Integrating culturological dimensions in Romanian language courses in Serbia: an intercultural perspective

This study explores the integration of ethnological and culturological elements in Romanian language education in Serbia from an intercultural perspective, highlighting the common disjunction between language teaching and cultural contextualization. The research investigates 38 Romanian language textbooks utilized in 12 countries, identifying a corpus of 1160 cultural elements. A mixed-method investigative approach combines Byram's Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) framework with Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA). Cultural elements are examined across five ICC dimensions and classified into several discourse types: descriptive, intercultural, neutral, normative, and stereotypical. The findings show a strong prevalence of descriptive and normative discourse, especially in topics like gastronomy, geography, and history, whereas intercultural dimensions remain underrepresented. The study underscores the necessity for more reflective, student-centered, and multimedia-based activities to promote intercultural competence and awareness. It calls for a more balanced and purposeful integration of culture in Romanian language teaching, particularly in multilingual and multicultural settings like Serbia, where minority language education plays a vital societal and educational role