Ideology and Hegemony of English Foreign Language Textbooks: Globally and Locally Written Practices

273 Pages·2019·2.755 MB·

by  Ömer Gökhan Ulum, Dinçay Köksal

Ömer Gökhan Ulum
Dinçay Köksal
Ideology and
Hegemony
of English Foreign
Language
Textbooks
Globally and Locally Written Practices
Ideology and Hegemony of English Foreign
Language Textbooks
(cid:129)
Ömer Gökhan Ulum Dinçay Köksal
Ideology and Hegemony
of English Foreign Language
Textbooks
Globally and Locally Written Practices
ÖmerGökhanUlum DinçayKöksal
EnglishLanguageTeachingDepartment EnglishLanguageTeachingDepartment
MersinUniversity ÇanakkaleOnsekizMartUniversity
Mersin,Turkey Çanakkale,Turkey
ISBN978-3-030-35808-2 ISBN978-3-030-35809-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35809-9
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Foreword
Learning English as a foreign or second language may generate a solid impact on
learners’ values and ideologies in that, for several decades, social theorists have
aimed to clarify why countries that lack economic power accept social hierarchies
which prioritize some while ignoring others. Such concepts as ideology and hege-
mony have been employed to define the relation between the social formation of
knowledge and the maintenance of unfair power hierarchies. As a result of the
expanding hegemony of English, English language teaching has suddenly turned
into an international business with huge financial investment and accordingly pro-
ducedEnglishasaforeignlanguage(EFL)textbooksevolvedintothecornerstoneof
thebusiness.Additionally,studiesontherelationbetweenideology,hegemony,and
textbooks have increased in recent decades since the rise of critical theory, critical
pedagogy, and critical thinking skills has inspired scholars to establish a critical
perspective toward EFL textbooks considering the compounds of ideology and
hegemony. So, the aim of this dissertation is to investigate the ideological and
hegemonicpracticesincludedingloballyandlocallywrittenEFLtextbooks.
Using a mixed method research design, ideological and hegemonic representa-
tions included in EFL textbooks were examined qualitatively by using descriptive
content analysis technique used to make valid assumptions by interpreting and
codingcontentoftextualmaterials.Furthermore,qualitativelycollecteddatathrough
interviewsandquantitativelygathereddatathroughaquestionnaireaimedtoreveal
the views of teachers/instructors and learners about the ideological and hegemonic
practicescontainedintheEFLtextbooks.
Thefindingsofthepresentstudyshowthatideologyandhegemonyofinnerand
expandingcircleculturesaredominantinEFLtextbooks.Whiletheexpandingcircle
culture isdominant in the locally written EFL textbooks, the inner circle culture is
extensivelyincludedinthegloballywrittenones.However,outercirclecountriesare
excludedandmarginalized.Besides,whilespecificideologiessuchaseconomyand
historywerehighlyincludedinbothgloballyandlocallywrittentextbooks,someof
themsuchaslawandgenderwereweaklydetected.Theresultsofquestionnaireand
interviewshowedthatideologyandhegemonyarecloselyrelatedtoeachother.Itis
v
vi Foreword
hardtogiveaclear-cutdefinitionofthesetwotermsbecausebothtextbooksandthe
participants often used these two terms interchangeably. Yet, the participants
declared diverse views on the underlying ideology and hegemonic practices in
globallyandlocallywrittenEFLtextbooks.
MersinUniversity,Mersin,Turkey ÖmerGökhanUlum
ÇanakkaleOnsekizMartUniversity DinçayKöksal
Çanakkale,Turkey
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 ProblemStatement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 AimoftheStudy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 SignificanceoftheStudy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 TheoreticalFramework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 LiteratureReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Globalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 EnglishandGlobalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.2 WorldEnglishes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Ideology. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. 13
2.2.1 LanguageIdeology. . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 15
2.2.2 CulturalIdeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.3 PoliticalIdeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.4 Liberalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.5 Conservatism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.6 Socialism. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. 25
2.2.7 Anarchism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.8 Nationalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.9 Fascism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.10 GenderIdeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.11 Ecologism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.12 Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.13 Multiculturalism. . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. 31
2.3 LanguagePolicy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.4 HiddenCurriculum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5 LanguageHegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6 CulturalHegemonyofEnglish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.7 CriticalPedagogy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.8 Structuralism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
vii
viii Contents
2.9 Post-structuralism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.10 TextbookEvaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.10.1 EFLTextbookEvaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.10.2 IdeologyinEFLTextbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1 ResearchDesignandRationaleoftheStudy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1.1 SettingandParticipants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2 Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2.1 Questionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2.2 Semi-structuredInterviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.2.3 DocumentaryAnalysis(DocumentAnalysis). . . . . . . . . 56
4 DataAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 AnalysisofQuantitativeData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 AnalysisofQualitativeData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5 FindingsandInterpretations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1 FindingsRelatedtotheStudents’Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1.1 ResultsPertainingtotheIdeologicalElementsinEFL
Textbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1.2 ResultsPertainingtotheHegemonicElementsinEFL
Textbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1.3 ResultsPertainingtotheGeneralViewsonCultural
Hegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2 FindingsRelatedtotheViewsofUniversityandHighSchool
Teachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.1 ResultsPertainingtotheIdeologicalElementsinEFL
Textbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.2 ResultsPertainingtotheHegemonicElementsinEFL
Textbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.2.3 ResultsPertainingtotheGeneralViewsonCultural
Hegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.3 InterviewResults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.3.1 InterviewResultsofUniversityStudentsonIdeology. . . 74
5.3.2 InterviewResultsofUniversityTeachersonIdeology. . . 93
5.3.3 InterviewResultsofHighSchoolStudents
onIdeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.3.4 InterviewResultsofHighSchoolTeachers
onIdeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.3.5 InterviewResultsofUniversityStudents
onHegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.3.6 InterviewResultsofUniversityTeachers
onHegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Contents ix
5.3.7 InterviewResultsofHighSchoolStudents
onHegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.3.8 InterviewResultsofHighSchoolTeachers
onHegemony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
5.4 IdeologyandHegemonyinGloballyWrittenEFLTextbooks. . . 160
5.4.1 IdeologyandHegemonyinWorldlink1/2
byNationalGeographic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4.2 IdeologyandHegemonyinSpeakout
Elementary/Pre-intermediatebyPearson. . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.4.3 IdeologyandHegemonyinTouchstone1/2
byCambridgeUniversityPress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
5.5 IdeologyandHegemonyinLocallyWrittenEFLTextbooks. . . . 183
5.5.1 IdeologyandHegemonyintheLocallyWrittenEFL
TextbooksApprovedbytheTurkishMinistry
ofEducation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5.5.2 IdeologyandHegemonyintheLocallyWrittenEFL
TextbooksApprovedbytheIranianMinistry
ofEducation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
6 Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
6.1 DiscussionRelatedtoResearchQuestion1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
6.2 DiscussionRelatedtoResearchQuestion2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7 ConclusionandImplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.1 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.2 Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
7.2.1 ImplicationsforEFLTeachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
7.2.2 ImplicationsforEFLLearners. . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 226
7.2.3 ImplicationsforPolicy-Makers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
7.2.4 ImplicationsforTextbookAuthorsandPublishers. . . . . 228
7.2.5 ImplicationsforForeignandSecondLanguage
Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Appendices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract Studiesontherelationshipbetweenideology,hegemonyandtextbooksin
applied linguistics have been incremental in recent decades because emergence of
critical theory,critical pedagogy,andcritical thinkingskillsfromthe1920sonhas
led scholars to develop a critical perspective towards EFL (English as a Foreign
Language)textbookstakingtheelementsofideologyandhegemonyintoconsider-
ation. These two terms encompass an innumerable number of elements or com-
pounds ranging from nationalism to religion. The importance of metanarratives
originating from the tenets of modernism or modernization has been downgraded
from1960sonbecauseithasbeenpostulatedthattheworldhasenteredanewage
called postmodernism and post-structuralism that have emphasized the role of
individuals and criticized the efforts to reinforce post-colonialism, the effects of
which can be seen in EFL textbooks. Therefore, it remains crucial to analyze EFL
textbookstakingthemainelementsofideologyandhegemonyintoaccount.
1.1 Problem Statement
Although there has been an increase in the number of analysis of textbooks in
appliedlinguisticsbasedoncriticalapproachesthathavebeendevelopedinsociol-
ogy, philosophy, linguistics and psychology, the scope of these studies has been
limitedtocertaincultures.Inaddition,thesub-elementsofideologyandhegemony
havebeenoften edited,revised orchallengedsoastoproduceamoredetailedand
comprehensive understanding of these two terms. Besides, few studies have been
carriedoutconsideringideologyandhegemonytogetherwhileanalyzingtextbooks.
AlthoughsomeprogresshasbeenexperiencedinsomeEFLtextbooks,itseemsthat
ideologiesandhegemoniesofcertainculturesstillremaindominant.Therefore,itis
important to analyze various textbooks from different cultures including globally
andlocallywrittenEFLtextbooks.Another problemintherelated literatureisthat
teachers and students have been seldom involved in the analysis of ideology and
hegemony in EFL textbooks. Therefore, it is pivotal how teachers and students
perceive,constructandconstruethesetwotermsinEFLtextbooks.Theinclusionof
actorswhousetextbooksinEFLsettingshasbeenoftenignored.Rather,astandard
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019 1
Ö.G.Ulum,D.Köksal,IdeologyandHegemonyofEnglishForeignLanguage
Textbooks,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35809-9_1