A critical inquiry on the ideological and hegemonic practices in EFL textbooks

Abstract

Abstract The expanding hegemony of English caused English Language Teaching to suddenly turn into an international business with huge financial investment, and accordingly produced EFL textbooks evolved into a cornerstone of the business. Further, studies on the relation between ideology, hegemony, and textbooks have multiplied in recent decades as a result of the rise of critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical thinking skills which have inspired scholars to establish a critical perspective towards EFL textbooks considering the compounds of ideology and hegemony. In this paper, using a mixed method research design, qualitatively collected data through interviews and quantitatively gathered data through a questionnaire aimed to reveal the views of teachers/instructors and learners about the ideological and hegemonic practices contained in the EFL textbooks. The results of questionnaire and interview showed that ideology and hegemony are closely related to each other. Moreover, it is hard to give a clear-cut definition of these two terms because both textbooks and participants often used these two terms interchangeably. However, the participants declared diverse views on the underlying ideology and hegemonic practices in globally and locally written EFL textbooks.