Sexism In Japanese English Textbooks

This journal proves that the actual state of sexism in English textbooks used in Japan. The object of ten textbooks is published between 1989 and 1992, which is divided introductory, intermediate and advanced levels. This article examined the sexism from nine aspects: the number of female and male characters, the number of female and male sentences, main characters’ qualifications, the image of occupation, adjective usage, activities, pronounce of animals, others and original written year of the textbooks. From the first and second results, as the text level goes up, more often male characters and sentences appear although both of appearance rate are almost equal at the introductory level. The kinds of occupation for female and male increase …show more content…
In my experience, I had learned English almost all days using Japanese English textbook when I was in secondary and high school. Now in Japan, students who are fifth or six graders have started learning English using textbooks. Moreover, some children begin to learn English even before that ages. Even though introductory level textbooks have less sexism, there are still some sexist expressions that can affect their perspectives without knowing. The biggest problem is secondary and high school students have to study English almost every single day using the sexist textbooks. It means that the students have usually received sexist compulsory education for at least six years. According to the textbook page 4 and 5, profession, a survey shows that provides the most benefit to society is teacher. This means that teachers have great impact on not only students but society. Although this survey was conducted in America, I think the power of the influence is as strong as in Japan. These two situations, students receive sexist education and teachers have a great effect on the society, will reinforce the Japanese sexist society unconsciously. When I think that I am going to teach Japanese students by use of English textbooks, I will try several things that solve the sexist problem. I will try to choose a textbook which is written lately because it is believed that there are less sexist expressions in textbooks as time goes by. I will give students an extra assignment which has de-sexing description when I think there are too much biases against females or males. It seems the most interesting activity is that students make a less sexist textbook by themselves. I will let students find biased words or sentences and change into the other non-sexist expressions. For instance, if a woman has only first name in a sentence, students create her last name and make