Language and gender: A critical discourse analysis on gender representation in a series of international ELT textbooks

Abstract

This study attempted to explore the representation of gender in an international ELT series, i.e., American Headway Student Textbooks. Fairclough's ( 2001) three-dimensional model was selected and adopted as the model of study. Effectively, different parts of American Headway Student Textbooks were investigated systematically vis-à-vis eight factors, i.e. female and male's characters, female and male's social roles, female and male's domestic roles, female and male's semantic roles, female and male's titles, order of appearance, masculine generic construction, activities females and males engaged in, and finally the pictorial representation of both genders. The findings of the study revealed that the series are suffering from two types of sexism-overt and covert ones-the overt one discriminates against females in a vivid way and the covert one exploits the women as an instrument for advertising in order to promote selling. This study suggests that the series are instilling capitalism economy as ideology.

Gender Representation in EFL Textbooks in Saudi Arabia: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

“…Moving to a wider perspective, this study's findings are consistent with those of the studies cited in the literature review section (AlJumiah, 2016;Amerian & Esmaili, 2015;Jannati, 2015;Samadikhah & Shahrokhi, 2015;Sulaimani, 2017). The current study suggests, as with previous studies, that EFL textbooks contain instances of gender imbalance and stereotyping in favor of males.…”

“…The procedure in this study was adapted from Amerian and Esmaili (2015), with minor changes. In their study, they utilized Fairclough's (2015) checklist for examining gender power in textbooks.…”

“…The evaluation of EFL textbooks in terms of gender misrepresentation is a never-ending process, as textbooks are numerous and ideologies are diverse. Many scholars have attempted to evaluate textbooks with a focus on gender representation (AlJumiah, 2016;Amerian & Esmaili, 2015;Jannati, 2015;Samadikhah & Shahrokhi, 2015;Sulaimani, 2017). For instance, Jannati (2015) compared gender roles as they appeared in Iranian EFL textbooks by focusing on adjectival and pictorial representations; thus, both content and semiotic analyses were employed in the study.…”

Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representations in EFL Textbooks

“…One of the main endeavors and applications of CDA is to explore the hidden and transparent gender representations in discourse, particularly in textbooks. Compiling textbooks for ELT requires a deep consciousness of various factors that are interrelated such as social and political contexts, culture, and ethnicity (Amerian & Esmaili, 2015). Examining textbooks under CDA's tenets could unravel the underlying social, political, and cultural motivations that in turn reflect hidden ideologies.…”

Анализ Путей Рекрутирования В Женскую Бизнес-Элиту

“…В работе «Язык и гендер» подчеркивается, что взаимосвязь между языковыми средствами выражения и социальным полом как отдельная область науки была выделена в 1960-1970е гг. [Amerian, Esmaili, 2015].Авторы объясняют, что любое общество формирует определенную точку зрения на роль женщин и мужчин, что приводит к появлению конкретных паттернов поведения и установившихся способ коммуникации. Эти паттерны, а также ожидания, связанные с их выполнением, зависят от культурных, экономических, социальных, религиозных и других факторов.…”