English abstract
The present study aims at identifying EFL teachers' perceptions of integrating cultural aspects in EFL textbooks in basic education. It also aims to examine the differences in teachers' perceptions due to gender, nationality, teaching experience and qualification. Four hundred and fifteen EFL teachers participated in this study from the eleven educational regions in Oman (Muscat, Al-Batinah North, Al Batinah South, Al-Dakhiliya, Al-Sharkiyah South, Al-Sharkiyah North, Al-Dhahirah North, Al-Dhahirah South, Dhofar, Al-Wusta and Musandam). They represent 15% of the whole population. The research instrument was a questionnaire with 60 questions distributed over three dimensions: cultural aims, cultural content and cultural tasks. The instrument was distributed to four hundred and fifteen EFL teachers who teach 'English for Me' syllabus grades five to nine. EFL supervisors from all the eleven regions were responsible to distribute the questionnaire to the participants according to the instructions which were given by the researcher. Descriptive statistics, Independent - Sample T test and One-Way ANOVA test were used to answer the research questions and to analyze the obtained data. The descriptive statistics revealed that EFL teachers had a moderate satisfaction of the cultural aspects in Omani EFL basic education textbooks with a mean value (3.28) and SD of (.63). To determine the differences in EFL teachers' perceptions of cultural aspects in textbooks, four variables were considered: gender, nationality, teaching experience and qualification. Descriptive statistics of data revealed the following findings:
1. Both male and female EFL teachers had similar moderate satisfaction of cultural aspects in Omani EFL
textbooks.
2. Both Omani and non-Omani EFL teachers perceived the cultural aspects in Omani EFL textbooks
moderately.
3. There are no significant differences at (.05) level in teachers' perceptions with respect to the teaching
experience variable.
4. There are no significant differences at 0.05) level in teachers' perceptions with regard to the teaching qualification.
In light of the research findings, the researcher proposed some recommendations at the end of the study to the course designers in designing EFL course books. Moreover, some recommendations are also made for the supervisors to raise teachers' awareness of the cultural aspects in EFL textbooks and guidelines to be used by the teachers in any lessons which contain cultural aspects.
