IMMIGRANT LEARNERS’ L1 CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE VOCABULARY INPUT OF EFL TEXTBOOKS THROUGH PROTOTYPICAL ASSOCIATIONS ; IDENTIDADES CULTURALES DE ESTUDIANTES INMIGRANTES EN EL VOCABULARIO DE LIBROS DE TEXTO DE INGLÉS A TRAVÉS DE ASOCIACIONES PROTOTÍPICAS

In the past decades, scholars’ attention has been focused on how the target and source culture can be integrated in EFL materials. Despite significant progress in this respect, the source culture is still considered as the predominant culture in a classroom, even in countries where immigration is reaching unprecedented numbers (Suárez Orozco, 2001; McKay, 2003). This poses some challenges for selecting the vocabulary input for EFL materials and promoting diversity in the classroom. For this reason, since semantic prototypes are anchored in the categorization of mental lexicon (Taylor, 1989; Aitchison, 2003), they may shed light on what cultural words are being and should be integrated in EFL textbooks to foster the integration and balance of predominant and non-predominant cultures. This study aims to examine whether immigrant learners’ cultures are evidenced in the vocabulary input of two EFL textbooks used in La Rioja, Spain, and to analyze if these cultural identities are represented through prototypical associations by means of two semantic categories: free-time activities and festivities. The results suggested that (i) the target culture is pervasive while immigrant students’ cultures are scarcely included in EFL materials, (ii) there are similarities and differences regarding the cultural aspects drawn through prototypical associations in the two EFL textbooks selected (iii) the cultural identity aspects are scarce due to most of the vocabulary input of EFL textbooks is focused on the use of words originating from the target language. The present study has implications for textbooks publishers and multilingual learners as it provides insights into the unbalanced cultural picture that EFL textbooks draw through word associations (prototypes). ; En las últimas décadas, la integración de las culturas meta y origen en los libros de texto de inglés como lengua extranjera (ILE) ha recibido enorme atención académica. Sin embargo, a pesar de que se han conseguido muchos avances en este respecto, la cultura origen ...