A critical discourse analysis of gender discrimination in using pictures in upper secondary school english textbooks ( tiếng anh 10, tiếng anh 11, tiếng anh 12)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ BÍCH NGỌC A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN USING PICTURES IN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS (TIENG ANH 10, TIENG ANH 11, TIENG ANH 12) PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ SỰ KÌ THỊ GIỚI TÍNH TRONG CÁCH SỬ DỤNG HÌNH ẢNH TRONG CÁC SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THPT (TIẾNG ANH 10, TIẾNG ANH 11, TIẾNG ANH 12) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ BÍCH NGỌC A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN USING PICTURES IN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS (TIENG ANH 10, TIENG ANH 11, TIENG ANH 12) PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ SỰ KÌ THỊ GIỚI TÍNH TRONG CÁCH SỬ DỤNG HÌNH ẢNH TRONG CÁC SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THPT (TIẾNG ANH 10, TIẾNG ANH 11, TIẾNG ANH 12) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn HANOI - 2017 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis, entitled “A critical discourse analysis of gender discrimination in using pictures in upper-secondary school English textbooks (Tieng anh 10, Tieng anh 11, Ttieng anh 12) has been carried out in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art at the University of Languages and International Studies This work is original and all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references Hanoi - 2017 Trần Thị Bích Ngọc i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the period of completing the Master thesis, the author has received the support of a great number of people First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, my supervisor, who has generously given me insightful guidance and valuable feedback during the process of carrying out the thesis, without which this thesis would be far from completed I would also like to give my sincere gratitude to all of the lecturers at ULIS VNU, Hanoi for their scholarly knowledge and enthusiasm in their lectures My profound thanks are also to all my friends and classmates in the cohort 23, who have always stayed by my side, given me constructive comments and perked me up every time I need Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family for their immeasurable support and continual encouragement The Master thesis could not have been fulfilled without them ii ABSTRACT The study is an attempt to investigate the manifestation of gender discrimination in the national English language teaching textbooks, namely, Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 For this study, the researcher focuses on analyzing the non-linguistic features - visual images in terms of gender representation in an effort to extract the ideology behind their constructions The research approach is based on critical discourse analysis in combination with methods of quantitative and qualitative content analysis The results reveal that these textbooks present a gender discriminatory attitude mainly toward women, in which male characters are over-presented visually The proportion of females to males in illustrations is 1:2 Furthermore, regarding social plus domestic settings, men monopolize and dominate more social roles than women In contrast, domestic roles are profoundly demonstrated by females In addition, males often take a center position in drawings, which is considered important It is suggested that gender equality is still a controversial issue in Viet Nam‟s society and Vietnamese culture mirrors the way gender represented in the textbooks iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Distribution of males and females in illustrations 29 Table Males and females in occupational roles 31 Table Males and females in family roles 35 Table Activities performed by males and females 36 Table Colors applied to males and females 42 Table Blumberg‟s criteria of obstacles to gender equality and evidences in textbooks 47 Figure Analytical framework of the study 27 Figure Procedure of the analysis 28 Figure Future jobs, english 12 (basic) 32 Figure Future jobs, english 12 (advance) 33 Figure Women in society, english 12 (basic) 38 Figure Home life, english 12 (basic) .38 Figure Home life, english 12 (advance) 38 Figure Recreation, english 11 (basic) 39 Figure Recreation, english 11 (basic) 40 Figure 10 Asian games, english 11 (basic) 40 Figure 11 Asian games, english 11 (basic) 41 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv PART A INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study Objectives of the study Research questions: Scope of the study: Method of the study: .3 Structure of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT .5 CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW Review of theoretical background 1.1 Critical discourse analysis 1.2 Fairclough‟s three-dimension model 1.3 Multimodal critical discourse analysis 1.4 Visual images .7 1.4.1 Definition 1.4.2 Roles of visual images 1.4.3 The three metafunctions of meaning 1.5 Grammar of visual images 11 1.5.1 Color 11 1.5.2 The meaning of composition 11 1.5.3 The information value of centre and margins 12 1.6 Gender discrimination 12 1.7 Gender issues in the school textbooks .15 v Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis 17 2.1 Studies of gender discrimination in textbooks in the world 17 2.2 the studies of gender discrimination in textbooks in vietnam 20 Summary of the chapter 21 CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 Research questions .22 2.2 Research setting 22 2.3 Research approach .23 2.4 Data collection 23 2.5 Research method 25 2.6 Analytical framework .26 2.7 Research procedure 28 2.8 Summary of the chapter: 28 CHAPTER III FINDINGDS AND DISCUSSIONS 29 3.1 Findings and discussions of research question .29 3.1.1 Distribution of different genders in pictorial representations 29 3.1.2 Gender representation in occupational roles 30 3.1.3 Gender representations in family roles 34 3.1.4 Gender representations in different activities 36 3.1.5 Gendered attributes in terms of colors 41 3.1.6 The placements of males and females in drawings 43 3.2 Findings and discussions of question 44 3.3 Summary of the chapter: 47 PART C 48 CONCLUSION 48 Recapitulation .48 Limitations of the study 51 Suggestions for further studies 51 REFERENCES 52 APPENDICE I vi PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Viet Nam‟s education in certain respects is not different from that of other countries around the world in such a way that there still exists problems within its own system no matter how well-constructed it used to be; as a result, there is an urge to reform the education system to meet the expectations of the society It is undeniable that the innovation should be comprehensive as each part of the educational system is of equal importance and they are mutually related Therefore, the change in the curriculum should go with the alteration in teaching methodologies as well as textbooks (Markee, 1997) In the process of innovation in 2001, the national textbooks for all the three levels including primary, lower and upper secondary especially the implementation of new English textbooks had received the great concern of the government and the public The English textbooks for upper secondary school students also had undergone significant reforms ranging from the syllabus to the topic Textbooks belong to education and education is heavily involved in the ideological development of one person; therefore textbooks with the knowledge they contain could affect individuals‟ perception It is apparent that linguistic features are not the sole components of one textbook; there appears the contribution of non-linguistic elements such as images or pictures The visual images utilized in textbooks not only are meant to delight the lesson, to assist the reading passages or any kinds of activities but also affect the students‟ awareness of specific issues (Fang, 1996) Pictures and photographs present meanings of their own (Kress & Leeuwen, 1996); therefore the misapplication of them could lead to the negative effects such as showing the discrimination of race, sex, religion and so on Looking back at the book of “Sự kì thị giới tính ngơn ngữ” (Sexism in language) by Trần Xuân Điệp, the author discussed the phenomenon of sexism in teaching materials and exposed that the discrimination against women appeared in both linguistic and non-linguistic levels Nguyễn Thị Hương, 2014 also confirmed in her study that gender stereotypes existed in the verbal and non-verbal form in the Vietnamese language textbooks for primary level It is also noticeable that textbooks play a key role in transmitting knowledge including gender role information to students at all levels Accordingly, evaluating English textbooks in terms of gender representation is a must in order to provide both teachers and learners with the critical outlook of gender discrimination The aforementioned issues are some incentives to study the series of domestic English textbooks designed to teach upper-secondary school students, namely Tieng Anh 10 (basic), Tieng Anh 11 (basic), Tieng Anh 12 (basic), Tieng Anh 10 (advanced), Tieng Anh 11 (advanced), Tieng Anh 12 (advanced) Objectives of the study The study aims at: - Investigating gender representations via pictures utilized in the upper secondary school text books Tieng Anh 10 (basic), Tieng Anh 11 (basic), Tieng Anh 12 (basic), Tieng Anh 10 (advanced), Tieng Anh 11 (advanced), Tieng Anh 12 (advanced) in Viet Nam - Scrutinizing whether these representations promote or challenge gender equality in education Research questions: The study will be addressed by the following questions: (1) How are different genders demonstrated via pictorial representations in the series of national English textbooks Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11 and Tieng Anh 12? (2) To what extent these gender representations promote or challenge the gender equality in education? APPENDICE Sheet Distribution of males and females in illustration in English 10 (basic) Categories Visual images Males only I More males Females only II More females Equal share III Sheet Distribution of males and females in illustration in English 11 (basic) Categories Visual images Males only IV More males Females only V More females Equal share VI Sheet3 Distribution of males and females in illustration in English 12 (basic) Categories Visual images Males only More males VII Females only More females Equal share VIII Sheet4 Distribution of males and females in illustrations in English 10 (advance) Categories Visual images Males only IX Categories Visual images More males Females only More females X Categories Visual images Equal share XI Sheet5 Distribution of males and females in illustration in English 11 (advance) Categories Visual images Males only XII More males Females only More females Equal share XIII Sheet6 Distribution of males and females in illustrations in English 12 (advance) Categories Visual images Males only More males XIV Females only More females Equal share XV ... declare that the thesis, entitled ? ?A critical discourse analysis of gender discrimination in using pictures in upper- secondary school English textbooks (Tieng anh 10, Tieng anh 11, Ttieng anh 12). .. 10 (basic), Tieng Anh 11 (basic), Tieng Anh 12 (basic), Tieng Anh 10 (advanced), Tieng Anh 11 (advanced), Tieng Anh 12 (advanced) Objectives of the study The study aims at: - Investigating gender. .. (basic), Tieng Anh 12 (basic), Tieng Anh 10 (advanced), Tieng Anh 11 (advanced), Tieng Anh 12 (advanced) are chosen as the data of this study In fact, linguistic features of these English textbooks