An Investigation Into the Culture and Social Actors Representation in Summit Series ELT Textbooks Within van Leeuwen’s 1996 Framework

Abstract

The current study aims at identifying particular ways through which social actors are represented in Summit Series ELT textbooks. It examines cultural load in the textbooks within critical discourse analysis framework, in this case van Leeuwen's framework. Particularly, the study attempts to explore if values, norms, and roles are culture/context-bound. Results of the analyses showed that among discursive features, Inclusion, Genericization, and Indetermination were used more than Exclusion, Specification, and Determination. Activation was more observed than Passivation, and Categorization had an important function in the representation of some of the social actors along with Assimilation and Impersonalization. The analysis also indicated the impartiality toward the representation of social actors. Moral, social, and personal values were the most disseminated values, while social morality and traditions had the highest occurrence. However, a few discriminative cases were found regarding gender roles. The researchers proposed that Summit Series were less grounded in cultural assumptions/ biases. This impartiality eases language learning by keeping learners away from misunderstanding and incomprehensibility.

The Representation of Citizenship Values in Arabic Textbooks: Marrying Delanty and Hopkins Concepts

“…Foreign language learning also uses textbooks. Rashidi and Ghaedsharafi (2015) emphasize that teachers can spread an international mindset with textbooks. Language textbooks can be a starting point that can give the impression of foreign cultural influences that students get in everyday life.…”

Scrutiny of Global Citizenship in Chinese Elementary School English Textbooks and Teachers’ Practices during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Moreover, in an English as a foreign language context like China, English textbooks are often considered to be an important starting point for educators to promote learners' worldviews since they greatly influence the impression of foreign cultures by learners who are not exposed to English in their daily life (Rashidi & Ghaedsharafi, 2015). Textbooks are also regarded as a mirror of national curriculum standards, reflecting the official knowledge of the society (Apple, 2014), representing the worldviews of dominant groups via intentionally content selection and editing (Nasser & Nasser, 2008).…”

Investigating cultural contents in English language teaching materials through textbook evaluation

“…ELT textbooks play a vital role in language education; therefore, they have been under investigation due their content, and also at discoursal level (Nguyen, 2011;Meihami & Khanlarzadeh, 2015;Rashidi & Ghaedsharafi, 2015). Ndura (2004) states that the content of instructional material significantly affects learners' disposition towards other people, society and even themselves.…”