Representation of Target Culture in the ELT Textbooks in Pakistan: Evaluation of “OXFORD PROGRESSIVE ENGLISH” for Cultural Relevance

Abstract

In the guise of inseparable relationship between language and culture the ELT textbooks writers and publishers of the native speaker countries produce such textbooks in which a great cultural gap is found between the contents of the textbooks and the needs and objectives of the ESL learners in Pakistan. In the present research the evaluation of “Oxford Progressive English” (OPE) was carried out through an evaluation model for the content analysis of the aspect of sociological sense culture; the second aspect of culture posited by Adaskou, Britten and Fashi (1990) in the foreign language teaching. The detailed analyses of the contents and the findings of the research highlight that there are such social, cultural, religious and pedagogical contents in these textbooks that do not match with the cultural values and pedagogical needs and objectives set for the ESL learners in Pakistan. The research concludes that course contents of OPE textbooks are not culturally relevant to the learner. These are heavily imbued with the target culture as compared to the learner’s culture. These OPE textbooks impart foreign colonial agenda in the guise of hidden curriculum which is a great hindrance in learning English. There is a dire need to replace these foreign cultural contents in the ESL/EFL textbooks written by the foreign authors with the local and indigenous culture so that the ELT objectives may fully be achieved.

Key words: Culture, ELT, Sociological sense culture or culture with a small ‘c’, content analysis