Pedagogical representation of visual images in EFL textbooks: a multimodal perspective

This study adopts the framework proposed by KvL to analyse visual images in Indonesian senior high school EFL textbooks, to shed light on their functions as well as their appropriateness and suitability for pedagogical purposes. The data in this study cover all the visual images in the three EFL textbooks, a total of 232 images. The findings suggest that, regarding gender bias and stereotypes males were more frequently portrayed than females (66% and 34% of images respectively). Also, the meaning of the images suggested an objective and impersonal connection between images and viewers. Moreover, there was no apparent power discrepancy between images and viewers suggesting that students would be able to make connections to the images. Furthermore, it is suggested that the visual images could help students to engage effectively with the exercises and provide emphasis for the assertions made in the linguistic parts of the text. Thus, the image-structuring in the three senior high school EFL textbooks in Indonesia provided and emphasised concepts and meaning in the text.