Towards More Gender Inclusion in Language Teaching: Italian FL/SL Textbooks as a Case Study. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Gender Representations in the Dialogues of a Textbook of Italian as a Foreign Languagex
2013
The present study analyses gender representations in the dialogues of a textbook of Italian as a foreign language (IFL). While many studies focus on gender representations in textbooks of English as a foreign language, it appears that no studies have been done on these representations in textbooks of IFL. Based on a quantitative discourse analysis of the dialogues in the IFL textbook -number of words, turns, starting and ending sentences, characters, roles, and language functions for female and male characters- a short qualitative interpretation of gender biases is provided. The findings highlight that, despite a balanced character and role distribution between female and male characters, the distribution of words and language functions between the sexes remains biased. In particular, the large use of expressive language functions by female characters reinforces the stereotypical ideas about women as emotional, fragile beings. On the other hand, the directive, informational and phatic language functions performed by male characters depict them as active, more assertive, decision-taking and well-informed. The study presents a discussion on the pedagogical implications that gender-biased representations in textbooks might have on the students’ learning process. In conclusion pedagogical implications of the gender biases in the dialogues analysed in this study can only be predicted. Empirical research in needed to disclose how teachers and students actually address gender biases in foreign language textbooks.
Matices en Lenguas Extranjeras, 2013
The present study analyses gender representations in the dialogues of a textbook of Italian as a foreign language (IFL). While many studies focus on gender representations in textbooks of English as a foreign language, it appears that no studies have been done on these representations in textbooks of IFL. Based on a quantitative discourse analysis of the dialogues in the IFL textbook— number of words, turns, starting and ending sentences, characters, roles, and language functions for female and male characters—a short qualitative interpretation of gender biases is provided. The findings highlight that, despite a balanced character and role distribution between female and male characters, the distribution of words and language functions between the sexes remains biased. In particular, the large use of expressive language functions by female characters reinforces the stereotypical ideas about women as emotional, fragile beings. On the other hand, the directive, informational and phatic language functions performed by male characters depict them as active, more assertive, decision-taking and well-informed. The study presents a discussion on the pedagogical implications that gender-biased representations in textbooks might have on the students' learning process. In conclusion, pedagogical implications of the gender biases in the dialogues analysed in this study can only be predicted. Empirical research is needed to disclose how teachers and students actually address gender biases in foreign language textbooks.
GENDER-INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE USAGE IN ACADEMIA: EXPLORING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' PERSPECTIVES
Issues in Language Studies, 2024
The utilisation of gender-inclusive language, aimed at promoting equal treatment between men and women, has sparked both positive and negative reactions in Spanish society. Consequently, it has evolved into an ideological issue that transcends linguistic boundaries. This study examines the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the use of non-sexist language in the academic environment. Specifically, it analyses the current level of usage and acceptance among the study population, while also investigating the correlation between the language of instruction (Spanish vs. English) and participants' stance on this matter. Given the ongoing debate surrounding its usage, it is essential to identify the factors that influence the opinions of student teachers. Ad hoc questionnaires were administered to a non-probabilistic sample of 348 undergraduate students from Spain. The results indicated widespread adoption of inclusive language, with most participants considering it necessary in daily life and academia. Non-biased linguistic forms were notably prevalent in the L1 context, and nearly half reported using them to enhance academic performance. Age and academic year did not significantly influence these perceptions, as confirmed by Spearman's correlation analyses. However, gender and university degree emerged as critical factors, with female participants showing a stronger inclination toward its use for academic purposes.
Gender and Language Education Research: A Review
2013
Gender and language education studies have multiplied in the past one decade. However, it does not appear that any state-of-the-art article has reviewed the various undertakings. This paper attempts to fill this gap by focusing on gender representation in learning materials and classroom interaction studies globally within gender and education literature. Selected studies from the 70s to date are reviewed under three phases and suggestions for further investigation are made with the anticipation that learning materials and classroom interaction studies would help facilitate the achievement of the goal of gender equality in and through education. Index Terms-language education, gender, research, review I. INTRODUCTION Since Holmes's (1991) and Sunderland's (2000) state of the art articles on gender and language studies, it appears that no similar undertaking (nor a follow-up art icle) has been published till date, at least to cover the gap. In this present review, I plan to fill this gap by focusing on a narrower area of gender and language education studies, that is, gender in learning materials and classroom interactions research. Holmes and Sunderland among others provide state of the art art icles on gender and language studies up to the latter part of t wentieth century. While Holmes (1991) provides a b road view of gender and language s tudies, Sunderland's dwells on specific areas and reviews studies within the wider area that Holmes (1991) addresses. Thus while Holmes dwells on language and gender and lists many references, Sunderland (2000), starting fro m the previous works, narro ws her review to language and gender in second and foreign language education highlighting on areas such as-gender and language learning; gender, language learning and ability,; second/foreign language acquisition and the four skills; motivation/investment; language learning styles and strategies; classroom interaction; the 'what' o f teaching: English as a non-sexist language?; teaching materials; language testing; teachers, professional organisations and gender, what can teachers do? teacher action and teacher education; new theorisations of language and gender; language learners' identities; masculin ities: boys, men and language learning; and future research. Interestingly, one of the areas that Sunderland reviews in her article-gender and education has attracted so many studies that any exhaustive review of studies in the area might yield volu mes and might triple what Sunderland (2000) did. Thus, in this present review, I shall focus on gender representation in learning materials and classroom interactions across languages which parallel Sunderland's (2000) "the what of teaching: English as a non-sexist language''. Sunderland's (2000) state of the art article particularly addresses gender and language education covering large areas (though she notes that it is not comprehensive comparing what had been done in the area with the coverage of her article). However, it might be near impossible to attempt another of its kind today after a decade since the review was published in Language Education in 2000. Yet as Sunderland rightly observes, her review is quite selective and restrictive to second and foreign language education although in passing she lists some works on first languages (e.g. German, French, and Spanish). In this present review, I shall extend my co verage to include studies in first languages such as German, French among others. Thus my review covers some first languages but shall be restricted to one area out of the many areas that Sunderland (2000) addresses and shall include studies from the 70s t o the present. Although there are studies in the social sciences that have addressed gender in education, I shall concern myself with those that are domiciled in language studies. This restriction is necessary because of the fast growing number of research being done on the subject matter in response to recurrent calls fro m and funding by government agencies, international organisations (UN, World Ban k, Co mmonwealth o f Nations among others) and other non-governmental organisations. II. BACKGROUND Studies in this area (with in gender difference and identity paradig ms) have mult iplied and are still growing for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that government bodies in Europe, A merica, and Asia and in some developing countries including some international organisations have picked interest in the area. This interest is in response to United Nations declarations under its hu man rights programmes that are geared towards bringing about gender equality
Gender, as a socially constructed variable, seems to spread in to every corner of the language classroom including the syllabus. Studies show that most of textbooks are biased in a way that they present stereotypical female images. A gap in literature is disfavoring women by under-representing or linguistically marginalizing females. In the light of this gap, this study has an analytic quantitative comparison of discursive features of conversations in Interchange series (as authentic textbook series) with a nationally produced centralized syllabus for a semi-state control language education in the Iranian context. Results showed an encouraging level of gender fairness in each series and comparing to each other. The EFL teachers' perception about gender representation in the textbooks has been studied in the form of correlational KAP (i.e. knowledge, attitude, practice) survey and the result showed that female teachers scored better in knowledge items and that teachers' overall practice in the classroom is correlated to their attitude more than their knowledge. Implications of the study are discussed. Index Terms-English textbooks, gender representation, biased gender image I. INTRODUCTION Gender is so naturalized in our life that it has become invisible but at the same time our social life is suffused with gender (Sunderland, 2000a). In every culture or society some specific roles or characteristics are attributed to either men or women, and thus two genders are considered different. Gender differences are, actually, a fundamental fact of sociolinguistic life and it is not surprising that they are reflected in language. In other words, there are certain forms of language which are appropriate only for use by men and other forms which only women may use. "In some cases, these differences depend not only on the … [gender] of the addresser, but also on the … [gender] of the addressee" (Ansary and Babaii, 2003, p.1). Since 1970s, sociolinguists have become interested in the relationship between language and gender, and they consider all the behavioral variations, achievements in foreign languages included, explicable by cultural factors, hence by socially constructed gender differences (Sunderland, 2000b). "Gender spreads into every corner of the language classroom" (Sunderland, 2000a) and this is in accordance with our perception of "gender as something not always apparent but always present" (Sunderland, 2000b, p.203). Sunderland (2000b, p.205) cites Catalán who states that "gender in contrast with such variables as age, motivation and learning style, is neglected in well-known and widely-cited textbooks on second language acquisition." On the other hand, Female learners experience various sorts of educational disadvantages such as "male dominance in the classroom; differential teacher treatment by gender, by which males get more and better teacher attention than females; and representation in textbooks in which female characters are variously stereotyped, trivialized, or rendered relatively invisible" (Sunderland, 2000a). Language education atmosphere is not in favor of girls either. Along with the various studies on gender and language education, there have been many studies in the last 30 years that showed imbalance in gender representation in language textbooks. Sunderland, Cowley, Rahim, Leontzakou, and Shattuck (2000) cited many 1980s and 1990s studies on ESL/EFL textbooks in which a) males were overrepresented, b) men were likely to take more powerful and greater range of occupational roles than women, c) both males and females were given gender stereotypical roles and activities, and d) in dialogs, females were found to speak less and perform a narrower range of discourse roles, etc. Sunderland et al. (2000) believe that, by having progressive texts in terms of gender representation, teachers" behavior in relation to texts, which is called "teacher talk around the text" or "mediation", should be the focus of newer studies. However, the lack of data from developing countries, where English language teaching is pervasive and where gender and educational opportunities is still the matter of concern, makes gender representation still an intriguing issue to SLA practitioners and researchers. Gender lies among the social factors which contribute to language learning. Languages may sometimes be seen as a "girls" subject" because girls, in spite of male dominance, differential teacher treatment and imbalance in textbooks, tend
Introduction to Gender in Language Education
Sexuality & Culture
This introduction to the special issue provides a snapshot of why gender in our lives and in language education matters. We also summarize each of the articles featured in this special issue. Inspired by the growing body of research into gender and language education across the globe, directions for future studies in this area are also highlighted. We contend that any educational practices and artifacts are ideologically and institutionally gender-laden. We hope that this special issue can be the point of departure for exploring more gender issues at different levels of language education (e.g., schools, universities, and virtually-mediated education spaces) in the pursuit of gender responsiveness.
LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
This paper highlights the impact of gender differences in English Language Teaching. It explores students' learning styles as affected by the notions about men and women differences in communication. The data collected in 2008 from 20 males and 20 females' English students of the State University of Makassar. It is to reveal their attitudes towards speaking to different sex, strategy to express opinion, group work preferences, activeness/passiveness, and their perception to increase Eng-lish skills dealing with sex difference. It is revealed that female than male students were reluctant to speak to different sex; females preferred the direct way to express opinions (writing), work with the same sex, and tended to be passive in class. In addition , females saw the high possibility to increase their English skills by working with the same sex but the reverse is true for males. These different styles of female and male students in learning English were affected by the notions of women's language. Gender differences, which are socially and culturally constructed, are one of the interesting phenomena in contemporary society. Their impacts can not only be seen in political life, where women fight their political rights, or in households, in which women fight to reduce household harassment. Discourse on gender differences, in fact, also exists in the use of language for communication , highlighting that men and women are different in their ways of communication , and therefore they should be treated differently. 172
Lingue e Linguaggi, 2013
English language teaching materials usually reflect both the explicit and the implicit attitudes and beliefs of their authors, of the society and the culture of the times they live in. Attitudes and beliefs are bound to change over time and are affected by socio-cultural changes, particularly in areas such as power relationships, the image of women and that of identity construction. The first coursebook analyses in terms of women's representations and sexist attitudes date back to the 70s and the 80s (e.g.
Italiano LinguaDue
The first step in designing a course is writing the syllabus. This involves deciding the subject matter, the topics covered and the objectives. Today, it is more than ever important also to focus our attention on writing our syllabi to be as inclusive as possible to make all students feel welcome and safe. Furthermore, the materials in of some textbooks do not reflect contemporary Italian society both in language exercises (i.e., not allowing for answers like “voi vi siete sposate”) and in cultural readings (i.e., the woman takes care of the family). This paper focuses on providing suggestions on ways to degenderize an Italian language syllabus and to promote gender equity. Moreover, part of this article focuses on resources and activities to propose in class to help students understand the contemporary Italian society and reflect on the use of the Italian language in the LGBTQIA+ Italian community. Degenerizzare il syllabus di italiano: riflessioni e suggerimenti su come rendere ...
The imagery of gender in Italian textbooks. Research into primary school books
2015
In Italy, the theme of equality in textbooks has been accepted much later than in other European and international contexts, and studies and research dedicated to this subject area are still insufficient today. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Department for Equal Opportunities - in collaboration with the IEA (Italian Publishers Association) - promoted the Polite project (for equal opportunities in textbooks): a self-regulating European project for educational publishing, with the purpose of eliminating gender stereotype in teaching texts. This essay begins with a short review of studies carried out in Italy since the 1970s, with particular reference to studies of linguistic sexism introduced by Alma Sabatini in the mid-Eighties. This is followed by presentation of research focusing on samples of primary school reading books published in the early 2000s. The research makes combined use of quantitative and qualitative assessment methodology. The results demonstrates that the g...