Although textbooks have long included visual elements, these have become
more prevalent in recent years, as Bezemer & Kress (2009) confirm. Textbooks, from elementary to undergraduate, manipulate
typography, color, and composition to make attractive page layouts and utilize text
boxes, photos, charts, graphs, diagrams, and drawings to frame concepts and facilitate
learning. However, visual elements are used in different ways for different
pedagogical levels and within different disciplines. Modern language textbooks
make a particularly an interesting site of investigation because with
exemplification of language and culture as key pedagogical goals, verbal and
visual elements are closely intertwined. Even in higher education, language
textbooks tend to be colorful and lavishly illustrated with photos and line
drawings. Besides illuminating concepts
and illustrating vocabulary words, visuals can also convey information about
the customs, culture, geography, and social values associated with the target
cultures, as well offering idealized representations of average speakers. Different types of visuals serve different
communicative and pedagogical goals.
They also convey different underlying messages about culture and the
degree to which the language learner as viewer may be similar to or different
from members of the target culture.
This study explores how two types
of illustration—photos and line drawings—each play different yet complimentary
roles in language pedagogy. By surveying
a small sample of introductory textbooks for undergraduate courses in Spanish
and French, we can examine the ways that each type of visual is used to
accomplish curricular goals. By doing an analysis of representative images of
each type, we can also see how the two types of visuals make statements about
culture, social class, and identity, sometimes obscuring the differences
between the mainstream North American culture of the learner and the target
culture, while at other times highlighting differences, emphasizing instead
stereotypes of the colorful and exotic.
Significance
Considering the role that textbooks
play in shaping course goals and disciplinary expectations, textbooks are an under-researched
yet complex genre, especially since the target market is arguably the the instructors
who choose the textbook just as much as it is the students who use it (Hyland,
2004). However, some studies have looked
at how visuals have been used in textbooks in various disciplines and at
various levels, such as secondary English (Bezemer & Kress, 2009), primary
and secondary science (Dimopoulos, Koulaidis,
& Sklaveniti, 2003), college science (Darian, 2001; Rybarczyk, 2011), and American history (Masur,
1998). A few articles have also looked
at how visuals can be used in foreign language pedagogy, primarily making
suggestions on how teachers can use visuals to supplement their lessons. Bush (2007), for example, argued pictures
could facilitate the acquisition of both vocabulary learning and cultural
knowledge. Kearney (2009) focused on use
of images to teach culture. One study also looked at how visuals were in English
as a foreign language textbooks in China (Chen, 2010), but visuals in modern language
textbooks for North American college students have so far seen little research
attention.
Scope of research
In order to understand how visuals are typically used in undergraduate
modern language textbooks, I examined four undergraduate modern language textbooks
published in the last ten years. These
were two French textbooks, Mais Oui!:
Introductory French and Francophone Culture, published by Houghton Mifflin in
2009, and Motifs: An Introduction to
French, published by Heinle Cengage in 2011, and two Spanish textbooks, ¡Anda!:
Curso Elemental, published by Pearson/Prentice Hall in 2009, and Plazas:
Lugar de Encuentros, published by Thomson/Heinle in 2005. Spanish and French have the highest enrollment
among foreign languages taught in American universities, with Spanish making up
51.4% and French 12.9% of the total enrollment for all foreign languages,
according to Modern Language Association statistics for 2009 (Furman, Goldberg
& Lusin, 2010). It is reasonable to
assume other foreign language textbooks offered by major educational
publishers, such as German, Italian or Japanese textbooks, would follow similar
patterns for their use of visuals, but even if that is not the case, most North
American foreign language students are encountering Spanish or French
textbooks.
To gain a general idea of what
types of visuals were used and how much reliance was placed on each type of
visual, I surveyed the first 200 pages of all four texts, counting each clearly
distinguishable visual object, namely photos, drawings, maps and the sort of
graphs one might find on an infogram.
Excluded were recurring decorative elements such as headings, color bars
and text boxes, and tables with information not strongly distinguished from
other lesson content, such as tables of conjugations or exercises for students
to complete. The most visually-rich text
was ¡Anda!, where 139 pages or 69.5% of the 200 sample pages included
one or more photos, drawings, maps or graphs.
The two French textbooks both had 56% of the pages containing these
visual elements. In the least visual
text, Plazas, only 46% of the sampled
pages contained photos, drawings, maps or graphs. Nevertheless, photos and drawings were used
very widely in all four textbooks. The
breakdowns can be seen in table 1. Although
all four texts used each type of visual, drawings and photographs were used most
widely, with drawings slightly edging out photos in all textbooks but one. Because maps and graphs make up on a small
percentage of all visuals, I did not analyze them further.
Table 1: Visual
Breakdown for Textbooks
Photos
|
Drawings
|
Maps
|
Graphs
|
TOTAL
|
Photos
|
Drawings
|
Maps
|
Graphs
|
||||||||||
Anda
|
151
|
146
|
15
|
5
|
317
|
47.63%
|
46.06%
|
4.73%
|
1.58%
|
|||||||||
Mais
Oui
|
115
|
161
|
5
|
2
|
283
|
40.64%
|
56.89%
|
1.77%
|
0.71%
|
|||||||||
Motifs
|
144
|
214
|
2
|
1
|
361
|
39.89%
|
59.28%
|
0.55%
|
0.28%
|
|||||||||
Plazas
|
90
|
96
|
11
|
1
|
198
|
45.45%
|
48.48%
|
5.56%
|
0.51%
|
|||||||||
It is fair to assume that all textbooks
use visuals for both aesthetic and pedagogic purposes. However, identifying which purpose is served
by each visual is likely not possible, especially since a given visual can
serve multiple purposes. For example, a
line drawing illustrating a new set of vocabulary or a photograph of a cultural
artifact also enhances the overall visual appeal of the text. Indeed, it is possible to argue that an
aesthetically pleasing presentation increases positive affect and probably enhances
learning. Nevertheless, many visuals do
serve an identifiable pedagogical purpose, and different types of visuals are
uniquely suited to being used in different ways in foreign language teaching.
Visuals and pedagogical purposes
Different types of visuals tend to
be used in similar places in lessons and for similar purposes. In all four
books, new chapters begin with title pages with large photos, often setting a
topic for a chapter, such as housing, family, food or holidays. Plazas
differs slightly in that each chapter introduces a different country or region
rather than a topic, but the title pages still use a large photo to introduce
each place. With very few exceptions, in
the textbooks that I surveyed, new vocabulary is introduced with line drawings,
and this tends to occur at the beginning of lessons. According to Bush (2007), the use of pictures
for vocabulary teaching has a long history, dating back to at least to the
beginning of the 20th century, and contemporary research has suggested that
visuals can speed up vocabulary learning and increase retention. Illustrations, generally line drawings, can
also display everyday scenarios where language might be used, another feature
that often occurs at the beginning of new lessons. Photos, on the other hand, seem to convey
information about the customs, culture, geography, and social values of the
countries associated with the languages, as well offering idealized
representations of average speakers. Although
line drawings do include cultural elements, these more often convey universal
human traits and behaviors, probably in an attempt to translate concepts as
unambiguously as possible. Photos frequently
accompany readings, which tend to occur near the ends of lessons, and often,
therefore, at the ends of chapters. Line
drawings are used in exercises more frequently than photos are, but sometimes
photos are used to illustrate an exercise without directly connecting to the
questions. The predictability of
placement for each type of visual relates to its suitability to the pedagogical
purpose.
Line drawings
Non-photographic illustrations are
widely used in foreign language texts, as already illustrated in the statistics
from the survey (Table 1). I have chosen
to call these line drawings because they usually have clearly defined black
outlines and limited to no shading, although most do have color. Many illustrations sit direct on the page
with no background or frame. In other
words, the illustrations used in foreign language texts lack the diverse
artistic range of illustration used in storybooks or even science textbooks. It
is rare to find a line drawing without a clear-cut pedagogical purpose,
typically to introduce vocabulary or to reinforce vocabulary in exercises. Some textbooks used drawings more frequently
to introduce vocabulary while other textbooks used it more frequently in
exercises. These two combined uses,
however, made up the majority of for line drawings in all texts. The breakdown for the four textbooks can be
seen in Table 2.
Table 2: How Line
Drawings are Used
TOTAL
|
Vocab
|
%
|
Ex
|
%
|
Vocab+ ex
|
|
Anda
|
146
|
72
|
49.32%
|
35
|
23.97%
|
73.29%
|
Mais Oui
|
161
|
69
|
42.86%
|
77
|
47.83%
|
90.68%
|
Motifs
|
214
|
144
|
67.29%
|
47
|
21.96%
|
89.25%
|
Plazas
|
96
|
44
|
45.83%
|
47
|
48.96%
|
94.79%
|
What this suggests is that line
drawings are generally used to illustrate generate clear-cut semantic connections
for learners. When drawings are used to
teach vocabulary, words are sometimes redundantly labeled but not always. In other words, many illustrations in a
modern language textbook involve a dialogic relation with the text, where the
visual and verbal elements exist in a complementary relation, each adding part
of the needed meaning. The image does
not merely illustrate the text. In other
words, to use a term from Barthes (1977/2004), there is a relay relationship
between the verbal label in the target language as new information paired to
the image portraying a familiar concept. Most frequently, in fact, vocabulary
is taught by labeling items in a scene.
An example is Mais oui!, p. 91
(Figure 1). This page shows two rooms, a bedroom and a living room, each with
various objects labeled. No English translations are given and the new words
are not listed elsewhere on the page.
Photos, in contrast, are usually anchored to texts in foreign language
texts, meaning that “the text directs the reader through the signifieds of the
image, causing him to avoid some and receive others… It remote-controls him
toward a meaning chosen in advance” (Barthes, 1977/2004, p. 156). The photos, thus, serve as illustrations with
the themes of the adjacent text suggesting what elements of the photo should be
salient to the viewer. Some textbooks attach captions or questions to photos,
but in general students are less frequently bidden to extract specific meanings
from photos compared with line drawings.
In foreign language lessons, vocabulary is often taught in semantic sets
based on theme or topic. As already
mentioned, words may be organized within a scene, such as a street, a classroom,
a table setting, or a family tree.
Similarly, words can name parts of something, such as a computer, a car,
or the human body. Arnheim (1969/2004)
offers an explanation of why line drawings are particularly effective as part
of a scene or arranged in semantic sets, as is usually done in foreign language
textbooks, since placing objects in the contexts with which people usually
associate them makes identification easier and more efficient. Kress and van Leeuwen (2009) divide such
visual arrangements into two types, namely classificational processes, i.e. in
taxonomies like family trees, and analytical processes, where participants are
shown in part-whole relationships. In
either case, the structures organize semiotic information and make new words
more salient and therefore easier to remember.
Rather than simply listing words as they might be encountered in a set
of flash cards, the terms are visually arranged on the page as a set and the
relationships between parts or elements exemplified. Again, this can be observed by looking at Figure
1. Classification schemes are usually incidental in exercises, however. In other words, words in the original
vocabulary set can recur in exercises, but they are not usually organized in
ways that explicate the semantic relationships.
After all, here students are expected to recall the words without much
prompting. In fact, both photos and line drawings are used in exercises at
different times, though line drawings are more frequent in all the textbooks
studied.
Another way that most textbooks use line drawings is to illustrate
dialogues. Chen (2010) found a
widespread use of cartoon characters in Chinese EFL textbooks and the frequent
use of speech bubbles to create dialogic relationships in the text. The North American modern language textbooks
use a similar technique, though some textbooks use a whimsical style while
others draw figures in a more sober style.
In ¡Anda!, for example, just
over 20% of the line drawings used in the textbook were in dialogues. All four textbooks did use drawings for this
purpose, but occasionally photos were also used for this purpose, mostly in Motifs. Using line drawings makes it easy for a
textbook to indicate the setting and participants in a conversation, adjusting
the context and content to the vocabulary presented in the lesson. Line drawings allow relevant details such as
the time of day, the formality of the situation and the age of the participants
to be made clear without confusing learners with the sorts of incidental
details that might be shown in photos.
In fact, drawings are uniquely suited for highlighting salient details of
a scene or object while excluding less important details, a feature that makes
them good for illustrating dialogues, teaching vocabulary and triggering
recall, all the ways that foreign language textbooks prefer to use
drawings. Comic books and graphic novels
also depend on abstracting out the most visually salient features of objects
and individuals, as Scot McCloud explains in Understanding Comics (1994). “When we abstract an image through cartooning,
we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details.
By stripping down an image to its ‘essential meaning,’ an artist can amplify
that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t” (p. 30). Similarly, in a study of an anatomy atlas,
Kim Sawchuk, Nicholas Woolridge and Jodie Jenkinson (2011) found that line
drawings were much better at capturing salient anatomical features compared
with photographs. The authors ascribe
this to the psychology of vision, in which “just one of the three physiological
‘channels’ of visual information, that of light and dark, provides virtually
all the information necessary to decode complex real-world scenes” while the
richer detail of photographs adds “unnecessary visual complexity” (p.
455). Although much less detail is
needed to call up an appropriate semantic concept for foreign language students
compared with teaching the intricate relationships between bones, muscle
fibers, nerves and blood vessels to medical professionals, the principle still
applies. Too much information can be
confusing. Arnheim (1969/2004) also
discusses this problem. “The more
particular a concept, the greater the competition among its traits for the
attention of the user” (p. 142).
Stylized and simplified art, then, allows “the advantage of singling out
particular properties with precision” (p. 143).
¡Anda!, 83 is an exception that proves the rule (Figure 2). This page is one of the very few pages in the
textbook sample where new vocabulary is illustrated through photographs. Of the six images represented here, only one
is unambiguous. In the shopping picture,
for example, the body language might prove distracting, and the same is true
for the picture of listening to music.
It is unlikely that the shopping picture is attempting to convey
“pointing” since that is could not be one of the “sports and pastimes that
Mexican students of the UNAM enjoy,” but the boy reclining on the sofa could
easily be “relaxing,” especially since the earbuds are barely visible in the
tiny picture and it is difficult to tell if the item on the floor is a CD cover
or another piece of printed material.
The most ambiguous picture in the set, however, is “tomar el sol,” or in
other words, “taking in the sun”. The most salient element here is the large
and lavishly decorated building in the background. It is true that two or three exceptionally
tiny figures in the foreground appear to be sitting on the grass, but others
look like they are simply milling around.
Furthermore, while the weather appears pleasant enough, the sun is
nowhere in sight. Depending on
previously learned language, consulting a dictionary or working through the
pictures in class could clear up the difficulties, but it is unusual for
language textbooks to teach vocabulary by using photographs with contingent
ambiguities such as these.
Figure 2:
If, as McCloud argues, cartoons and line
drawings abstract out the particular and leave the essential and universal, for
the same reason, drawings are not usually the best vehicle to convey cultural
information where contingent detail creates richer and more vivid impressions
and feels like a better simulation of real life. Social semiotics uses the idea of modality to
relate the truth value of a linguistic or visual statement (van Leeuwen, 2005). Cartoons and line drawings offer an abstract
modality. “The more an image represents the deeper ‘essence’ of what it depicts
or the more it represents the general pattern underlying superficially
different specific instances, the higher its modality from the point of view of
abstract truth” (p. 168). However, for
everyday visual purposes, photographs tend to offer a higher level of “naturalistic
modality” (p. 368) because a range of features align to make photographs feel
more like the real world—degree of detail, clarity of background, color
saturation, contrast, and so on. By
pretending to open a window into the world of the target language and culture,
photographs give the viewer a voyeuristic sense of participation in the same
way that travel guides and tourist brochures do.
Photos
Both photos and line drawings, along with all other types of visuals,
help make modern language textbooks more aesthetically appealing. Photos differ from line drawings, however, in
ways that make each especially suited to different pedagogical roles. If the reduced ambiguity of line drawings
make them well-fitted to teach and review vocabulary, photos are useful for
evoking more nuanced responses. For that
reason, photos serve two important roles in foreign language textbooks. First, photos are used to frame
topics/themes, a role frequently seen in the introduction to new chapters or
units. Second, photos can more easily convey
complex cultural information, making them preferred as general illustrations
and particularly preferred to illustrate reading texts. In Arnheim’s terms, then, photographs can
function not only as pictures but as symbols (1969/2004). As pictures, they capture various details and
qualities, such as what one Parisian café looks like, and as symbols, serve as
representatives of essence, of what it means to be French, for example. The symbolism of photos tends to be created
through juxtapositions and contrasts, as Burgin (1976/1999) argues. These juxtapositions can occur within the
frame of a single image or through the siting photos next to each other in a
layout. In any case, photographs are not
slices of reality, but generate ideological framings.
The photos used in foreign language textbooks have a fair degree of
variety, but also follow predictable patterns in distribution, content, and
pedagogical deployment. Photographs
tend to be used on chapter or unit title pages, to accompany readings near the
ends of chapters and to illustrate exercises or cultural points following the
instructional materials at the beginning of lessons. Except for the large pictures used on title
pages, most pictures are small, occupying less than 1/8 of a page. Frequently they occur in sets, for example,
in exercises.
Photographs in all four texts also portray many of the same
subjects. During my survey of the first
200 pages of the textbooks, I classified photographs as containing cultural
information of the following types: architecture or monuments, typical scenery,
cultural activities, works of art or cultural artifacts, food, representative
speakers (either anonymous or labeled with names), celebrities or famous
individuals associated with the culture, cultural activities such as
celebrating holidays, playing sports, dining, shopping, and finally, ethnic
color (usually members of minority groups wearing typical costumes). Obviously, classifying images in this way
involved making judgment calls. For
example, would a picture of students playing soccer be seen as an unmarked
instances of people playing sports anywhere or was it an attempt to convey that
soccer is a typical sport for students in France or Columbia, a preferred
pastime in this culture? In general, I
assumed the latter unless the photo appeared particularly unmarked, say a hand
holding a cell phone or a classroom scene indistinguishable from a North
American one. These photographs that seemed to lack cultural intent were
classified separately. Although making
these judgments is an imperfect process, it is clear that most photos do convey
information about the artifacts, customs, activities, or ethnicities associated
with the target culture and language.
Using this approach, I calculated that photos with novel cultural
content ranged from 73% to 96% of the photos used in the given book.
Not surprisingly, people are represented frequently in the photos; in
fact, more than 50% of all photos are medium shots or close-ups of people. Of
these, one third are pictures of celebrities or notable figures, and two thirds
are simply representative speakers of the language being taught. People are also frequently represented as engaged
in cultural activities such as shopping, dining, playing sports, and so
on. These types of pictures make up just
under 20% of all photos. Pictures of
architecture—particularly famous buildings—are also common, much more common
than pictures of scenery. In the sample,
pictures of architecture make up nearly 15% of all photos whereas pictures of
scenery make up less than 4%. This makes
sense when one considers that a major goal of photos in modern language
textbooks is to generate impressions of culture and setting. Scenery only gives clues about setting
whereas architecture includes cultural and historical information, and indeed,
displays cultural achievements. Furthermore,
some of the buildings represented may be familiar to students from travel or
media. While in one way this may
stereotype the culture, its familiarity may also generate positive feelings
about the culture, and thus, conceivably enhance motivation. This would also be true for pictures of
familiar ethnic dishes and probably also explains the large number of celebrity
pictures in all textbooks.
Photographs are not as strongly tied to specific pedagogical purposes as
drawings. Although most dialogues use
drawings, two textbooks did make occasional use of photos with dialogues. An example makes the case. In ¡Anda!, p. 4 (Figure 3), typical
Spanish greetings are illustrated with both drawings and photographs, but
different elements come into focus in each case. With the drawings, the time of
day and body language of participants are the strongest elements, though gender
is also evident. In the photographs at
the bottom of the page, again, the body language is relevant, but here
photographic details of dress and setting, emphasize formality levels more
clearly than the drawings the drawings do.
Figure 3:
One pedagogical purpose almost uniquely tied to photographs is to provide
a visual support for readings. In fact,
a notable percentage of photographs are anchored to a cultural text. In other
words, each unit and review section has one or two sidebars about some aspect
of the focal country or culture. These
are almost always illustrated with one or more small or medium-sized photos.
The visual interest of these photographs is often not that high, however. These images often seem to be more iconic than
aesthetic. Over the four textbooks, proportion of photographs anchored to
cultural sidebars and supplementary readings averages 28%. In fact, maps and graphs are sometimes used
in this way as well though line drawings seldom are. Even when photos are not part of a cultural
sidebar or illustrating a reading passage, they are at times given captions in
the target language and sometimes used as visual aids to make cultural or
linguistic points. Both Spanish textbooks sometimes use captions to explicitly
call student attention to the visual content of photos. However, both French
texts go further by asking students to make inferences from
photos. Mais Oui!, for example, uses questions about photos to preview
concepts to be taught in the chapter. Motifs uses the strategy even more
frequently, both at the beginning of chapters and for small photos interspersed
through the chapter. These questions can
call attention to cultural features or simply practice the target language for
the chapter.
While photos are often used to give impressions about culture, they often
have a looser relationship to the linguistic content of a lesson. This is probably why although both photos and
line drawings are used in exercises, drawings are used more for this purpose in
all four textbooks. However, sometimes a photo sets the stage for an exercise
even when the photo isn’t used in the exercise. An example is ¡Anda!,
page 148 (figure 4). The picture shows a woman and a little girl
looking at an electronic device, but the text merely says that Esperanza’s
young niece is going through the stage where she always wants to know why. The student is therefore instructed to answer
“why” questions playing the role of Esperanza answering her niece. Any picture of a woman and child could work
here. Presumably showing the child
looking at the device simply suggests the child’s curiosity.
Figure 4:
There is a final category of visuals that I have chosen to categorize
under photographs, but this classification is somewhat problematic, and that is
samples of common genres. Mostly used in
exercises, these reproductions of apartment listings, real estate ads, menus,
cinema listings, railroad timetables, and similar types of texts allow students
to practice language in ways that simulate immersion in the target culture,
offering students a chance to make both cultural and linguistic
connections. The genres used are
recognizable to North American students yet different enough to be interesting. For three of the four textbooks these
reproductions made up around seven to ten percent of photographs. Mais
Oui!, however, was an interesting exception with over 31% of photographic
images falling into this category. It might be interesting to look further into
the use of sample genres within foreign language teaching, particularly since
this category of visuals occupies an intermediate space between verbal and
visual content. However, I will not
analyze this type of visual further here.
Cultural analysis
The Modern Language Association’s (2007) report on “Foreign Languages and
Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World” gives nearly equal
emphasis to linguistic and cultural objectives in foreign language
education. In a study of how modern
language professors teach culture, Xinxiao Yang (2012) found that many teachers
depend heavily on textbooks to present cultural information.
In any cultural analysis, a key question is, “How do visual, oral, or
written texts create as well as reflect their social and ideological contexts?”
(Elias, p. 230). Whatever their
intentionality, the visuals in a modern language textbook reveal some things
about a culture and conceal others. As
curriculum designers interact with art directors, certain selections are made
that must have rhetorical outcomes. As
Lawrence Prelli (2006) demonstrates in Rhetorics
of Display, “whatever is revealed through display simultaneously conceals
alternative possibilities; therein is display’s rhetorical dimension” (p.
2). Whether the process is intentional
or not, the line drawings and photos convey one set of messages about the
cultures represented, simultaneously blocking another possible portrayal. “Displays are rhetorical because the meanings
they manifest before situated audiences result from selective processes, and
thus, constitute partial perspectives with political, social, or cultural
implications” (Prelli, 2006, p. 11).
The visuals in foreign language texts, too, must do this. Two goals, at least, come through. One is to position the learner as both
different from and similar to members of the target culture. The target culture needs to be alluring in
its difference yet accessible in its similarity. This goal may not always be conscious, but it
is certainly intentional. The second
goal is to convey a probably unintentional yet certainly predictable message of
Western capitalist values. For an
American textbook publisher, mainstream, profit-based, dependent on middle
class values about education, technology and consumption, how could it be
otherwise?
The dance of the
divide
Foreign language education cannot afford to “other” too much. However, there is a dilemma. The target culture needs to be
“other”—exotic, appealing, interesting to the gaze. Some scholars have, in
fact, discussed the concept of a “tourist gaze,” in which a culture and its
scenes become the object of a gaze (MacCannell, 2001), a notion that can
probably be adapted to the current discussion.
On the other hand, the premise of the language teaching process is that
the learner will be able to bridge the cultural and linguistic divide, to cross
the gap of language and cultural difference, if not to assimilate, to interact
and to cooperate. That the goal is both
desirable and achievable is what drives the teaching process. Kenneth Burke’s notion of identification is
relevant here. To achieve the goals of
rhetoric, Burke claims, an individual, separate from another individual, must
“identify himself” with the other (1969, p. 20) insofar as their interests
conjoin. “Thus, he is both joined and
separate, at once a distinct substance and consubstantial with another” (p. 21). In other words, rhetoric uses strategies of
identification to bridge differences between groups. “Identification is affirmed with earnestness
precisely because there is division…” (p. 22). Yet for language learning to
proceed, the gap must be bridged, and while this is not easy, minimizing the
differences may help. For example,
vocabulary words can connect to familiar concepts. The photographs in the FLT textbooks are
caught in this dance of the divide, offering the familiar to make
identification possible and the novel to generate interest in the exotic “other”.
In practical terms, identification is created through images connecting
to the world of the college student as target audience. This means, ultimately, the portrayal of superficial
differences and important similarities. An
excellent example is the large photo on page 60 of Motifs, introducing Module
3, “Chez l’ étudiant,” (Figure 5).
Figure 5:
In fact, Motifs, organizes its
first three units around university life.
Module 1 is about classmates and classrooms, Module 2, university life
and Module 3, family and home, but with an emphasis on student spaces. The picture shows two students eating
breakfast. Certain features of the space,
such as the tiles on the counter and kitchen walls, and the meal—croissant,
coffee cup—feel different than North America, but two roommates chatting over
breakfast with a magazine probably feels familiar. The message the picture
sends is that some superficial aspects of French life are different but that
much is also similar. In France, too,
young people socialize and interact with popular culture in ways very similar
to North American students.
While youth culture in different places and at different time has
demonstrated a willingness to rebel against or resist the status quo, that is
not the version of youth culture portrayed in modern language textbooks. Instead these textbooks adopt a globalization
model that offers familiar links between world cultures and North American
youth culture, namely, familiar portrayals of celebrity culture, mass media, technology,
and consumerism. It is surely notable
that one-third of the people portrayed in the four textbooks are celebrities,
many of whom will already be at least somewhat familiar to North American
students. Motifs, for example, not only introduces Audrey Taotou and Nicolas
Sarkozy, but also points out that Jodie Foster is a fluent French speaker. Another good example of creating
identification through global popular culture comes from ¡Anda! page 171 where a picture with
limited visual appeal offers significant semiotic value (Figure 6). In the picture captioned “un concierto de
Marc Anthony,” the singer is barely recognizable. He is small and at the bottom, the focal
point, but just barely in the frame. Marc
Anthony is likely to be a familiar celebrity to many North American students,
but the singer himself is not highlighted here. Instead, the focus of the
photograph is the trappings of a typical concert experience, the floodlights
suggesting stardom, and the band and instruments. The
photograph, in fact, would be a lot more visually effective if the singer was
larger and more central or framed more obviously, and if the backup band wasn’t
almost as prominent. Marc Anthony is
appropriated as a member of the Spanish-speaking culture and yet portrayed as
indistinguishably urban, modern, and middle class—in other words, just like us.
Figure 6:
Another theme of global consumer culture is technology. All four textbooks portray technology at use
in many places and for many purposes, but the books also aim to convey a sense
of hipness by using technology even when not necessary. The child looking at the electronic device in
Figure 4 is certainly an example.
Another clever example is an exercise on page 234 of ¡Anda!, where a laptop and a
smart phone are used as framing devices for imagined conversations about
housing and real estate.
Figure 7:
Line drawings can also hide cultural differences while instead revealing assumptions
about economic status and social class. The
living room shown Figure 1, for example, contains a sofa and pillow, easy
chair, a floor lamp, a low coffee table, a large TV on a stand, a CD player in
a cabinet with a few CDs on top, a vase, a fruit bowl, an iPod, and curtained
windows with a railing visible outside.
The railing is the only clue that the living room might be in an
apartment, but there are no other clues about what type of home this might be or
where in the world it might be located.
The bedroom picture above it is similarly unmarked, except it shows a
mountain poster with a headline, “La Suisse.”
Dialogues, likewise, typically represent participants of ambiguous
ethnicity in middle class settings doing things in ways largely
indistinguishable from North America.
The pictures in shopping dialogues, like the multi-frame sequence shown
on page 207 of Plazas, (Figure 8) could
portray any North American mall. Only
the Spanish in the word bubbles suggests otherwise. In this case even price tags, brand names, or
other contextual clues were excluded, although this is not always the case.
Figure 8:
Foreign language textbooks offer many clues about the appearance and
ethnicity of average speakers, the architecture and scenery of the country,
typical street scenes and leisure activities, paintings and artifacts, and the
popular culture enjoyed by members of the target culture. In this way foreign language textbooks are
little different than travel guides, offering a sunny and cheerful version of
the culture for the tourist gaze. Sometimes
the parallels are nearly exact, as in the page from Motifs’ module on travel, “Voyager en France,” (Figure 9). This page gives examples of sites to visit in
Paris. The only reason the Eiffel Tower
is not shown here is because it is shown in a striking night shot at the
beginning of the unit.
Figure 9:
But what is being concealed in these textbooks? In a few very rare cases, a few things are
revealed, for example, ¡Anda! page 161 illustrates
environmental issues in Honduras (Figure 10). A small picture at the bottom of this
introduction to Honduras shows forest being cleared, and the text mentions that
forests are in danger. Of the 21 country
profiles in this book, only this layout showed a brief glimpse of something
other than colorful natives, beautiful scenery or notable architecture, the
sorts of images expected in any tour guide.
Figure 10:
Perhaps a modern language textbook is not the place for a full discussion
of the sorts of social and economic troubles faced by different countries. But entirely avoiding such issues probably
misses important learning opportunities. One of the professors surveyed in Yang’s
(2012) study expressed similar misgivings about textbook portrayals of
culture. The professor complained that
most individuals portrayed in textbooks are university students and told Yang that
“all of their families have money, and all of the families take vacations. It
has something to do with they are trying to show the North American students the
best aspects of so-called culture” (quoted in Yang, p. 52). This professor and another interviewed by
Yang said that they understood that textbook publishers would want to present
target cultures in a positive light but believed that university students had
the maturity to handle a more realistic and nuanced portrayal.
Similar to travel guides, however, the images presented both reveal and
conceal. Ironically, authors and
textbook publishers labor to emphasize exotic difference while also building
solidarity based on middle class values, global youth culture and familiar
technology. As Prelli observes, “…the
rhetorics of display often are deconstructed by exploring how those situated
resolutions conceal even as they reveal, what meanings they leave absent even
as they make others present, whose interests they mute as well as whose they
emphasize, what they condemn as well as celebrate, and so on” (page 11). With the exception of occasional “ethnic
color,” the representatives of each country are urban and middle class. While this may help learners find connections
to identify with the target culture, it probably also misses opportunities that
could come from building deeper connections beyond the dominant narrative, of seeing
both sides as global citizens who together might tackle global challenges.
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