Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Textbooks: Cosette Taylor-Mendes

• Which cultural images from language textbooks, particularly ESL/EFL, you have read in earlier schooling stick out to you? Are these memories positive or negative?

• White woman from Canada • Received three job offers within first week of

arriving in Brazil• Her “racial priveleges” were directly pointed

out by participants in her study. How might this set the stage for her study or affect participants’ responses?

Who is Taylor-Mendes?

• Many students, particularly ESL students, may rely on images to find meaning in foreign English-language textbook.

• What does this mean for teachers? How do power relations and politization (as Kubota talked about) factor in?

• “Students, consciously or unconsciously, use, absorb, and interpret the social, economic, and racial realities present in the photographs, cartoons, or pictures in their textbooks” (65)

• How would your world view be different if your only knowledge of other countries and cultures consisted of pictures/images? Would this be a fair representation?

• Dick and Jane- fosters nostalgia for clearly defined standards of behavior and affluent standards of living represented in Hollywood America since WWII.

• Kubota, cultural image: many movies and TV shows depict social relations without visible minorities, economic injustice, English as a Second Language, etc. (Luke, 1988, p.3)– Kubota states that cultural images reflect, contest, or

legitimate unequal relations of power. Based on what you observe in media and textbooks in the United States, do you agree? Why/why not? Think specifically about the “American dream” and racial issues.

Taking a look at books & media…

Barbara’s Story

Intercultural Competence

Essentialism

Cultural Images

Orientalism

Proposal

• Texts and media can be used as “instruments for social development”, not social prejudice

• Teacher must engage students in ethical discussion and critical thought

• If inequities in power are left unexamined in teaching, we are apt to reproduce or legitimize unequal power relationships both in and outside our classrooms.– Analyze balances of power and take action for social

transformation (this idea began in Brazil)

Discourse• Discourse: social practice which can be determined by social structures• Language: Connects with the social through being the primary domain

of ideology, site of struggle for power– Thus, a student who views images to find meaning where language may not be

present views the image as discourse. • Even though participants were separated over time and space, discourse

takes place through the image as a social practice which evokes language for the purpose of negotiating one’s space or place in the sociopolitical landscape– Fairclough (2001) noted hidden relations of power when he declared, “Media

discourse is designed for mass audiences and there is no way that producers can even know who is in the audience, let alone adapt to its diverse sections.” We may unconsciously end up addressing the ‘ideal’ subject or ‘receiver’.

Giaschi’s Study

• Images in EFL texts produced on or by one culture in context-specific conditions are often used and absorbed in sometimes radically different contexts with different socio-political and cultural realities.

• Giaschi found that “popular texts” in Japan, Canada, and Italy had images of men & women juxtaposed. Physical positioning, body language, and clothing seemed to represent men as being more powerful than women.

Giaschi Study con’t

• Fallback: his selection of texts was loosely based on his own perception of “popular” or “successful” texts.

• Asserts that teachers may not be concerned with the integrity of the materials.– Taylor-Mendes has encountered professionals that

are indeed capable of critical discourse and open to discussing race and power issues in textbook images

Precautions/Don’ts

• Don’t dismiss sociopolitical reality in which EFL is taught. – Instead, help improve circumstances of life if

appropriate.• Don’t instill unrealistic expectations for change

within reality.• Don’t teach without consideration of methodology

or consequence• Don’t teach ESL for material gain or profit, don’t

take advantage of ESL learners

Taylor-Mendes Study

• 15 participants, 11 students from wealthiest social classes in Brazil, 4 teachers

• Purpose:– Who do students identify as “ideal subject” &

what characteristics does this “ideal subject” possess?

• 3 Research questions: (read notecard details)– What are we doing now?

• To what extent are images used and interpreted in Brazil?

– Whose interests are being served by the way things are?• How are the images being absorbed or resisted?

– Is this how we want it to be and what are we going to do about it?• What to do with findings; recommendations for daily

teaching and learning practice.

Questions Regarding ImagesP. 71

• Which images attract you?• Who is acting in the image? Who is not

acting?• What is the message/concept of culture

communicated through the image?• What are you seeing in the pictures about

life or lifestyle?• Who has power in the pictures? Who has

status?• What do body language, clothing, eyes, etc.

tell you?• What is learned from these images?

•Look for gender/occupation and racial inequality, reinforced stereotypes, etc.•If you have a book with cartoons, do these cartoons accurately represent reality? If so, how? If not, how?

3 Common Themes Resulting from Study

• 1. US portrayal as land of white elite• 2. Blacks consistently represented as poor or

powerless• 3. Race is divided by continent

1. US portrayed as land of White Elite

• Only two participants noted that none of the images of powerful or successful people were linked to stories explaining how they achieved their material, financial, or social power/influence.

• Expectation tied to English as ticket to better future of “American Dreams”– The US is a peaceful land of social and political elite and free from

problems. (is this really true?)• “I think it’s better than Brazil, for example, because the pictures show the

streets clean…beautiful things, beautiful buildings. Show another things too, for example, I never read something like violence in America or England. When the books want to show violence, they show Afghanistan, show the war for example…to me it’s ridiculous, this.” (Fatima)– Might this be a form of otherization?– How might this viewpoint have affected early narratives vs. later

narratives (time of immigration to the United States and their stories).

2. Blacks Represented as Powerless and Whites Represented as Powerful

• The white students and teachers pointed out the lack of people of color/minority status in images, as well as noticed images often restricted status to White middle-aged men (in suits to imply power/status)

• “The White British school kids are posing in phoney well-behaved poses, arms at their sides in a row, while the Black school kids have their arms behind their backs and their heads bowed forward like they are waiting to be hit by a stick” (Robert Carlos)

• What messages might be implied if your students cannot find images of their own race in EFL/ESL textbooks? What if the images found are degrading?

3. Race Divided By Continent• Images did not explore historical consequences of migration,

immigration, and colonization or intermixing of ‘race’ and identity…what about the Black Frenchman, for example?

• “It doesn’t bring me another view of the country for example: some wealthy people in Africa. When I look at this with collection in my mind, I think there is only poor people in Africa. In India, there is only guys meditating…reinforcing the feeling that we already toward these countries” (Rivaldo)

• What is the danger in representing a world of monocultural appearance divided neatly by continent…a world that never existed…? How can we change this and restore the representation of rich diversity?

Conclusion• What does an American look like?

– White, wealthy, powerful, isolated, free of problems?• “If the images and their layout chosen by the authors of textbooks

do not challenge English-language students’ perceptions of Americans, themselves, or “other” races, these images are apt to make participants of the discourse increasingly comfortable with or solidify their already entrenched racial stereotypes of the more economically powerful nation (White America), in contrast with the poorer nations with serious social problems (not America and not White)” (Taylor-Mendes)

• We often reinforce a made-in Hollywood version of culture that does not exist and perhaps never even did exist! EFL images do not so much represent culture as construct cultural and racial identities.

• Is it better to represent other peoples and cultures in an aggressive way or not represent them at all? (debate)

Implications• Draw attention to content of image and initiate critical,

thoughtful discussions about implicit issues of image.• Don’t expect that all teachers know enough on how to

begin examining race and power issues in EFL images with sensitivity .

• Place teachers in situations where they are the racial/linguistic minority (perspective); develop greater sensitivity to race and power

• Be aware of the books you request (Crystal, 1997)• Be aware of the need for further research

• What steps will you take to initiate critical and meaningful discussion with your students on the images found in textbooks?

Cultural Mirrors: Materials/Methods In EFL Classroom (Cortazzi & Jin)

• Culture is a series of dynamic processes including those involved in learning

• Learning a foreign language is more appropriately focused on learning a means of communication

• Culture is a framework of assumptions, ideas, and beliefs that are used to interpret other people’s actions, words, and patterns of thinking. (Moerman)

• Culture includes behavior/attitudes & social knowledge that people use to interpret experience

• Cultural learning is content-based dialogue and medium based dialogue

Cultural Mirrors: Materials/Methods In EFL Classroom (Cortazzi & Jin)

• Culture is a series of dynamic processes including those involved in learning

• Learning a foreign language is more appropriately focused on learning a means of communication

• Culture is a framework of assumptions, ideas, and beliefs that are used to interpret other people’s actions, words, and patterns of thinking. (Moerman)

• Culture includes behavior/attitudes & social knowledge that people use to interpret experience

• Cultural learning is content-based dialogue and medium based dialogue

Communicative competence (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983)

• Grammatical • Sociolinguistic• Discourse • Strategic • Intercultural competence – social effectiveness &

appropriateness – “the ability of a person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures” (Meyer, 1991)

Functions of EFL textbooks• Teacher (Instruction)• Map (Overview) • Resource • Trainer (Guidance)

• An authority (Expert)• A de-skiller• An ideology

In what ways can an EFL textbook demonstrate any of these functions?

Evaluation Checklists for textbooks

• Reflect author’s interest and awareness in culture

• Questions about culture are mainly placed at end of an evaluation checklist

Criteria for textbook evaluation

Textbooks based on Source Cultures

• Contain information about learner’s own culture and not of target language’s culture

• So learners can talk about their own culture to visitors • Designed to help students be aware of their cultural

identity • Unable to engage in intercultural negotiation with a

text portraying another culture (unable to compare theirs with another)

Example: a textbook for Venezuela, El libro de inglés, Page 205

Textbooks based on Target Cultures

• Include materials designed to promote awareness of race, gender, environmental issues

Example: Learning English, Topline, Page 209

Textbooks aimed at International Target Cultures

• Places where English is used as an international language, not as the first or second language

Example: One World, Secondary English (Presack & Tomscha), Page 209

created for the Mexican market for students in grades 1 through 4 MacMillian UK

http://stephensondesign.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/fantastic-efl-program-interior-design/

C1 = Source Culture C2 = Target Culture

C3, C4, C5, etc. = International Target Culture

Intercultural Communication Competence

• “effective identity negotiation process in novel communication episodes”, “demonstrated ability to negotiate mutual meanings, rules, positive outcomes…the most important of which is confirmation of the preferred identity” (Collier & Thomas, 1988)

• Culture learning through textbooks might also be seen as a process of dialogue in which students negotiate meaning and identity vicariously with the author of the textbook and its cultural content.

Student Views

• Mixed feelings on the cultural focus of their English lessons

• Can be confusing

Gender Positioning in Education:A Critical Image Analysis of ESL Texts: Peter Giaschi

• 44,070% increase in images from 1970-1996• Textbooks now are heavily visually presented

Gender Positioning in Education: A Critical Image Analysis of ESL Texts

• In 1985, English was the mother tongue of around 320 to 377 millions of people

• In 1996, English as a second language is estimated about 250 million to 1.3 billion people

Rationale

• English through instrument motivation• Teacher-student relationship• Fast-certified teachers teach abroad

Analytical Technique• Textbook biased but can be described, interpreted, and explained.• Described:

– Vocabulary1. What experiential value do words have?2. What relational value do words have?3. What expressive values do words have?4. What metaphors are used?

– Grammar1. What experiential values do grammatical?2. What relational values do grammatical features have?3. What expressive values do grammatical features have?4. How are simple sentences linked together?

– Textual Structure1. What interactional conventions are used?2. What larger-scale structures are there?

Data

• Books from various levels and publishers• Both gendered images

Result

Male• 65 males (34 total images)• Male protagonist: leaders,

managers, etc• 76% males are active role

model• Cover more of image• Focus of photo• Concentrates with work• Someone to be envy• Professional looking

Female• 59 females (34 total images)• Female protagonist: fashion• 24% female are active role

model• Females are usually passive• Crossed arms over legs:

“genital barrier”• Objects to be desired and

possessed• Mannequins

41% work environment, 20% fashion, 13% entertainment

1. Ignore the language as you look at the images. What impression do you get of the people/culture from the images alone? Do you believe this is a fair impression? How do you think your cultural, social, and personal experiences tie in with this?

2. Teach us what you have learned about your country/people/traditions.

3. How is an imbalance of power apparent in how you interpret and ‘read into’ the images portrayed in your book? Does your status, ethnicity, or culture affect your interpretation?

4. Did your views of the culture/people/country change from before and after you examined the images? Did you find your thoughts to be orientalistic?

5. How might your viewpoints on the images change if you were from a different country/culture? If you were a member of the culture represented, would you be pleased with the inaccuracy of this representation?

Classroom Book Analysis

Critical and Pedagogical Questions

• How can we uncover/prevent the hidden relations of power embedded in many EFL textbook images?

• How can we equilibrate the stereotypes often reinforced in textbook images?

• Is it better to represent other peoples and cultures in a way that is likely to be misinterpreted or not represent them at all?