The cultural politics in Chinese EFL textbooks: A discourse approach

Tao Xiong is associate professor of English at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He holds a PhD from Kyushu University and has conducted a range of interdisciplinary research into text and talk in educational and other institutional settings. He has published in journals such as Discourse & Society and Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

Since the founding of the People s Republic, a growing body of research has been conducted in the international academia into the political and ideological content of the school curriculum in China. In contrast, relatively little has been done about the cultural, political and ideological implications of English language textbooks. This is mainly because of the standard view that applied linguistics and ELT in particular is a neutral and hard science. This standard view, however, has been seriously challenged over the past few decades by growing critical voices in applied linguistic and language education research. Following this line of critical inquiry, the current study is intended to fill this gap in research into English language education in China. As an interdisciplinary project, the study mainly purports to find out how the hidden curriculum is communicated in Chinese EFL textbooks as well as develop some perspectives on ELT material development and teacher education.