The Analysis of Gender-Based Language Written in the Short Stories of Twelfth Grade English Language Textbook

Abstract

This study indicated the significance of literary works on the analysis of English Language textbook of Twelfth grade by focusing on Gender-Based Language written in the Short Story. The researcher aimed to explore gender-specific vocabulary in context including common nouns, pronouns, terms of address, and occupation for different gender. To gather data sufficiently, researcher selected six short stories from nine Units of the six chapters. The analysis of these gender- specific vocabulary was conducted with WordSmith 8.0 software text analyzer. The results revealed that the common nouns for female characters in the short story were written meaning that women played significant roles in Cambodian society as could be read of most of the activities in the story. In addition, pronouns utilized in short stories representing female characters double to males. This result signified the roles of female as main characters in the short story. Moreover, the name for each character of the story is written to present the characteristics of women. Most names are female main characters of the short stories. Last, women had high status in the story as they worked in good position. Future implication should be implementing another analysis on reading texts of the textbook to gain more information on gender biases. Future authors should be careful in writing by balancing gender representation in teaching materials.