Linguistic sexism in current upper secondary school english language textbooks tiếng anh 10, tiếng anh 11 and tiếng anh 12

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN DOÃN CẢNH LINGUISTIC SEXISM IN CURRENT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS: TIẾNG ANH 10, TIẾNG ANH 11 AND TIẾNG ANH 12 Sự kì thị giới tính ngôn ngữ sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh trung học phổ thông hành: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 Tiếng Anh 12 M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN DOÃN CẢNH LINGUISTIC SEXISM IN CURRENT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS: TIẾNG ANH 10, TIẾNG ANH 11 AND TIẾNG ANH 12 Sự kì thị giới tính ngơn ngữ sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh trung học phổ thông hành: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 Tiếng Anh 12 M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang HANOI, 2014 DECLARATION Student Number: 11045192 I declare that Linguistic Sexism in Current Upper Secondary School English Language Textbooks: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references Hanoi – 6/2014 Nguyễn Doãn Cảnh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish, first of all, to express my deepest gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has enthusiastically and generously given me invaluable assistance and guidance during the process of carrying out the thesis The success of my study would have been almost impossible without his support and encouragement My profound thanks are also to all other lecturers for their useful lectures and materials given during my M.A course at the Postgraduate Studies Department of College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, which have laid the foundation for this research paper My special thanks are due to all my colleagues and students at Dong Thanh Upper Secondary School, Quang Ninh, where I am teaching English now Their ideas, opinions and questions have inspired me to undertake this study Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my loving wife and son, whose support and encouragement have seen me through the writing of this thesis ii ABSTRACT It has been proved that sexism exists in language as well as in language textbooks Many studies on linguistic sexism in English as a foreign language (EFL)/ English as a second language (ESL) textbooks have been internationally published However, very few in-depth studies on this topic have been carried out in Vietnam Diep (2002) has been an exception but he has just investigated sexism in language in general so linguistic sexism in particular materials such as school English textbooks has been still left blank This study on linguistic sexism in current Vietnamese upper secondary school English language textbooks : Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 was aimed at finding out how often linguistic sexism occurs in these textbooks and uncovering the hidden messages conveyed through this linguistic sexism The study used content analysis methods to discover the frequencies of occurrences of each category of linguistic sexism and the content of the messages transmitted via linguistic sexism in the English textbooks The results of the study showed that linguistic sexism occurs rather often in the three English textbooks and through it the messages of women’s low status are conveyed This suggests that more attention should be paid on linguistic sexism so that it could be avoided in the textbooks because learners may suffer from negative effects if sexism or gender biases are present in their texts (Mineshima, 2008) iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a foreign language ESL: English as a second language MOET: Ministry of Education and Training NCTE: National Council of Teachers of English LIST OF TABLES Table Linguistic Sexism in Morphology by Book Table Linguistic Sexism in Semantics by Book Table Linguistic Sexism in Syntax (Generic Pronoun Use) by Book Table Linguistic Sexism in Syntax (Word Order Use) by Book Table Linguistic Sexism by Book and Category iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Part A: INTRODUCTION Rationale to the research Aim and objectives of the research Research questions Scope of the research Significance of the research 5.1 Theoretical significance 5.2 Practical significance Structural organization of the thesis Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis 1.1.1 Studies of sexism in language in the world 1.1.2 Studies of sexism in language in Vietnam 1.2 Review of theoretical background 1.2.1 Sexism 1.2.2 Linguistic Sexism 1.2.3 Linguistic Sexism in English v 1.2.3.1 Linguistic Sexism in Mor 1.2.3.2 Linguistic Sexism in Sem 1.2.3.3 Linguistic Sexism in Syn 1.2.3.4 Linguistic Sexism in Prag 1.2.4 Influences of Language Textbooks and Sexism in Language Textbooks 1.3.Summary Chapter 2: Research Methodology 2.1.Research type 2.2.Research setting 2.3.Material selection 2.4.Methods of the research 2.5.Analytical framework of the study 2.6.Data collection procedure 2.7.Data analysis procedure 2.8.Summary Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion 3.1.Findings 3.1.1 Findings related to research question 3.1.1.1 Linguistic Sexism in Mor 3.1.1.2 Linguistic Sexism in Sem 3.1.1.3 Linguistic Sexism in Syn 3.1.2 Findings related to research question 3.1.2.1 Women are exclusive and 3.1.2.2 Men are superior and wom vi 3.1.2.3 Women are dependent and 3.2 Discussion of the findings 3.3 Pedagogical implications 3.4 Summary Part C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation Conclusions Limitations of the research Suggestions for future research REFERENCES APPENDICES Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 10 Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 11 Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 12 vii Part A: INTRODUCTION Rationale to the research Once I taught my 11 th grade students about Neil Armstrong, a famous American astronaut, a student asked me: ‘Why must it be MAN, but not WOMAN’ when she read in the textbook Tiếng Anh 11 Neil Armstrong’s quotation: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ (p 174) Though I tried to explain to this girl that man here in this sentence was not a particular man and that it was used to refer to all the human beings, she still did not accept After the lesson, I thought more about her question and began to agree with her that the sentence was problematic because the quotation seems to reflect the invisibility of females by containing the words man and mankind Neil Armstrong’s use of such words as man and mankind for all the human beings may make people feel that women are not present in the achievement This is a representation of sexism or sex discrimination in the English language It can be easy to find other ways of language use that seem to treat men prior to women For example, English users often think of male pronouns automatically whenever the sex of the person is not known The pronoun his in the sentence ‘Every student must bring his own book’ is a good example This is a sexist use of language, which often suggests an inherent male dominance in many fields of life, and can reinforce the idea of female inferiority Although both women and men can work in various job fields, there is a tendency to associate certain jobs with men or women For instance, it is often said ‘A director must his best for his company’, but ‘A nurse must treat her patients with kindness.’ Of course, we know that not every man is a director and not every woman is a nurse This language use tends to emphasize the idea that it is not normal for women to be in professional, highly-paid jobs, and it is not natural for a man to work in such a caring role as a nurse Sexism in life is various in forms and different at levels It is probably most readily associated with economic issues, such as equal pay for equal work The role played by language in maintaining and strengthening sexist values, however, is less widely Part C: CONCLUSION This chapter will first provide a general look at the whole study and next summarise the key findings in accordance with the research questions The limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for future studies will be acknowledged then Recapitulation Studies on sexism in language and in EFL/ ESL textbooks have been carried out in America, Europe and some Asian countries for some decades now However, not much research has been conducted into this area in Vietnam up to the present time To fulfill this gap, I determined to undertake the present research This mixed methods study was an attempt to examine linguistic sexism in the standard set of upper secondary school English textbooks used in Vietnam This was taken by investigating the vocabulary employed in the textbooks that mirrors linguistic sexism in the categories of morphology, semantics and syntax and by analysing the hidden messages that the linguistic sexism reflects Because linguistic sexism in my study was focused on word and phrase levels in three textbooks, content analysis method was employed to find out the frequencies of occurrences of words and phrases exhibiting linguistic sexism Then these terms and expressions were analysed deeply to discover the hidden messages transmitted in conscious or subconscious ways The conclusions of the study have been drawn out and will be presented in the following section of this part Conclusions Although females comprise over half the population of the world and are legally equal to males in every field in society, they suffer more from inequality in language than males Linguistic sexism at word and phrase levels found in the textbooks examined has provided a typical example of the point First of all, there is evidence that linguistic sexism at word and phrase levels exists in all the three textbooks This phenomenon occurs rather often in all of the three 39 categories investigated: morphology, semantics and syntax Although this set of English textbooks were designed by the same group of leading Vietnamese specialists in the English language, the frequencies of linguistic sexism are greatly different among the textbooks and categories as well This shows that little attention was paid to linguistic sexism during the process of writing the books because many instances of linguistic sexism could have been avoided easily if the textbook writers had been really interested Linguistic sexism are manifested much in morphology and semantics in the English language but it is in syntax that it appears the most frequently in this set of textbooks with many occurrences of using word orders and generic pronouns One of the primary reasons for the smaller numbers of instances of linguistic sexism in morphology and semantics probably lies in the type of books: these are language teaching textbooks, not literature books, which may contain a great deal of sexist uses of words with metaphorical meanings Moreover, it is remarkable that the hidden messages conveyed via linguistic sexism at word and phrase levels in the books are much more against women than men It can be understood through the linguistic sexism in the books that women seem to be excluded from human beings, secondary and dependent while men appear to include all people, superior and independent The textbooks’ uses of generics like man, he, him, himself to refer to human beings, of derived words or expressions with markedness like waitress and Women’s World Cup, and of imbalanced word orders between females and males such as husband and wife, boys and girls are some of the most obvious examples The messages found in the study also support the point that women’s status in language has not been equal to men’s yet although they are said to be equal to men in every field Similar inferences could be made to their status in society because Fromkin and Rodman (1993) (cited in Bahiyah et al., 2008) assert that ‘language reflects sexism in the society’ (p 306) The results of the current study also suggest that elimination of sexism in textbooks is of great importance Porreca (1984) claims that the consequences of textbook bias may be serious for their users; they must be infinitely more so for younger ESL 40 learners, whose limited experience gives them little basis for questioning what they read and who generally tend to trust the printed word more than adults The study has provided some implications for textbook writers, teachers and learners so that sex discrimination in language could be avoided However, the move to eliminate linguistic sexism not only requires linguistic reforms but also significant changes in the perception of what is to be masculine and feminine in all spheres of the society Limitations of the research This study is just a modest example of linguistic sexism in a particular type of language teaching materials: English language textbooks by Vietnamese authors; and it of course has some limitations First, linguistic sexism could not be investigated on the level of discourse which might help to look at linguistic sexism from various corners within particular contexts including illustration images, for example Second, the research was conducted with only one set of three textbooks written by only one group of specialists Had the sample selection been expanded, the picture of sexism would have been much more colourful Finally, it is evident for the existence of linguistic sexism but how it could affect teachers and students using these books has not been discovered These limitations are probably the bases for suggestions for further study, which will be presented in the next section Suggestions for future research From the limitations stated above, some reasonable suggestions for further study relating to this matter may be offered as follows First of all, it is suggested that study on sexism at discourse level including illustration images used in this set of English textbooks should be conducted In addition, an investigation into the same topic but with some other sets of English textbooks written by some other specialists is necessary so that a comparison could be made among these different sets of English textbooks Moreover, it is recommended that a study on how sexism manifestations in the English textbooks affect Vietnamese teachers and students in language teaching and learning should be undertaken 41 REFERENCES In English Atkinson, K (1993) Language and Gender In S Jackson et al (Eds.), Women’s Studies: A Reader Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatshef Bahiyah, A.D et al (2008) Linguistic sexism and gender role stereotyping in Malaysian English language textbooks GEMA Online TM Journal of Language Studies, 8(2), 45-78 Britton, G., & Lumpkin, M (1977) For sale: Subliminal bias in textbooks The Reading Teacher, 31(1), 40-45 Busch, C et al (2005) Content Analysis Writing Retrieved May 16, 2014 from http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/content Cameron, D (2005) Language, gender and sexuality: current issues and new directions Applied Linguistics 26 (4), 482-502 Canh, L V (2012) Form-Focused Instruction: A case Study of Teachers’ Belief and Practices Lap Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH & Co.KG Cincotta, M S (1978) Textbook and their influence on sex-role stereotype formation BABEL: Journal of the Australian Federation of MLS Association, 14(3), 24-29 Cole, F.L (1988) Content analysis: process and application Clinical Nurse Specialist, 2(1), 53-57 Coles, G (1977) Dick and Jane grow up: Ideology in adult basic education readers Urban Education, 12(1), 37-53 Fasold,R (1990) The sociolinguistics of language Cambridge, MA.: Basil Blackwell Florent, J et al (1994) Case study: On balance: Guidelines for the representation of women and men in English language teaching materials In J Sunderland (Ed.), Exploring Gender London: Prentice Hall Hartman, P L., & Judd, E L (1978) Sexism and TESOL materials TESOL Quarterly, 12(4), 383-393 42 Hellinger, M (1980) For men must work, and women must weep: Sexism in English language textbooks used in German schools In C Kramerae (Ed.), The voices and words of women and men, (pp 267-274) New York: Pergamon Press Herbert, R K & Nykiel-Herbert, B (1986) Explorations in Linguistic Sexism: A Contrastive Sketch Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics, 21, 4785 Hoomes, E W (1978) Sexism in high school literature anthologies Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Georgia State University Hung, L.V (2012) A Mixed Approaches Method Used to Investigate Teacher Cognition of English Language Teaching English Language Teaching, 11(5), 161-180 Retrieved March 16, 2013 from http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n11p161 Hutchinson, T & E Torres (1994) The Textbook as Agent of Change ELT Journal, 48(4), 315-328 Key, M R (1975) Male/female language Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press Lakoff, R (1975) Language and women's place New York: Harper and Row Michel, A (1986) Down With Stereotypes! Eliminating Sexism from Children’s Literature and School Textbooks Paris: Unesco Miller, C & Swift, K (1976) Words and Women New York: Doubleday Mills S (2008) Language and Sexism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Mineshima, M (2008) Gender representations in an EFL textbook Retrieved April 4, 2012 from http://www.niit.ac.jp/lib/contents/kiyo/13/MINESHIMA.pdf Mukundan, J., & Nimehchisalem, V (2008) Gender representation in Malaysian secondary school English language textbooks Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 4(2), 155-173 National Council of Teachers of English (1977) Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language in NCTE Publications In A.P Nilsen et al (Eds.), Sexism and Language, (pp 181-191) Urbana, I11.: NCTE 43 Nilsen, A.P., Bosmajian, H., Gershuny, H.L & Stanley, J.P (Eds.) (1979) Sexism and language Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English Otlowski, M (2003) Ethnic diversity and gender bias in EFL textbooks Asian EFL Journal 5(2), 1-15 Retrieved March 12, 2012 from asian- efljournal.com/june.pdf Peterson, S., & Kroner, T (1992) Gender biases in textbooks for introductory psychology and human development Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16(1), 17-36 Porreca, K L (1984) Sexism in current ESL textbooks TESOL Quarterly, 18(4), 704-724 Poulou, S (1997) Sexism in the discourse roles of textbook dialogues Language Learning, 15, 68-73 Richards, J C (2001) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Simpson, J & Weiner, F (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press Sinclair, J (Ed.) (1995) Collins Cobuild English Dictionary Harper Collins Stanley, K (2001) Sexist language in ESL/EFL textbooks and materials TESL-EJ Forum, 5(1), 1-11 Sydney, G V M (2004) Gender roles in textbooks as a function of hidden curriculum in Tanzania primary schools Unpublished Ph.D Dissertation, University of South Africa Thorne, B & Henely, N (1975) Language and sex: Difference and dominance Rowley, MA.: Newbury House Trask, R L (2004) Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics Chennai, India: Chennai Micro Print Pvt Ltd Umera-Okeke, N (2012) Linguistic Sexism: An Overview of the English Language in Everyday Discourse AFRREV LALIGENS, 1(1), 1-17 Retrieved March 16, 2014 from http://afrrevjo.net/journals/laligens/Vol1.pdf 44 Wardhaugh, R (1986) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics Oxford: Basil Blackwell In Vietnamese Binh, N.T.T (2000) Xưng gọi: chứng giới ngôn từ trẻ em trước tuổi đến trường Hà Nội Hoài Thị (Addressing oneself and others: evidence of gender in the language of preschool children in Hanoi and Hoai Thi) In L.V Hy, Ngôn từ, giới nhóm xã hội từ thực tiễn tiếng Việt (Language, gender and social groups from the Vietnamese realities) Hanoi: Social Sciences Publisher Diep, T.X (2002) Sự kì thị giới tính ngơn ngữ qua liệu tiếng Anh tiếng Việt (Sexism in language through English and Vietnamese Databases) Ph.D Dissertation, University of Social Sciences and Humanities Diep, T.X (2004) Sự kì thị giới tính ngơn ngữ (Sexism in language) Hanoi: University of Pedagogy Publisher Dung, V.T (2002) Tìm hiểu vài biểu thức tình thái gắn với tính lịch nữ giới giao tiếp (Investigating some expressions of modalities associated with women’s politeness in communication) Ngôn ngữ (Linguistics), 3, 5966 Khang, N.V (2000) Ngôn ngữ học xã hội - vấn đề (Social linguistics - key issues) Hanoi: Social Sciences Publisher Data sources Van, H.V et al (2006a) Tiếng Anh 10 (English 10) Hanoi: Education Publisher Van, H.V et al (2006b) Tiếng Anh 11 (English 11) Hanoi: Education Publisher Van, H.V et al (2007) Tiếng Anh 12 (English 12) Hanoi: Education Publisher 45 APPENDICES: DATA COLLECTION SHEETS Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 10 Categories of Linguistic Sexism In morphology In semantics In syntax I Total Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 11 Categories of Linguistic Sexism In morphology In semantics II In syntax Total III Sheet Distribution of Linguistic Sexism in Tiếng Anh 12 Categories of Linguistic Sexism In morphology In semantics In syntax IV Total V ... study on linguistic sexism in current Vietnamese upper secondary school English language textbooks : Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 was aimed at finding out how often linguistic sexism. .. 1.2.3.1 Linguistic Sexism in Mor 1.2.3.2 Linguistic Sexism in Sem 1.2.3.3 Linguistic Sexism in Syn 1.2.3.4 Linguistic Sexism in Prag 1.2.4 Influences of Language Textbooks and Sexism in Language Textbooks. .. Student Number: 110 45192 I declare that Linguistic Sexism in Current Upper Secondary School English Language Textbooks: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 is my own work and that all the