Shiraz University
Faculty of Literature & Humanities
M.A. Thesis in Teaching English Language
INVESTIGATING THE REPRESENTATION
OF GENDER-RELATED LINGUISTIC
FEATURES IN KIDS’ AND ADULTS’
ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS:
A CASE OF HAPPY AND PACESETTER
SERIES
By
Parisa Yari
Supervised by
S. Mehrpour Ph. D
March 2012
In the Name of GOD
Declaration
I – Parisa Yari (880242) – an M.A. student of English language teaching at the
Faculty of Literature and Humanities, hereby declare that this thesis is the
result of my own research, and that I have provided exact references wherever
I have quoted someone. I also declare that the topic of my research is an
original one and has not been worked upon before. I hereby promise not to
publish the findings of this research and not to make it accessible to others
without the permission of Shiraz University. Shiraz University holds the
copyright on this research.
Name: Parisa Yari
Date:
To the memory of my dear father
Acknowledgements
This research project would not have been possible without the support
of many people. The author wishes to express her gratitude to her
supervisor, Prof. Dr. Mehrpour who was abundantly helpful and offered
invaluable assistance, support and guidance. Deepest gratitude are also
due to the members of the supervisory committee, Prof. Dr. Sahragard
and Dr. Razmjoo without whose knowledge and assistance this study
would not have been successful.
The author wishes to express her love and gratitude to her beloved
families; for their understanding & endless love, through the duration of
her studies.
ABSTRACT
Investigating the Representation of Gender-Related
Linguistic Features in Kids’ and Adults’ English Textbooks:
A Case of Happy and Pacesetter Series
By
Parisa Yari
The present study made an attempt to investigate the representation of genders in two
EFL textbooks series currently used in Iran. The case of this study was the advanced
levels of each series; Happy series for children and Pacesetter for adults. The method
for exploring gender representation was based on Stockdale‟s (2006) investigation of
gender representation in EFL textbooks. Actually, the data gathering procedure was
followed at two Macro and Micro levels. At the macro level, issues such as visibility
and firstness were studied so that each aspect was explored from several vintage
points. At the micro level, the discourse issues of amount and type of talk were
investigated. In order to investigate the discourse, again, use was made of Stockdale‟s
(2006) adjustments to Francis and Hunston‟s (1992) system of analysis. However, in
contexts such as the Iranian context, textbooks are doubtlessly the most significant
sources of knowledge of the target language and culture. Therefore, biased
representations of gender in such textbooks can impress the learners and lead to
negative implications in attitudes of the learners, especially children.
The results of the study revealed that in spite of all the previous efforts to avoid bias
and stereotyping, both Happy Earth 2 and Pacesetter 3 showed men as more visible
than women. Additionally, in both textbooks, mostly, men came in the first positions
rather than women. A positive point for both Happy Earth 2 and Pacesetter 3 was
that in conversations men and women were balanced in using elements of exchange.
Anyway, despite these textbook writers‟ attempts to break down bias and
stereotyping, there still existed some very out-dated roles assigned to one gender.
Findings also indicated that negative terms were mostly assigned to men in both
Happy Earth 2 and Pacesetter 3. Investigating the representation of gender
linguistically and in discourse, this study offered a number of implications for
English teachers, material developers, learners and textbook designers.
IV
List of Contents
Content
Page
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0. Preliminaries ............................................................................... 2
1.1. Significance of the study ............................................................ 4
1.2. Objectives of the study ............................................................... 5
1.3. Definition of key terms............................................................... 6
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0. Introduction ................................................................................ 9
2.1. Textbook evaluation ................................................................... 9
2.2. Gender bias in textbook evaluation ............................................ 15
2.3. Visibility ..................................................................................... 17
2.4. Firstness ...................................................................................... 19
2.5. Gender stereotyping.................................................................... 20
2.6. Discourse roles ........................................................................... 26
V
Content
Page
CHAPTER THREE: METHOD
3.0. Introduction ................................................................................ 32
3.1. Materials ..................................................................................... 32
3.1.1. Happy Earth series ............................................................ 33
3.1.2. Pacesetter series ................................................................ 34
3.2. Data collection ............................................................................ 34
3.2.1. Macro level ....................................................................... 35
3.2.1.1. Visibility .................................................................. 35
3.2.1.1.1. Characters....................................................... 35
3.2.1.1.2. Character appearances in pictures .................. 36
3.2.1.1.3. Gender focus in textbook themes................... 36
3.2.1.2. Firstness ................................................................... 37
3.2.1.2.1. Mixed gendered dialogues ............................. 37
3.2.1.2.2. Points of view opinions .................................. 37
3.2.1.2.3. Pairs (Common noun and pronouns) ............. 38
3.2.1.2.4. Proper name pairs .......................................... 38
3.2.1.3. Nouns ....................................................................... 38
3.2.1.3.1. Names............................................................. 38
3.2.1.3.2. Nouns ............................................................. 39
3.2.2. Micro level ........................................................................ 39
VI
Content
Page
3.2.2.1. Amount of talk ......................................................... 39
3.2.2.2. Type of talk.............................................................. 40
3.3. Data analysis ............................................................................... 41
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.0.Introduction ................................................................................. 43
4.1.Visibility ...................................................................................... 43
4.1.1. Visibility in male and female characters........................... 43
4.1.2. Gender appearances in photographs (Happy Earth 2)...... 44
4.1.3. Gender focus in textbook themes...................................... 45
4.2. Firstness ...................................................................................... 46
4.2.1. Mixed gender dialogues .................................................... 46
4.2.2. Point of view opinions ...................................................... 47
4.2.3. Common noun and pronoun pairs ..................................... 47
4.2.4. Proper name pairs ............................................................. 48
4.3. Nouns and pronouns ................................................................... 48
4.3.1. Names................................................................................ 48
4.3.2. Nouns ................................................................................ 50
4.4. Discourse .................................................................................... 52
4.4.1. Amount of talk .................................................................. 53
VII
Content
Page
4.4.2. Type of talk ....................................................................... 54
4.5. Visibility ..................................................................................... 55
4.5.1. Visibility of male and female characters .......................... 55
4.5.2. Gender appearances in photographs ................................. 56
4.5.3. Gender focus in textbook themes...................................... 57
4.6. Firstness ...................................................................................... 58
4.6.1. Mixed gender dialogues .................................................... 58
4.6.2. Point of view opinions in Pacesetter 3 ............................. 59
4.6.3. Common noun and pronoun pairs ..................................... 59
4.6.4. Proper name pairs in Pacesetter 3 .................................... 60
4.7. Nouns and pronouns ................................................................... 60
4.7.1. Names................................................................................ 60
4.7.2. Nouns ................................................................................ 62
4.8. Discourse .................................................................................... 64
4.8.1. Amount of talk .................................................................. 64
4.8.2. Type of talk ....................................................................... 65
4.9. Discussion of results ................................................................... 66
4.9.1. Visibility............................................................................ 66
4.9.2. Firstness ............................................................................ 68
4.9.3. Discourse ........................................................................... 73
VIII
Content
Page
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND
IMPLICATIONS
5.0. Introduction ................................................................................ 76
5.1. Summary of the study................................................................. 76
5.2. Conclusions of the study ............................................................ 78
5.3. Limitations of the study .............................................................. 79
5.4. Suggestions for further research ................................................. 80
5.5. Implications for language teaching ............................................ 81
REFERENCE ........................................................................................ 82
IX
List of Tables
Table
Page
Table 4.1. Gender of character appearances (Happy Earth 2) ............... 43
Table 4.2. Visibility of genders in photographs ..................................... 44
Table 4.3. Gender focus in textbook themes .......................................... 45
Table 4.4. Firstness ................................................................................. 46
Table 4.5. Firstness in gender paired nouns and pronouns .................... 47
Table 4.6. Male and female names ......................................................... 48
Table 4.7. Nouns referring to females and males ................................... 50
Table 4.8. Amount of talk....................................................................... 53
Table 4.9. Type of talk............................................................................ 54
Table 4.10. Visibility of male and female characters (Pacesetter 3) ..... 55
Table 4.11. Gender visibility in photographs (Pacesetter 3) ................. 56
Table 4.12. Gender focus in textbook themes (Pacesetter 3) ................ 57
Table 4.13. Firstness (Pacesetter 3) ....................................................... 58
Table 4.14. Firstness in gender paired nouns and pronouns in Pacesetter
3 .............................................................................................................. 59
Table 4.15. Male and female names ....................................................... 60
X
Table
Page
Table 4.16. Nouns referring to females and males in Pacesetter 3 ........ 62
Table 4.17. Amount of talk (Pacesetter 3) ............................................. 64
Table 4.18. Elements of Exchange used by male and female speakers .
................................................................................................................ 65
XI
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter an introduction to gender representation in EFL/ESL text books
and its relevance to sociolinguistics and also discourse are given. Afterwards,
the key terms are introduced and briefly defined. At the end, the objectives of
the present study, its significance and the research questions are presented.
1.0. Preliminaries
For a long time, men and women have been in quarrel over many things like
expenses, feelings, emotions, and allocation of occupation. One of the factors
that contributes to these arguments, and causes its continuation, may be
language differences between the two genders. The matter of gender
differentiation has been a job of both biologists and sociolinguists, though, this
differentiation in biology, contributes to sex differentiation (Holmes, 2008,
p.157). Moreover, how gender is represented in texts, in a language learning
context, is a concern of the field of sociolinguistics and is a job of
sociolinguists. As we know, sociolinguistics studies a social construct and an
abstract system. The reflection of men and women in the text and its influence
on learners‟ attitudes, perceptions and consequently learning, is what many
linguists and sociolinguists have been concerned about (Moffat & Norton,
2008; Pavlenko & Piller, 2008; Sunderland, 2000).
2
Textbooks, especially English language textbooks, are one of the most
significant sources of information about grammatical and lexical as well as
social and cultural knowledge of the target language. In contexts, like the
Iranian context, in which languages such as English are being taught as a
foreign language, textbooks are really the most significant sources of
knowledge for those who do not have access to the real context of the target
language. Accordingly, gender is one of the issues in any culture whose biased
representation in texts and especially textbooks may have negative
implications in perceptions and attitudes of those who are learning the
language, specifically children. Children are highly influenced because they
are actively involved in the process of shaping identities in relation to the
environment to which they are exposed (Brown, 2007).
Definitely, we can never have a trustworthy evaluation of the quality of
an educational context without considering the value of its textbooks and
materials. Textbooks, especially second and foreign language textbooks are
one of the sources of information through which we can evaluate such quality
and also, through which students acquire language structures and vocabularies,
as well as cultural and social norms of the people whose language is to be
learned via these textbooks. Nevertheless, many may ask what the importance
of gender exploration in EFL materials is when most teachers do not care and
the students do not complain and such objections are considered as trivial. The
most convincing reason can be what Sunderland (1992) acknowledges, as
saying “course books representations of gender potentially affect students as
language learners and users.”
Gender is one of the main issues in every culture, which has become the
focus of many linguists who study textbooks. Actually, gender is not an
individual variable, and should not be considered like that, instead, it should be
3
considered as a complicated system of social relations, which is deferentially
constructed in local contexts ( Pavlenko & Norton, 2004). However, gender
has been investigated from various points of view. Linguists have tried to
answer many questions that gender representation has raised. Many questions
concerning gender differentiation have asked whether this differentiation is a
result of biological differences or it is a matter of power and some other
aspects.
Since the number of language learning applicants in Iran is growing
progressively, and since textbooks are one of the most important sources of
knowledge used for learners in all Iranian language centers, an investigation of
gender-related linguistic representation is of crucial importance, considering
the fact that only a few studies have been done on gender representation in
both kids and adults language learners‟ textbooks in Iran.
1.1. Significance of the Study
As Sunderland (2000) notes, gender representation studies and critiques to
them in textbooks started in the 1970s and 1980s and into early 1990s.
Certainly, textbooks have been and still are the main sources of linguistic,
social and cultural information, for learning a foreign language, especially in
EFL contexts, such as Iran, since for most learners in such contexts it is nearly
impossible to have access to a real context of the foreign language. It is
through textbooks that learners learn the social and cultural norms of the target
language and consequently develop attitudes toward it. However, the
population of language learners in Iran is growing progressively, and more
importantly a large proportion of them are children and young learners.
Therefore, the need for conducting a study on gender representation in
4
language textbooks which are widely taught in Iranian language institutes is
strongly felt.
Unquestionably, a biased gender representation in EFL textbooks may
cause a stereotyped image of men and women, and in many cases,
misrepresents one of the genders, and this may lead to the learners‟
underestimation of one of the two genders. As a result, this contributes to the
reproduction of unequal opportunities for both male and female learners in
education. Consequently, learners may develop negative attitudes and learning
can be hindered. Such being the case, the findings of the present study can be
of use to language teachers, and language learners to gain a better
understanding of gender issues in textbooks used in Iran, and to help both
teachers and learners raise their awareness of gender represented in the widelyused English textbooks. Material developers can also benefit from the findings
by paying equal attention to both genders when it comes to preparing materials
for language teaching/learning purposes.
1. 2. Objectives of the Study
The purpose of the present study is exploring gender representation in EFL
textbooks used in Iranian language institutes.To this end, two broadly used
English textbook series have been chosen. The Happy series for exploration of
gender in children‟s textbooks, and the Pacesetter series in adult learner
textbooks. At the end, there will be a comparison of these two series, regarding
how gender is represented in them.
To achieve the objectives, the study is going to answer the following research
questions:
5
1. Is there any biased gender representation in Happy series used for
children?
2.
Is there any biased gender representation in Pacesetter series used for
adults?
3. Are there any differences between gender representations in the two
series?
1.3. Definition of key terms:
The following are definitions of some important terms which may be new to
the readers:
Visibility:
Visibility is defined as the relative number of times that females and males
appear in the textbooks (Stockdale, 2006).
Firstness:
Firstness, can be defined as the order of appearance of a gender-specific
pair like mother and father, the one which appears first in the pair is said to
have a higher status.
6
Omission:
This term can be defined in line with invisibility and refers to a situation
where fewer females than males will appear or vice versa.
Additionally, the following issues are some of the instances of sexism as
Sunderland (1994a; quoted in Mukundun & Nimehchisalem, 2008, p. 159) has
defined and are explored in this research:
• Invisibility: fewer males than females or vice versa
• Occupational stereotyping: females/ males in fewer and more
menial occupational roles
• Relationship stereotyping: women more in relation with men than
men with women
• Personal characteristic stereotyping: e.g. women as emotional
and timid
• Disempowering discourse roles: more males talking first
• Degradation: blatant sexism to the point of misogamy
7