Taiwanese Students’ Place in the World: Lessons from Inventors and Left-Handers in EFL Textbooks

Abstract

Despite of their considerable influence on multiple aspects of learning, language textbooks have most often been investigated for their cultural representation, frequently from the perspective of whose culture is represented, including target culture, source culture, and international cultures. Using examples from two lesson in two EFL textbooks, this article highlights the need for studies to also explore how a particular culture or topic is portrayed in textbooks. In particular, the article is interested in what these portrayals imply to learners about the world and their place in it. The findings suggest that what is implied in the two lessons examined is that English learners should be concerned with social justice issues, but only superficially. English learners in Taiwan should also recognize that even though Taiwanese people and Americans may be equals in their ability, they are very different socially. In addition, while a Taiwanese may be even more accomplished than an American, his success is inevitably measured against an American, the comparison of which determines the true worth of people in other parts of the world. Implications from these findings for both research and practice are discussed at the end of the article .



Author Information
Shin-ying Huang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Paper Information
Conference: IICEHawaii2018
Stream: Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL)

This paper is part of the IICEHawaii2018 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon