At present, the use of textbook is a key resource among language educators. However, pedagogues can never predict how students will interpret a text. Regardless of what the author has in mind, interpretations might be individual and subjective (Jones, Kitetu &
Sunderland, 1997, pp. 1-2). Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1997) indicated that learners may unconsciously absorb what can be considered as gender stereotypes through media and society as well as textbooks in school. Further, they pointed out a tendency in older textbooks to portrait women as homemakers and men as businessmen. They bring to surface the concern that this may adversely affect women‟s learning as well as conception in how they view themselves.
“The images and language which are used in teaching and the extent to which learners can identify with them have an important effect on how well people learn.
If women are under-represented in teaching or represented in demeaning way, the women who are taught with these materials may learn less well.” (Jones, Kitetu &
Sunderland, 1997, p.2)
Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1995) stated that “dialogues are of considerable potential value in providing different types of language learning opportunities” (p.4). Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland further stated that dialogues served several purposes. Dialogues provided a model of the target language in terms of language form and social context in which the target language should be used. While some might question whether practice makes perfect, it is the authors‟ general belief that practice provides valuable opportunity to train
12
pronunciation and other pragmatic aspects of speaking the target language as well as provides social context in how the language is to be used in conversations.
Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1997, pp.1-4) believe that textbook dialogues are often used in various teaching situations. Dialogues can consist of taped or written conversation between two people, and can be used in three various ways when it comes to learning languages.
Firstly, as role-play the dialogues help to develop knowledge of the language by contributing to the broadening of students‟ vocabulary, their ability to use expressive and figurative speech and syntactic competence.
Secondly, dialogues tend to also provide social knowledge through the context as well as practice of a new language.
It also facilitates practice which develops fluency.
From a pedagogical point of view, dialogues are valuable opportunities to prove language practice and proficiency. There can be listed a number of advantages of using dialogue in teaching, even the quietest students tend to participate, instead of only the most successful speakers in class. However, dialogues that lack gender balance can be turned into an obstacle that hinders girls‟ language learning. (Jones. Kitetu & Sunderland (1997, pp. 4-9).
Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1995) have analyzed three EFL textbooks which were published between 1987 and 1994. They found that there was some gender bias in the textbook dialogues but on the whole, the bias was not extreme. In the textbook published in 1987, female characters rated higher in words used (302 versus 248) and initiated conversations more often than male characters (5 versus 4). Male characters, however, had an average of 27.5 words spoken per male characters whereas female characters averaged 23.2 words per female character. While the female characters were over- represented in two of these typologies, the differences were not great. In the 1993 textbook, the findings were similar and did not show any significant gender bias. In the
13
textbook published in 1994, female characters once more used more words (632 versus 501) and initiated more conversations (6 versus 3). Male characters, however, averaged 50.1 words spoken per male character compared to an average of 31.6 words spoken by female characters.
Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland examined two types of English as Second Language (ESL) textbooks and concluded that, in mix-gender dialogues, women were described as the ones asking for information and men as the ones providing it. Further, they stated that, on average, men initiated conversations and uttered more words than women. In comparison, female characters spoke 2142 words and male characters 2482. As a result, Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1999, pp. 4-15) pointed out that female learners‟ learning would be limited and inhibited, for the reason that dialogues were often offered to be played by the same gender, leading up to a situation where female characters were restricted linguistically as well as occupationally. Due to those circumstances, the author issued the importance of teachers asking themselves the questions; how does this affect my classroom? What pedagogical implications are there for female and male learners? The conclusion made by the authors was that a possible gender imbalance may affect behavior in the classroom (Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland, 1999, pp. 4-15)
As Sunderland suggested (1998), it is impossible to predict how a biased text will affect learning. She did, however, address the issue of how a biased textbook might provide an unequal amount of speaking exercises for female and male characters. Sunderland (2000) referred to a textbook from 1977, Function of English, which featured a dialogue designed to practice initiating a conversation. While the purpose of the exercise was to initiate a conversation, it was only a male character who initiated the conversations. Even though this textbook is outdated, it is an example of how dialogues might exclude speaking practice opportunities for girls and boys depending on how the dialogues are designed and whether girls and boys are willing to “cross” gender and practice both dialogues for female and male characters. In this particular example, if students were
14
unwilling to take on the other gender‟s role in the speaking exercise, it would imply that boys would have the advantage of practicing initiating conversations.
Another important field study by Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1997) is the examination of how textbook dialogues tend to not only function as language learning practice, they also convey a social pattern by categorizing people, distributing occupational and social roles. The authors presented how women and men are described in various dialogues.
They concluded that women mostly appeared in roles of a sister, a girlfriend, a mother and a worker, etc. whereas men appeared as brothers, policemen, officers, etc. This research showed that occupational roles in textbooks often portray contemporary or old- fashioned values in society. It can be summarized as a conclusion that a textbook simply is a representation of society in general (Jones, Kitetu & Sunderland, 1997, pp.15-22) Sofia Poulou (1997) conducted a quantitative study of sexism in two Greek foreign language textbooks for adults. She looked at the number of utterances and words used by female characters and male characters. In one of the textbooks, the male characters were allocated 914 utterances and words in the dialogues compared to 801 allocated to female characters. In other words, the male characters accounted for 53% of the utterances and words in the dialogues, and female characters accounted for 47%. In the second textbook, the male character was allocated 49% of the utterances and words in the dialogues whereas the female character was allocated 51%. The study also looked at the initiation and closing of dialogues by female and male characters and the types of words used. The first textbook showed that male characters initiated 63% of the dialogues compared to 37% for the female characters. Male characters finished 65% of the dialogues compared to 35% for the female characters. There was little difference between female and male characters in the second textbook. The third investigation was qualitative and looked at the types of words used and how they were used. Poulou (1997) noted that female characters often made requests or asked for information while male characters often provided directives or information. In a classroom situation, where a teacher might be likely to ask boys to read male parts and girls to read female parts, it may be that boys
15
rarely practice the language function of making requests and girls rarely practice the function of providing information. Poulou (1997) warned that if both boys and girls “do not perform the same language functions in similar context […] students will possibly be familiar only with those functions and styles they come across while reading” (p.72).
Poulou (1997) concluded her study stating: “It is surely worth making an attempt to ensure a decent representation of the two sexes and not to allow language learners to be disadvantaged by discrepancies in the verbal behavior between female and male textbook characters” (p.72).
If textbook dialogues have more male characters or more words allocated to male characters, does this mean that boys will have more practice opportunities? Sunderland (2000) found that girls could take on male character speaking exercises, but boys were unwilling to take on girl character speaking exercises. Sunderland observed that a teacher, during a German lesson, asked two male volunteers to read a dialogue featuring one male character and one female character. When no boys volunteered, two girls volunteered and read the male character parts. In an interview with the boys after the lesson, it became evident that the boys were not comfortable reading female character parts. Sunderland (2000) noted that “girls can „cross‟ gender boundaries with impunity, whereas boys cannot… it is most definitely not OK for them to „become‟ girls, even temporarily, strategically and jokily.” (p.168). This would imply that girls had an advantage over boys in terms of practicing speaking via prescribed speaking exercises as they appeared to be more willing to take on both gender roles during a speaking exercise.
The research on textbook dialogues suggests that if there is gender bias, this may exclude some learners. It is important to recognize that while a dialogue may over-represent one gender in a quantitative analysis, another gender may be over-represented when the results are analyzed qualitatively.
16