Key Points Raised in the Analysis of the Three Textbooks

All three books have a similar approach to the presentation of the English language and the actual structure o f the units in terms of organising the units into vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing activities. All three books make liberal use o f visual images by means of photographs and cartoons. The drawings in New Interchange are somewhat more animated than their counterparts in New Headway and New Cutting Edge due to the bright colours and the varied facial expressions o f the characters.

The information on the books' covers in each case claims that the textbooks promote a 'new' approach to various aspects o f language learning, but it is not totally clear what this

newness means in terms o f significant advantages to the students. The Taiwanese students' need to experience 'something new' appears to have been satisfied with the inclusion of exotic locations. The sense o f a community is quite strong in all three textbooks. For example, textbook characters tend to help each other, work together, and be part of a family. Arguably, this may be a marketing ploy that allows students to engage with a discourse community - a fact that the Taiwanese students may find appealing.

Visual Images

The visual images are firmly established in a multi-ethnic, rather clean community of mostly contented people. The images in New Headway deviate somewhat from the depiction of smiling faces to potentially conflicting expressions - a smiling face prior to a well-known tragic event, fo r example - in activities built around significant twentieth century events. Several o f the representations are arguably more for 'decoration' than 'use' (Hill, 2003), however this tendency would appear to be isolated. The display of culture in Britain to the students through the images occurs mostly through the use of well-known locations and the pastimes of the characters. This is significant in relation to Research Question 1 in that a good deal of the students' knowledge of culture in Britain may be based on images and characters in the textbooks, and the extreme nature of the cartoons, discussed in particular in relation to New Interchange, may hinder students' ability to react to conversations outside the classroom.

It is not totally clear why the cartoons were originally presented in an exaggerated manner in New Interchange except perhaps to draw the students' attention to the images as quickly as possible. Whether this will allow them to complete the activity - or find a higher level o f interest in the completion of the activity - is open to question.

In relation to this slightly exaggerated style, Hill (2003) splits the purpose o f visual images into groups. The use of images in New Interchange is consistent with the group Hill terms 'Finding or giving inform ation/ Hill further separates the analysis into 'Functional illustrations' - those 'making comprehension o f the language easier/ and images 'whose object is to stimulate a mental and linguistic response' (p. 178).

Although Hill suggests a dichotomy between these two units of analysis, it may be possible to find elements o f both in the images used in New Interchange. For example, the comprehension of language may indeed be made easier by relating the cartoons or photographs to the dialogues. In addition, the slightly exaggerated nature o f the cartoons can stimulate a response from students. It would seem, based on interview responses, that some of the New Interchange images; in particular, the cartoons may increase the students' ability to link the images to the language and gain a greater understanding of the activities and ability to talk about them in a more varied way by allowing the students to compare the images with situations they have seen in Brighton and Hove.

In terms of metafunctions, the images feature some extreme facial expressions, and the direction o f the characters' gaze is significant as in some cases the direct gaze seems to be intended to draw the students into the image, while the characters not engaged w ith the viewer seem to be occupying a world where the student is merely a passive observer.

Language

The language is sequenced in a predictable form at giving it a somewhat unnatural sound; however, this could be said of almost all EFL textbooks in terms of the detailed structure that was referred to in the Literature Review. See Section 2.8 The EFL Textbooks. Similarly, people's names support the corresponding visual representation o f a cross

section of different ethnic groups; an issue directly related to marketing, again as noted in the Literature Review.

Such issues as apologising and excuses appeared in all three books, and indeed are critical cultural and linguistic areas that the Taiwanese students need to understand. However, it was in more subtle areas o f language that the students expressed an interest. In particular, certain aspects o f humour - irony and sarcasm, fo r example - caused some confusion among Taiwanese students in the Initial Study. This will be examined in more detail in Chapter 5, Section 5.4 Humour across Cultures.

The textbook analysis has demonstrated that in some ways the three textbooks provide appropriate cultural information to the students through the visual images and the language. The analysis has also vindicated my adaptation of Littlejohn's (2011) framework in establishing how effective the textbooks may be in terms of meeting the specific needs o f the Taiwanese students. )