This paper aims to look at language gender bias in EFL textbooks. It is the second in a series of three complementary papers which look at sexism (see Gharbavi & Mousavi, 2012). All use the same corpus; however different methodology. The paper points to areas that remain problematical in the design of textbooks. Four English textbooks currently taught in the Iranian high schools were chosen as a sample of this study. Three categories in these textbooks were examined: male and female visibility in illustrations, texts and the male/female occupational roles. First, a content analysis was conducted on the data, and then the frequency of each category was calculated and compared with one another. The results of chi-square test indicated that there is a significant difference between the frequencies of male and female for different categories of this study. The findings are followed by analysis and interpretation with special attention given to the relationship between language sexism and ideology. Pedagogical implications of the study have been discussed.

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The primary focus of research on employment of language learning strategies has been on identification of adoption of different learning strategies. However, the relationship between language learning strategies and proficiency levels was ignored in previous research. The present study was undertaken to find out whether there are any relationship between the employment of different strategies and learners' levels of language proficiency. To this end, initially, a simulated TOEFL test (Bailey, R. F., Seetharaman, S., Gavin, C. A., Shukla, N., Penfield, J., and Subramanian, R., 1993) was administered to classify the learners into three classes of proficiency levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Then, Oxford's Strategy Inventory, SILL, (Oxford, 1990b) was used to determine the frequency of the language learning strategies applied by learners. The results indicated that there is a direct relationship between employment of different strategies and proficiency levels. Therefore, the findings, in general, seem convincing enough to enable one to claim that there is a correspondence between the employment of different strategies and proficiency levels. The results of the present study are by no means complete. More research is needed to substantiate the outcome of the current study. One pedagogical implication of the study is that language instructors and syllabus designers should be advised to inform language learners about language learning strategies. Other implications have been discussed.

The purpose of the present study is to find out whether Iranian high school English textbooks are sexist textbooks which discriminate between male and female students based on their sex. Halliday's systemic-functional linguistic theory was used as an innovative framework to language gender bias studies. To this end, four English textbooks currently taught in the Iranian high schools were chosen as a sample of this study. The linguistics analysis revealed that there were more males in the Theme and Rheme position. In other word, males had dominated the communicative positions of the clauses in the textbooks. Also the outcome of the participant role analysis showed that the frequencies of males for different participant's roles were more than that of females. Thirty males played the role of actors where as only twenty females were in the position of actor throughout the text of these textbooks. Eleven males were found in the role of senser in all clauses of the textbooks. The finding may be attributable to the writer `s attitude, culture, and traditional patriarchal system of Iranian society. Yet another reason why men are more visible than women may be related to the power of the influential policy makers (mostly men) who make curriculum decisions that favor boys and men.

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