Localizing Global English Language Textbooks: A Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Identity Construction in Global, Regional and Local Editions

Abstract

This thesis investigates the effects of localizing a global English language textbook on the textual and semiotic representation of identity in its discourses. The thesis adopts a multimodal perspective to compare the changes that take place in three different editions of the sampled English language textbook, those produced for the global, regional (Middle Eastern) and local (Saudi) markets. Relying on a social constructionist epistemology, the study aims, first, to generate a new understanding of the phenomenon of localization of global English language textbooks for different regions, and secondly, to develop methodological tools for analyzing the multimodal construction of identity in English language textbooks. These aims are translated into three research questions: How are participants represented multimodally in the sample global ELT textbook? What semiotic resources change or do not change in the localization of the sample global ELT textbook for different regions? and, what aspects of the identities of Represented Participants are highlighted or omitted in the localization of the sample global ELT textbook The thesis uses a critical multimodal discourse analysis approach to develop an original analytical framework that combines social semiotic multimodal taxonomies for layout (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1998), images (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996) and color (Van Leeuwen, 2011). Halliday’s transitivity analysis of verbal language (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) is also used to probe the construction of identity in the selected corpus. This corpus consists of a sample of 12 different versions of the same textbook; these span 3 different geographical editions and 4 different levels of ability within a single global English language textbook series. The findings are organized into three chapters which focus on the themes of youth, family and gender. First, in the multimodal construction of young people, the process of localization targeted the discourses that mediate the representation of sexual identity, work, and agency, but did not impact on the discourses of consumerism. Secondly, in the representation of the identity of family, the process of localization targeted the representation of the collective subjectivity of family by rearranging the priorities and altering the content of the aspirations of each family represented in the different regions. Finally, localization realized gender through the representation of adult identity, with the process excluding female participants from the sites of both work (some professions) and leisure (sport), thereby socially redefining gender categories.