Social Justice in English Language Teaching: Coursebook Analysis

Posted On 2/26/2019 7:48:00 PM, 2Comments

In today's modern, world we have access to all sorts of material in terms of teaching English. But still, we are bound to use a particular coursebook that was already designed/chosen by the Ministry of National Education (if it is state school) or by the education managers (if it is private language school). Throughout my teaching experience in private langauge institutions I had a chance to use different coursebooks designed by the most important publishing houses in our field.

Now I am using education solutions of Pearson which  is U.K.-based educational publishing company that topped this year’s Livres Hebdo/Publishers Weekly annual ranking. I want to analyse social justice issues of Pearson's Top Notch 2 coursebook that won the TAA award for Textbook Excellence in 2016. Pearson's Top Notch 2 coursebook consists of 10 units that deals with common notions and fuctions to use the language effectively for communication purposes. It has clear and practical communication goals which manage mixed ability classes through the right input of language, intensive practice, and systematic recycling.

Before analysing Top Notch 2, I have a few questions to ask for every individual person in the field of language education. So, is it enough for a learner to communicate in target language? Or is it enough for an instructor to focus on learners' success? How about education itself? How about appreciation of different cultures, creating awareness more on environmental issues, gender roles in a society, LGBTQ rights, refugee and peacebuilding organisations? Do we, as teachers, have to focus on these issues? More importantly, do publishing houses have to include related issues while they design a courseook for language learners? 

I will try to analyse first unit of Top Notch 2 that I feel particularly support social justice education. First unit's topic is Getting Acquainted.

On this page you can see illustrations about different customs around the world. I think to teach learners about different greeting styles, issues on having small talk with the person you just get aquainted and sharing business cards rises their intercultural competence and awareness on social justice education. This unit is a right moment to talk about gender roles in various societies around the world.

On page 3, Part C, you can see two foreigners from different language backgrounds talking to each other in a hotel loby. That is more effective to motivate our learners to speak English. Also this minor detail shows the importance of English as a Lingua Franca. In fact, this photo disturbs me in terms of gender issues. Generally most of the books use, including Top Notch 2, male photos when the issue comes to business and science world. It would be better if we see a man and woman wearing formal dress and having a talk about business, or even it is far better to see two different ladies on this page. 

 

On page 6, the aim is to teach important vocabulary to talk about travel experiences. In Conversational Model Part A (listening activity), 2 people talk about China and towards the end of a conversation they mention about eating/trying Chinese dish (Beijing duck). A person, who prefers to live as a vegan, might feel a bit disgusted when s/he listens to this listenining section. I strongly support that we should consider this kind of lifestyle, being a vegan or vegetarian (staying away from a debate whether it is right or wrong), in language teaching to create awareness on social justice education. Moreover, when topic comes to travel or countries we have to speak up about global issues which includes environmental, economic subjects.

As teachers, we can create/design our own supplemental materials related to social justice education for each unit of our coursebook that we use while teaching. Publishing companies can add Social Juctice  Spots to coursebooks that may lead teachers to talk about these issues. Finally, as human beings we have a lot more way to go and to practice/integrate social justice issues in our own lives.

A sample version of this unit of Top Notch 2 is available on Pearson's official website.
A content page of Top Notch 2 is also available on Pearson's official website.

By aahmedov on February 26, 2019 at 7:48 PM
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Comments (2) -

Reply
Adnan Yilmaz
3/12/2019 12:57:06 PM #

Dear Aziz,

The questions you raise at the beginning of your analysis are certainly very important consider when we talk about “education”. I do support that these questions should be the focus of all the parties involved in education.

The first visuals from Unit 1 are very strong and effective to present cultural diversities in terms of greetings. I agree with you that such activities can help build intercultural awareness and respect.

Regarding the visuals on page 3 (Part C), you are definitely right that there is a problem with teaching and giving correct messages about gender equality. The portrayal of men rather than women as businessperson definitely creates some conflicts. And your suggestion to deal with this problematic issue is definitely to the point. Such problematic representations of men and women in textbook can be also handled through some pre- or post-activities. For instance, using the critical inquiry technique the teacher can ask some pre- or post-reading/listening questions to draw attention to this problematic visual in terms of gender equality in textbooks.

Indeed, I see no problem with the activity on page 6 – Conversational Model Part A. We cannot exclude such topics (e.g., eating Beijing Duck) in textbooks just because we (may) have vegan students in the classroom. We might be deceived by the very idea that the exclusion of such topics will serve to cultivate social justice in the classroom. However, such exclusions are highly likely to lead to the perpetuation of the social injustice in the community in general and in the classroom in particular. This is because we might cause another version of social injustice on the part the students who are not vegan. Moreover, such exclusions risk missing the very opportunity to build tolerance and respect to people who have different diets. Instead of avoiding such topics in the classroom, extra activities can be implemented to spare room for those who different diets. The implementation of these alternative activities can promote critical thinking, respect, and tolerance in students.  

Reply
Bill Snyder
4/5/2019 9:38:37 PM #

Hi Aziz,

It's interesting that you've chosen a book published for international sales rather than one of the domestic ones produced by the Ministry of Education for your analysis. As I'm sure you know, international publishers really try to design their books to sell as widely as possible, which leads them to not include many topics or certain images, in order to not offend any potential customers. This leads a lot of teachers to complain about how bland the books are.

I think that critique may be a little unfair; there are interesting, well-written textbooks out there. But it may be impossible to make a book that doesn't have some risk of offending someone. It is hard to imagine such a book. If such a book existed, it probably would be very bland. And, as Adnan hoca notes, such a book might end up reinforcing the structures that already exist by not incuding any of the tensions that exist within them and allowing students to discuss them. Your idea of publishers including Social Justice spots in books (or perhaps in the Teachers books supporting the text) is a good one.

Let me elaborate a bit on one of your examples:

You noted that the business card exchange dialog might have included a woman, rather than having the stereotypical two men. But it has already broken one stereotype by having both men be speakers of English as second language (Though, the interaction may not accurately represent the English as a Lingua Franca that might naturally be produced in such a situation; Pearson does publish from a native English-centric place.) And moreover, I'm not sure if we can judge the book as sexist based on a single example; you'd need to review the whole book to make that case.

The example as presented does represent one possible real event. It may be up to us as teachers to help students imagine other possiblities. You might ask students to re-imagine the dialog if one (or both) of the participants were women. How would the interactions be different?; what different language might be used?; how might the offer to "show someone around" be understood differently? In the #MeToo era, putting such possibilities to students may produce some interesting discussions about gender equality, as well as lots of language.

And a final thought -- would it make a difference if the woman in the dialog were the Mexican (Leona) or the Japanese? You might learn a lot about your students' gendered representations of different nationalities through such examples.

Thank you for setting up such an interesting discussion here.

Best wishes,

Bill  

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