A Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Cultural Representations in Chinese EFL High School Textbooks

Abstract

This dissertation is a critical multimodal study of cultural representations in a set of English as Foreign Language Textbooks currently used in public high schools in China. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as theoretical framework, and specific methods are adopted to examine the textual and visual data regarding the representations of cultures in the books. Detailed analysis is conducted at both textual and visual level. Findings show that there is a predominant coverage of Chinese and American culture, followed by inclusions of other English-speaking countries. There is a limited representation of other countries and cultures, which is against the purpose of the teaching goals for the book and the national curriculum standards. The representations existing in the textbooks reproduce and reinforce stereotypical and essentialist view of cultural groups, which need to be challenged in future EFL materials.