چکیده:
The power of print media in creating stereotypical
ideologies for certain groups of people is an undeniable
fact (van Dijk, 1998). From a multimodal discoursal
perspective, an element of high importance in every
print text is the visual paratext (Kress & van Leeuwen,
2006). Along with visuals, an important social issue
which has been the focus of many studies and invoked
many debates is gender and the hidden ideologies by
means of which a specific gender is shown to be
superior. This study was conducted to identify and
reveal the positioning of gender in the images of three
international and local ELT textbooks: New Headway,
Top Notch, and Iran Language Institute (ILI) English
Textbook. Dimensions identified in Goffman’s Gender
Advertisements (1976) were integrated with the image
semiotic categories of Kress and van Leeuwen’s
Reading Images (2006) to analyze the images at the
elementary level of these textbooks. Both quantitative
and qualitative analyses were used to find gender
presentation in ELT textbooks. The analysis was
focused on finding the active participant, gaze direction,
visual techniques, body display, and space in which the
participants were shown. The content analysis of the
images in the three textbooks revealed that men were
represented to be more active, competent, socially
important, breadwinners, and powerful. In contrast,
women appeared as less active and more reactive,
objects to be scrutinized, objects of desire, breadtakers,
and socially less powerful. Although the findings for ILI
English textbook were slightly different and apparently
indicated more gender equality, the frequency of each
gender representation in the images of the textbook
revealed more power and better social status for men.
The results have clear implications. They can raise the
consciousness of materials developers, ELT instructors,
and other stakeholders as to gender bias in the visual
elements of ELT textbooks. They also indicate that,
despite international feminist and women rights
movements, locally developed and adapted ELT
materials manifest comparatively less gender bias.