Philippine E-Journals

A critical discourse analysis of Iranian culture representations in World English 3 (the Middle- East Edition) by Heinle Cingage Learning

Amir Biglar Beigi | Sasan Baleghizadeh | Mohamamd Amin Mozaheb

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

This study sets out to examine the representation of Iran‟s culture in terms of content, photos, pictures, and maps in the Middle East version of World English - World English 3. The analysis was conducted at two levels: initially, the visual and textual contents of World English 3 were scanned to identify contents denoting Iran and its culture. Subsequently, the authors analyzed such sections to ascertain hidden ideologies conveyed through the visual and textual contents of the World English 3. This study used Fairclough‟s (1995a) and Vilhem's (1998) models to analyze the data with a critical discourse analytic perspective. The findings of this study confirm Iran has been misrepresented and its culture has been unrepresented in the analyzed textbook. The results conform to Fairclough's (1995a) and Wodak's (2005) views regarding the power of pictures and photos to blur or hide messages within ideological patterns. Likewise, the findings are in line with Vilhelm's (1998) view regarding the „Other‟ group, Iran, while considering the whole countries of the Middle- East. The current investigation hopes to enhance the Critical Language Awareness (CLA) of teachers and students using World English series as their main textbooks.