Neoliberal discourse in locally developed Malaysian English language textbooks: a comparison between the pre- and post-neoliberal eras

Abstract

Studies on the discourse of neoliberalism in English language textbooks (ELT) concur that neoliberalism originated from the west: thus, its values are imported into the rest of the world through the textbooks produced by western global ELT producers. Instead, the current study shows that neoliberalism is not necessarily an entirely foreign concept in the non-western context and, in particular, in Malaysia, but is already present amongst the non-western local populace where the realities of the local society are subject to development, and this is reflected in the textbooks. Scrutinised through tools borrowed from the Discourse Historical Approach – an approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) – this study contributes to the current body of literature by comparing two series of ELT textbooks, locally developed during the pre- and post-neoliberal eras in Malaysia, for their neoliberal content. The findings reveal that that these textbooks have evolved to solely picture the middle-class neoliberal subjects who go through a process of skillisation who have tendencies towards the neoliberal products and behaviours in recent years, influenced by the socio-political developments as opposed to the older books.

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