Adapting a Turkish Middle School Textbook to Develop Cultural Awareness

The locally-produced and governmentally-approved coursebook, Forward English, was launched after the renewal of the curriculums in 2012, and aims at teaching the natural use of English in authentic texts as well as developing intercultural competence. However, even an impressionistic overview of the units indicates that the texts are merely used for contextualizing language functions and cannot develop students’ ability to read in English for communication, as well as lacking depth in cultural content. Therefore, this study provides a unit analysis and suggests adaptation strategies for developing reading skills and cultural awareness in the global world.