Faux Pas, English Only Please …!

The present study is taken up to focus on the role of culture in English language teaching (ELT) with special reference to the context of Telugu-speaking community where English is taught as second language. The hypothesis of the research is that the learners of English language in India with various cultural backgrounds are de-motivated to learn English because the textbook developed for them¹ by Indian writers are indeed culturally irrelevant. This study involved evaluation of academic graduate textbooks in the context of teaching English. The data for evaluation were collected from graduates’ textbooks designed for graduation study in government and private college students including engineering students’ English textbooks. An evaluation model was developed for the content analysis of the graduate level textbooks for cultural relevance from Osmania University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad. Further, data have been analysed to explore the gaps between the target culture and the learner's culture in the aspect of standard and competitive English learning in the text book. In this paper, various instances regarding cultural contrast in learners’ skills have been highlighted, and their irrelevance to Indian culture has been explored. The findings of the research show that the students’ achievement of impeccable spoken English by non-standard textbooks by the non-native authors mainly on the target culture with little knowledge and information of the native culture. Moreover, the foreign culture is presented as negative stereotypes. The textbooks are culturally irrelevant to impart language skill to the learners.