Earning the Keys to the Kingdom: Students’ Language Awareness, Identity and Representations of English-Speaking Others

Abstract

The present linguistic reality involves finding ways of communication in the globalized environment, where people move all around the world in order to find work, learn, or share experiences. One issue arising from English language teaching is that it has mainly overlooked teaching culture across the curriculum, thus allowing the increase of negative attitudes and stereotypes. This paper is set out to determine to what extent English language teaching (ELT) materials demonstrate the traits of the English-speaking Other, it what ways children are accessing the target ‘Kingdom’, and which are the best teaching strategies to provide them with the keys to the target world. Anchoring our perspective in CLIL and the 4 Cs, this study looks at ways of developing cutting-edge syllabi to develop intercultural awareness and preventing stereotypes. Findings from the application of the syllabi and resulting from an analysis of the cultural content of two internationally distributed ELT textbooks are reported. The present research put in evidence that cultural aspects are practically absent from the analyzed textbooks, thus lacking a key dimension in English Language Teaching and Education. Therefore, some recommendations for future textbook writers and EFL classroom practice are suggested.