Adopting the critical discourse analysis framework, in general, and Fairclough’s (1989) critical text analysis, in particular, the current study aims at examining 3 aspects of meaning, namely social relations, subject positions, and contents in the conversation as well as vocabulary and grammar parts of Passages 1 (an American textbook) and First Certificate (a British textbook) to find out whether there would be any discernable differences between these 2 instructional textbooks. To evaluate the textbooks, content analysis was employed. The results revealed that the primary emphasis of both ELT textbooks was on the cooperative learning. Additionally, in both textbooks, social relations were mostly equal, and conversations often took place between a male and a female with equal social status and power. Regarding subject positions, the data analysis showed that Passages 1 favored friends social relation, whereas TV reporting was the dominant social relation in First Certificate. Besides, Passages 1 mostly focused on uncontroversial issues, whereas First Certificate concentrated on controversial and market-oriented topics more than Passages 1. After all, both these textbooks tended to represent the discourse and culture of Western countries, which can exert specific ideologies on language learners.
Roohani, A., & Tanbakooei, N. (2012). Evaluating Passages 1 and First Certificate Textbooks: A Discourse Perspective. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 82-106.
MLA
Ali Roohani; Nooshin Tanbakooei. "Evaluating Passages 1 and First Certificate Textbooks: A Discourse Perspective". Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 3, 2, 2012, 82-106.
HARVARD
Roohani, A., Tanbakooei, N. (2012). 'Evaluating Passages 1 and First Certificate Textbooks: A Discourse Perspective', Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), pp. 82-106.
VANCOUVER
Roohani, A., Tanbakooei, N. Evaluating Passages 1 and First Certificate Textbooks: A Discourse Perspective. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 2012; 3(2): 82-106.
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