Gender in Japanese EFL Textbooks

SLS 660 Paper 1: Option C Megumi Ise, [email protected] Gender in Japanese EFL textbooks

Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION

A. Purpose

In Japan, students start studying English as a compulsory subject from the first year of junior high school. Since English is treated as a foreign language and there is not so much contact with it outside schools, teachers and teaching materials used in class play major roles to introduce

English to students. If a textbook, one of the most important teaching materials, includes imbalance in representations of male and female, students are unconsciously affected not only as a language learner but also as a human being. Moreover, the selection of textbooks doesn’t always reflect teachers’ preferences in Japan because each board of education districts decides textbooks for all public junior high schools in their region.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is some gender imbalance in Japanese

EFL textbooks focusing on both aspects of linguistic representations and non-linguistic features.

For investigating linguistic representations of gender, conversational dominance in dialogues will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. For examining non-linguistic features, visual representations in illustrations and image representations in the context of dialogues will be explored. To make this study useful in actual teaching, I would also like to consider what teachers should concern when they use gender-imbalanced textbooks in class.

B. Review of Literature

The studies on the relationship between conversational dominance and gender have been conducted by many researchers worldwide(e.g., Coates,1993; Fishman, 1983, Itakura, 2001;

1 Maltz & Borker, 1982; Tannen, 1994). As for Japanese women’s speech, it has been described as

“powerless” (Shibamoto, 1992), as the result of “training Japanese women to be polite and subservient to men” (Kodansha, 1995) and characterized by special vocabulary and sentence practices (Shibatani, 1990 cited in Itakura, 2001). As Japanese society has changed over time, the status and characteristics of women’s speech also have changed. In addition, gender is not the only factor to influence women’s speech. However, Japanese textbooks for foreign learners still show examples of the characteristic speech forms of male and female. (Maynard, 1990; Mizutani and Mizutani, 1977, cited in Itakura, 2001)

Itakura (2001) quantitatively analyzed conversational dominance between male and female

Japanese college students by three dimensions: sequential dominance, participatory dominance and quantitative dominance. The result didn’t support her hypothesis that male speakers will dominate female speakers and indicated that quantitative data in regard to conversational dominance should be interpreted with qualitative analysis such as conversational styles, goals and strategies in social and cultural aspects. I will adopt Itakura’s dimensions to quantitatively examine conversational dominance in the dialogues in the Japanese EFL textbooks.

Characteristics of male and female conversational styles have been described as follows.

Maltz and Borker (1982) suggest that gender-specific patterns of interaction develop very early.

Girl’s talk tends to create and maintenance relationships of closeness and equality, show support and interest, and develop the topic. These tendencies are characterized as “collaboration- oriented”. On the other hand, boy’s talk tends to assert a position of dominance and to attract and maintain an audience. These are described as “competition-oriented”. (as cited in Coates,1993)

According to Fishman (1983), American women use minimal responses in mixed gender conversation as “interactional shitwork” to do more support work and get the conversation going along with men’s initiation (cited in Coates, 1993 and Itakura, 2001). Tannen (1990) indicates

2 different strategies in different conversational styles between women and men. Women’s conversational styles to speak and hear a language is characterized in terms of “connection and intimacy” while men’s style as “status and independence.”

As for qualitative analysis of the dialogues in the EFL textbooks, I would like to explore whether differences of conversational styles between genders are found or not based on the characteristic described above.

Ⅱ. METHOD

A. Material

In 2005, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology approved 7

English textbooks as appropriate materials for junior high school students to use from the school year of 2006. In the end, 6 out of 7 approved textbooks were actually published. Among those 6 textbooks, New Horizon has been the most widely used in Japanese junior high schools.

According to the research conducted by TDK Core Company Limited, 281 out of 592 education districts selected New Horizon for their region. It accounts for 47 percent of all textbooks used in

Japanese junior high schools. Because of this popularity, I will choose New Horizon as the subject of this study.

Tokyo-shoseki published New Horizon with a great emphasis on cultivating communicative skills and self-expressiveness. It also highlights a wide variety of topics to encourage students to study and provides a lot of references related to each topic. New Horizon is a series of 3 books which consist of 24 units in total with 3 or 4 parts of listening, reading and writing exercise and at least one short dialogue per unit.

In order to examine conversational dominance as an aspect of linguistic representation, 10 out of 24 dialogues conducted only between boy and girl students will be chosen. The dialogues included teachers, parents and special guests will be eliminated to prevent other possible

3 variables such as power relations and special status from intervening. On the other hand, as for exploring non-linguistic features, the textbooks as a whole will be observed. Since the purpose of this study is to examine gender imbalance in New Horizon, not only dialogues but also total image of male and female in the textbooks should be included. It is possible that visual and image representations have the same strong impact as language to send some message behind.

B. procedures

To adequately examine conversational dominance, this study implements both quantitative and qualitative analysis. For quantitative analysis, Itakura’s (2001) dimensions, sequential dominance and quantitative dominance will be adopted. Because of the difference between written dialogues in the textbooks and recorded oral conversations, Itakura’s one more dimension, participatory dominance which includes overlaps and interruptions will not be concerned. In addition, the first-place occurrence of each unit will be considered.

1. Sequential dominance

Sequential dominance is analyzed by identifying controlling actions which have the effect of restricting the other speaker’s contribution to the development of conversation. Sequential dominance is counted by the number of successful controlling actions which consist of a controlling action (e.g., an initiation or an interruption) followed by a complying action. A complying action refers to a contribution to the previous speaker’s controlling actions (e.g., a positive response or a withdrawn utterance). Only cases of successful controlling actions indicate contribution to dominance in conversation. This can be summarized as follows:

Successful controlling action = Controlling action + Complying action

More successful controlling actions determine a dominant speaker. (Itakura, 2001: 70-71)

2. Quantitative dominance

Quantitative dominance refers to contribution to conversation and is counted by the number of words spoken by each speaker. Verbs of reduced variants such as ‘it’s’ and ‘they’re’ are

4 counted as one word. Greater amount of contribution determines a dominant speaker.

It is important to mention that Sequential dominance is a stronger indicator than quantitative dominance as it is more closely associated with the topic development. (Itakura, 2001:71-72)

Example 1: counting of successful controlling actions and quantitative dominance

Conversational dominance is quantitatively analyzed as the following example.

[I] stands for initiation. [R] stands for response.

New Horizon 2 : Unit 7 My favorite Movie (Shin : a boy student, Judy: a girl student)

1 Shin: [I] What kind of movies do you like? 2 Judy: [R] I like love stories. [I] How about you? 3 Shin: [R] I like science movies. [I] I think they’re more interesting than love stories. 4 Judy: [I] What’s your favorite movie? 5 Shin: [R] E.T. [I] It’s the most moving science fiction movie in the world. In turn 1, Shin makes an initiation, which is followed by Judy’s response. In turn 2 and turn

4, Judy makes initiations (questions), which are followed by Shin’s responses. Therefore, in this dialogue, Shin achieved 1 successful controlling action while Judy achieved 2.

Regarding quantitative dominance, the words spoken by Shin and Judy are simply counted.

Verbs of reduced variants such as ‘They’re’ and ‘what’s’ are counted as one. As a result, the number of words Shin spoke is 31 while the number of words Judy spoke is 11. This example also shows that qualitative analysis should be included to investigate conversational dominance because the result of quantitative analysis and the impression though the dialogue are quite different.

Ⅲ. RESULTS

A. Quantitative analysis

5 In the following discussion, SCA refers to successful control action and QD refers to quantitative dominance. Table 1 shows the number of SCAs and QDs produced by each boy and girl. The dimension of dominance in dialogues is based on comparison of the total number of

SCAs and QDs for each boy and girl. Names in a bold-faced type indicate the first speaker of each dialogue

Table 1 Sequential dominance and Quantitative dominance in 10 dialogues

Difference Boy Girl (Boy minus Girl)

SCA QD SCA QD SCA QD New Horizon 1 Unit4 I like Japan (Mike) 5 32 2 32 3 0 Unit5 Let’s go on a picnic (Emi) 2 26 2 23 0 3 Unit8 My first trip to Canada (Judy) 4 34 2 21 2 13 New Horizon 2 Unit3 E-pals in Asia (Emi) 1 18 2 13 -1 5 Unit5 A park on a Parking area (Mike) 2 18 1 20 1 -2 Unit7 My favorite movie (Shin) 1 31 2 11 -1 20 New Horizon 3 Unit1 Let’s learn Braille (Mike) 2 8 0 12 2 -4 Unit2 The Shamisen concert(Judy) 1 16 2 21 -1 -5 Unit3 Our sister in Nepal (Mike) 2 21 0 16 2 5 Unit4 An American Rakugo-ka (Shin) 2 20 2 17 0 3 Total 22 224 15 186 7 38 (59.5%) (54.6%) (40.5%) (45.4%)

1. Sequential Dominance

Table 1 shows that a total number of 37 SCAs (22 from boy speakers and 15 from girl speakers) are found in the 10 dialogues. Boys perform more SCAs than girls in 6 out 8 units eliminating 2 units ending in an equal number of SCAs. The degree of difference between boy’s

SCAs (59.5%) and girl’s SCAs (40.5% ) is not big.

2. Quantitative Dominance

According to the result of QD in Table 1, the total number of words spoken by boys was

6 224 against girl’s 186. Boy spoke more words than girls in 7 out of 10 units. However, the degree of difference between boy’s utterances with 54.6% in total against girl’s 45.5% is not big.

3. The first-place occurrence

Table 1 also shows that 6 out of 10 units are started with boy’s utterance. The degree of difference between boy’s and girl’s first-place occurrence is not big.

B. Qualitative analysis

Different linguistic styles between women and men have been studied under the categories of Verbosity, Minimal response, Hedges, Tag questions, Commands and directives, Politeness, and Compliments (Coates,1993). Based on these categories taking into account the level of

English used in New Horizon, the following aspects are investigated.

1. The nature of questions

2. Showing acceptance and agreement

3. Suggestions

4. Assertiveness

1. The nature of questions

On one hand, the number of questions raised by boy and girl students is almost the same

(13 from boys and 11 from girls). On the other hand, the nature of questions varies according to gender. The following examples show how boys and girls use questions and what role those questions perform in the dialogues.

Example 1 Excerpt from Unit 4, Part3 (New Horizon 1)

1 Mike: What do you have for breakfast? 2 Judy: I have cereal. 3 How about you? 4 Mike: I have rice and miso soup.

Example 2 Excerpt from Unit 5, Part 2 (New Horizon 1) 1 Emi : Do you often listen to music?

7 2 Mike: Yes. I like music. 3 I have some CDs here. 4 Emi : How many CDs do you have? 5 Mike: Five The dialogue in Example 1 starts with Mike’s question, which means he decides the

topic. His question is followed by Judy’s response. Then Judy asks a question in turn 3 with

“How about you?” This Judy’s question doesn’t show any intention to change or interrupt the

topic, but try to maintain the topic Mike started.

In Example 2, Emi starts the dialogue by asking a question, which means she decides the

topic. After Mike’s response, Emi raises a question again. Emi’s question in turn 8 is related to

Mike’s answer in turn 7 and functions as a facilitator to develop the topic. This gives Mike

more chance to talk about his CDs.

Those 2 examples show a bit of Fishman’s (1983) vision of women as a “shitworker.”

Girl’s questions indicate that they do more support work and try to continue the conversation in the boy’s lead. Because of the limited space here, I introduced only 2 examples. However, this style of questions raised by girl speakers is seen in 5 dialogues.

2. Showing acceptance and agreement

The following examples demonstrate how girls show their agreement and acceptance in the dialogues.

Example 3 Excerpt from Unit 4, Part 2 (New Horizon 1)

1 Mike: What’s your favorite subject? 2 Judy: Math. It’s very interesting. 3 Mike: I like Japanese. 4 Judy: Me, too. It’s not easy, but I study hard.

Example 4 Unit 3 (New Horizon 2)

8 1 Emi : I want to find some e-pals. 2 Mike: OK. Let’s surf the Internet and find some. 3 Emi: Is it difficult? 4 Mike: No. Many people around the world make friends through computers. 5 Emi : It sounds like fun. In Example 3, Mike starts the dialogue by asking a question. Judy answers him and gives a little reason for it in turn 2. It’s interesting to notice that Mike doesn’t show any interest for

Judy’s response and starts talking about his own favorite in turn 4. However, in turn 5, Judy shows interest for Mike’s response and agrees with his idea.

In Example 4, Mike makes a suggestion accepting Emi’s desire. First, Emi shows a little hesitation by asking a question in turn 3. Then Mike gives an explanation in turn 4. In the end,

Emi accepts Mike’s suggestion and shows her positive attitude.

Girl’s acceptance finishes the dialogues in those 2 examples. This indicates that girls are represented as gentle-mannered while boys are as independent- mannered. Mike’s statement without a thought for Judy’s response in Example 3 and showing his knowledge and convincing

Emi in Example 4 emphasize boy’s stronger character than girls.

3. Suggestions

There are several suggestions made by boys but only one made by a girl.

Examples 5 Excerpts from 4 different units in New Horizon 1,2,& 3.

A. Mike: Let’s have lunch. Emi : All right.

B Mike: Let’s surf the Internet and find some. ┋ Emi: It sounds like fun.

C Mike: Look, Emi! Judy and I have just finished decorating the gate. Emi : You did a good job.

9 D Shin: How about going to rakugo? ┋ Ellen: Great! Let’s go.

Example 6 Excerpt from Unit 5, Part 3 (New Horizon 1) Mike: Oh, no! My Cola! I don’t have any tissues. Do you have any? Emi : No, but I have a handkerchief. Here. Use this. It is obvious that boys make more suggestions than girls. Interestingly enough, as Example 5 shows, those boy’s suggestions are all accepted by girls. In Example 5C, Emi even gave a compliment. On the other hand, the only suggestion made by a girl in Example 6 is not really a suggestion. It’s more like offering a helping hand. However, it does not even receive boy’s appreciation, “Thank you.”

This suggests that girls are represented as a more supportive and obedient figure than boys.

4. Assertiveness

There are some assertive statements made by boys but none by girls.

Example 7 Unit 5 (New Horizon 3)

1 Mike: Did you hear about Emi? 2 Emi : Yes. A bike fell on her near the station. 3 Mike: Right. Poor Kumi broke her arm. 4 Emi: Too many people park their bikes there. 5 Mike: I think we need another parking area. 6 Emi: I think so, too.

Example 8 Unit 7 (New Horizon 3) 1 Shin: What kind of movies do you like? 2 Judy: I like love stories. How about you? 3 Shin: I like science fiction movies.

10 I think they’re more interesting than love stories. 4 Judy: What’s your favorite movie? 5 Shin: E.T. It’s the most moving science fiction movie in the world. Both examples show that boys state their opinions and girls support or develop them.

Especially, in Example 8, Shin clearly expresses his favorite using the comparative and the superlative in comparison of Judy’s favorite. This demonstrates the tendency described by Maltz and Borker (1982), “competition-oriented” for boys and “collaboration-oriented” for girls.

C. Non-linguistic features

Through the observation of the whole New Horizon, some gender representations are found.

Some of the findings are closely related to linguistic representations and emphasize the difference of male and female. By combining linguistic representations with non-linguistic features together, gender imbalance in New Horizon can be more clearly seen.

1. Girls prefer something romantic while boys prefer something powerful.

Example 8 mentioned above shows this image. Judy likes “love stories” and Shin likes

“science fictions.”

2. The image of mother

Mother is always described as a person who is taking care of and disciplining children.

3. Boys are characterized as naughtier than girls.

There are scenes that boys are in trouble such as misplacing his belonging, being lazy, being

late for the agreed time and spilling the juice.

4. Girls are more academically-oriented than boys

There are scenes that girls explain to boys when Braille was invented and what a foster

program is.

5. Women’s achievement

It is worth noting that great women’s achievement is included along with great men’s

11 achievement in the context.

Ⅳ. DISCUSSION

As a result of examining conversational dominance, the difference between boys’ and girls’

SCAs, QD, and the first-place occurrence is not big. Which means that imbalance in linguistic representation of gender from quantitative aspects is not big. On the other hand, qualitative analysis showed quite differences in linguistic representations of boys and girls. The same kinds of tendencies described in the past literatures were seen. Girls demonstrated collaboration, intimacy, kindness and a gentle-mannered figure, while boys demonstrated dominance, independence, status and power. Non-linguistic features also indicated some stereotypes in gender representations. As those three aspects combined together, it is clear that there is gender imbalance in New Horizon. Here is one more interesting factor. The authors of New Horizon consist of 54 professionals included 5 foreigners and 7 females. How much did this fact affect the result? If more female professionals were involved in making New Horizon, would gender imbalance be minimized?

When teachers use New Horizon as a textbook in English class, what should they concern?

In a mixed- gender class, there is a possibility that girls’ parts may be allocated to girls and boy’s parts to boys. However, since the utterances of girls and boys are qualitatively different in New

Horizon, teachers flexibly switch the parts and provide equal opportunities for both girls and boys to speak in different linguistic styles. If girls and boys are always encouraged to speak only in each limited way in English class, they may start speaking in that way in their everyday life.

And gradually, the differences of linguistic styles may form different characters in girls and boys, and stereotypes of gender would be implanted in students’ mind. Teachers may also be able to discuss how boys and girls are described in the textbooks with students and let the students be aware that gender representations in the textbook do not always reflect reality. As for non-

12 linguistic features, teachers should present variety of examples beyond gender image such as naughty girls, romantic boys or a single father taking care of children and talk about girls’ achievement as well as boys’.

Japanese society may want to grow boys as a leader and girls as a supporter and try to form the society that way by using every possible mean. Language is one of those means which are powerful enough to influence people’s thought. Of course, school education is not the only factor that builds students’ character. They are affected by many other factors in society such as family, communities, and mass media. However, language teachers should realize that they are dealing with very powerful and sensitive subject “Language”. In this study, only gender imbalance in

New Horizon was studied. It is possible that other textbooks also include the same tendencies found in New Horizon and other biases and stereotypes. I would like to conclude this paper by saying that language teachers should carefully observe what kind of messages they send to students through textbooks in class and try not to have a hand in imposing biased norm on students.

Ⅴ. REFERENCE

Coates, J. (1993). Women, Men and Language: A sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language. London & New York: Longman Fishman, P. (1983). Interaction: The work women do. In B. Thorne, C. Kuramarae and N. Henley (eds), Language, Gender and Society. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House, pp89-101. Itakura, H. (2001). Conversational dominance and Gender: A Study of Japanese Speakers in First and Second Language Contexts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kodansha, (1995). Japan-Profile of a Nation. Tokyo: Kodansha International. Maltz, D.N. & Borker, R.A (1982). A cultural approach to male –female miscommunication. In J.J. Gumperz (ed.), Language and Social Identity. Cambridge University Press, pp.196-216.

Maynard, S.K.(1990). An Introduction to Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies. Tokyo: The Japan Times Mizutani, O & Mizutani, N. (1977). Introduction to Modern Japanese. Tokyo: The Japan Times.

13 Shibamoto, J. S. (1992). Women in change: Politeness and directives in the speech of Japanese women. Language in Society 21, pp.59-82 Shibatani, M. (1990). The Languages of Japan. Cambridge University Press. Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. NewYork: William Morrow Tokyo Shoseki. (2006). New Horizon English Course 1-3. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki

(Website) TDK Core Company Limited. http://www.core.tdk.co.jp/ep/shohin/saitaku.htm Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyoukasho/mokuroku/18/cyuugaku/gaikoku.htm