EFL textbooks

As environmental issues become more prevalent, it is vital to incorporate ecological components into the curriculum to equip future generations with the necessary foundations to preserve and improve ecology. In light of this circumstance, many countries are compelled to include instructional approaches representing environmentally-based topics in textbooks. Nevertheless, whether the textbooks facilitate environmental education (EE) to promote ecological principles or foster students' competence in recurrent environmental concerns is ambivalent, particularly in the Indonesian context. The current study attempts to analyze the ecological verbal and visual contents engaged in Indonesian EFL textbooks. This study also unpacks the extent to which EFL textbooks in Indonesia accurately reflected the ecolinguistics perspective. Content analysis was employed in this study, adapting Stibbe’s (2015) ecolinguistics framework and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2016) visual grammar theory. The findings revealed that EE in Indonesian EFL textbooks highlights the natural beauty and ecotourism locations while mainly disregarding ecological degradation. In contrast, EFL textbooks must emphasize contemporary world issues to cultivate positive attitudes and ecological consciousness among learners. Subsequently, these findings have significant consequences for the development of environment modules in Indonesian EFL textbooks.

Investigating gender stereotypes and biases is a well-grounded area of research in language education. The present study analyzes the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook series Vision and Prospect, which are used in two different cycles of the official education system in Iran. It examines the representation of gender in both the text and images within these textbooks. Using content analysis, the study found various instances of gender inequality within both series. Notably, male characters were overrepresented in categories such as visibility, firstness, character action, occupation, and thematic dominance. While Vision presents a slightly less gender-biased portrayal of women compared to Prospect, men remain predominantly represented in thematic contexts in both series. The results suggest that gender stereotypes continue to persist regardless of proficiency levels in local textbooks, reflecting a socio-cultural environment in Iran that reinforces these stereotypes. These findings can be valuable for textbook authors, curriculum designers, policy-makers and other agencies involved in language education, including students and teachers.

This study explores the cognitive levels targeted by reading-comprehension activities in two textbooks of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) authored by the Tunisian Ministry of Education. It adopts Freeman’s (2014) Taxonomy of Reading-Comprehension Questions to provide a quantitative analysis of the ‘categories’ vs. ‘types’ of questions used in reading activities in the two textbooks, and the ‘lower’ vs. ‘higher’ order thinking skills they require. The Analysis unveiled a recurrent pattern in the two textbooks favoring (1) question categories focusing on content and language as opposed to affect, and (2) question types focusing on explicit information and language input as opposed to questions requiring inferences, personal responses, and evaluations of the claims and views presented to learners. The diagnosed pattern is useful in developing the learners’ linguistic repertoire, but it has limited impact on developing their critical views towards the ideas presented to them and enhancing their awareness about the cultural content embedded in the reading materials.