A study of the use of English varieties in EFL textbooks

Abstract

This study examines the use of English varieties in Norwegian EFL textbooks for 8th and 10th grade. Additionally, the study investigates if the selection of English varieties follows certain patterns related to standard language ideology, gender and context. The textbooks that are selected for the investigation are created by two publishing houses: Enter by Gyldendal, and Stages by Aschehoug. These textbooks are both written for the new curriculum Knowledge Promotion 2020 (Ministry of Education and Research, 2019). The reason for choosing books for 8th and 10th grade was to investigate whether it was any major differences between the exposure of English varieties in these two grades. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches, therefore a mixed method approach. The data was collected with the help of three variables. The three variables were English varieties, gender and geographical context, where I aimed to see if there were any specific patterns for all four textbooks. The result from the analysis shows that all four textbooks include more standard varieties than non-standard. In addition to including more standard varieties, all four books used more RP than GA. In regard to gender, the results shows that the textbooks included more male representation than female. It was also more men using an RP accent than women, however it was more female representation for GA and non-standard varieties. On behalf of geographical context, it was in fact more non-standard varieties used in a geographical context than standard varieties. RP was the accent which was used in most non-geographical settings and can be interpreted as the more neutral standard varieties in the Norwegian educational setting. This study shows that there is a need for more research in the field, which I will present in the final chapter