A Study On Gender Stereotypes In Junior High School EFL Textbooks From The Perspective Of Feminism

In the compulsory education stage,textbooks for primary and secondary school are the knowledge texts that teenagers spend the most time on and are most impressed by.English is a mandatory subject in middle school,thus playing a critical role in the middle school curriculum.English textbooks are important sources of information through which students receive knowledge,develop language skills and learn social norms and values.While acquiring knowledge from English textbooks,students also learn socially acceptable ideas and concepts,including gender awareness.Therefore,it is necessary to study English textbooks from the perspective of gender.Scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of research on textbooks and concluded that gender stereotypes and gender bias existed in textbooks globally.This study selects the current English textbooks for junior high schools published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press(hereafter: FLTRP)as the study materials,which are widely used in Liaoning Province,Heilongjiang Province,and many other provinces in China.The research on FLTRP junior high school EFL textbooks from the gender perspective is few,so the study is relevant.This thesis proposes three research questions in combination with gender stereotypes,social gender theory,and feminists’ view on textbooks:(1)How is the gender representation distributed in FLTRP junior high school EFL textbooks?(2)What is the implication of gender stereotypes in FLTRP junior high school EFL textbooks?(3)What feasible suggestions can help students overcome the gender stereotypes in English textbooks?From the perspective of feminism,with quantitative research,qualitative research,and text analysis,this thesis attempts to discern whether or not gender stereotypes exist in the FLTRP junior high school EFL textbooks.(1)This thesis uses quantitative research to examine the frequencies of male and female appearances: the frequencies of male and female appearances in illustrations,the frequencies of male and female protagonists in texts,and the frequencies of outstanding people.The findings show that the number of men is larger than that of women.(2)Quantitative research,qualitative research,and text analysis are used to analyse gender roles in textbooks: including professional roles and family roles.The results show that the number of employed men and the types of men’s occupations are significantly more than those of women in the FLTRP junior high school EFL textbooks.Men are primarily engaged in jobs with high social status and salaries,such as musicians,athletes,inventors,and writers.In contrast,women are primarily involved in jobs with low salaries like teachers,nurses,and sales clerks.As for family roles,women usually take traditional and stereotyping family roles,such as doing housework and raising children.However,men tend to be less involved in their families since they are busy with work.(3)Qualitative analysis is used to determine whether illustrations in English textbooks show gender stereotypes of men and women.The results show that the gender stereotypes in the illustrations can be summarized into three scenarios:(1)Men’s and women’s behavior is different.Men prefer to do activities that need strength,women like gentle activities better.(2)Men’s and women’s gender roles are different.Men are dominating in society and the family.(3)Men’s and women’s personality traits are different.Men are wiser than women.The thesis analyzes the implication of gender stereotypes in this set of textbooks.As a front-line teacher,The author proposes three feasible suggestions to eliminate the gender stereotypes in English textbooks:(1)raising teachers’ awareness of gender equality;(2)using the teaching materials critically;(3)improving classroom interaction;(4)creating a cooperative learning classroom.In the last part,the author points out the study’s limitations and recommendations for further research.