Conceptualisation of culture and research methods in studies of language teaching materials: a systematic review

The critical role of language teaching materials in developing intercultural citizenship has led to increased research on cultural representations within them. It has become necessary to critically review how culture has been conceptualised and the ways in which cultural representations have been methodologically approached in this growing body of research. Applying a qualitative synthesis approach, this systematic review synthesises and critiques current studies on cultural representations in language teaching materials published since 2013, focusing on how culture was conceptualised in these studies and how cultural representations were examined methodologically. Analysis of the reviewed studies reveals that existing research conceptualises culture as a multifaceted construct encompassing quantifiable objects, socially-constructed meaning, and dynamic meaning-making processes. These conceptualizations necessitate the use of diverse methods to explore cultural representations in language teaching materials. The analysis further identifies that quantitative content analysis was the method most commonly used in the reviewed literature, followed by methods associated with critical perspectives and social semiotics approaches. These findings have important implications for future research and practice relating to cultural representations in language teaching materials.