TRACES OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN ELT MATERIAL

INTRODUCTION
As stated in the previous paper (“Why Intercultural Competence Matters?”) due to the
impact of globalization, the way people interact has undergone innumerable changes. The
influence of technology and the introduction of social media in people’s lifestyles have contributed
to the increased likelihood of intercultural encounters in common social spheres. Learning a
foreign language is clearly of utmost importance in order to communicate in these situations,
however it may not be the only necessary tool to communicate successfully. 
Becoming an intercultural competent speaker clearly implies far more than the mere
knowledge of the cultural characteristics of a given country. For instance, it involves the
knowledge of self and others as well as the development of the skills to interpret, discover and
relate; respecting other culture`s values, beliefs and behaviours. It is at this stage that language
teachers’ role becomes crucial since they have to be aware of the importance of students being
intercultural competent speakers in order to face the current-world challenges. Therefore,
language teachers must be critical when it comes to selecting their teaching material because
broadly speaking, the target culture tends to be predominant in English textbooks.
After having said this, this paper aims to find traces of IC in the book English File, Upper-
intermediate by Christina Latham-Koeing and Clive Oxenden. The findings recorded will be
presented in a quantitative analysis carried out on six out of ten units from the book and
workbook. For this study, we have taken into account a number of variables, namely: national
identity, everyday living, social issues, geography, language and politics. These variables were
developed by Byram and later modified by Canga and Cifone, and finally an adapted by this
research group.  Explicar más la tabla y el objetivo

Category Culture N° of Examples

of instance
reference s

National Target 58 13% 19% Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes, BBC, Michael
Identity Jackson, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd,
Star Trek, The Guardian Newspaper, Daily Mail.

Foreign 27 6% Sunita Menon, Aishwarya Rai, Bollywood, Buddhist

temples, Mariachi bands.

Everyday Target 69 16% 19% Weather talk, getting points on your license, chips,
living cream cheese, bungee jumping, a balloon ride, talking
on the phone when… driving with their babies on the
card, turkey, online support groups, terraced houses.
 Foreign 13 3% A café, hikikomori, Hashiriya, taco stands

Social Issues Target 74 17% 18% A Saturday job, I pod, Industry’s carbon footprint,
hipster, Italian immigrant, fashion journalist

Foreign 5 1% Malaria, Ebola, tiny flats, high property prices, extreme

poverty, slums

Geography Target 62 14% 23% London, Britons, New York, Cornwall, Washington,
Richmond, The United States, Los Angles, California,
Hollywood, Britain, Leicester Square.

Foreign 39 9% South Africa, Bulgaria, Edinburgh, Spain, Tokyo, Mexico

City, The Andes, The Himalayas, La Paz.

Language Target 53 12% 13% Down to the penny, lovely weather for ducks, Can’t
stand, hot or cold/ bright or cloudy/windy or calm, the
buzz you get, get straight to the point, need for speed,
to lay the blame on someone else’s door, to get on the
property ladder, there is not so much room for, come
up with.

Foreign 5 1% Vintage boutique, Hayirisha, hikikomori, panniculitis.

Politics Target 33 7% 8% British Council, United States Navy, The Met Office,
Speedaholic course, Air Force Survival School.

Foreign 4 1% European Union, Low unemployment, High levels of

crime.

TOTAL Target 349 79% 100

%

Foreign 93 21%
RESULTS 

From the total of words, a 79% percent belong to the target culture whereas only a 21% percent
represent foreign cultures, showing a great unbalance between the proportions in which the two
types of culture appear in this textbook. This reinforces the fact that the target culture highly
prevails in the analysed book. 

Gráfico

As regards the categories which make reference to foreign cultures, the most outstanding were
the category of Geography (39) which occupies the first position, followed by National Identity (27)
, and Everyday Living in the third place (13). Examples of these instances are used to fulfil
functions such as describing touristic experiences (The Andes, La Paz and The Amazon Rainforest);
giving information about cultural beliefs (the importance of astrology in India), mentioning famous
people (Mozart, Beethoven, Valentino Rossi) as well as many nationalities, countries and cities
(Spanish, South Africa, Japan, Istanbul); talking about fashion (vintage boutique) and food
(spaghetti  Bolognese, omelette, bagel).

The material this research group has based on was designed to be used by students all over the
world. Even though there are traces of foreign cultures in this book, it is noticeable the
predominance of features of the target culture (England and The United States). In addition, there
are virtually no references to other English-speaking countries. 

Having seen the outcome of this research, 

 

21%

Target culture
Foreign culture

79%
We decided to put under the name? of target culture the expressions that belong to England and
the United States, considering other english speaking countries as foreign culture expressions.