Theory and Practice in Language Studies ISSN 1799-2591 Volume 9, Number 8, August 2019 Contents REGULAR PAPERS Sexualisation of Women in Nigerian Advertorial English Medium Bill Board 891 Bolanle Tajudeen Opoola and Folorunso, Emmanuel Awoniyi Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Thai University Students across Four Academic 902 Profiles Sichabhat Boonnoon Point of View in Narrative 911 Suhair Al-Alami A Three-dimensional Classification System of Second Language Self-repair 917 Simin Zeng Poems: From Transl 929 Ping Lin Pragmatic Analysis of Verbal Humor in Friends—Based on Cooperative Principle 935 Jiaosheng Qiu Project-based Language Learning: Email Exchanges between Non-native English Speakers 941 Sue Wang On the Characteristics of Scientific Discourse and Translation 946 Minggao Wei and Gaofeng Yu A Research on English Translation of Public Signs in Shanxi Province—Based on Three-dimension 951 in Eco-translatology Zhaodong Zeng Improving Upper-intermediate EFL Learners’ Communicative Competence through Authentic 956 Materials Mohammad Hossein Keshmirshekan Reading The Color Purple from the Perspective of Ecofeminism 965 Lianghong Wu Studies on the Legal Translation from the Perspective of Legal Pluralism 973 Xia Dai Language Sociality and Its Enlightenment on Foreign Language Teaching 978 Guijie Liu Modal Operators and Personal Pronouns in Roosevelt’s Inaugural Addresses 984 Xiaoli Dou Research on the Application of the Mind Map in English Grammar Teaching 990 Ling Wang A Study of Discourse Strategies from the Perspective of Critical Analysis 996 Xinya Zuo Passing over Sisters: Denial of Farhadi’s Unsafe Society 1001 Ma’soome Sehat and Hossein Jahantigh The Implementation of Flipped Classroom Teaching Mode in Basic English Teaching for Tibetan 1009 College Students Jinfeng Liu Case Study of Howard Goldblatt’s Translation of Red Sorghum—From Media-translatology 1015 Perspective Wensheng Deng Is Connie a New Woman on the Way to Happiness?—An Analysis of Connie in Lady Chatterley’s 1020 Lover from the Perspective of Feminism Ting Wen "China English" and ELT in China: Global Vision and Local Spirit 1025 Haiyang Jiang On the Obstacles and Strategies in English Listening Teaching 1030 Xiaoling Yang Multimodal Discourse Analysis of News Pictures 1035 Mengyuan Bi A Comparative Study of Gender Differences in Refusal Strategies from English Majors 1040 Qiaoying Wang Analysis of Discourse from Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar 1049 Xiaqing Li Research on Teaching Mode Construction of ESP Course for Textile Engineering Based on 1055 Production-oriented Approach Jinzhu Zhang ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 891-901, August 2019 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0908.01 Sexualisation of Women in Nigerian Advertorial English Medium Bill Board Bolanle Tajudeen Opoola Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Nigeria Folorunso, Emmanuel Awoniyi Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria Abstract—This paper surveys sexism in English, citing selected communicative instances in English medium billboards in Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The photographs and written inscriptions on the selected billboards depict the stereotypical representation of women as weaker species and exertion of men power over women. This was achieved through a critical discourse analysis of visual and verbal language discourses in ten randomly selected English medium billboards selected as sources of gathering data for this research. In Nigeria, billboards are meant for public announcements and advertisements. They also convey information about products and company services. Findings of this research among others reveal that there is asymmetrical power relation in terms of dominance and subordination between men and women as demonstrated by the portrayal of men in terms of physical attribute, such as strength, vigor, and a daring ability, as against the portrayal of women in terms of sex appealing, physical attractiveness as well as concerned with trivial, unserious and playful things. The study advocates for equal treatment of men and women without unnecessary sex differentiation. Index Terms—billboards, sexism, communication, discourse analysis I. INTRODUCTION Sexism is a treatment that expresses bias in favor of one sex and thus treats the other sex in a discriminatory manner, Lei (2006). The society in which we live particularly in Nigeria is presumably a male dominated one that has the bulk of its prejudice and discrimination against women. This is evident in the way women are barred from certain occupation, positions, and behaviors and are defined only by what the society expects from them. Considering a nurse to be only female until the recent time, and an astronaut to be male is something quite common, Ahmed (2009). However, in recent times, especially in most first world countries like America and Britain and in some third world countries, like Nigeria and Liberia, it is not uncommon to see women occupying political and religious positions, influencing the economic sector, taking up activists positions for fellow women, and even refusing to conform with some cultural aspects of the society, like letting go of their maiden names after marriage. However, though both the male and the female gender are considered equal in most countries, sexism still exists, having been made so subtle and obscure in such a way that people conform to and uphold sexism without even realizing it. Over the years, studies have revealed that this phenomenon is not only entrenched in the economic, political, religious and social aspects of the society but also, in the language used in the society. Language as a Tool for Male Patriarchy Sexism as a social phenomenon exists in different domains of every society and one of the domains where it is reproduced in the society is in Language. Its social effects, coupled with the growing influence of language have posed a serious problem for sociolinguists, some of who have laid out measures for its eradication. Nonetheless, sexism in language still exists, especially in levels where it has been made so subtle and has become very normative. One of such levels is the level of discourse, which combines different modes of language to convey meaning. The study of this research work focuses on this level of language by citing specific instances of sexism in selected English-medium billboards in Ile-ife, Osun state, Nigeria. Sexism in language or more specifically, in English resides in different domains. These domains stretch from the morphological level, through the use of affixation, generic terms, titles, alignment of male and female terms and occupational lexemes; syntactic level, in the forms of metaphors, proverbs, phrasal verbs, riddles and jokes and semantic level, depicted by the extent at which some words such as master and mistress, governor and governess, callboy and call girl differ in meaning, to the discourse level. The level of discourse which is the focus of this study involves language use beyond its grammatical categories to contain such things as pictures, symbols and several other modes of language. As a concept, discourse can be defined as a text whether written, spoken, visual or multi modal which produces specific meanings in a particular context and whose meanings can be appropriated from context. As explored in this study, one of the ways through which sexism is depicted at this level is through the advertisement media, precisely in billboards, which have become familiar features of the society such that any sexist connotation conveyed by their contents has become so normative and is being © 2019 ACADEMY PUBLICATION 892 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES perceived as unusual. As a result of Language’s social influence, the issue of sexism contained in Language has posed a serious problem for sociolinguists in the growth of gender inequality and has long been a heat topic in sociolinguistics, He (2010). Today, there are several scholarly studies devoted to language and sexism. Jane Sunderland, Sara Mills, Robin Lakoff, Julia Stanley, Dale Spender, Y.K. Yusuf, A.P. Nilsen are just a few of scholars whose research efforts have helped in bringing the issue of Sexism in Language to the awareness of language users. Review of Earlier Studies According to Edegoh, Asemah and Okpanachi (2013), the workings of gender ideology and asymmetrical power relations in discourse are presently assuming quite subtle forms in modern societies, albeit in different degrees and ways in different communities. One of the media through which sexism is portrayed in discourse is the advertisement media or billboards, more specifically. Edegoh, Asemah and Okpanachi (2013) describe billboards as the branch of outdoor media targeted at a mobile audience, usually characterized by attractive models, images and catchy slogans and is used to reinforce recall of brand names and payoffs. Like other media of advertising, billboards are used to convey information about a product or service. Beyond informing however, their contents also stimulate ideas, some of which may be bias, among the viewers. As regards this, different studies have been carried out relating to sexism at the level of discourse. The bulk of their findings reveal that the (pictorial) representation of women in billboards is usually defining or stereotypical. According to Sheehan (2014), given that men and women differ in different ways, it should not be surprising that advertisements portray men and women differently. Although, these portrayals