ABSTRACT
Writers of language textbooks and other learning materials construct, directly or indirectly, representations of culture, society, and the world while they are developing activities aimed at language learning. These representations include imagined situations of communication in the target language, but also the everyday life of various groups in society, food and drink, festivals, portraits of people, short stories and songs, etc. These more or less heterogeneous representations may be analysed with reference to theories that are well-known in the humanities and social sciences: national studies, citizenship education studies, Cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and transnational studies. For each theoretical approach mentioned above, the chapter lists a number of analytical questions that may be used in materials development or in the analysis of the cultural content of already existing materials for the teaching of any language.
