The content analysis of the English as an international language-targeted coursebooks: English literature or literature in English?

Abstract

The integration of literature and literary works has always played an undeniable role in language education. Despite the existence of a wealth of literature in non-native English-speaking countries, in the majority of the coursebooks, the entire attention is devoted to literary works of the native English-speaking countries. In this study, five coursebooks claiming to be based on English as an international language (EIL) were randomly selected and analysed to investigate to what extent they have incorporated the literatures of native and non-native English-speaking countries. The criteria for the content analysis of the claimed EIL-based coursebooks were based on Kachru’s Tri-Partide Model to categorise the countries, and culture with a small c and Culture with a capital C dichotomy. Results indicated that although the chosen coursebook purports to be based on EIL, less or nearly no attention is given to the literary works of the non-native speakers of English.

Keywords: ELT coursebooks, English as an international language, Kachru’s Tri-Partide model, literature in English