Playing hide and seek with foreign cultural representations in Bangladesh’s ELT textbook

This mixed-methods study analyses the representation of foreign cultures in Bangladesh’s higher-secondary English textbook, ‘English for Today’ (EfT), from critical, sociocultural, and philosophical perspectives. Using an established model for quantifying cultural dimensions (persons, products, practices) and semiotic analysis of text, tasks, and illustrations, it finds EfT ethnocentric. The textbook favours a mythic, monolithic view of ‘Western’ culture while marginalising or oversimplifying Asian and African cultures. This imbalance reflects a pedagogical philosophy prioritising Anglocentric ideologies over those of the Global South. Textbooks should therefore embrace greater cultural diversity to enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence, enabling students in post-colonial Bangladesh to appreciate their own culture, engage more equitably and ethno-relatively with other cultures, and take ownership of English as a resource for their own needs. The study also calls for culture-responsive teacher education, and for teachers and students to develop critical language awareness, undertake similar analyses, and create their own materials where possible.