Published
(De)Construction of Gendered Identities in ELT Materials: A Systemic Functional View
(De)Construcción de identidades de género en materiales ELT: una visión funcional sistémica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/fyf.v38n1.111971Keywords:
Systemic Functional Linguistics, ELT materials, van Leeuwen, the Vision Series, gender analysis (en)Lingüística Funcional Sistémica, materiales ELT, van Leeuwen, la Serie Visión, análisis de género (es)
With an ever-increasing abundance of English Language Teaching materials, there is always a need for research to unearth the possible gendered discourses in/around them. This investigation sought to uncover patterns a Systemic Functional Linguistic reading of Ministry-produced textbooks for the Iranian schools might yield vis-a-vis gender representation. To this end, all the clauses in the Vision series, containing references to males and females, were analyzed in terms of their Transitivity System elements. Subsequent to this phase, which rendered an imbalanced view of gendered identities, van Leeuwen’s categories of Identification and Functionalization were applied to fine-tune the subjectivities arrived at. The study found men as transacting in more domains of life, as being more rational and vocal, and as being described more fully and attributed more lifelike qualities. As for van Leeuwen’s resources, in addition to men being rendered in more occupations, they were displayed as being more innovative and technological.
Con una abundancia cada vez mayor de materiales para la enseñanza del idioma inglés, existe la necesidad de realizar investigaciones para descubrir los posibles discursos de género en ellos y alrededor de ellos. Esta investigación buscó descubrir patrones que una lectura lingüística sistémica funcional de libros de texto producidos por el Ministerio para las escuelas iraníes podría generar en relación con la representación de género. Para ello, se analizaron todas las cláusulas de la serie Visión, que contienen referencias a hombres y mujeres, en términos de sus elementos del Sistema de Transitividad. Posteriormente a esta fase, que generó una visión desequilibrada de las identidades de género, se aplicaron las categorías de Identificación y Funcionalización de van Leeuwen para afinar las subjetividades a las que se llegó. El estudio encontró que los hombres realizan transacciones en más ámbitos de la vida, son más racionales y vocales, y se les describe más completamente y se les atribuyen cualidades más realistas. En cuanto a los recursos de van Leeuwen, además de que los hombres se desempeñaban en más ocupaciones, se los mostraba como más innovadores y tecnológicos.
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