LITERATURE AND ENGLISH CULTURE IN ELT

The dynamic relationship among language, culture and literature leads to the idea that the latter two should find place in foreign language education. This paper aims to shed light on the representation of elements related to literature and English culture in the reading texts at elementary and upper-intermediate levels of three ELT coursebook series, Speak Out, New Headway and Global. It also endeavors to display the place of literary texts in comparison with other text types as well as that of English culture compared to other cultures. Differences between elementary and upper-intermediate levels of the ELT coursebooks in terms of how these elements are utilized and details related to cultural and literary subcategories are identified through content analysis which is employed to find out the frequency and variety of these elements. The paper concludes with the discussion of the findings to comment on the weight of literature and English culture in the process of teaching reading skills in these ELT coursebook series.