Social Representations
Páginas: 2 (278 palabras)
Publicado: 23 de julio de 2012
CLARA LARA TERRERO
Clara.lara@uab.cat
0034667515532
Stereotypic portrayal of social groups in ESL/EFL materials
ABSTRACT
ESL/EFL instructional materials have traditionallyrepresented an ideal society and some texts can be offensive to certain learners. The mainstream ideologies reflected in the coursebooks exert a negative influence to the diverse lifestyles wehave in our classrooms. If students do not reconcile their identities with the discourse in the materials, they are prone to reproduce negative stereotypes and therefore, perpetuatemisconceived common sense beliefs. Moreover, aware teachers examine from a critical perspective the materials before they select them to be used. However, many unaware teachers choose thosematerials that are suggested by publishers which may not be appropriate for their context and situation.
This study examines six B1/B2-level textbooks of English as second language currentlyin use in Spain to identify and describe the social representations found and to investigate whether there is sexism and racism and the ideologies that constrain these representations.This multidisciplinary semantic analysis takes discourse studies (Van Dijk 2012) as a starting point. That is, a diversity of fields is utilized in order to scrutinize coursebooks forpossible “hidden agenda” or explicit biases.
The aim is to illustrate that language ideology awareness is relevant in the process of teaching and learning. Therefore, an eclectic criticalpedagogy results as an outcome of this research. It is through language that power relations are enacted and used to discriminate, but it is also through language that social boundaries aredeconstructed. This analysis allows for empowerment of learners and enhances the promotion of language resources that will equip students with linguistic tools to contest inequalities.
Clara.lara@uab.cat
0034667515532
Stereotypic portrayal of social groups in ESL/EFL materials
ABSTRACT
ESL/EFL instructional materials have traditionallyrepresented an ideal society and some texts can be offensive to certain learners. The mainstream ideologies reflected in the coursebooks exert a negative influence to the diverse lifestyles wehave in our classrooms. If students do not reconcile their identities with the discourse in the materials, they are prone to reproduce negative stereotypes and therefore, perpetuatemisconceived common sense beliefs. Moreover, aware teachers examine from a critical perspective the materials before they select them to be used. However, many unaware teachers choose thosematerials that are suggested by publishers which may not be appropriate for their context and situation.
This study examines six B1/B2-level textbooks of English as second language currentlyin use in Spain to identify and describe the social representations found and to investigate whether there is sexism and racism and the ideologies that constrain these representations.This multidisciplinary semantic analysis takes discourse studies (Van Dijk 2012) as a starting point. That is, a diversity of fields is utilized in order to scrutinize coursebooks forpossible “hidden agenda” or explicit biases.
The aim is to illustrate that language ideology awareness is relevant in the process of teaching and learning. Therefore, an eclectic criticalpedagogy results as an outcome of this research. It is through language that power relations are enacted and used to discriminate, but it is also through language that social boundaries aredeconstructed. This analysis allows for empowerment of learners and enhances the promotion of language resources that will equip students with linguistic tools to contest inequalities.
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