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Volume 5. December 2009. | December home |
PDF E-book version
Title
Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Textbooks
Authors
Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz (Ph.D.)
Teacher Training University
Lotfollah Akbari Malek (M.A.)
Teacher Training University
Bio Data
Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz is professor emeritus of Applied Linguistics. He has published on various topics in Applied Linguistics and TEFL in several international journals including Language in Society, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Research in Psycholinguistics, and International Journal of Bilingualism. He has also presented papers in professional conferences such as AILA, Systemic-Functional Linguistics Conferences and Bilingualism Symposia. His research interests include sociolinguistics, bilingualism, discourse analysis, and phonology.
Lotfollah Akbari Malek holds an MA in TEFL from Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran, Iran. He has extensive experience of teaching English as a foreign language. His current fields of interest include critical discourse analysis, critical approaches to applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.
Abstract
Using Critical Discourse Analysis framework, the present study aims at examining three aspects of meaning namely social relations, subject positions, and contents in the conversations of advanced parts of two series of textbooks namely ILI (Iran Language Institute) and True to life textbooks to find out whether there is any discernable ideological orientation(s) in the two series of textbooks. The analysis revealed that in both series of the textbooks social relations are mostly equal, i.e. conversations happen between participants who enjoy roughly equal social status. Regarding subject positions, analysis showed that after friends, occupational and commercial related positions are the dominant ones in the selected textbooks. Investigation of the contents in the conversations depicted that emphasis is mostly on market and market related issues. It seems that textbooks tend to represent a particular discourse type more dominantly – the discourse of western economy and capitalism which is the backbone of liberalism.
Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, Ideology, English textbooks
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