Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representations in EFL Textbooks

Murad Al Kayed (), Sami Khalaf Al_Khawaldah () and Mohammad Akram Alzu'bi ()

International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 2020, vol. 9, issue 4, 244-254

Abstract: The present study investigates gender representation in EFL textbooks in Jordanian context using critical discourse analysis. The data were collected from the content of international ELT textbooks series, i.e. interchange 1A & 2B Student's Textbooks which were taught to undergraduate students at Al-Balqa Applied University. The study used Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional framework to analyze the data. Variables such as women’s and men’s social and domestic roles, visibility of women and men, women’s and men’s activities, women’s and men’s semantic roles, and pictorial representation were analyzed to unveil inequalities or power imbalance between males and females. The findings of the study revealed that the EFL text books were biased in favor of men in certain roles and activities. For example, men occupied the role of a ‘craftsman’, a ‘fitness trainer’ more than women. The study also found out that the text books showed some degree of equality between males and females in terms of pictorial representation, visibility and some activities and roles. The results also revealed that even though there existed some stereotypical roles and activities associated with men and women in these books, males and females were represented equally in terms of social status, power, and dominance. In other words, there was no sign of feminism and anti-feminism in the analyzed text books.

Keywords: Critical discourse analysis; EFL; Feminism; Gender; Jordanian context; Textbooks. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5019/article/view/471/885 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:asi:ijells:v:9:y:2020:i:4:p:244-254:id:471

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies from Asian Economic and Social Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Robert Allen ().