Cultural Kaleidoscope: Scrutinizing and Unveiling the Cultural Content of the Algerian EFL Baccalaureate Examinations

The intersection of language and culture in educational practices, mainly testing, is a critical area of exploration. This study delves into the cultural manifestations within the English as Foreign Language (EFL) Baccalaureate (BAC) exam reading materials spanning from 2008 to 2023, focusing on literary and philosophy, as well as literary and foreign languages streams. The research aims to determine the extent of cultural representation and identify dominant cultural categories, as well as to analyze the prevailing themes in Big “C” and Small “c” culture across source, international, target, and culture-free contexts. To attain the set aims, a qualitative content analysis is employed. Particularly, the study involves analyzing 64 BAC exams from specified streams to discern patterns of cultural representation. Cortazzi and Jin’s (1999) cultural categories, Aliakbari’s (2004) concept of neutral culture, Xiao’s (2010) analysis criteria for cultural content form the analytical framework and guide the systematic examination of cultural references within the exam materials. For the process of organizing, coding, quantifying, and analyzing data to identify dominant cultural categories and prevalent cultural themes, NVivo software is used. The results reveal that international culture predominantly influences the content, followed respectively by target culture, source culture, and culture- free elements. Additionally, Big “C” culture themes are prevalent across the materials. These findings urge the need for a balanced representation of cultural content to foster a global perspective, contextualize language nuances, recognize cultural identity, and mitigate potential biases. Ultimately, this research contributes to curriculum development and teaching practices in EFL contexts, emphasizing the significance of cultural inclusivity and awareness in language education and testing.