Gharbavi, A & Mousavi, S. A. (2013). Systemic Functional Linguistics: As an Innovative Approach to Language and Gender Study

1. Systemic Functional Linguistics:
As an Innovative Approach to
Language and Gender Study
Second National Conference on Language, Discourse
and Pragmatics
Ahvaz,
Jan 23-25, 2013
Abdullah Gharbavi
Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi
Pame Noor University

2. Outline of presentation
Aim and purpose of the study
Inspirational ideas led me to do this study
Previous research and background
Research questions
Hypotheses
Methodology
Results and discussion
Conclusion
Pedagogical implications
Suggested solusions

3. 1. Aim and purpose of the study
The purpose of the present study is to find 
out whether Iranian high school English
textbooks are sexist textbooks which
discriminate between male and female
students based on their sex. To this end, four
English textbooks currently taught in the
Iranian high schools were examined for that
purpose.

4. 2. Inspirational ideas led me to
do this study
• A conversational topic in a language institute,
when I used to teach English there: Do
teachers treat girls and boys equally and
fairly?
• Despite increased awareness of gender bias
and attempt to counteract this, the problem
persists, within education as in other contexts
(Swann, 1992, p.34).

5. • The problem of gender bias language has
been around us for centuries and still does
exist in the dot com era(Swann, 2005).

6. • Generic nouns and pronouns (such as you and
we) were observed not to be true generic ones
because they are often associated with male
pictures. See the following picture which has been
taken from (English Book 2, p.13)
If you want to take a photograph, you must have a
camera.
Is this fair?

7. 3. Previous studies
Porreca, 1984
Peterson & Kroner, 1992
Reese, 1994
Lesikin (2001)
Ansary & Babii, 2003

8. 4. Research questions
1. Are males more visible than females in the written
texts?
2. Are males more visible than females in the
illustrations of the textbooks??
3. Are males in the position of theme and rheme as well
as the last stressed element of clauses are more than
those of females. In other words, do males have more
social prominence than females as represented by the
textbooks?
4. Do male nouns and pronouns outnumber their
counterparts in all participant roles? In other words,
do men perform more and different social roles than
those of men, as it is represented by the textbooks?

9. 5. Hypotheses:
In order to gain robust results and to text the
data statistically, the following four hypotheses
were proposed:
1. Males are more visible than females in
texts of the textbooks.
2. Males are more visible than females in
illustrations of the textbooks.
3. Males in the position of theme and rheme
as well as the last stressed element of
clauses are more than those of females. In
other words, males have more social
prominence than females.
4. Male nouns and pronouns outnumber their
counterparts in all participant roles. In
other words, men perform more and
different social roles than those of women.

10. 6. Methodology
6.1 Materials:
Four current EFL/ELT textbooks, i.e. English Book 1, 2, 3, and Learning
to Read English for Pre-university Students
6.2 Data collection procedures:
For content analysis(frequency analysis):
(1) The frequencies of male and female mentions in texts and illustrations
were counted and tabulated .
For linguistic analysis (thematic and semantic role analysis):
(1) First, all the clauses containing at least one gender-specific noun or
pronoun (e.g. Maryam has an English book) were collected.
(2) Second, these clauses were categorized by gender and by theme/rheme
distinction. And the same clauses were examined to see if they contain last
stressed gender-specific nouns or pronouns.
3. Third, all gender-specific noun or pronouns performing particular
semantic or participant roles were counted and tabulated
6.3 Data analysis procedures:
To analyze the data the following descriptive statistics were used: a)
frequency and percentage and b) chi-square test

11. 7. Results & Discussion
Hypothesis 1: Males are more visible than females in texts of the surveyed
textbooks.
Table 7.1 Frequency of male and female visibility in the text of all the four
books
Male
Female
Total
Book title
F
%
F
% F
%
English Book 1
161 74
57
26 218 100
English Book 2
107 69
49
31 156 100
English Book 3
136 71
56
29 192 100
Pre-university
44
65
24
35 68
100
English Book
Total
448 71
186 29 634 100
Note 1: All percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number so that
they add up to 100% .
Note 2: F=Frequency, % =Percentage

12. Testing the first hypothesis:
Table 7.2 Chi-square test for males and females' visibility in the texts.
2
2
Sex
O
E
O-E
(O-E)
(O-E)
E
Males
448
317
131
17161
54.14
Females 186
317
-131
17161
54.14
108.28
P=0/05
d f=1
O=observed frequency
2
X = Chi- square test
X2=108.28
E=expected frequency
df= degree of freedom
At the .05 level and with 1 degree of freedom, the critical Chi-square is
3.84. Since the obtained Chi-squares (108.28) is greater than the critical
value of Chi-square, we can safely accept the hypothesis that males are
more visible than females in texts of these textbooks

13. Hypothesis 2: Males are more visible than females in the pictures of
the textbooks.
Table 7.3 Frequency of males and females visibility in the Pictures of all
the four text books
Book title
English Book 1
English Book 2
English Book 3
Pre-university English Book
Total
Male
F
103
80
78
23
284
%
77
78
70
92
76
Female
F
31
23
35
2
91
%
23
22
30
8
24
Total
F
134
103
113
25
375
%
100
100
100
100
100

14. Testing the second hypothesis
Table 7.4 Chi-square test for sex category and visibility in the pictures
Sex
O
E
O-E
(O-E)2
Males
Females
284
91
187.5
187.5
96.5
-96.5
9312.25
9312.25
P=0.05
df=1
(O-E)2
E
49.67
49.67
99. 34
X2=99.34
The observed chi-square is larger than the critical chi-square. Therefore, the
second hypothesis is confirmed at the 0.05 level of significance

15. Hypothesis 3: Males in the position of theme and rheme as well as the last
stressed element of clauses are more than those of females. In other words,
males have more social prominence than females as represented by the
textbooks.
Table 7.5 Frequency of gender specific nouns and pronouns in all the four
textbooks
Thematic male
structures F
Theme
Rheme
Last
stressed
element
Total
%
Female
F
%
Total
F
%
211
31
80
71
54
13
20
29
265
44
100
100
11
74
4
26
15
100
253
79
71
21
324
100
Note 1: Theme = Psychological subject of a clause; rheme = noun or
Pronoun developing the subject.
Note 2: Last stressed element is the last constituent of the clause that bears
the information focus of a clause. For example: This book is Mr. Ahmadi's

16. Testing Hypothesis 3:
7.6. Chi-square test for sex category and
element
Sex
Thematic
O
E
structures
Males
Theme
211
207.11
Rheme
31
34.39
Last stressed 11
11.73
element
Females Theme
54
57.90
Rheme
13
9.62
Last stressed 4
3.28
element
theme, rheme, and last stressed
3.89
-3.39
-0.73
(O-E)2 (O-E)2
E
15.14
0.08
11.50
0.34
0.54
0.50
-3.9
3.38
0.72
15.21
11.43
0.52
O-E
0.27
1.19
0.16
3.54
P=5
d f=2
X2=3.54
Since the obtained chi-square is greater than that of the critical chi- square,
the second hypothesis is supported.

17. Hypothesis 4: Male nouns and pronouns outnumber their counterparts in
all types of participant roles.
Table 7.7 Frequency of participant roles of gender-specific nouns and
pronouns in all four textbooks
male
Female
Total
Participant
roles
F
%
F
%
F
%
Actor
35
70
15
30
50
100
Senser
11
34
21
66
32
100
Token
25
53
23
47
48
100
Sayer
33
69
16
31
49
100
Possessor
31
68
15
32
46
100
Total
135
60
90
40
225
100
Note: Actor = a doer ; senser = a person's feeling, thinking or seeing;
token = a person having an attribute or relation to another; sayer= a
verbaliser; possessor= owner

18. Testing hypothesis 4
Table 7.8. Chi-square test for sex category and participant roles
Sex
Participant O
E
O-E
(O-E)2
Roles
Males
Actor
35
30
5
25
Senser
11
19.2
-8.2
62.24
Token
25
28.8
-3.8
14.44
Sayer
33
29.4
3.6
12.96
possessor
31
27.6
3.4
11.56
Females
Actor
15
20
-5
25
Senser
21
12.8
8.2
67.24
Token
23
19.2
3.8
14.44
Sayer
16
19.6
-3.6
12.96
possessor
15
18.4
-3.4
11.56
P=5
df=4
(O-E)2
E
0.84
3.25
0.51
0.45
0.42
1.25
5.26
0.76
0.67
0.63
14.04
X2=14.04
The obtained Chi-square is far much greater than the critical value of Chi-square, thus
the last hypothesis was accepted at the 0.05 level of significance.

19. 8. Conclusion
Both in texts and illustrations women suffered from underrepresentation.
Close examination of various semantic roles revealed subtle gender
stereotyping roles and females were under-represented and
overloaded with traditional stereotypical roles whereas males
appeared only as cooperative.
Theme is the most important part of the clause from the point of
view of its representation of a message in a sequence (Halliday,
2004). The last stressed element (end-focus) of a clause is also
important. These positions bear the information focus and have more
communicative prominence. Males have been found to dominate
these thematic positions of the clauses.
Results revealed that the books studied were biased in terms of all the
categories investigated.

20. 9.Pedagogical implications
One implication of this study might be to raise awareness and
consciousness in EFL material developers regarding gender
prejudiced materials so as to help them initiate modifications
regarding such inequities after almost 20 years of publishing the
same gender-bias loaded materials with no change.
Material developers and curriculum designers should pay attention
to and consider the guidelines of gender-fair material development
Teachers, in addition, if made aware can deal with gender-biased
materials logically and present them in an unbiased way (Sunderland
et. al., 2001).

21. 10. Problem solution
1. We attempt to bring these linguistic imbalances to the textbooks
writers’ attention who are responsible for designing and writing the
textbooks.
2. The writers of the textbooks should attempt to let more females to
function as actors, sayers and possessors.
3. let both men and women authors to have roles in writing and
designing textbooks.
4. The following rules should be observed when we write or speak.

22. Avoid the generic use of "He". Instead recast it into the plural
Sexist
Non-sexist
Give each student his paper as soon as he Give students their papers as soon as they
is finished
are finished
Eliminate the He pronoun
Sexist
Non-sexist
The average student is worried about his The average student is worried about
grades.
grades.

23. Replace the masculine pronoun with "you"
Sexist
Non-sexist
If the student is dissatisfied with his grade, If you are dissatisfied with your grade,
he can appeal
you can appeal
Replace the masculine pronoun with "he or she"
Sexist
Non-sexist
If the student is dissatisfied with his grade, Student who is dissatisfied with his/her
he can appeal
grade can appeal
Use plural indefinite pronouns (definite pronouns are always singular: anyone,
anybody, someone, somebody, everyone, everybody, one, each, every)
Sexist
Non-sexist
Anyone who wants to go must bring his All those who want to go must bring their
money tomorrow
money tomorrow

24. Use the double-pronoun construction (use sparingly)
Sexist
Every person has a right to his opinion.
Non-sexist
Every person has a right to his or her
opinion.
Use de-gendered terms for both males and females.
Sexist
actress
waiter/waitress
steward/stewardess
hostess
Non-sexist
actor
wait help
flight attendant
host

25. De-gender, don't re-gender
Sexist
Non-sexist
Chairman=chairwoman(re-gendered)
Chair
Chairperson(de-gendered)
The word "Man" and its derivations should be avoided
Sexist
cameraman
clergyman
fireman
policeman
spokesman
weatherman
Non-sexist
Camera operator, photographer
Priest, clergy
firefighter
Police officer
spokesperson
forecaster

26. Thank you for being fair
Any questions? Any comments?