Analysis of Intercultural Competence and Gender Representation in Iranian EFL Coursebooks

Document Type : research article

Authors

1 Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages & Literature, The University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of English Language and Literature, Kish Campus, The University of Tehran, Kish Island, Iran

Abstract

This article examines intercultural competence and gender representation in the latest locally developed English language coursebooks which are taught in Iranian primary and secondary schools. The study uses content analysis to investigate the extent to which gender is portrayed in coursebooks and also how much these coursebooks reflect equality between men and women. In addition to quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis was conducted to a certain extent. For the first phase of the research, images, names, roles, and topics oriented towards women and men in the reading passages and conversations were analysed. Moreover, since the present study examined intercultural competence within the English language coursebooks, the coursebooks were scrutinized in order to capture every instance in which the eleven aspects of intercultural competence are shown or indicated. The findings revealed that in the newly developed coursebooks, gender imbalances could be observed to a great extent, with males being the dominant gender in names, characters, images, and texts. Intercultural competence was also found to be a major difference between genders, where the books showed higher intercultural competence for men in Emotion, Empathy, and Perspective-taking (EEP) and Intercultural Relations (IR) aspects. Women were shown to be higher in Knowledge of Diversity (KD), but there was no difference in Intercultural relations (IR). Since in these coursebooks, male authors outnumber their female counterparts, it might be beneficial to add more females to an authority's board of authors. Authors are also encouraged to develop coursebooks that promote gender equality by following guidelines provided by Iran's authorities.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Aridah, A. (2021). Intercultural Communication in the Perspective of Gender. Journal of English as A Foreign Language Teaching and Research (JEFLTR), 1(2), 1-10.
Bahman, M., & Rahimi, A. (2010). Gender representation in EFL materials: an analysis of English textbooks of Iranian high schools. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 273–277.
Baker, W. (2017). English as a lingua franca and intercultural communication. In J. Jenkins, W. Baker, & M. Dewey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 25-36). Routledge.
Bandura, A., Davidson, H. F., & Davidson, J. (2003). Bandura's social cognitive theory: An introduction. Davidson Films, Incorporated.
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: Penguin.
Byram, M. (2008). From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship: Essays and Reflections. Multilingual Matters.
Cameron, D. (1984). Debate on Sexist Language: Sexism and Semantics. Radical Philosophy, 36:14.
Chau, T. H. H., & Truong, V. (2019). The Integration of Intercultural Education into Teaching English: What Vietnamese Teachers Do and Say. International Journal of Instruction, 12(1), 441-456.
Corder, D., Roskvist, A., Harvey, S., & Stacey, K. (2018). Language teachers on study abroad programmes: The characteristics and strategies of those most likely to increase their intercultural communicative competence. In J. L. Plews, & K. Misfeldt, Second Language Study Abroad (pp. 257-297). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2017). Language socialization through textbooks. Language socialization: Encyclopaedia of language and education, 195-210.
Dabbagh, A. (2016). Gender representation under critical image analysis: The case of Iranian ELT textbooks. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 4(4), 39-52.
Dahmardeh, M., & Kim, S. D. (2020). Gender representation in Iranian English language coursebooks: Is sexism still alive? English Today, 36(1), 12-22.
Dahmardeh, M., Parsazadeh, A., & Parsazadeh, H. (2017). A Diachronic Analysis of the Cultural Aspect of Local English Coursebooks. Journal of Pedagogic Development, 7(2), 57-72.
Demir, Y., & Yavuz, M. (2017). Do ELT coursebooks still suffer from gender inequalities? A case study from Turkey. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 13(1), 103-122.
Downe‐Wamboldt, B. (1992). Content analysis: method, applications, and issues. Health care for women international, 13(3), 313-321.
Elkholy, R. K. (2012, March). Gender representation in English language textbooks taught in Egyptian schools. Proceedings of 31st CDELT National Symposium on English Language Teaching entitled Active Learning in EFL: Introspect and Prospect. https://www.academia.edu/17626960/Gender_Representation_in_English_Language_Textbooks_Taught_in_Egyptian_Schools
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.
Foroutan, Y. (2012). Gender representation in school textbooks in Iran: The place of languages. Current Sociology, 60(6), 771–787.
Fraser, N. (2003). Social justice in the age of identity politics: Redistribution, recognition and participation. In N. Fraser & A. Honneth (Eds.), Redistribution of recognition? A political-philosophical exchange. (pp. 98–108). London: Verso.
Gholami Pasand, P. (2018). An intercultural analysis of English language textbooks in Iran: The case of English Prospect Series. Apples- Journal of Applied Language Studies, 12(1), 55-70.   
Giaschi, P. (2000). Gender Positioning in Education: A Critical Image Analysis of ESL Texts. TESL Canada Journal, 18(1), 32-46. 
Goodarzi, A., & Weisi, H. (2020). Deconstruction of Cultural, Racial and Gender Dominance in Iranian Senior High School EFL Textbooks. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 8(32), 11-20.
Gudykunst, W. B., & Kim, Y. Y. (2003). Communicating with Strangers. An Approach to Intercultural Communication (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Gupta, A. F., & Lee, A. S. Y. (1990). Gender representation in English textbooks used in the Singapore primary schools. Language and Education, 4, 29-50.
Habermas, J., & Benhabib, S. (1996). Three normative models of democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Haggarty, L. (1996). What is content analysis? Medical Teacher, 18(2), 99-101.
Hall, M. (2014). Gender Representation in Current EFL Textbooks in Iranian Secondary Schools. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(2), 253-261.
Hartman, P. L., & Judd, E. L. (1978). Sexism and TESOL materials. TESOL Quarterly, 12(4), 383-393.
Hashemifardnia, A., Namaziandost, E., & Rahimi Esfahani, F. (2018). The effect of teaching picture-books on elementary EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. JELTL (Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics), 3(3), 247-258.
Hess, D. E. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. Routledge.
Hilliard, A. D. (2014). A Critical Examination of Representation and Culture in Four English Language Textbooks. Language Education in Asia, 5(2), 238-252. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/14/V5/I2/A06/Hilliard
Holm, K., Nokelainen, P., & Tirri, K. (2009). Relationship of gender and academic achievement to Finnish students’ intercultural sensitivity. High Ability Studies, 20, 187–200. doi:10.1080/ 13598130903358543
Holmes, J., & Meyerhoff, M. (2003). Different voices, different views: An introduction to current research in language and gender. The handbook of language and gender, 1-17.
Homayounzadeh, M., & Sahragard, R. (2015). An Intercultural Approach to Textbook Evaluation: A Case of Top Notch and Summit Series. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 4(1), 198-208.
Iran’s Ministry of Education. (2013). The Islamic Republic of Iran’s National Curriculum. Tehran: Iran.
Jürgen, H. (2017). Three normative models of democracy. In Constitutionalism and democracy (pp. 277-286). Routledge.
Kabeer, N. (2005). Introduction. In N. Kabeer (Ed.), Inclusive citizenship. Meanings and expressions (pp. 1–27). London New York: Zed Books.
Khalid, Z., & Ghania, O. (2019). Gender positioning in the visual discourse of Algerian secondary education EFL textbooks: Critical image analysis vs teachers’ perceptions. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 15(3), 773-793.
Khan, Q., Sultana, N., Bughio, Q., & Naz, A. (2014). Role of Language in Gender Identity Formation in Pakistani School Textbooks. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 21(1), 55-84.
Kramsch, C., & Zhu, H. (2020). Translating culture in global times: An introduction. Applied Linguistics, 41(1), 1-9.
Krippendorff, K. (2004). Reliability in content analysis: Some common misconceptions and recommendations. Human communication research, 30(3), 411-433.
Lee, J. F. K., & Collins, P. (2010). Construction of gender: A comparison of Australian and Hong Kong English language textbooks. Journal of Gender Studies, 19(2), 121-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589231003695856
Lee, J. F. K. (2014). Gender representation in Hong Kong primary school ELT textbooks – a comparative study. Gender and Education, 26(4), 356-376.
Lee, J. F. K. (2018). Gender representation in Japanese EFL textbooks – a corpus study. Gender and Education, 30(3), 379-395, DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2016.1214690
Lee, J. F. K., & Mahmoudi-Gahrouei, V. (2020). Gender representation in instructional materials: A study of Iranian English language textbooks and teachers’ voices. Sexuality & Culture, 24(4), 1107-1127.
Levie, W. H., & Lentz, R. (1982). Effects of text illustration: A review of research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 30(4), 195–232.
Lister, R. (2008). Inclusive citizenship. In E. F. Isin, P. Nyers, & B. S. Turner (Eds.), Citizenship between Past and Future (pp. 48–60). London: Routledge.
Litz, D. R. A. (2005). Textbook Evaluation and ELT Management: A South Korean Case Study. Asian EFL journal, 48, 1-53.
Love, S. R. & Park, S. M. (2013). Images of Gender Twenty Years Later: A Content Analysis of Images in Introductory Criminal Justice and Criminology Textbooks. Feminist Criminology, 8(4) 320–340.
Malik, M. A., Rind, I. A., & Qayyum, A. (2021). Gender Representation in English Textbooks: A Study about Public Middle Schools in Punjab. Journal of Arts & Social Sciences (JASS), 8(1), 118-126.
Mills, S. (1995). Feminist Stylistic. London: Routledge.
Mukundan, J., & Nimehchisalem, V. (2008). Gender representation in Malaysian secondary school English language textbooks. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 4(2), 155-173.
Mustapha, A. S. (2012). Dynamics of Gender Representations in Learning Materials. GÉNEROS. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 1(3): 243–270.
Mustapha, A. S. & Mills, S. (2016). Gender Representation in Learning Materials. London: Routledge.
Nielsen, H. B. (2014). Forskjeller i klassen: Nye perspektiver på kjønn, klasse og etnisitet i skolen. [New perspectives on gender, class and ethicity in school]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Orfan, S. N. (2021). High school English textbooks promote gender inequality in Afghanistan. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1-16.
Otálora Fajardo, L. A. (2018). Representations of interculturality: bridging the gap Between            the culture of L1 and LL2 (Master's thesis, Escuela de Educación y Pedagogía).
Paivandi, S. (2008). Discrimination and Intolerance in Iran’s Textbooks. New York: Freedom House.
Pakula, L., Pawelczyk, J. & Sunderland, j. (2015). Gender and sexuality in English language education: Focus on Poland. London: British Council.
Porreca, K. L. (1984). Sexism in current ESL textbooks. TESOL Quarterly, 18(4), 704-724.
Prapinwong, M. (2018). Developing intercultural awareness for pre-service teachers in Thailand. ABAC Journal, 38(2), 21-35.
Ramirez, E. (2018). Intercultural communicative language teaching (iCLT): a selection of practical points of departure. New Zealand Language Teacher, The, 44, 18-30.
Reid, G., Soler, J., & Wearmouth, J. (2003). Contextualising difficulties in literacy development: exploring politics, culture, ethnicity and ethics. London: Routledge Falmer.
Renner, C. (1997). Women are “busy, tall and beautiful” – Looking at sexism in EFL materials. University of Naples, a paper presented at the 31st Annual TESOL Conference, USA.
Rifkin, B. (1998). Gender Representation in Foreign Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Textbooks of Russian. The Modern Language Journal, 82(2), 217-236.
Sakita, T. I. (1995). Sexism in Japanese English education: A survey of EFL texts. Woman and Language, 18, 5-12.
Schachner, M. K. (2019). From equality and inclusion to cultural pluralism–Evolution and effects of cultural diversity perspectives in schools. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16(1), 1-17.
Selvi, A. F., & Kocaman, C. (2021). (Mis-/Under-) Representations of gender and sexuality in locally-produced ELT materials. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 20(2), 118-133.
Setyono, B. (2018). The portrayal of women in nationally-endorsed English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks for senior high school students in Indonesia. Sexuality & Culture, 22(4), 1077-1093.
Shahnaz, A., Fatima, S. T., & Qadir, S. A. (2020). ‘The myth that children can be anything they want’: gender construction in Pakistani children literature. Journal of gender studies, 29(4), 470-482.
Shugar, G. (1989). Elinor Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin, Acquiring conversational competence (Language, Education, and Society). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. Pp. xvii 208. - Bambi B. Schieffelin and Elinor Ochs (eds.), Language socialization across cultures (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, 3). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Pp. vii 274. Language in Society, 18(4), 581-587. doi:10.1017/S0047404500013956
Sleeter, C. E., & Grant, C. A. (2017). Race, class, gender, and disability in current textbooks. In The politics of the textbook (pp. 78-110). Routledge.
Solhaug, T., & Kristensen, N. N. (2020). Gender and intercultural competence: Analysis of intercultural competence among upper secondary school students in Denmark and Norway. Educational Psychology, 40(1), 120-140.
Sunderland, J. (1992). Gender in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal, 46(1), 81-91.
Susanti, L. M., Suryati, N., & Astuti, U. P. (2021). Gender Inequality and Education: A Content Analysis of Indonesian EFL Textbook. Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan, 6(6), 921-931.
Tajeddin, Z. & Teimourizadeh, S. (2014). Exploring the hidden agenda in the representation of culture in international and localised ELT textbooks. The Language Learning Journal, 42(1), 1–14.
Teliousi, V., Zafiri, M., & Pliogou, V. (2020). Occupation and gender stereotypes in primary school: The case of the english language coursebooks in Greek primary schools. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(4), 1135-1148.
Thornbury, S. (2013). Resisting coursebooks. In Critical perspectives on language teaching materials (pp. 204-223). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Tompkins, A., Cook, T., Miller, E., & LePeau, L. A. (2017). Gender influences on students’ study abroad participation and intercultural competence. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 54(2), 204-216.
Tyarakanita, A., Drajati, N. A., Rochsantiningsih, D., & Nurkamto, J. (2021). The Representation of Gender Stereotypes in Indonesian English Language Textbooks. Sexuality & Culture, 25(3), 1140-1157.
Tylka, L. & Caloger, R. M. (2011). Fiction, fashion, and function final: An introduction and conclusion to the Special Issue on Gendered Body Image, Part III. Sex Roles, 65, 447–460.
Taylor, F. (2003). Content analysis and gender stereotypes in children's books. Teaching sociology, 300-311.
Vaganova, O. I. (2019). Organization of practical classes in a higher educational institution using modern educational technologies. Amazonia Investiga, 8(23), 81-86.
Vajak, M., Izadpanah, S., & Naserian, J. (2021). The Assessment of Intercultural Competence in Iranian EFL and Non-EFL Leaners: Knowledge, skill, awareness, and attitude. Cogent Education, 8(1), 1936885.
Valentine, T. M. (2004). Language and Prejudice. New York: Pearson/Longman.
Van Der Slik. F. W. P., Van Hout. R. W. N. M., & Schepens, J. J. (2015). The gender gap in second language acquisition: Gender differences in the acquisition of Dutch among immigrants from 88 countries with 49 mother tongues. PLoS ONE 10(11), e0142056. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142056
Wang, W. (1998). Gender role stereotypes in Chinese primary school textbooks. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 4(4), 39-59.
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender and society, 1, 125–151. doi:10.1177/ 0891243287001002002
Wightman, M. (2020). Gender differences in second language learning: Why they exist and what we can do about it. Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/2371
Yang, P. (2018). Developing TESOL teacher intercultural identity: An intercultural communication competence approach. TESOL journal, 9(3), 525-541.
Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 13, Issue 2
July 2023
Pages 193-214

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics