The role of L2 reading instruction in intercultural pedagogy in Iranian multicultural EFL context

Abstract

Intercultural communication occurs when people impacted by various cultural groups talk about similar meanings in their social interactions. It is considered as both a means to and a goal of English language teaching. Despite the wide scope of literature on the subject, few studies have investigated intercultural communication in L2 reading in the Iranian context. This article explored the attitudes of Iranian English students, instructors, policy-makers, and textbook developers toward intercultural communication as reflected in L2 reading textbooks. To this end, library data, questionnaire, and corpora were applied in a mixed-method study. The findings revealed a gap between the attitudes of academicians and policy-makers regarding intercultural communication in English reading textbooks; a gap deeply reflected in the themes and contents of the reading textbooks developed in public and private sectors in Iran. Results are discussed and implications are provided for ELT instructors, students, policy-makers, and textbook developers.