Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

The main purpose of this study is to examine and analyse a selected set of EFL textbooks that are taught in Egypt in order to arrive at a critical understanding of the representation of values, gender and race in these textbooks. The study was guided by a main research question and subquestions around which the research problem and objectives were built. For this purpose, a textual and visual analysis was conducted to answer the research question and to examine the hypotheses by tabulating and analyzing the statements and images of the textbooks to find out the frequency of their occurrence and calculate percentages. Within a critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework, the study explored the ideology and power relations in the textbooks under study by using various tools of analysis based on halliday{u2019}s (1994) systemic functional grammar (SFG), van leeuwen{u2019}s (2008) social actor Network (SAN), and van Dijk{u2019}s (2000) Us/Them perspective. The findings of the study revealed strategies of cultural infiltration and bias adopted in these textbooks, which may represent a threat to the learner{u2019}s identity. In addition, the English language was overestimated at the expense of other languages which were not fairly referred to. This was recorded together with an exercise of hegemony by the western culture through an emphasis on materialistic values that have to do with consumption activities. The socio-cultural implications observed in the low visibility of a given group of people on the basis of age, race or gender revealed that a sociopolitical agenda was being promoted in the textbooks under study. Some negative traits were associated with particular social actors such as the elderly, females and people of color

Issued also as CD