摘要
当前英语教材评估理论多注重于从教材的内外部等方面对一部教材进行评价,却很少注重社会文化因素在教材中的体现,而从性别视角审视教材的相关理论及实证研究在学术界更不多见。Alan Cunningsworth (2002)在阐述教科书的选用原则时,提出在考察教科书的配套资源、语言内容(含语法、词汇、语音等),语言技能、教材采用的教学法等方面的同时,人们也应从社会文化维度出发对教材进行评价。他特别提到了教科书中的性别歧视现象。由此可见,教材中所体现出来的性别歧视因素是在甄选相关教材时不可忽视的一个方面。
本论文试图从性别角度评价教材,着重研究以下三个问题:1、在综合类商务英语教材中的性别呈现是怎么样的?2、本研究结果和以前的研究结果是否有不同?主要差异表现在哪些方面?造成这种现象的原因有哪些?3、本研究对今后的商务英语教学和教材编写有何指导作用?
本文采取Porreca (1984)教材评价体系中对性别问题的研究方法来评价综合类商务英语教材,并且采用问卷调查的形式了解学生的看法。经过分析,本文得出以下结论:(一)性别呈现方面:1、就内容分析法而言,所调查的教材的插图和课文在“两性”性别角色的出现频次方面相差均不显著;在课文中的主要人物出现频次方面,男性的出现频率比女性要高;更多的男性被雇佣,且男性被雇佣的职位种类比女性多。2、就语言分析法而言,本文对通称结构,成对结构的序词和称呼语(Mrs., Miss.和Ms.)这三个方面进行了相应研究,发现所研究的教材在语言呈现方面相对规范;(二)相比过去的研究,本文的结论相对乐观,但本文分析的教材在性别平等方面仍需加强。与Porreca (1984)的研究结果相比较,有不同的结论,其原因主要是:随着社会的变革和经济的发展,女性地位不断提高;随着女权主义运动的兴起,女性性别平等意识有所增强。通过与Thomson & Otsuji(2003)的商务日语教材相比较,发现进步很大,其原因主要是文化因素,因为日本和中国对女性地位的看法不一,所以在不同的文化中,女性的地位不同,这样就造成了结论的差异。
基于上述所得到的相关结论及所进行的教师访谈,本文对今后的商务英语教学及教材的编写提出了一些建议。最后,本文指出了本研究存在的不足和今后的研究方向。
At present, many EFL textbooks evaluation theories are applied to evaluate EFL textbooks from internal, external or other aspects. Social and cultural value in the EFL textbooks is always neglected so there are few theoretic and applied studies which evaluate textbooks from the perspective of gender. Alan Cunningsworth (2002) chooses the coursebook according to the coursebook package, linguistic content (including grammar, lexical, phonology and so on), linguistic skills, teaching methodology and so on. At the same time, he points out that people should also evaluate the textbooks from the aspect of social culture. He mentions the gender bias in the textbooks. From above, the gender issue is one of the aspects which can not be neglected when we choose the textbooks.
This paper tries to evaluate the integrated Business English textbooks from gender perspective. The research questions are as follows:
1. What is the nature of gender representation in the integrated Business English textbooks?
2. Are there any differences between this study and former studies? What are the main differences? What are the reasons for the differences?
3. What are the implications for Chinese Business English teaching and Business English textbooks development in the future?
This paper tries to adopt the evaluation methodology of Porreca (1984) to evaluate integrated Business English textbooks and survey the students'perception by questionnaires. Based on the analysis, we draw the following conclusions:firstly, as for the gender representation of the studied Business English textbooks:1. in content analysis, the frequency of male and that of female in the illustration and texts of the studied textbooks do not differ very much respectively; in terms of the frequency of main characters in the textbooks, the frequency of male occurs much higher than that of female; more males are employed than females and there are more employment positions for males than for females.2. In linguistic analysis, masculine generic constructions, firstness and courtesy titles (Ms., Miss. and Mrs.) are studied and it is found that the language is rather standard to some extent. Secondly, compared with the former studies, this study shows rather optimistic results for the studied Business English textbooks, though there is plenty of room for improvement. Compared with the results of Porreca (1984), the results are different due to the following reasons:1. With the social change and economic development, female role is improving.2. With the continuous feminism activities, the gender awareness is strengthened. Compared with the results of Thomson & Otsuji (2003), the gender issues of the studied Business English textbooks in this research are greatly improved mainly due to the different cultures. People in China and Japan have different opinions toward gender role. So the gender role differs in the different cultures.
Based on the above conclusion and the teachers'interview, we try to give some implications for the future Business English teaching and Business English textbook compilation. At last, the limitations and the future research of this study are pointed out.
引文
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