Immigrant learners’ cultural identities in the vocabulary input of EFL textbooks through prototypical associations.

Abstract

In recent decades, scholars’ attention has been focused on how the target and source cultures can be integrated to EFL materials. Despite significant progress in this respect, the source culture is still considered as the predominant culture in a classroom, even in countries where immigration is reaching unprecedented numbers (Suárez Orozco, 2001; McKay, 2003). This poses some challenges for selecting the vocabulary input for EFL materials and promoting cultural diversity in the classroom. For this reason, since semantic prototypes are anchored in the categorisation of mental lexicon (Taylor, 1989; Aitchison, 2003), they may shed light on what cultural words are being and should be integrated to EFL textbooks to foster the integration and balance of predominant and non-predominant cultures. This study aims to examine whether immigrant learners’ cultures are evidenced in the vocabulary input of two EFL textbooks used in La Rioja, Spain; and to analyse if these cultural identities are represented through prototypical associations by means of two semantic categories: free-time activities and festivities. The results suggest that (i) the target culture is pervasive while immigrant students’ cultures are scarcely included in EFL materials; (ii) there are similarities and differences regarding the cultural aspects drawn through prototypical associations in the two EFL textbooks selected; and (iii) the cultural identity aspects are scarce because most of the vocabulary input of EFL textbooks is focused on the use of words from the target language. The present study has implications for textbooks publishers and multilingual learners as it provides insights into the unbalanced cultural picture that EFL textbooks draw through word associations.