Representation of culture and national identity in Pakistani ESL textbooks

Abstract

The present study examined the spectrum of cultures, specifically the representation of source culture in relation to Pakistan’s national identity construction in English textbooks. Six locally developed textbooks in Pakistan were analysed qualitatively. Moreover, Cortazzi’s & Jin’s categorisation of culture plus Kachru’s (1992) Concentric circles and Shahsani’s taxonomy of culture categorisation were employed as an analytical framework to look at the contents of the textbooks. The contents of each unit/lesson were thoroughly examined to expose the representation of cultures that help form the students' national identity. Resultantly, the study's findings divulge the disproportionate representation of source, target, and international cultures; however, the representation of source culture outweighs the other two cultures. It further reveals the incorporation of source cultural values, norms, and roles that disseminate information about Pakistan, its history, geography, national heroes, Islam; Islamic teaching, beliefs, traditions, manners, ethics, morality, gender’s roles, and national cultural heritage that contribute to the construction of Islamic based national identity of Pakistan. To sum up, the writers of the textbooks construct students’ national identity by representing source culture materials in the English textbooks that also pave the way to the formation of Pakistani English.