Purpose

The aim of this article was to understand about cultural representation in these coursebooks and if it is reflected the status of English as a lingua franca.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is a report on a case study in the form of content analysis of different categories of culture represented in English language coursebooks used in schools of Iran. In order to do so, references to source, target, international and universal cultures were classified into four aspects: perspectives, products, practices and persons.

Findings

Generally, the findings suggested that despite the high frequency of cultural elements, the representation favoured the source culture, while the target, international and universal cultures were heavily under-represented.

Research limitations/implications

Apart from the valuable contributions of the study, the implications of the study are that despite the high frequency of cultural elements, the representation favoured the source culture, while the target, international and universal cultures were heavily under-represented. Therefore, the imbalance in the content of materials on different cultures needs to be redressed. While the main concern of this investigation is the frequency of appearance, which replicates the extent of source, target, international and universal cultures represented in the coursebooks, the impact of the materials, affected by how the cultural elements are used and perceived by teachers and pupils, is beyond the scope of the present study; hence, future studies in this area are deeply encouraged, and it is recommended for further research.

Practical implications

The implications for resolving the imbalance in cultural representation are also being explained.

Originality/value

Bearing in mind the importance of coursebooks as well as the role of culture in teaching the English language, this article aims at understanding about cultural representation within the newly developed Iranian English language coursebooks for schools, an issue that has never been studied by Iranian scholars with respect to the newly published materials.

中文翻译：

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英语课本中文化内容的表征分析

目的

本文的目的是了解这些课本中的文化表征，以及它是否反映了英语作为通用语言的地位。

设计/方法/方法

本文是一份案例研究报告，以内容分析的形式对伊朗学校使用的英语课本中所代表的不同文化类别进行了分析。为此，对源文化、目标文化、国际文化和普世文化的参考被分为四个方面：观点、产品、实践和人。

发现

总体而言，研究结果表明，尽管文化元素出现频率很高，但代表性有利于源文化，而目标文化、国际文化和普遍文化的代表性严重不足。

研究限制/影响

除了该研究的宝贵贡献外，该研究的意义在于，尽管文化元素出现频率很高，但代表性有利于源文化，而目标文化、国际文化和普遍文化的代表性严重不足。因此，需要纠正不同文化材料内容的不平衡。虽然这项调查的主要关注点是出现频率，它复制了课本中所代表的来源、目标、国际和普遍文化的范围，材料的影响，受教师如何使用和感知文化元素的影响，以及学生，超出了本研究的范围；因此，该领域的未来研究受到强烈鼓励，并建议进一步研究。

实际影响

还解释了解决文化代表性不平衡的含义。

原创性/价值

铭记课本的重要性以及文化在英语教学中的作用，本文旨在了解新开发的伊朗英语学校课本中的文化表征，这是伊朗学者从未研究过的问题。尊重新出版的材料。