A Study Of Gender Roles In TCSOL Textbooks

TCSOL textbooks are not only a tool for learners to learn Chinese knowledge,but also a carrier of national image.And the ideology conveyed by the texts and illustrations in the textbooks has an important impact on the formation of learners’ values.The presentation of gender roles plays an important role in the formation of learners’ awareness of gender equality.If there are gender stereotypes or gender bias in textbooks,it will have a subtle influence on learners.This will not only affect learners’ impression on Chinese people and identification with Chinese culture,but also affect learners’ identification with social gender equality,thus hindering the development of social gender equality.It can be seen that the gender issues projected in the textbooks are worthy of in-depth discussion and study.This paper takes Contemporary Chinese and Integrated Chinese two sets of comprehensive textbooks that are famous at home and abroad as the research object.Using critical discourse analysis and visual grammar theory,through quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis,this paper examines the gender role shaping of text and illustrations in the textbooks.And the author finds that the two sets of textbooks have the following problems: First,the number and appearance of male and female characters are biased,especially the lack of real female characters is more serious.Second,the shaping of professional identity presents the problem of lack of female professional identity.Men have a wide range of occupations,while women have a single and a narrower range of occupations.Third,there are slight stereotypes of “The man goes out to work while the woman looks after the house” in activity scenes.Men are more involved in outdoor and more exciting,adventurous activities,while women are more involved in indoor and quieter activities.Fourth,the gender image of men and women has its own strengths and weaknesses,and the topics discussed by the two sexes are also different.Men talk more about work,sports,etc.,while women talk more about learning,feelings,figure,etc.Fifth,the representation,interaction,and composition functions of illustrations also show different degrees of gender bias.Men are more likely to attract the reader’s attention and have a closer relationship with the reader,while women are often overlooked.According to the research results,this paper analyzes the reasons for gender issues in textbooks from the perspectives of traditional gender culture and the gender awareness of editors,and puts forward feasible suggestions for improving gender issues from the three aspects of editors,reviewers and teachers,so as to enrich the research on gender role shaping in TCSOL textbooks,arouse the attention of academia and society to the gender issues of textbooks,and reduce gender inequality in textbooks.