Discourse Analysis of Portraying Indigenous Pacific Islanders in Taiwan's English as a Foreign Language Textbooks

• In Event: 30.056 - Achieving the Promise for Indigenous Peoples: Research on the Politics of Storytelling

Abstract

Indigenous populations in Taiwan have historically been marginalized. In this democratic era, this study hypothesizes that the Taiwanese English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks still embed biased representations of indigenous groups. Hence this study conducts discourse analysis on the portrayal of indigenous populations in Taiwan’s EFL textbooks. Utilizing settler colonialism theory (Veracini, 2010) and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2000), this study examines narratives about indigenous groups in Taiwanese EFL textbooks. Results reveal dominant settler Chinese discourses discriminating indigenous groups. The discourse includes repressing indigenous narrative voice, misrepresenting indigenous culture as primitive, and serving the settler colonial gaze of exoticizing the indigenous groups. Finally, this study offers a critical framework of curriculum design for equity in representing marginalized indigenous communities.

Author

• Yann-Ru Ho, National Yang Ming University