An Intersectional Visual Analysis of Iranian EFL Textbook of "Vision 2" for Analyzing Visual Representations of Gender, Race, and Nation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran

2 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of English Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran

Abstract

English textbooks can be the frontiers of Second Language (L2) and world views for English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners. This qualitative study aimed to uncover how pictures of Iranian-published English textbooks represent identities in terms of gender, race, and nation. To this end, an intersectional lens was employed for analyzing the English textbook Vision 2 taught in Iranian high school as the subject of the study. Analysis of visual data, using the models proposed by Nelson (2019) and Zarza (2018), indicated that Vision 2 failed to offer a successful and realistic representation of gender, race, and nation for EFL learners. Insufficient representations of female characters, different races, and nations were the most prominent findings of the present research. This study provided some explanations and suggestions for the following revision of EFL textbooks.

Keywords


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