Multiple levels of cultural bias in TESOL course books

Abstract

This study investigates the biased treatment of non-native characters in model dialogues in current Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course books. Although a plethora of studies have been conducted on gender bias in course books, speaker bias, or labelled nativism here, has been largely ignored. This research addresses this neglect by systematically applying parts of two frameworks previously used in analysing texts for gender bias to four current TESOL course books. The resulting data was largely quantitative in nature with some necessary description and qualification and showed that none of the chosen texts were free from some form of bias. The continuation of gender bias in areas such as the number of words spoken in dialogues between females and males as well as who is shown initiating conversations was found. In addition, various forms of speaker bias were discovered including non-native speakers speaking fewer words, taking fewer turns, being deprived of starting conversations and occupying fewer positions of social prominence. Based on these results, suggestions for further research are offered. © The Author(s) 2010.