A representação do papel da mulher em manuais de Português Língua Estrangeira

Abstract

The textbook is one of the most widely used materials from the origin of education to the present day, in whatever subject. Foreign language subjects are no exception, and the textbook is much preferred by teachers and students, as it serves as a guide for them. Since the textbook is such a vital tool in the classroom, it is important to be aware of the representations of the world that these textbooks convey. Therefore, this dissertation intends to investigate the representation of the role of women in Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbooks, with the purpose of deepening its differences in relation to the representation of the role of men, and to identify possible strategies of inferiorization of the female role, as well as the possible creation of stereotypes towards women. Thus, the research questions this paper aims to answer are: 1. How are women discursively represented in Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbooks? 2. Are women discursively represented as having less importance in comparison to men? The answer to these two questions will provide insight into how women's position in society is viewed. To achieve these objectives, we constituted a corpus comprising four contemporary Portuguese as a Foreign Language textbooks, ranging from A1 to C1/C2 levels: Novo Português sem Fronteiras I, Português XXI 1-, Passaporte para Português 1 and Português em Foco 4). We will use the tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, more specifically Van Leeuwen's (1996) model of Representation of Social Actors to study the discourse of the textbooks under analysis and try to reconstruct the role of women as it is discursively conveyed by these materials. We turn in particular to the categories of "naming" and "categorization" and, within the latter, "functionalization" and "identification." Regarding the two questions mentioned above, we conclude that women are indeed discursively represented as having less importance compared to men, in the sense that they are portrayed less often than the opposite gender, as well as undervalued (women are still prominently represented in the domestic sphere and more often identified through their physical appearance).

Date of Award	28 Nov 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Faria (Supervisor)