This study investigated the cultural values in the NorthStar
textbook which has been taught since 2008 at An-Najah University as a
compulsory course. To answer the questions of the study, content analysis
methodology was used. The study revealed that the frequency of cultural
values was higher in some units depending on the main theme of the unit.
These frequencies ranged between 22 and 274. The religious value had the
lowest frequency, while the social value had the highest frequency. Moreover,
it was found that the textbook did not only focus on different values of a
foreign culture but it also dealt with different cultures. The content analysis
revealed that the most frequent cultural values were related the American
culture which indicated an obvious bias towards the foreign cultural values in
general and the American cultural values in particular at the expense of the
Arab–Islamic culture as no unit talked about Arabs or Muslims except the
mentioning of the word “Arab” which was mentioned only once in the
textbook and in a way that even displeases the Arabs.
In the light of the results, the researchers recommended analyzing and
evaluating the content of EFL textbooks of foreign authors to be sure that they
do not include cultural values that might go against our Arab-Islamic culture.
Therefore, careful attention should be paid to how the others are presented and
how to filter the undesirable cultural values that in a textbook. Finally, the
researchers called for EFL national curricula at the Palestinian universities.