A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Gender Representation In PEP NSEFC Textbooks

Textbooks can exert great effect on students' thinking.And gender representation in textbooks also plays an important part in influencing students' views on gender.This thesis attempts to investigate the PEP New Senior English for China Student's Books so as to uncover the gender representation in this series from the perspective of multimodal critical discourse analysis.The study is mainly based on Halliday's systemic functional grammar,especially the meta-function hypothesis and visual grammar.In addition,both quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed in this study.Firstly,it has been found by quantitative study that the number of males is about twice as large as that of females in the illustrations,exercises and as main characters in the textbooks.Moreover,only males occur in the unit dealing with the qualities and lives of great people and the unit concerning English humor.Meanwhile,the occupations males go in for vary and those occupations generally enjoy higher social status than those taken by females.But females' work is more likely to be related to housework and child-raising.Secondly,as for gender representation of the main characters,it can be seen by analyzing the ideational meaning that males tend to be more reserved than females in terms of personal emotions.Besides,males are usually depicted to be brave and to be the ones who initiate the conversation.Also,it can be seen by analyzing the textual meaning that great people are simply represented by men.Thirdly,in terms of gender representation of the characters in exercises,it can be revealed that females are more likely to be related to negative qualities.For example,females are depicted to be careless,timid,weak or dishonest.What' more,females cannot be absorbed in studies or leave jobs immediately when they encounter too much work.And females are usually the ones who need help.Nevertheless,males tend to be related to starting a new job,while females are more often than not related to housework.Fourthly,as far as illustrations are concerned,it is suggested by the representational meaning that males usually take the initiative in interpersonal relationship with females.And males tend to be the focus in the pictures.Additionally,from the perspective of interactive meaning,males are more likely to be depicted in low angle,while females are usually shown in high angle,which in a way shows males' power over females.Also,when the compositional meaning is analyzed,it is found that males are more likely to be placed at the center of the illustration when there are more than two people in the image.And if there are only one male and one female in the picture,the male and the female tend to be married or discussing something in the workplace when the male is on the right side of the image.However,when the male is placed at the left side of the image,he tends to be showing love to the female or the two have just met each other.Therefore,gender representation in this series of textbooks is not balanced.So it is advised that the textbook compilers in the future pay more attention to the gender representation in the textbooks.Meanwhile,teachers who are still using this series of textbooks are supposed to offer guidance to students in terms of gender in a proper way.