The study presents a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2008) of Arabic readings, which are used for instruction in an advanced college-level Arabic course in a public research university in New England. I focus on this topic due to the gap in research that attends to critical cultural studies of texts and textbooks in the field of teaching Arabic as foreign language in the post 9/11 era and in relation to the current demanding neoliberal rhetoric (Wahba, 2018). I approach the readings to highlight the types of cultural representations that emerge in the Arabic readings, and the macro contextual factors them. Findings reveal the construction of fixed and unfavorable cultural representations informed by the rhetoric of neoliberalism and terrorism in the post 9/11 era. Findings indicate a pedagogical need for critical reading skills to read texts against the grain.
