Whose English, whose culture? A Kachruvian analysis of source-culture dominance, representational depth and interaction in Türkiye’s secondary EFL textbooks Kimin İngilizcesi, kimin kültürü? Türkiye’deki ortaöğretim İngilizce ders kitaplarında kaynak kültürün baskınlığı, temsil derinliği ve etkileşime dair Kachruvian bir analiz

Özet

Studies applying Kachru’s Three Concentric Circles model to English textbooks have largely examined globally marketed coursebooks and counted how often each circle appears. Far less is known about locally produced, state-approved series, about how deeply each circle is represented, and about who is shown talking to whom. This study analyzed the complete series of four English textbooks approved by the Turkish Ministry of National Education for Grades 9–12. Through a quantitative content analysis, 425 page-level cultural references were coded for circle, with the Expanding Circle split into Türkiye and other countries; for Moran’s cultural dimensions; and for depth (token, surface, deep). In addition, 55 named interaction episodes and 172 fictional character names were examined. Inter-coder agreement was almost perfect (κ = .888–.933). Contrary to the Inner Circle dominance reported for global coursebooks, Türkiye was the most represented country (27.76%), ahead of the Inner Circle (26.59%), while the Outer Circle remained marginal (6.59%). Depth differed sharply by circle, χ²(6) = 92.29, p < .001, V = .33: Türkiye supplied 60% of all deep references, the Inner Circle was represented superficially, and other Expanding Circle countries appeared mostly as tokens. Yet 78.18% of interactions took place among Inner Circle speakers, and no Turkish character interacted with an Outer or non-Turkish Expanding Circle speaker. The series thus makes Türkiye the main topic of English while retaining the Inner Circle as its main voice. Implications for materials development and English as a lingua franca pedagogy are discussed.