Gender in English Language and EFL- Textbooks

Abstract

Abstract A textbook is a key component in the arsenal of a teacher of English. For this reason, it is of importance that textbooksused in Swedish schools are compliant with the fundamental values of equality, provided in the LPO 94. I will attempt to discover the extent to which English textbooks present males and females in non-stereotyped ways and as equal. I want to provide an overview to show how they deal with gender issues. In addition, I aim at establish whether there are any connection between learning and gender, and whether it hinders the pupil’s language learning. My analysis will draw on previous research and theories presented by prominent figures in the field, such as, Butler (1990), Mills (1995), Renner (1997), Ravitch (2004) and Jones, Kitetu & Jane Sunderland (1997)among others. Thereafter, these theories, and my own research will be compared, to and contrasted with the guidelines from the Swedish National Agency of Education. This dissertation comprises a qualitative critical discourse analysis of two randomly selected textbooks that have been, or are being used, in Swedish secondary schools. For my study, I have chosen Team 8 (1984) and Wings 8 (2000). In my analyses, a number of different aspects will be taken into consideration, such as the gender distribution of narrators, main characters and sub characters, as well as the description of gender/gender roles, and the representation of gender in illustrations. Further, I will study what kind of language is used: the extent to which it is gendered or de-gendered language. These aspects will be collected quantitatively. The findings from the analysis show that the language in Wings 8 gives a broad and non-stereotypic view of gender roles, which is in accordance with the fundamental values of LPO 94. However, the illustrations tend to portray males and females in what can be considered as quite stereotypical. Team 8, on the other hand, contains gendered language and male dominance; women were placed in the background or left out completely. Therefore, Team 8 would not be deemed to be compliant with the requirements set by the Swedish National Agency of Education today. Key words: Education, teaching material, Wings, Team 8, gender, critical discourse analysis.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 16 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.