Why Gender Matters in Language Teaching : Exploring Gender Representations in EFL Textbooks of Middle Schools in Mainland China

Li Baijinge

Abstract

Gender issues constructed in school textbooks are seen as crucial in the field of English language teaching and learning. Existing studies in western countries have been examined substantially while a small number of researchers conduct to make investigations on gender stereotypes of EFL textbooks in mainland China. Textbooks have its own important impact on learners as they are underlying means to disseminate language knowledge and values to learners. Previous studies indicate textbooks influence values and beliefs of students, but textbooks with stereotyped representations would have an adverse impact on students’ cognition (Cocoradă, 2018). Gender bias embedded in textbooks might have adverse influence on learners’ perception of the society, motivation to study and career choices in the future. Thus it is instantly crucial to explore whether gender bias still exist in textbooks, ways to enhance students’ gender equitable perception and the potentiality of designing a textbook with thorough gender equality. This study selected three textbooks ranging from grade 7 to 9 (volume 2), published by People's Education Press since it is commonly used by EFL students in mainland China. It attempts to analyze gender representations in the textbook by using content analysis, linguistic analysis and visual analysis. And the study results find that gender bias still persist in the textbook such as the occurrence percentage of men and women is unbalanced with the weakening of women’s roles and acts. Roles of women are not only confined to roles the family endowed to, but also the society endowed to. Despite some efforts might be previously made to minimize the use of gender biased language, they are still recurrent. Therefore the purpose of study results attempt to enable people realize the prevalence of gender stereotypes in textbooks and discuss the possibility of compiling gender-fair textbooks. In the end, pedagogical implications and methods are provided for EFL teachers to reduce biased gender portrayals in the context of classrooms.

Keywords

English textbooksEnglish as a Foreign LanguageGender stereotypesMiddle schools in mainland China

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