From Cultural Norms to Pluricultural Relationality: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Foreign-Language Textbooks in Higher Education

Abstract Foreign-language textbooks are usually treated as neutral carriers of cultural information. This article argues they are better understood as discursive artifacts that construct what counts as normal, appropriate, or typical within a cultural community, with direct implications for how universities design foreign-language curricula. Using comparative critical discourse analysis of two textbooks used in tertiary language programmes, Sahabatku Indonesia BIPA 1 (Indonesian for foreign speakers) and Tanoshiku Yomou I (a Japanese reading-comprehension textbook), the study asks not what culture is represented but how cultural norms are built discursively, how learners and cultural others are positioned relative to them, and whether either text moves beyond normative representation toward what the article calls pluricultural relationality. Applying a five-level coding framework to 63 purposively sampled segments, the analysis finds both textbooks concentrated at normative and contextualized levels, with cultural difference typically rendered as contrast between fixed national categories rather than relation between social actors. The Indonesian textbook positions learners as prospective interlocutors; the Japanese textbook embeds norms in narrative routine. The article proposes pluricultural relationality as an evaluative and design lens for higher-education language curricula, shifting the guiding question from what culture a textbook shows to how far it lets learners relate to it.