Evaluation of Visual Literacy of High School English Textbooks in Iran: An Intercultural Perspective

Subject Areas :

Ahad Ataie ¹ , Mohammad Mohammadi ²

1 - Department of English Language and Literature, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 - Department of English Language and Literature, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Received: 2021-07-03 Accepted : 2021-11-05 Published : 2022-04-01

Keywords: Intercultural Competence, Materials development, Intercultural teaching,

Abstract :

This study is an attempt to find the realization of visual literacy in Iranian high school English textbooks. To this purpose, the density and number of the tags in the three volumes of the senior high school English textbooks were qualitatively investigated. The results showed that Book 1 emphasizes the Affective/Perceptual aspect of the visuals, whereas Book 3 puts more emphasis on Critical/Ideological aspect of the visuals. Furthermore, it was found that as grades of the books advance, the density and number of the tags decrease. The results based on Callow’s (2005) dichotomy also indicated that as the grade of the English textbooks advances, the visual literacy moves from the receptive aspect to more productive one. It can be inferred that in developing high school English textbooks, there seems to be no association between the visuals and the corresponding tags despite the variety of the visuals.

References:

Aguilar, M. J. (2007). Dealing with Intercultural Communicative Competence. In M. P. Eva Alcon Soler, Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning (pp. 59- 78). AA Dordrecht: Springer.

Ajideh, M. P. (December 2016). An Analysis of culture-related Content in English Textbooks from Iranian Entitled 'Prospect' and 'Vision' Series. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(6).

Aliakbari, M. (2004). The Place of Culture In The Iranian ELT TextBooks In High School Level. 9th Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Lingustics Conference. Agust 19th - 20th. Seoul: Namseoul University, Korea.

Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching . New York: Pearson Education.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. (2008). From Foreign Language Education to Education for intercultural citizenship. Essays and reflections.

Callow, J. (2005). Literacy and the visual: Broadening our vision. English Teaching Practice and critique, 4 (1) , 6-19.

Canale, M., Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language testing and teaching.Applied Linguistics.

Corbett, J. (2005). An Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching. Clevedeon: Cromwell Press Ltd.

Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. X. (1999). Cultural mirrors materials and methods in the EFL classroom, in E. Hinkel (Ed.), culture in second language teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dahmardeh, M. (2009). English Language Teaching in Iran and Communicative Language TEaching. university of Warwick UK: Unpublished PhD thesis.

Davari, H., & Aghagolzadeh, F. (2015). To teach or not to teach? Still an open question for the Iranian education system. In C. Kennedy (Ed.), English Language Teaching in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Innovations Trends and Challenges, (pp. 13-19). British Council.

Debes, J. L. (1996). The loom of visual literacy. Audiovisual Instructions , 25-27.

Duchak, O. (2015). Visual Literacy in Educational Practice. Czech-Polish Historical and Pedagogical Journal, 6/2, 41-48.

García, M. (2005). International and intercultural issues in. Intercultural Education, 57-68.

Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

Kellner, D. (1998). Multiple literacies and critical pedagogy in a multicultural society. Educational Theory, 48 (1) 103-122.

Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language Teaching . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Murcia, M. C. (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston.

Riazi, A. (2005). The four language stages in the history of Iran;in Lin, AMY and Martin,PW(eds). Clevedon : UK Multilingual Matters.

Risager K, & Chapelle, C. A. (2013). Culture in Textbook Analysis and Evaluation. In Culture in Textbook Analysis and Evaluation (pp. 1620- 1625). Oxford: Wiley.

Sandorova, Z. (2016). The intercultural component in an ELT course-book package. Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 178-203.

Stokes, S. (2002). Visual Literacy in Teaching and Learning: A Literature Perspective. Electronic Journal for the Integeration of Technology in Education, 1(1), 10-19.

West, T. G. (1997). In the mind's eye. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.