkoohi’s study (2018) indicated that when more intercultural elements are included in language classes, students’ motivation can be improved. To this end, as Alptekin (1993) suggests, cultural comparisons can be used. This means that home culture should be integrated more in the process of language teaching. With regard to ICC, Byram (1997) stated that “when persons from different languages and/or countries interact socially, they bring to the situation their knowledge about their own country and that of the others” (pp. 32–33). In addition, Byram (1997) also suggests that “part of the success of such interaction will depend on the establishing and maintenance of human relationships, something which depends on attitudinal factors” (pp. 32–33). The coursebooks examined in the present study do not include anything about equipping learners with positive attitudes towards other cultures. Teachers can use role-plays or similarities between other cultures and home culture to help learners develop better attitudes to the target culture and other cultures. 5. Conclusions Several implications can be drawn from the present study. In the first place, out of the analysis in the present study, it was found that local cultural elements along with the cultural elements of inner-circle countries tend to dominate the coursebook. Indeed, this is a general tendency in coursebooks all over the world (Pasand & Ghasemi, 2018). Therefore, teachers and syllabus designers must pay utmost attention to providing the missing intercultural aspects to students. This means that teachers must use other materials to supplement the series and provide learners with appropriate cultural and intercultural information. This, however, requires teacher to have a sound knowledge in intercultural elements. 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