A Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Advanced ELT Textbooks Based on Fairclough’s Framework

Discourse is pregnant of the language users’ ideology. In the same vein, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has been used to uncover the relationship between discourse, ideology, and power hidden between the lines. Accordingly, this study aims at investigating contents, social relations, and subject positions infour popular advanced ELT textbooks namely, TOP Notch 3, Summit 2, Passages 2, and New Interchange 3 based on Fairclough’s (2001) model of CDA. To do so, the conversations of all the textbooks were analyzed to figure out the ideology behind the textbooks. The findings indicated that in case of contents, giving/asking for information and interaction were outstandingly significant. Regarding social relations, friend in all textbooks was the most conspicuous social relation which emphasizes the equal social relations in the conversations. Finally, concerning subject positions, societal, friendship, and occupational took the first, second and the third positions respectively. It was concluded that the language and discourse utilized in ELT textbooks were not value free. Also through the conversation analysis it was revealed that the discourse, tone and intonation used in conversations were along with western ideology. Here the pivotal role of CDA is to divulge neo-liberalism, neoclassical ideology selected by English textbooks producers which may affect EFL learners’ attitudes towards social problems such as social inequality, power dominance, culture diversity, gender differentiation and colonialism. The implication is that via CDA approach to language, language learners are able to read between the lines in order to seek cultural, societal and political differences dominated throughout the textbooks.