Neoliberal, trouble-free worlds for an aspirational middle-class in Chinese EFL publications

A multimodal critical discourse analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID21788331
AuthorsLili Zhang (0000-0002-5383-8435, Shanghai International Studies University), Christopher A Smith (0000-0002-5035-6828, Conestoga College, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume18
Issue4
Pages592-612
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-4813 • E-ISSN: 1750-4821
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17504813241237377
OpenAlexW4393946058
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited80

For most English language learning engagements in expanding circle countries, textbooks play a key role in defining a syllabus and corralling students toward some measure of completion in a course of study. While scholars have shown how English is broadly seen as a prestigious skill, connected with upward socio-economic mobility, less work has been done on the discourses and ideologies carried by the textbooks, even though this is a billion-dollar-a-year industry with titles selling in the millions. Research clearly raises the need for further investigations of the discourses and world views that they carry as they appear in different territories. In this paper, using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, we analyze a corpus of texts books produced domestically within China. In China, English language learning has become a fundamental part of the aspirations of the emerging middle classes, who also tend to consume Western-style products and increasingly take on more individualistic Western-style values. Analysis shows that these textbooks carry language learning activities which combine a gloss of signifiers of more local, cultural ideas embedded in a privileged world inhabited by an aspirational, international middle-class

Critical discourse analysis · Epistemology · Ideology · Linguistics · Middle class · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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