A Quantative and Qualitative Analysis of Cultural Vocabulary in Second Baccalaureate EFL Textbooks

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the cultural vocabulary present in eleven EFL textbooks used by second baccalaureate students in La Rioja. Its main aim is to explore all the cultural vocabulary contained in the books (except for the listening activities). A list of cultural categories was compiled based on the lists proposed by Byram and Morgan (1994) and the CEFR (2001). The main objective is to determine whether EFL materials agree on the representation of the cultural vocabulary regarding both the amount of input the student is exposed to and its proficiency level (CEFR 2001). This dissertation also explores the most frequent cultural topics represented on the materials as well as the occurrences of target, source and international culture. Our findings show the predominance of target culture over others, the presence of stereotypes, the lack of words about deep culture topics (Hall 1976) and an overexposure to generalized and basic vocabulary that is not adapted to the proficiency level 2nd baccalaureate students are supposed to have acquired at this stage of their formal instruction.