The history of English-language education in Poland has over a two-hundred-year tradition but has not received much scholarly attention so far. Therefore, little is known of the women’s contribution to the EFL market in Poland in the past. The presentation will seek to share some light on women authors of English handbooks published in the first half of the 20th century: Klara Jastroch, and Jadwiga Knapczyk and their didactic endeavour. Their textbooks (10 in total) were published in the 1930s and 1940s when English became a school subject at schools run by the state. Jastroch and Knapczyk were two of three authors who wrote manuals accepted as schoolbooks. A look at the curricula for modern languages at Polish state schools of that time reveals that there was the strong focus on learning about culture; hence the presentation will examine what elements of English culture were perceived the most important by these authors and what were the ways of presenting English culture in textbooks. To answer this question, the content of the manuals will be analysed (both texts and illustrations). The function of cultural elements will also be described. Moreover, since little is known of Jastroch and Knapczyk, the presentation will offer a closer look at their biographies to show how they strived to make English accessible to the Poles.
