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Background: The linguistically diverse educational environment of the United Arab Emirates is specific regarding the needs of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) as it includes more than 200 nationally represented groups among the students. Although federal regulations promote cultural inclusiveness and identity protection by means of available programs, including Moral Education and the Cultural Consideration Policy provided by ADEK, ESL programs are still mostly Western-based.
Aim: This narrative review aimed to investigate the role of culturally relevant literature in the learning of English language in ESL classrooms in the UAE. It examines the connection between the presentation of culture in texts and student learning, identity and language learning achievement.
Methods: The searches were performed in four large academic databases (Web of Science, Google Scholar, ERIC, and Scopus) on the articles published within the year 2017 to 2025. Thematic analysis revealed common themes in the studies connected with the cultural representation, engagement, identity, and classroom practice.
Results: Findings were thematically analyzed as having five dimensions that are interconnected: (1) sociocultural considerations, where the alignment between the cultural schema of students and the textual content provide a better understanding and engagement (2) educational policy tensions between the tasks of global English proficiency, on the one hand, and national cultural preservation goals, on the other hand; (3) ADEK regulatory frameworks which support inclusive pedagogy that restricts culturally sensitive content.
Conclusion: Culturally relevant literature is an underexploited but important pedagogical tool of UAE ESL, which can have proven positive results in terms of linguistic performance, identity development among learners and classroom interaction.
Curriculum Development, English as Second Language (ESL), ESL Pedagogy Education Policy, Language Learning Outcomes, Multilingual Classrooms.