NACIONALNA KULTURA U UDŽBENICIMA ENGLESKOG JEZIKA

Abstract

Foreign language coursebooks, including those for English language teaching, do not only present the language itself, but also the culture pertaining to the community whose language is being studied. A large number of English language coursebooks can be found on today’s market which present the language through the culture of anglophone countries, while the culture that students originate from is generally rarely presented. Although major publishers have editions adapted for large markets, such as, for example, Indian, Chinese or some other, large European market, cultures pertaining to languages ​​with fewer speakers are generally rarely represented in coursebooks printed in anglophone countries. Although some publishers offer localised versions of coursebooks, too, the localisation is mainly applied in smaller segments, while most of the teaching material is still based on the culture of anglophone countries. Thus, coursebooks that are written by foreign authors for international markets can never fully meet the requirements of national curricula, or the needs of the participants in the teaching process. A combination of elements of different cultures is an ideal framework for language ​​acquisition in correlation with other school subjects that, by their nature, include culture, which is one of the most important aspects of contemporary foreign language teaching. Although it is indisputable that the culture of anglophone countries has to be presented in English language coursebooks, the question is which cultural elements the students will be familiar with, which ones need to be further explained, and to what extent the local (source) culture should be incorporated in the coursebook and how it should be related to the foreign (target) culture. In this paper, we will try to propose a model that can overcome these problems and offer general guidelines for writing coursebooks intended for a local market.