Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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EFL textbooks, culture and power: a critical

content analysis of EFL textbooks for ethnic
Mongols in China

Rong Xiang & Vivian Yenika-Agbaw

To cite this article: Rong Xiang & Vivian Yenika-Agbaw (2019): EFL textbooks, culture and power:
a critical content analysis of EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China, Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2019.1692024

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1692024

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JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1692024

EFL textbooks, culture and power: a critical content analysis of EFL

textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China
Rong Xianga and Vivian Yenika-Agbawb
a
College of Teacher Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; bDepartment of
Curriculum and Instruction, Pennsylvania State University, Park, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This study examines the cultural contents in one textbook series, which is Received 14 March 2019
currently in use for English as a foreign language (EFL) education among Accepted 3 November 2019
ethnic Mongol junior high students in Inner Mongolia, China, to
KEYWORDS
understand the representations of multiculturalism and underlying EFL; multicultural diversity;
power relations that appear in them. Applying Kachru and Nelson’s power relations; ethnic
model of English spread and their categorisation into Inner, Outer and Mongols; China
Expanding circles, this critical content analysis investigates which
countries are introduced and how multicultural variables including race/
ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities are
represented. The results show that representations of cultures of three
circle countries and multicultural variables are shown in an unbalanced,
stereotypical way and lack diversity. Additionally, we present the
tensions within power relations among different countries, race/
ethnicity, social classes, and gender/sexuality. The findings suggest that
a critical multicultural perspective not only helps students and educators
recognise both the international and internal diversity, but also urges
educators and textbook writers to emphasise the importance of cultural
knowledge of EFL textbooks to better serve ethnic Mongol students.

Introduction
Globalisation urges economic, political and cultural interaction among different countries, commu-
nities and sociocultural groups. This has made the English language gain importance on the global
stage (Pennycook 1994). It is viewed as a language of international communication and understanding,
the fabled ‘Aladdin’s lamp’ (Kachru 1986, 1), impelling every nation to move towards linguistic access
to knowledge and economic success (Ping 2005). Likewise, this trend of English globalisation is a tre-
mendous motivation for people from different countries to learn English. For example, since entering
into the WTO, China has made English a compulsory course from elementary school, in order to: (a)
enable the acquisition of scientific knowledge for promoting economic development and international
understanding; and (b) enhance intercultural communication and transmit its own culture to the
world. However, English globalisation results in loss of diversity and homogenisation of world cultures
(Sonntag 2003), and how English is taught, and what cultures are included are questions of political
and ideological interest (Tsui and Tollefson 2007). Such interest is reflected in the curriculum design
and cultural contents of English language textbooks (McKay and Bokhorst-Heng 2008).
In China, the National English Curriculum Standards decide the objectives of EFL teaching and learn-
ing (MOE 2001a, 2011) and have highlighted both instrumental and humanistic functions of EFL

CONTACT Rong Xiang jessy883@163.com

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/01434632.2019.1692024
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

education (Cheng and Gong 2005). Instrumentally, English is a tool for intercultural or multicultural
communication. The humanistic role stresses that young students should not only learn language
rules, but also develop themselves into complete individuals through EFL education (67–68). That is
to say, young learners can understand the diversity of the world and develop their own views of the
world, life, and values through EFL learning. As the ideas of curriculum standards are primarily realised
through EFL textbooks, they are significant in school curricula in China and their contents decide how
young learners are cultivated and what kind of future the nation wants (Shi 2017). However, the way
these EFL textbooks are designed for students of different cultural groups is a question of research.
Furthermore, China is a nation comprising multiethnic groups and underlines the policy of ‘the
pattern of diversity in unity of Chinese nation’ (Fei 1999, 13). English, as a multicultural language
(Honna 2000) and foreign language in China, is considered to be an important tool for international
and intercultural/multicultural communication. Since foreign language education is usually linked
with multiculturalism (Kubota 2010), and China is situated in multicultural contexts globally and
locally, the multicultural dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people
with disabilities should be equally included in EFL textbooks. Yet the status quo is not always a
cause for optimism in this regard.
Class, gender, and race bias is widespread in the materials. Too often, ‘legitimate’ knowledge excludes
the historical experiences and cultural expressions of labour, women, people of colour, and others who
have been denied power (Apple and Christian-Smith 1991, 6–7). Controversies over ‘official knowledge’
in textbooks point towards more significant political, economic, and cultural relations (ibid), which
means ‘official knowledge’ represents the dominant groups’ interests, histories, and political and econ-
omic successes. Hence, textbooks are replete with social, cultural, political, and economic purposes. Pre-
viously, language teaching has been viewed as a neutral medium of communication reflecting the social
world (Curdt-Christiansen and Weninger 2015). However, language has recently become linked with
power and critical pedagogies about language education have been implemented (2). Watkins (1999)
states that we can make sense of reality through language (as quoted in Botelho and Rudman 2009),
which ‘is where and how power is reproduced, distributed and maintained’ (101).
This study examines which countries were introduced and how multicultural variables (race/eth-
nicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities) appear in EFL textbooks for ethnic
Mongol junior high school children in China. Beyond content analysis, this study uses a critical lens
to explore power relations of different countries, and how they play out in textbooks with regards to
multicultural variables, to discover who has agency, whose story is told, and whose is silent. Further-
more, we explore whether these EFL textbooks can serve ethnic Mongol children, and possibilities
for the improvement of their cultural contents for ethnic Mongol students.
Since content analysis is a method of analysing texts in the contexts of their uses (Krippendorff
2004, xiii), the contextual background of EFL textbooks analysed in this study will be discussed first.

Background
Language policy in China
China, with a population of about 1.37 billion, is a multiethnic nation. It has 56 ethnic groups, among
which there is one majority, the Han (approximately 91.59 percent of the population), and 55 min-
orities (approximately 8.49 percent) living in largely resource-rich but economically under-devel-
oped ethnic autonomous areas (CNC for UNESCO 2004; NBS 2010).
Most ethnic minorities, with distinct cultures and customs, have their own vernaculars. The total
number of ethnic minority languages, including distinctive varieties within an individual language
group, is over 100 (Lam 2007). The Han and two other minority ethnic groups (Hui and Manchu)
speak Chinese and its dialects (Zhou 2000).
The Chinese constitution gives the right to all ethnic groups to learn and use their own languages
out of respect to and protection for minority languages, but pushes them to adopt Mandarin Chinese
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 3

(both standard written and oral forms) as a second language in their school curriculum for enhan-
cing the unity of the country. Meanwhile, trilingual education has been encouraged in ethnic min-
ority autonomous areas since the 1990s (Su 2005). In this way, students in minority areas learn not
only their vernacular languages, but also Mandarin Chinese and a foreign language. Nowadays, the
foreign language is commonly English.

EFL education in China

Kachru and Nelson (1996) illustrated English spread as follows: (1) the Inner Circle countries where
English is learnt as mother tongue or first-language; (2) the Outer Circle countries, in which English
is seen as a second language, e.g. India, Singapore and South Africa; (3) the Expanding Circle
countries where English is taught as a foreign language. According to this model, China belongs
to the Expanding circle.
EFL teaching in China began in 1876, when Jing Shi Tong Wen Guan (京师同文馆) adopted the
model of ‘learning other subjects through foreign language’ (Yu 2017). However, systematic EFL
education began in 1912 (Yang 2000), though it was only available to the rich. Although English
became part of public education since the establishment of People’s Republic of China (PRC), its
status has gone through some ups and downs.
Russian was the main foreign language in the early years of PRC, while English had a very low
status. English began to be the main foreign language since the relations with the Soviet Union
became tense in the late 1950s (Lam 2002). However, it weakened again during the Cultural Revolu-
tion, which objected to foreign cultures and learning in its first five years. During the 1970s, a series
of diplomatic talks took place between PRC and the US. In 1972, talks between Zhou Enlai and
Henry Kissinger, and Richard Nixon resulted in the US recognising PRC as a member of the UN
(Lam 2002). Therefore, English regained its status as the preferred foreign language. However,
since this was still in the Cultural Revolution period, the contents of English textbooks were full
of Cultural Revolution slogans. With the Reform and Opening policy in the 1980s and 1990s, English
was announced as the main foreign language in secondary education and became a vital tool for the
modernisation of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defence. Moreover, since China
joined the WTO and held the Olympic Games, English has become the main foreign language
throughout primary, secondary, and tertiary education.
However, this short history of EFL education above is adapted for the Han ethnic group; for eth-
nic minorities, EFL education began much later.

EFL education among ethnic Mongols in Inner Mongolia

Ethnic Mongols, whose vernacular is the Mongolian Language, are one of the largest minority groups
in China. They have a distinct history, cultures, and traditions and mainly reside in Inner Mongolia
Autonomous region.
Ethnic Mongols established their basic ethnic education system between 1947 and 1965, when
they could receive an education in Mongolian (Ding 2000). There are now ethnic Mongol schools
from preschool to university level in Inner Mongolia and the main instructional language is Mon-
golian. Apart from Mongolian, ethnic Mongols also learn Chinese as a second language, with English
as a foreign language. They learn Mongolian, Chinese, and English from the first, second, and third
grade of elementary school respectively.
English was first introduced as an experimental course among seven Mongolian senior high
schools (grades 10–12) in 1992 (Su 2005, 114). Since 2001, English has been popularised among
all ethnic Mongol senior high schools, and in a few urban ethnic Mongol junior high and elementary
schools (69). Junior high schools using the selected textbooks began introducing English in 2000 (this
was written on a document provided by the schools who use the textbooks) and the Inner Mongolia
autonomous government required English among all Mongolian junior high schools commencing
4 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

from 2001 (NMG 1999; MOE 2001b). In ethnic Mongol schools, EFL textbooks are the primary or
only source for students to access English.

EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongol students in Inner Mongolia

There are multiple types of competing textbooks guided by one curriculum standard. Currently,
eight types of junior high EFL textbooks approved by Ministry of Education are available in the mar-
ket (MOE 2016). Three of these, published by Popular Science Press, People’s Education Press, and
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, are adopted by ethnic Mongol junior high schools in
Inner Mongolia. The original versions of all types are written in English and Chinese, which means
the main texts are in English and appendixes of vocabulary and grammar explanation are in English
and Chinese. Ethnic Mongol schools adopt its original or translated version, with its main text con-
tents remaining the same. The translated version indicates that some educational departments in
ethnic minority areas have translated the appendixes of vocabulary and grammar explanation
into ethnic languages, Mongolian in this context. Among these three types adopted by ethnic Mon-
gol schools, only one type (published by People’s Education Press) comes in a Mongolian version.
Some schools choose this translated version and others select the originals. There is no strict require-
ment for choosing; it depends on the local school districts’ own interests. The selected textbook series
in this article is the original, untranslated version.

Literature review
Existing literature indicates that many researchers are concerned about the cultural aspects in Eng-
lish language education abroad and at home, especially in countries where English is taught as a
foreign language. In EFL contexts, textbooks are the main sources for teaching and learning, so
researchers explore their cultural contents to study how cultural aspects are immersed or taught.
Many studies on EFL textbooks abroad show that representation of cultures of English-as-first-
language countries is dominant while there is a severe absence of home cultures, and a lack of rep-
resentation of global diversity as well (Lee 2005; Ookawa 2015; Rodríguez 2015; Shin, Eslami, and
Chen 2011; Yamada 2010). Conversely, Setyono and Widodo (2019) found that cultural represen-
tation in EFL textbooks in Indonesia is much more diversified and shows respect to ethnicity and
religious groups within Indonesia. The above mentioned studies have mainly adopted a national
studies approach (Risager 2018, 11), focusing on which countries are presented in English language
textbooks. There are few studies about multicultural variables of English language textbooks, among
which Sleeter and Grant (1991) and Lie (2000) are good examples. Sleeter and Grant (1991) con-
ducted research to scrutinise the race, class, gender, and disability in English language textbooks
in the US, and found that they were dominated by upper-middle-class, white males while other eth-
nic minorities, females, and people with disabilities were largely absent. Focusing on the multicul-
tural variables of gender, ethnicity, geography and socioeconomic status, Lie (2000) investigated
EFL textbooks in Indonesia and found there was room for improvement in incorporating students’
diverse ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds. Meanwhile, Lie also found gender bias throughout
these textbooks. Besides, some researchers are focusing on one or two factors of multicultural vari-
ables, e.g. race/ethnicity or gender, to scrutinise how race/ethnicity or gender bias appeared in Eng-
lish textbooks (Barton and Sakwa 2012; Gray 2013; Yamada 2011). Analysing the current main EFL
textbooks in China, the results may be even worse: researchers found that contents of EFL textbooks
are not multicultural, and there is little inclusion of Chinese culture (Guo 2014; Ji 2011; Liu 2011; Wu
2014; Xie 2014). Furthermore, most studies in China analyse content analysis from a national per-
spective and have little concern about inclusion of ethnic minorities’ cultures or the perspectives of
critical multiculturalism. Echoing the research of Apple and Christian-Smith (1991), we found little
attention on whose knowledge is taught in EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongol students in China.
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 5

Guided by critical multicultural theory, the fundamental tenet underlying this study is ‘acknowl-
edging unequal power relations’ (May, 2003) in EFL textbooks in order to reveal power dynamics.
The following research questions are formulated:

(1) Which countries’ cultures are represented in junior high EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in
China?
(2) How are race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities portrayed?
(3) How are power relations among different countries, the ethnic majority and minorities, different
sexuality groups, social classes, as well as between able-bodied and people with disabilities por-
trayed?

Methods
Content analysis was used to investigate these research questions above. Content analysis is ‘a
research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful mat-
ter) to the contexts of their use’ (Krippendorff 2004, 18). Many language textbook analysis research-
ers adopted content analysis to investigate thematic and power contents through quantitative and
qualitative methods (Risager 2018). This study goes beyond simple content analysis and adopts a
critical multicultural lens to reveal power relations under those cultural representations. Both quan-
titative and qualitative approaches are employed in this critical content analysis. A quantitative
approach is employed first to figure out which countries’ cultures are included or excluded, and
how race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities are portrayed in
these EFL textbooks. Then a qualitative approach is adopted to interpret the deep structural meaning
of the data and explore power relations and agencies under the cultural representations.

Data source
Among the three textbooks series currently used in ethnic Mongol junior high schools in Inner Mon-
golia, Project English (Popular Science Press) was chosen because it was most widely used. However,
this study does not intend to generalise all EFL textbooks in Inner Mongolia; the examination of their
differences requires further research.
Because there is no website or paper materials providing information on textbook selection in
each prefecture in Inner Mongolia, we consulted our friends, who are EFL teachers or educational
administrators in Inner Mongolia, to discover which textbooks are widely used.
In total, the series comprises six textbooks for three years of junior high (two books for each aca-
demic year), which were published in 2012 (Book 2), 2013 (Books 1, 3 & 4), and 2014 (Books 5 & 6).
Each book involves four units, except Book 6, which consists of two. Each unit contains three topics
and the main texts consist of dialogues and readings; a total of 66 core topics were examined (Appen-
dix 1). The whole series is composed as a narrative line with four main characters age around 13–15,
who are Kangkang (Han ethnic male, Chinese), Jane (white female, Canadian), Maria (female,
Cuban) and Michael (white male, American). These characters are studying in an international
junior high school in Beijing. From the first book, where they meet, to the last book, where they
graduate junior high school, they are engaged in school and personal activities.

Data analysis framework

In this critical content analysis, all the dialogues and readings are investigated, as well as drawings
and pictures, which also contain significant information. Drawings and pictures are categorised as
marked and unmarked. Marked pictures have a clear identification of country, race/ethnicity, gen-
der/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities. Unmarked drawings and pictures are excluded
to get more exact and replicable quantitative results.
6 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

One of the main authors of this article is a female ethnic Mongol from China and was born in a
lower-class family. She brings this insider’s knowledge to the critical content analysis of these EFL
textbooks. Both authors carried out the tallying process. To reduce bias, we invited a third coder:
a hypothesis-blind ethnic Mongol EFL teacher. All coders counted independently according to
the established criteria. Incongruent results were resolved through discussion.
For the first research question, Kachru and Nelson’s (1996) three circle model was employed to
explore the spread of English. Words and drawings indicating cultural traits were examined. Each
time a country was mentioned (encompassing its geography, people, customs and festivals, activities,
achievements, language, and natural resources), it was counted once. However, the drawings or photo-
graphs accompanying the readings or dialogues were excluded since the words referring to certain cul-
tures had already been tallied. Meanwhile, if the country occurred in drawings separated from the
dialogues and readings, it was counted individually. If a country was mentioned more than once in a dia-
logue or a reading, it was counted only once. Likewise, if a country was mentioned many times in several
dialogues and readings under one topic, it was counted once. For example, given a topic of going to Tia-
n’anmen Square, if China was mentioned repeatedly through dialogues and readings about this one topic,
China was counted only once. Pronouns referring to the named countries were not counted.
For the second research question, multicultural variables of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality,
social class, and people with disabilities will be subcategories under Kachru and Nelson’s (1996)
three circles model. Race and ethnicity in this study have similar meaning and refer to different
ethnic groups with their distinct cultural traditions within a country, e.g. Native, Asian, Mexican,
Black, and White Americans in the US, and Han, Mongol, Uygur, Zhuang, and many other ethnic
groups in China. The gender/sexuality variable is categorised into male, female, and LGBT. For
social class, we adopted three general categories according to socioeconomic status: upper-class
(wealthy and powerful people who own and control the means of production), middle-class
(people occupied with career advancement, like professional workers, small business owners,
and low-level managers), and lower-class (those who rely on low-paying wage jobs for survival).
Disability here refers to people with both physical and mental disabilities, including deafness,
blindness, intellectual disability, partial or complete loss of limb or mobility disorders, need to
use a wheelchair, autism, cancer, cerebral palsy, diabetes, epilepsy, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, mus-
cular dystrophy, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder
and schizophrenia, etc. (Federal Register 2011).
For variables of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality and people with disabilities, we mainly employed
quantitative methods to collect data. For social class, we mainly adopted a qualitative approach to
explain the phenomena. For coding restraints of multicultural variables, see Table 1.
For the third research question, inferences and interpretations were made according to the quan-
titative results, as well as deep readings of dialogues and texts to discover whose story is being told,
which groups resolve problems, and how other groups appear, etc.

Quantitative results
Representations of countries
In total, 27 countries are featured in the six books. Overall, the coverage of China is dominant, fol-
lowed by the West, especially the US, the UK, and Canada.
By using Kachru and Nelson’s model (1996) of English uses, Table 2 summarises the distribution
results of three circle countries presented in this EFL textbook series. As shown in Table 2, the per-
centages of the coverage of the Inner, Outer and Expanding circle are 41.4%, 3.9%, and 54.6%
respectively. All six countries in the Inner Circle appeared, however, the US (18.7%), the UK
(9.2%), and Canada (9.2%) dominated, whereas New Zealand and Ireland occurred only three
times and once respectively. The results show clearly the percentage of the Outer Circle is the lowest,
with only four countries mentioned, among which India is highest (2.9%), more than twice the sum
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 7

Table 1. Coding restraints for multicultural variables.

Coding methods
Multicultural Words and drawings included but not
variables limited to: Coding restraints
Race/ethnicity Physical features (e.g. skin and eye colour, If drawings corresponding to dialogues, not counted; 2. If
hair and other facial features) drawings not corresponding to dialogues, counted; 3. If a
Names of countries (e.g. China and multicultural variable mentioned more than once, counted
Chinese) and languages; once; 4. If a variable appeared many times in dialogues and
drawings of Famous figures, food and readings under one topic, counted once; 5. Pronouns not
clothing, etc. counted except for gender/sexuality variable.
Gender/sexuality Gay, lesbian, proper names;
pronouns he and she.
People with People who cannot see/hear, disabled,
disabilities deaf, dumb and handicapped.
Social class Very wealthy people; doctors, teachers, and Make inferences through texts.
managers; poor and homeless people.

Table 2. Distribution of countries and multicultural variables.

Multicultural variables
Categories of Race/
countries Countries Ethnicity Gender/Sexuality Social Class Disability
Total 304 (100%) 458 (100%) 455 (100%)
Female Male
192 263
(42.2%) (57.8%)
Inner Circle 126 (41.4%) 191 (41.7%) 90 (19.8%) 101(22.2%) Mid or upper- mid class None
US 57 WA 89 WA 11 78
UK 28 AfricanA 5 AfricanA 0 5
Canada 28 AsianA 2 AsianA 1 1
Australia 9 WB 9 WB 3 6
NewZealand 3 WC 82 WC 75 7
Ireland 1 Irish 4 Irish 4
Outer Circle 12 (3.9%) 5 (1.1%) 5 (1.1%) 0 Mid or few lower-mid None
India 9 Indian 5 Indian 5 class
South Africa1
Pakistan 1
Kenya 1
Expanding Circle 166 (54.6%) 262 (57.2%) 97 (21.3%) 162 (35.6%) Mid or upper mid class None
China 98 (32.2%) Chi179(39%) Chi30(6.6%) 146(32.1%)
Han 174 Han 29 145
Mongol 1 Miao 1 Mongol 1
Miao 1
Zhuang 1
Tibetan 1
Korean 1
Other than China 68 (22.3%) 83 (18.1%) 67 (14.7%) 16 (3.5%)
Japan 18 Cuban 63 Cuban 60 3
France 8 Japanese 10 Japanese 5 5
Cuba 7 Italian 3 French 1 1
Russia 6 French 2 Italian 1 2
Italy 6 Greek 2 Egyptian 2
Greece 5 Egyptian 2 Greek 2
Korea 3 Spanish 1 Spanish 1
Egypt 3
Germany 2
Brazil 2
Spain 2
Austria 2
Indonesia 1
Switzerland 1
Poland 1 Mexico
1
Key: W = white; A = American; B = British; C = Canadian; Chi = Chinese; Mid = middle.
Note: all %s are absolute percentages across all categories (rather than relative %s within category).
8 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

of the other three countries (0.9%). Among all three circles, the percentage of the Expanding circle is
the highest. Across the textbook series,17 expanding circle countries appear, led by China (32%), fol-
lowed by Japan (5.9%), France (2.6%), Cuba (2.3%), Russia and Italy (1.9% respectively), and 11
other countries with lower percentages.

Representations of race/ethnicity, gender, social class and disabilities

Within the three circle framework, Table 2 also summarises presentations of race/ethnicity, gender/
sexuality, social class, and disabilities. For race/ethnicity, the percentage of ethnic groups from the
Expanding Circle is the highest, followed by ethnic groups from the Inner Circle and the Outer Cir-
cle, namely 57.2%, 41.7%, and 1.1%. In the Inner Circle, the number of white Americans, Canadians,
and British dominates, while the depictions of other ethnic groups in these countries are sparse. Fur-
thermore, people from other Inner Circles like Australia and New Zealand are absent. Indian is the
only ethnic group of the Outer Circle countries occurring in the EFL textbooks. In the Expanding
Circle, the number of Chinese is most prevalent at 179, and Cuban at 63, then followed by Japanese
(10); Italian (3); French, Greek, Egyptian (2 each); and Spanish (1). Within China, however, the cov-
erage of Han ethnic group is overwhelmingly high, comprising 174 of 179 total depictions. Only five
ethnic minorities are mentioned; all 50 other ethnic minorities are completely absent.
As for the gender/sexuality variable, there are only males and females, and no LGBT people pre-
sented. The depictions of males are more frequent than females (263/192). There are more portrayals
of Chinese males than females (146/30); American males than females (84/12). In contrast, there are
more portrayals of Canadian females than males (75/7), and more Cuban females than males (60/3).
Determining socioeconomic class from the pictures and other texts was difficult. However, the
majority of dialogues, reading settings, and pictures showing scientific concepts in action use
middle-class and upper-middle-class artefacts, e.g. the piano, ballet, travel, and picnics. Rarely did
we see a depiction of lower-class people. There are only two instances where people in middle
Asian countries and Africa suffer wars, homelessness and poverty (Book 4, p. 59; Book 5, p. 22).
People with identifiable disabilities are portrayed in none of the books. They are mentioned once
on page 3 in Book 5, when Maria says she helped children with disabilities during her summer
vacation, but there are no detailed pictures or textual information.

Qualitative results
Representations of power relations
Content is not the whole issue (Krippendorff 2004, 10), rather, the issue is what we can legitimately
infer from the texts. Scrutinising the quantitative results and texts in these EFL textbooks, we present
the tensions among three circle countries, ethnic majority and minorities, different sexuality groups
and social classes, as well as so-called healthy people and people with disabilities.
From the quantitative results, we can see obvious power relations among three circle countries.
The Inner and the Expanding Circle countries are dominant while the Outer Circles are margina-
lised. Specifically, the US, the UK, and Canada seem to have more rights to speech than Australia,
New Zealand, and Ireland. However, although Canada was depicted as much as the UK, Canada’s
depictions centred on ordinary lives, whilst the US and the UK depictions focused on famous his-
torians, artists, and scenic spots. Therefore, Canada’s status is lower than the other two, which rep-
resent authoritative English-speaking countries. In the Outer Circle, there are no obvious power
tensions shown in the EFL textbooks, with very few countries mentioned at all. In the Expanding
Circle, other than China, Japan was introduced more, a result of the fact that Japan is a neighbouring
country with frequent diplomatic relationships with China. Nonetheless, its frequency is much lower
than China’s. China is in a dramatically dominant position and acts like a host or owner. In general,
the stories of China, America, and Britain are over-represented.
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 9

Power relations became particularly tense in the race/ethnicity dimension of this textbook series.
There is a heavy emphasis on the Han ethnic group while the cultural knowledge of the textbooks’
users (ethnic Mongol) and other ethnic minorities is marginalised or completely absent. Famous
figures (e.g. Qin, Shihuang; Zheng, He; and Confucius) portrayed in these textbooks are all Han eth-
nic people. They represent China and tell young learners that the Han ethnic group has made a
greater contribution, while other ethnic minorities are silent. The stories focus on the Han, who con-
trols China and is problem-solver. For example, the main character Kangkang, representing the Han,
is always helpful, knowledgeable, and good at problem-solving. For instance:
Episode 1 (Book 4, p. 17)

Michael: I’m worried. We’ll have a test tomorrow and I always get nervous before test.
Kangkang: Relax, Michael. I am sure you will do well.
Michael: But Kangkang, the test is a speech. I get so nervous when I give a speech.
Kangkang: I will help you Michael. I have a CD about giving speeches. We can listen to it at my house. Then
you can practice.
Michael: Kangkang, I feel more relaxed now because of your help. You are really a good friend. Thank you
so much!

Episode 2 (Book 5, p. 29)

Kangkang: Good morning, Mrs. Zhou. What’s wrong with you?

Mrs. Zhou: Oh, Kangkang. It’s difficult for me to breathe. I’ve got a pain in my throat.
Kangkang: How long have you been like this?
Mrs. Zhou: I’ve been like this since last week.
Kangkang: Have you seen a doctor?
Mrs. Zhou: Not yet. The chemical factory produces terrible gas. The bad air makes my chest hurt. What’s
worse, the factory makes too much noise and I can’t sleep well at night.
Kangkang: That’s too bad.
Mrs. Zhou: Yes, it is really awful. I’m always in a bad mood because I can’t bear the environment here. Any-
way, I hope the government will solve this problem soon. By the way, have you noticed the dead
fish in the river?
Kangkang: Oh, yes. Pollution has caused too many problems. I think I should write to the newspaper about
these problems. But now you’d better go to see a doctor.

There is no portrayal of ethnic minorities in China. Therefore, we do not know whether they are as
helpful and knowledgeable as the Han. In any case, they are marginalised and have no voice.
Similarly, stories of the White from America and Canada were told more than other racial/ethnic
groups, e.g. Native, Asian, Hispanic, and African Americans. Jane (Canadian) and Michael (Amer-
ican), two of the main characters, represent English native speakers and the power of English, and are
both white.
As for gender/sexuality issues, men have overwhelmingly dominated the world while most
women have lower social positions, and all the LGBT groups are kept in silence. For example,
doctors, scientists, historians, and artists are portrayed as males, whereas females are mostly por-
trayed as nurses, teachers, saleswomen, and housewives. This tells young learners men are the
main characters in social and historical development and contribute more, while the contribution
of females is marginalised or ignored.
The qualitative analysis shows middle-class people controlling the world. Almost all the texts and
drawings depict people of high socioeconomic status. The main characters study at an international
school. The reality in China is that tuition fees in international schools are high, so only middle or
upper-middle-class families can afford it. Therefore, most parents depicted in these books have
decent jobs, and most dialogues depict events that are commonly associated with the middle-
class, e.g. having picnics, going abroad, and birthday parties. For example, Kangkang’s father, an out-
standing doctor in Beijing, is shown being interviewed on TV (Book 3, p. 41), lecturing at the inter-
national school (Book 3, p. 45), and working hard during the SARS outbreak (Book 3, p. 47). It
informs young learners that these middle or upper-middle-class people are the main characters in
10 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

the world and make more significant contributions. Conversely, lower-class people, such as migrant
workers, are excluded and have no voice at all.
People with disabilities have no agency in these texts either. All the stories talk about so-called
healthy people, implying that this world belongs to them.
Symbolic representations relate to power and are often used to confer legitimacy on the domi-
nance of particular social groups (Sleeter and Grant 1991, 79). Our results reinforce the idea that
dominant countries, dominant racial/ethnic groups, and people of socioeconomically higher status
have more powers and agency to speak. The results show that this EFL textbook series is controlled
and produced by dominant groups whose cultures and accomplishments seem important enough to
write about.

Discussion
Based on the results, four main points about cultural representations in this EFL textbook series
should be raised. First, the coverage of countries is unbalanced. China was most frequently fea-
tured, followed by the US, Canada, and the UK, while the coverage of Outer Circle countries is
negligible. This is different from the results of previous studies, most of which found that the
contents of many EFL textbooks were dominated by Inner circle countries, especially the US
and the UK, while Chinese culture appeared very little (Guo 2014; Ji 2011; Liu 2011; Wu
2014; Xie 2014). With the phenomenon of ‘Chinese culture aphasia’ (Cong 2000), which
means Chinese students cannot express their own cultures in English, EFL teaching has highly
advocated inclusion of home culture and international understanding. China was aware of the
lack of home culture in previous EFL education, and the inclusion of Chinese culture shows
its strong intention to reinforce a sense of cultural solidarity. Therefore, the results showing
the inclusion of Chinese culture are consistent with current curriculum standards. However,
the coverage of international cultures, meaning the cultures of countries other than China, is
not balanced and does not concur with the dimension of international cultural understanding
mentioned in the curriculum standard of 2011 (MOE 2011).
Secondly, racial/ethnic diversity within China and abroad in the EFL textbooks is inadequate. The
Han ethnic group overwhelmingly dominated the coverage while that of ethnic minorities within
China appeared very little or was completely excluded. Similarly, the coverage of white Americans,
British, and Canadians dominated those of other racial/ethnic groups in these countries.
Thirdly, the cultural world in these textbooks was presented in a stereotypical and monochro-
matic way. Using these textbooks, students have little chance to learn about diversity and within
China and globally. They tell young learners that one country has one racial/ethnic group and every-
one speaks one language. White people represent English-speaking countries, in which English is the
only language spoken. In the same way, the Han represents China, where everyone speaks one
language, Chinese (Mandarin). Moreover, it tells students the only purpose of learning English is
to understand the cultures and communicate with people from Inner Circle countries. Very little
social-class diversity is depicted, and lives are represented in a monochromatic way: people are all
happy, have decent jobs, houses, and lots of free time to hold parties and go travelling. There are
no social problems and few people struggling with their lives. Similarly, traditional sexual groups
of male and female are depicted; LGBT people appear to not exist. Furthermore, sexual groups
had stereotypical roles, e.g. doctors, scientists, and drivers for males; nurses, saleswomen, and house-
wives for females.
Finally, the sociocultural knowledge of the EFL textbook users, in this study the Mongol ethnic
group, was absent. These textbooks are the EFL teaching materials for Mongol ethnic children
but there are no Mongol ethnic pictures, contents, or people. The Chinese people in the textbooks
are the Han and the stories they tell are all about Han ethnic culture. Children in the textbooks
are mainly from urban cities and rich families. Therefore, this content is very different from the text-
book users’ lives, since most ethnic Mongols are living in economically under-developed rural areas.
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 11

Implications and conclusions

Our findings reveal that although various countries of the English-speaking community were rep-
resented in these EFL textbooks, the texts mainly comprised Inner Circle countries and China. Mean-
while, multicultural variables of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with
disabilities were not equally represented. Moreover, there is a lack of Mongol ethnic cultural contents.
If communicative skills are important in foreign language learning, Chinese students should be
trained to approach various kinds of international English and cultures. Therefore, various patterns
of English communication in a global context should be included in EFL textbooks. More varieties of
non-American/British English communication should be taught explicitly so that Chinese students
can learn to communicate successfully with people from Outer and Expanding Circles, as well as
those from Australia and New Zealand, to help Chinese students have more international
understanding.
As Kubota (2010) mentioned, if ‘foreign language education is seen as intrinsically compatible
with multiculturalism’ (99), Chinese students should know diversified worlds through their foreign
language instruction. The balanced inclusion of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and
people with disabilities might help students understand people in this world are not all the same.
They would know there are many kinds of racial/ethnic groups in a country, especially in a globalised
world. There are people with decent lives as well as people who are struggling to make livings both
within China and abroad. Representation of LGBT people would give students a broader under-
standing of sexuality. Likewise, embracing people with disabilities would encourage students to
respect them, and help students with disabilities feel they possess agency. This consciously multicul-
tural education may help young learners adapt to the increasingly multicultural world, reducing
prejudice and discrimination.
Since China has strengthened ‘the pattern of diversity in unity of Chinese nation’ (Fei 1999, 13),
diversity within China is important for national integration. Hence, inclusion of both the ethnic
majority and minorities might improve young learners’ understanding of diversity in their own
country. Meanwhile, this would enable ethnic minority learners to feel they are stakeholders in
the country and possess agency. Research indicates that inclusion of different racial/ethnic groups
in teaching materials can help students develop more positive inter-group attitudes under the con-
ditions of including positive images and adopting multiethnic materials (Banks and Banks 2014).
Hence, ethnic diversity embodied in EFL textbooks is good for both the ethnic majority and min-
orities in China.
Krippendorff (2004, 19) argues that the text should be produced by someone in order to have
meanings for someone else, and these meanings therefore must not be ignored and must not violate
why the text exists in the first place. Our results show that these EFL textbooks represent the hege-
mony of American and Han ethnic city dwellers’ lives. Therefore, these texts have no relationship
with ethnic Mongol students’ sociocultural lives and are not meaningful for ethnic Mongols in
China. Drawing upon Vygotsky’s ‘scientific and spontaneous concepts’ (Vygotsky 2012, 155–221),
which emphasise that school education and curriculum should combine these two concepts to facili-
tate students’ learning, we argue that EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China have to include
their sociocultural knowledge. Similarly, Moll et al. (1992) stress the importance of ‘Funds of Knowl-
edge’ to connect homes and classrooms to enhance students’ school learning. In EFL learning,
language rules are abstract scientific concepts and these concepts should be learned through or in
the context of students’ everyday knowledge and sociocultural environment. Gutierrez’s classroom
teaching studies show that students are more willing to learn when teachers make use of a language
and speech style from students’ homes. Otherwise, students often resist, consciously or uncon-
sciously, the hegemonic contents and methods of instruction (as quoted in Banks and Banks
2014). Thus, inclusion of Mongol ethnic cultures in EFL textbooks may enhance Mongol ethnic stu-
dents’ learning since textbook is an important ‘mediation’ (Vygotsky 2012) between teachers and
students.
12 R. XIANG AND V. YENIKA-AGBAW

Because of space limitations of textbooks, we insist EFL teachers need to go beyond the texts to
cover all aspects of diversity, helping students understand the varieties of English in the world, and
diversity both within one country and across the globe. EFL teachers should explicitly discuss issues
students might face in the future when they communicate with people from diverse linguistic and
cultural backgrounds. Moreover, if textbooks lack content related to students’ social lives, EFL edu-
cators have to make connections between abstract language knowledge and students’ sociocultural
knowledge, ensuring they have a good command of language learning.
Finally, ethnic Mongol educators and EFL researchers in China should try to write EFL textbooks
appropriate for ethnic Mongols. Many researchers argue that the absence of appropriate EFL text-
books may be a significant reason for poor EFL achievement among ethnic minorities (Akbar
2011; Bayaar 2011; Hong 2014; Su 2005; Zhao 2013). Therefore, there is an urgent need for ethnic
Mongol students to have their own suitable EFL textbooks, and textbook authors should pay atten-
tion to this.
All in all, this critical content analysis has revealed how multicultural contents appeared in the
EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China and has great significance to the future research and
EFL teaching. However, there are also some limitations to the study. The fact that some of the
main characters were Cuban and Canadian women may skew the results so that it appears there
is a bias in favour of female Cubans or Canadians, though that results from what may have been
an arbitrary decision to include a female Cuban or Canadian as a character.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to the blind reviewers and the editors, whose detailed feedback made this article what it is today; Dr. Baiyinna
Wu, professor of Inner Mongolia Normal University, who gave his sincere advice to this article; Marsha and Tad, dear
friends from Minnesota, who provided valuable linguistic suggestions.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Appendix 1. The 66 core topics

Topics
Textbook series-unit The 66 core topics
Book 1 1. Making New Friends Welcome to China!
Where are you from?
How old are you?
2. Looking Different I have a small nose
What does she look like?
Whose cap is it?
3. Getting Together Does he speak Chinese?
What does your mother do?
What would you like to drink?
4. Having Fun What can I do for you?
Would you like to cook with us?
What time is it now?
Book 2 5. Our School Life I usually come to school by subway.
A few students are running around the playground.
My school life is very interesting.
6. Our Local Area There is a study next to my bedroom.
My home is in an apartment building.
How can I get to the library?

(Continued)
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 15

Continued.
Topics
Textbook series-unit The 66 core topics
7. The Birthday Party When is your birthday?
Can you sing an English song?
Everyone had a good time.
8. The Seasons and the Weather What’s the weather like in summer?
The summer holidays are coming.
Let’s celebrate!
Book 3 1. Sports and Games Are you going to play basketball?
Would you mind teaching me?
Which sport will you take part in?
2. Keeping Healthy You’d better go to see a doctor.
I must have a good rest tonight.
Must we do exercise to prevent the flu?
3. Our Hobbies Our hobbies.
What sweet music!
What were you doing at this yesterday?
4. Our World Plants and animals are important to us.
Are you sure there are UFOs?
The workers used to live models, didn’t they?
Book 4 5. Feeling Excited You look excited.
I’m feeling better now.
Many things can affect our feelings.
6. Enjoying Cycling We’re going on a three-day visit to Mount Tai.
How about exploring Tian’anmen Square?
Bicycle riding is a good exercise.
7. Food Festival We are preparing for a food festival.
I’m not sure whether I can cook it well.
I cooked the most successfully.
8. Our Clothes We will have a class fashion show.
We can design our own uniforms.
He said the fashion show was wonderful.
Book 5 1. The Changing World Our country has developed rapidly.
The population in developing countries is growing faster.
The world has changed for the better.
2. Saving the Earth Pollution has caused too many problems.
All these problems are very serious.
What can we do at home to protect the environment?
3. English Around the World English is widely spoken throughout the world.
Some things usually have different meanings in different cultures.
Could you give us some advice on how to learn English well?
4. Amazing Science When was it invented?
I’m excited about the things that will be discovered in the future.
China is the third nation that sent a person into space.
Book 6 5. China and the World China attracts millions of tourists from all over the world.
He is really the pride of China.
Now it is a symbol of England.
6. Entertaining and Friendship I would rather watch sports show than those ones.
Who is your favourite character in literature?
I will remember our friendship forever.