An investigation into gender bias in vietnamese secondary school EFL textbook dialogues

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HÀ AN INVESTIGATION INTO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO GENDER BIAS

IN VIETNAMESE SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL TEXTBOOK DIALOGUES

(Nghiên cứu về sự thiên vị giới tính trong các đoạn hội thoại thuộc sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh dành cho bậc THCS tại Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO GENDER BIAS

IN VIETNAMESE SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL TEXTBOOK DIALOGUES

(Nghiên cứu về sự thiên vị giới tính trong các đoạn hội thoại thuộc sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh dành cho bậc THCS tại Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoang Van Van

Hanoi – 2019

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and it has not been submitted

to any other university or institution wholly or partially

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My graduation thesis has been completed with the support of a great number of people First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Prof Dr Hoang Van Van who gave me a lot of valuable guidance, encouragement, criticisms and correction throughout my thesis writing

Secondly, I would like to thank Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, Head of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, and the rest of the council members for granting me the permission to conduct this thesis

Last but not least, My sincere thanks go to my family, my friends for their encouragement and support that help me to complete my work

ABSTRACT

This investigation is a quantitative study of dialogues in eight EFL textbooks used in

lower secondary schools in Vietnam The chosen textbooks are Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, and Tiếng Anh tập 2 The aim is to investigate if there is any over-

representation of female or male characters in the dialogues in the textbooks currently being used in Vietnam This study was conducted over the dialogues of each textbook, and the researcher will look at four different typologies: (1) The number of times male/female character initiated dialogue; (2) The number of turns taken; (3) The number

of characters; and (4) The number of words used The findings show that gender representation occurs in all of the investigated textbooks To be more specific, two of the eight textbooks over-represented female characters while the other six textbooks over-represented male ones It is also worth mentioning that there is a shift from male-dominated dialogues to more female-dominate dialogues from 2013 to 2016 Some pedagogical implications have been suggested to textbooks writers and learners in terms

over-of gender bias in textbook dialogues

Keywords: gender over-representation, textbook dialogues, pedagogical implications

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the Study 1

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study 2

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 Scope of the Study 3

1.5 Significance of the Study 4

1.5.1 Theoretical Significance 4

1.5.2 Practical Significance 4

1.6 Organization of the Thesis 4

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research Area of the Thesis 6

2.1.1 Studies of Gender Bias in EFL Textbooks in the World 6

2.1.2 Studies of Gender Bias in EFL Textbooks in Vietnam 9

2.2 Review of Theoretical Background 10

2.2.1 Gender Theory 10

2.2.2 Influences of Gender Bias in Foreign Language Textbook Dialogues 11

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Research Type 16

3.2 Research Setting 16

3.3 Material Selection 17

3.4 Research Methodology 17

3.5 Analytical Framework of the Study 19

3.5 Data Collection Procedure 19

3.6 Data Analysis Procedures 21

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22

4.1 Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1 22

4.2 Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2 23

4.3 Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1 25

4.4 Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2 27

4.5 Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1 29

4.6 Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2 31

4.7 Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1 32

4.8 Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 35

4.9 Analysis and Discussion of the Findings 37

4.10 Pedagogical Implications 40

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 42

5.1 Recapitulation 42

5.2 Limitations of the Study 43

5.3 Suggestions for Future Research 44

REFERENCES 45

GLOSSARY 49

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Summary of Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1 22

Table 2 Summary of Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2 23

Table 3 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2 24

Table 4 Summary of Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1 25

Table 5 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1 26

Table 6 Summary of same-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1 26

Table 7 Summary of Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2 28

Table 8 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2 28

Table 9 Summary of same-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2 29

Table 10 Summary of Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1 30

Table 11 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1 30

Table 12 Summary of Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2 31

Table 13 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2 32

Table 14 Summary of Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1 33

Table 15 Summary of Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1 33

Table 16 Summary of same-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1 34

Table 17 Summary of Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 35

Table 18 Summary of mixed-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 36

Table 19 Summary of same-gender dialogues in Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 37

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides background information and rationale of the study It is subdivided into six sections, namely (a) rationale for the study, (b) aim and objectives of the study, (c) research questions, (d) scope of the study, significance of the study and organization

of the thesis

1.1 Rationale for the Study

As an English teacher, not only the chance but also the amount of time each student is given to practice English in a lesson is what I pay attention to However, there were times the textbook dialogues did not support me For example, one day, I invited two male students and two female students to read a dialogue While my expectation was to share the chance to practice English among students, it turned out that the girls‟ turns were far fewer than boys‟ and at the very end of the conversation Another instance is that on the

day I taught the unit whose topic was “At the Science Club” (Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1), seeing

that some female students were not interested, I intended to get them to read the dialogue Unfortunately, in that dialogue, there was only one female character who discussed the roles of science and technology with three men That was also the day I started to wonder whether the textbooks I was using treat men prior to women

According to the Order of the President of the State on Promulgation of Law (June 2005), schools or other educational institutions are responsible for giving the learners the respect, equal treatment and provide them with the adequate information concerning their own learning and training by schools or other educational institution One of the important missions of the school system is to teach students the value of equality and for teachers to teach in a way that encourages equality As a result, the school should actively and consciously further equal rights and opportunities for men and women

While the national curriculum highlights the importance of providing equal learning opportunities for both boys and girls, this is not always the case in the classroom or in the teaching materials being used in the classroom (Mesthrie et al., 2000;

Bayyurt & Litosseliti, 2006) It is a fact that research carried out during the past four decades found that texts and dialogues in EFL textbooks presented an imbalance in gender representation and traditional gender roles (Hartman & Judd, 1978; Jones et al., 1995; Bayyurt & Litosseliti, 2006) On a positive note, some research revealed that a balanced representation of female and male characters in texts and textbook dialogues has improved over the years (Jones, Kitetu & Sunderland, 1995; Poulou, 1997) However, an unbalanced representation of gender still exists in textbooks

With regards to gender bias in textbooks, it has been discussed for a long time in the world but in Vietnam up to the present, to the author‟s knowledge, the first and only researcher who has investigated into gender bias in EFL textbooks is Nguyen Doan Canh (2016) However, he focused on the linguistic sexism as well as the hidden message conveyed via the occurrence of linguistic sexism That means the phenomenon of gender over-representation in EFL textbooks has never been studied and still a mystery

The above-mentioned reasons have urged me to carry out the present research to find out the status of gender over-representation in the current lower secondary EFL textbooks in Vietnam and hopefully, the result of the study may be useful for English teachers and makes a contribution to the field of textbook analysis and evaluation in Vietnam

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of this study is to investigate the issue of gender bias in the current

Vietnamese lower secondary English language textbook dialogues: Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 written by Hoang Han Van et al and

published by Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)

The main aim above is specified into specific objectives of the research as follows: (1) to find out the unbalanced representation exists in the current Vietnamese low-secondary

EFL textbook dialogues: Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2

in terms of number of characters, number of times female and male characters initiated dialogue, number of turns taken by male and female characters as well as number of words allocated female and male characters in these dialogues and (2) to suggest pedagogical implications concerning gender bias in textbook dialogues to authors and teachers in Vietnam

1.3 Research Questions

The researcher will look at eight EFL textbooks currently being used at lower secondary schools in Vietnam and investigate the following questions:

1 To what extent EFL Vietnamese lower secondary school EFL textbook dialogues:

Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 over-

represent a particular gender?

2 What pedagogical implications should be suggested to textbook authors and teachers in terms of gender bias in textbook dialogues?

1.4 Scope of the Study

Gender bias can be found in various materials, especially in teaching and learning materials such as textbooks In Vietnamese EFL textbooks, to the author‟s knowledge, there has never been any study of gender bias in dialogues before However, this study does not mention gender bias in all of the Vietnamese EFL textbook dialogues Besides, the study can hardly cover a comprehensive analysis of gender bias in these EFL textbook dialogues because gender bias in textbook dialogues may be portrayed in other aspects such as sexist stereotypes Therefore, this thesis only focuses on gender over-representation (initiations, turns, characters and words) in dialogues used in eight current

lower secondary EFL textbooks: Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 by Hoang Van Van et al

1.5 Significance of the Study

1.5.1 Theoretical Significance

This research focuses on gender over-representation in specific English teaching materials with the hope of contributing to existing knowledge on gender bias in EFL textbooks In Vietnam, from the first research on linguistic sexism in current upper secondary Vietnamese English textbooks carried out by Nguyen Doan Canh (2016), there

is no Vietnamese researchers who have investigated into the gender over-representation

in EFL textbooks The study would be a vivid illustration of gender over-representation

in Vietnamese EFL textbook dialogues

1.5.2 Practical Significance

Hopefully, this study may urge Vietnamese educators and textbook designers take gender over-representation into serious consideration Certainly, a balanced representation of genders is one of the factors contributing to the equal learning opportunities in English classes The findings of the study could also be beneficial in the school environment because it will help raise awareness of teachers on the issue of gender bias in textbooks They will be prepared to adjust their application of these textbook dialogues to ensure the proportion of man and woman participating in the study and training which is a measure

to promote gender equality in the file of education and training according to Act 14, The Law on Gender Equality (The National Assembly, 2006)

1.6 Organization of the Thesis

The results are presented into a thesis and overall conclude six chapters

Chapter I: Introduction: deals with the rationale, aims and objectives, research

questions, scope, significance and organization of the study

Chapter II: Literature Review: provides the previous research and theories on several

aspects of gender imbalance in English teaching materials

Chapter III: Methodology: describes the research type, research setting, material

selection, research methodology, analytical framework of the study and process of conducting the research

Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion: presents the results of the research, discusses the

major findings, and then provides some pedagogical implications drawn from the research

Chapter V: Conclusion: provide an overview of the investigation, point out limitations, and make some suggestions for further research

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will take an in-depth look at the previous studies on gender bias in EFL textbooks in the world as well as in Vietnam It will also provide the theoretical background of the research issue

2.1 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research Area of the Thesis

The issue of gender bias in foreign language textbooks has been of a great deal of interest

to researchers in the world for several decades but not many researchers in Vietnam have investigated the phenomenon In this section, a review of previous studies related to gender bias in foreign language textbooks both in the world and in Vietnam will be discussed

2.1.1 Studies of Gender Bias in EFL Textbooks in the World

In the 1970s the feminist movement and women‟s studies provided a framework for research in Language and Gender Studies Since then, studies and critiques in this area have proliferated It is a fact that studies carried out in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s have found that gender bias has often manifested itself with over-representation of male characters in textbook texts

In the late 1970s, Pat Hartman and Elliot Judd (1978) conducted an investigation into gender bias in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) textbooks

In this study, fifteen TESOL textbooks which had been published in the late 1960s and early 1970s and were being used in the United States and Britain were selected for examination The study pointed out that in these textbooks “women are often less visible than men, are often the butt of many jokes and are often placed in 13 stereotypical roles and assigned stereotypical emotional reactions” (Hartman & Judd, 1978, p 383) It is interesting to note that in 1975 the American organization National Council of Teachers

of English adopted a formal policy to encourage non-sexist language usage by publishers Nevertheless, in spite of these efforts, gender bias was undeniable

In the next decade, six years after Hartman and Judd‟s study, Karen Porreca (1984) conducted a similar study of English as a Second Language (ESL) textbooks Porreca selected fifteen ESL textbooks purchased in the largest quantities by twenty-seven ESL locations in the USA Porreca reinvestigated gender bias in EFL textbooks by analyzing texts and illustrations in a quantitative manner Her results supported the findings of Hartman and Judd and she warned that there may be consequences with unrealistic depictions of females and males She detected a large presence of the masculine generic construction where the textbook characters first appeared to be neutral characters but were invariably male characters rather than neutral or female characters According to Sadker and Zittleman (2007), some publishers and authors of textbooks try to create “an illusion of equality” (p 273) and thus might include pictures of women instead of revising the texts While a neutral character might create a sense of unbiased gender representation, a masculine generic construction might perpetuate asymmetric gender representation

One textbook in Porreca‟s (1984) research, English Sentence Structure, used a repetitive

pattern drill which most often featured a male character „John‟ Porreca mentioned that

“this type of all-male exercise (with five or more sentences) occurs 54 times throughout the book The number of instances of similar all-female exercises is 6” (p 714) Porreca‟s study did not discuss if the drill prevented girls from being „John‟ or the other males in the exercise but the message is clear that „John‟ and the other males dominated this type

of exercise and therefore may have conveyed the general impression that females rate lower than males Freeman and McElhinny (1996) stated that “[e]ducational settings also give students an understanding of their social identity in relation to each other and the institution” (as quoted in Bayyurt & Litosseliti, 2006, p 73) A male-ominated text might suggest that boys have a right to be verbally dominant in the classroom and further that girls should say less in the classroom compared to boys Porreca (1984) warned that textbooks represent authority and that a gender-biased text could have consequences for

ESL learners, in particular, “younger ESL learners, whose limited experience gives them little basis for questioning what they read” (p 723)

Jane Sunderland (1998) looked at gender bias in textbook texts and classroom interactions and supported the argument that gender bias existed in textbooks and in the classroom This was based on both on her own observations and previous research done

in the 1970s and 1980s While Sunderland recognized that gender bias existed, she questioned whether it was actually important or not Sunderland felt it was important to those who were concerned with gender bias, but felt it was not important to some teachers unless that gender-biased texts affected learning Stating we can never predict how a reader might respond to a text, she pointed out the impossibility of providing a correlation between biased texts and learning

Sunderland (1998) further pointed out that gender-biased text affect readers in many ways: Some students may accept the bias and even enjoy it, […]; others may recognize it for what it is and become „resistant readers‟, rejecting either the gender representation itself or the gendered assumptions within the text (p.4)

Sunderland (1998) also observed that teachers played an important role in the discussion

of gender bias She noted that a text which seemed unbiased could have been interpreted

or handled in an unbiased way

Some recent studies carried out in the last decade show that the situation is slowly improving even if it is still far from being ideal With regard to some EFL textbooks published in the late 1990s, Sano, Iida and Hardy (2001) state that they “contain gender-based implicit messages, even though no explicit linguistic features are articulated on the surface level” (p 905) Otlowsky‟s (2003) findings show that women in EFL textbooks are still represented as housekeepers and mothers Concerning textbooks of French as a foreign language, Lee and Collins‟ (2006) focus on how changes in the status of women are reflected in Hong Kong English-language textbooks Their conclusions stated that compared with the past, many modern textbooks use various strategies to avoid biased or stereotypical treatment of the two sexes However, women are still commonly associated

with housework and the home, and men with paid work outside Women are weak and passive, while men are strong and active Finally, men are still more visible than women Mineshima (2008), studied gender representations in an EFL textbook to investigate how

it portrays the two genders She examined sexism in three categories including the number of females versus males, the number of their utterances and firstness The results

of the research revealed that females were under-presented and overloaded with traditional stereotype roles whereas males appeared only as cooperative and optional Most recently, Sulaimani (2017) carried out an investigation into gender frequencies in conversations in three dimensions: gender relations, subject positions and contents in an EFL textbook that has been specifically adapted for the Saudi Arabian context The results indicated that women in this textbook are under-represented and have been totally excluded from half of the units in the textbook Also, the equal relations between the two genders are limited to friendship

From the above-mentioned studies, it is easy to realize the attraction of gender bias in textbooks to the world researchers for nearly half a century from Europe through America to Asia In many teaching and learning materials examined, it was found that females are less visible than males and that there is gender bias against women The question I have raised for myself is whether or not the issue of gender over-representation

in Vietnamese EFL textbooks If so, is it the same or different in comparison with the

problem in the textbooks studied before?

2.1.2 Studies of Gender Bias in EFL Textbooks in Vietnam

The first researcher who has systematically studied gender bias in EFL textbooks is

Nguyen Doan Canh (2016) In his works entitled Linguistic Sexism in current upper secondary school English language textbooks: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12, evidence that linguistic sexism at word and phrase levels exists was found This

phenomenon occurs rather often in all of the three categories investigated: morphology, semantics and syntax Moreover, it is remarkable that 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

After Nguyen Doan Canh‟s study, there is still a shortage of investigation into gender over-representation in Vietnamese EFL textbooks This has partly urged me to perform the research

2.2 Review of Theoretical Background

2.2.1 Gender Theory

In this research, the gender concept was used to analyze Vietnamese EFL textbooks Gender comes from the British word which means „sex‟ However, Saptari (1997:89) argues that gender is not limited to sex or biological differences, it is more related to the differentiation of symbol and social status because of sex (as quoted in Darmi & Abida, 2017) It is crucial to recognize the distinction between sex and gender Sex refers to the biological differences between male and female while gender is a system of social stratification and differentiation on the basis of sex Sexologist John Money drew the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955 Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories (Lindsey, 2010) However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between the social construct of gender and biological sex

According to UNESCO (2009), “gender” refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families, our societies and our cultures The concept of gender also includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviors of both men and women Gender is socially constructed: gender roles and expectations are learned, can change over time, and vary within and between cultures For example, most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders (boys/men and

girls/women); those who exist outside these groups fall under the umbrella term binary while some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman"

non-From these definitions, it can be inferred that “gender” refers to a wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between male and female entities, extending from one‟s biological sex to one‟s social role

2.2.2 Influences of Gender Bias in Foreign Language Textbook Dialogues

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

This chapter will describe how the present study was conducted This discussion covers research type, research setting, material selection, research methodology, the analytical framework of the study, data collection and analysis procedures

Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1 and Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2 that have been being

used at Vietnamese schools now were officially introduced by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Each textbook consists of 6 units and 2 reviews, and each unit comprises 8 parts: Getting Started, A Closer Look 1, A Closer Look 2, Communication, Skills 1, Skills 2, Looking Back and Project In each part, there are 3 phases: pre-task, while task and post-task with smaller tasks, activities and exercises These textbooks were written by a group of Vietnamese ELT specialists headed by Hoang Van Van in collaboration with ELT specialists fromPearson Education Publishing Group under the National Foreign Language 2020 Project The goal of this textbook series is “developing students‟ communicative competences through communicative activities which provide opportunities to practice skills in meaningful contexts and which encourage students to take increasing responsibility for their own

learning” (Hoang Van Van, 2015) All dialogues examined in this research belong to the Getting Started part

For the present study, only dialogues that are practiced by students in the textbooks are taken for analysis Thus the dialogues in the Workbooks and Teacher‟s guides related to the textbooks will be not included in the analysis Also, the materials that were not in the written form, but on a CD, DVD were excluded from the research because the textbooks would be understood as being the actual books themselves

3.4 Research Methodology

It is an indisputable fact that gender bias in textbook dialogues could be examined in a variety of ways Based on the work of Halliday (1985), Leikin (2001) randomly selected three chapters in a textbook for analysis to determine if gender bias existed in terms of communicative prominence and social prominence Clauses within each of the readings and conversations were examined for theme, rheme and last stressed element Using critical discourse analysis as a model, Tahiri and Pouran (2014) analyzed gender

representation in Top-Notch series via three dimensions: gender relations, subject

position and contents A Vietnamese researcher, Nguyen Doan Canh (2016) examined the issue of linguistic sexism in textbooks in three categories: in morphology, in semantics and in syntax

In the choice of method, I adopted the quantitative method that Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland (1995) have used In their study of dialogue in ESL textbooks in England, they used a quantitative method where they counted the number of male and female characters, the number of times they initiated dialogues, the number of turns taken, and the number of words spoken by female and male characters They did not use a mixed method because a qualitative method could give a different picture of gender bias in textbooks compared to a quantitative method Several studies, in fact, have used both qualitative and quantitative methods while looking at different aspects of gender bias in textbook dialogues One example is Poulou‟s study from 1997 As mentioned earlier, Poulou (1997) found that, in some cases, female characters were over-represented quantitatively at the same time as male characters dominated qualitatively In other words, female and male characters had different roles in the dialogues The differences between female and male characters in how they express themselves in the dialogues were not investigated here because this study would be about over-representation rather than representation Representation in this sense refers to how female and male characters are depicted in a textbook Over-representation refers to when one gender is treated unfairly compared to another gender Further investigation might include a qualitative method to gain further insight into gender bias

Furthermore, even though the quantitative method is limited in its capacity for exploration, it suited our purpose to map gender bias in EFL textbooks If the focus had been on the reasons for gender bias in EFL textbooks, qualitative interviews with the authors and/or publishers would have been preferable However, my focus was to investigate if there is any over-representation of female or male characters

Furthermore, Creswell (2000) mentions that the focus of an investigation should not be too broad in order to be feasible Seeing this as a starting point which a follow-up qualitative study could use as baseline data, I chose, therefore, to restrict my study to quantitative data

3.5 Analytical Framework of the Study

The framework of content analysis created by Porreca (1984) who investigated the problem of gender representation contained in ESL textbooks has been most commonly followed in studies on the same topic This study is not an exclusion In a content analysis

of 15 widely-used ESL textbooks, she focused on the categories of omission (the ratio of females to males) in texts and illustrations, firstness (generally, when two nouns are mentioned, the male will be placed first, for example, brothers and sisters), occupational visibility in text and illustrations, frequency of male nouns to female nouns, female-exclusive masculine generic constructions, and types and frequency of adjectives for men and women However, for the purpose to deal with gender over-representation in

dialogues of lower-secondary school English language textbook (Tiếng Anh 6 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 6 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 7 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 8 tập 2, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 1, Tiếng Anh 9 tập 2), I adapted the framework with a little change

by examining the issue in four typologies: dialogue initiations, number of turns, number

of words and number of characters

3.5 Data Collection Procedure

The first step in the procedure was to identify the dialogues in the selected textbooks, and

to choose what typologies to investigate Four different typologies were chosen to

illuminate gender bias in the identified dialogues, and they were based on Jones, Kitetu and Sunderland‟s (1995) study of ESL textbooks in England Quantitative data was compiled by counting how many words spoken by girls, how many words spoken by boys, and by looking at the number of conversation turns each female and male character had The other two typologies were dialogue initiations and the number of male and female characters in the dialogues

For the purpose of counting the number of words used by female and male characters, the writer made a few specifications of what was counted as one word If a word expressed

as a number, such as 50, it was counted as one word All contractions, such as I‟ve, don‟t, we‟ve were counted as one word If a number word was expressed as one fifty, it was counted as two words Furthermore, if a word was hyphenated such as good-looking, it was counted as one word Also, words in this study were counted as tokens, which refer

to the total number of words in a text regardless of how often they are repeated

In counting the number of females and males playing roles in the dialogues, I did not make the distinction between characters as individuals and the number of times each character appears - a distinction made by Jones et al (1997) Characters never appear twice, and even when the same name appears more than once in different dialogues, there

is no evidence that it refers to the same character

The textbooks consist of different types of dialogues There are mixed-gender and gender dialogues Mixed-gender dialogues include characters of more than one gender while same-gender dialogues include characters of only one gender Gender of the characters is not determined by the picture illustration in textbooks or by the recording of the dialogues The researcher, with the common knowledge of a Vietnamese, classified the gender of characters through their names or their corresponding pronouns in the dialogues The characters which cannot be defined as female or male characters are considered as neutral characters