GENDER REPRESENTATION AND GENDER INCLUSIVE/EXCLUSIVE LANGUAGE IN CURRENT SINGAPORE PRIMARY ENGLISH COURSEBOOKS

Abstract

The current study was carried out in order to examine gender representation in the current primary English coursebook series, consisting of six levels with two books for each level, used in most of the 192 Singapore primary schools, Primary English Thematic Series (PETS), in terms of visibility, roles, relations, and the use of gender inclusive/exclusive language. These features, which partially construct the discourse in the coursebooks, shed light on gender imbalance present in the coursebooks. Gender imbalance results from a belief system that constructs imbalanced perception about gender which is known as gender ideology. This study used the conceptual framework, critical discourse analysis (CDA), to discuss the findings of the study in order to explore the relationship between the discourse about gender in the coursebooks and social forces that shape and are shaped by the discourse. To gain further insight into the writing of the series, one of the language consultants and the Head of the PETS team were interviewed. A similar study on the previous Singapore primary school English language series (Gupta and Lee, 1989) found gender imbalance prejudicial to females. Therefore, the current study provided a comparison between PETS and the previous series to assess whether any changes had occurred in terms of gender representation. Also, this study provides insight into the difficulties encountered when attempting to achieve a greater gender balance in coursebooks, and examines what else could be done in the writing of future language learning materials. Results indicated that although females were still under-represented in PETS in tenns of characters, speakers, and protagonists in reading texts for comprehension, some progress had been made. The speech of female speakers was slightly longer than that of males. Also, females were seen engaging in greater numbers of economic and non economic roles than in the previous series studied by Gupta and Lee (1989). However, females were found to more often be associated with passivity as revealed by analyzing grammatical functions: processes and kin relational ties. Gender inclusive language, such as he or she, was used in the coursebooks instead of generic he. However, generic man was still prevalent. The interviews provided valuable information as to difficulties encountered in achieving gender balanced representation in PETS while considering other factors, such as national policy, values, and issues of race and religion in language learning materials writing, and strategies used in attaining a more balanced picture in gender representation. The researcher, based on the results, draws implications as to what language learning materials writers can do to produce more gender-fair writing and what institutions and teachers can do to become more aware of the issue of gender balance in education. Finally, the researcher offers suggestions for future research, and describes limitations of the present study.