Effects of cultural components in foreign language teaching books

The ultimate goal of English language teaching is to develop learners' communicative competence which will enable them to communicate successfully in the real world. Meaningful relationships with friends and neighbors and intercultural partners depend on the ability to deal effectively with differences in a positive manner. For this reason, language should be conceptualized as an integral part of society, culture and psyche. Language teaching and learning are not culturally neutral. One should consider the concept of languaculture as very useful in the construction of such a new understanding of the relationship between language and culture. The aim of this study is to examine the Iranian FLT course books in promoting intercultural competence and the prospect of creating intercultural understanding through English as a foreign language in the Iranian high school course books.