Investigating the cultural values in EFL textbooks : a case study of North Star intermediate textbook

Abstract AR

This study investigated the cultural values in the North Star textbook which has been taught since 2008 at An-Najah University as a compulsory course.

To answer the questions of the study, content analysis methodology was used.

The study revealed that the frequency of cultural values was higher in some units depending on the main theme of the unit.

These frequencies ranged between 22 and 274.

The religious value had the lowest frequency, while the social value had the highest frequency.

Moreover, it was found that the textbook did not only focus on different values of a foreign culture but it also dealt with different cultures.

The content analysis revealed that the most frequent cultural values were related the American culture which indicated an obvious bias towards the foreign cultural values in general and the American cultural values in particular at the expense of the Arab–Islamic culture as no unit talked about Arabs or Muslims except the mentioning of the word “Arab” which was mentioned only once in the textbook and in a way that even displeases the Arabs.

In the light of the results, the researchers recommended analyzing and evaluating the content of EFL textbooks of foreign authors to be sure that they do not include cultural values that might go against our Arab-Islamic culture.

Therefore, careful attention should be paid to how the others are presented and how to filter the undesirable cultural values that in a textbook.

Finally, the researchers called for EFL national curricula at the Palestinian universities.