Gender Representation in American English File Textbook

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Article 5, Volume 47, Issue 2, July 2014, Pages 107-131   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.v47i2.30619

Authors

Ali Roohai^* ; Somayeh Akbarpour

Department of English, Shahr-e-Kord University, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran

Abstract

Gender is still one distinction in our society as well as textbooks, which is the core of materials in second/foreignlanguage learning/teaching. Gender bias and inequality can exert particular ideologies on learners and negatively affect their views about language learning. This study is an attempt to investigate gender representation in American English File, commonly taught at advanced levels in some language laboratories and schools in Iran. To this end, a content analysis was done on the texts and pictures in terms of the order of gender presentation in a phrase, the type of occupations for each gender, the references to famous male and female characters in the textbook. Theresults from the quantitative and qualitative analysis showed that there was not a balanced representation of females and males in this instructional textbook, though published in a western country, and female representation, to some extent, was based on the stereotypical and hegemonic gender roles and prejudices.

Keywords

Gender Bias; Instructional Textbooks; Language

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