Final report MA3C0203 Johnson 張峻源

Background Students should be able to expect that the materials they study from will enable them to use the language to promote a positive image of themselves, will let them understand the underlying debate of language current in society, and will provide them with gender-appropriate language and roles.

Purpose The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether biased representations of gender roles exist in junior high school English textbooks currently used in Taiwan. Much attention has been directed to the assessment of the sexism in EFL materials and the increase of the gender fairness in language. But, have the locally-designed EFL textbooks improved in the treatment of sexist language?

Research Questions Is there gender bias in the junior high school EFL textbooks? If so, which types of gender bias are presented in the junior high school EFL textbooks? To what extent is gender bias represented in the verbal texts of junior high school EFL textbooks? To what extent is gender bias depicted in the visual texts of junior high school EFL textbooks?

Gender Stereotypes in the English Language Gender Ideology and Language Learning Gender, Language, and Language Learning Evaluation of Gender Bias in Teaching Materials Studies of Gender bias in ESL/EFL Teaching Materials Gender Bias and ESL/EFL Teaching Materials

Gender, Language, and Language Learning Gender is not innate but acquired through the perceptions of cultural and social expectations of women and men (Sunderland, 1994; Wood, 2003). In daily life, people use and learn language; at the same time, they create and reinforce gender ideology. Based upon gender differences, men and women are distinguished into two “mutually exclusive categories” of human beings (Glover & Kaplan, 2000, p. XXIV). Gender differences subconsciously force people to talk and to behave differently, which results in the reflection of gender stereotypes on language (Lorber, 2003). Therefore, through language, these stereotypes are further taught to children by teachers and parents (Grossman & Grossman, 1994).

Gender, Language, and Language Learning When students learn a language, their gender ideology may be influenced by that language. Students’ development of gender ideology has an impact on their formulation of language behaviors. Therefore, acquiring gender stereotypes leads students to formulate male or female dominated language behaviors. To understand the extent to which gender stereotypes are embedded in language, and the differences between men’s and women’s typical language behaviors, studies on gender stereotypes in the English language and stereotypical language behaviors will be reviewed.

Gender Bias and ESL/EFL Teaching Materials Since students learn gender ideology from their environment, including their educational setting, teaching materials play a vital role in forming their view towards gender roles. In order to prevent students from leaning gender bias, the representation of gender roles in teaching materials needs to be reviewed. This section focuses on the models of gender bias in teaching materials. Lastly, studies related to gender bias in ESL/EFL teaching materials will be reviewed.

METHOD The materials used in this study were English textbooks devised for junior high schools. They were currently in use in junior high schools throughout Taiwan. Three popular versions of the current English textbooks for junior high school learners, including 翰林, 南一, and 康軒 are evaluated. Serving as the corpus of present study, they are content analyzed in light of conversations, reading passages, and illustrations.

METHOD the frequency and percentage of each category After the researcher analyzed the data, a coder was trained to analyze the collected data again to avoid subjective and biased judgments. This second coder was a graduate student studying in the fields of linguistics and TESL. In the training, the second coder was taught to (1) know and recognize the coding and categorization of the verbal and visual texts, and to (2) understand the principles and methods of data analysis.

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