Language as a “Praxis”: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Algerian English as a Foreign Language Textbooks (Joining in-person)

Situated within the context of the international discourse on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and given the research gap on its theorization and application in North Africa and the Middle East, this study uses English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks as a context for deepening the conceptualizations of Global Citizenship Education. As a new educational model, GCE advocates for the need to cultivate global citizenship; it implies global interconnectedness, solidarity, and commitment to the common good beyond the national borders (Torres, 2015; Torres & Bosio, 2020).

Algeria, among other Maghrebi countries, opted for the expansion of EFL education due to its worldwide dominance as the language of science and technology. Although English came to impose itself at the international level as a hegemonic language (Zughoul, 2003), its “anonymity” (Woolard, 2016) as a language that is not forced by any former colonial power contributed to its prosperity in the Algerian context compared to the French language.

The dominance of EFL also poses a challenge pertaining to the cultural content of the curriculum taught in national contexts with public institutions that prescribe the “official knowledge” (Apple, 2014). Using Guilherme’s (2007) words, it gives rise to the challenge of tailoring the teaching of EFL in a way to avoid “ethnocentric” nationalistic approach and “ethno-cleansing” Eurocentric approach towards an unbiased “ethno-decentring” approach for the cultivation of global citizens (p.80). In fact, the actualization of this question in practice remains an open-ended conversation especially in contexts with strong nationalistic ideologies. Using EFL standardized textbooks that are published from 2016 through 2019 and used around junior high public schools in Algeria, this paper seeks to address the following questions: (1) What are the dominant ideologies that are communicated through texts and images of Algerian junior high EFL textbooks? (2) In what ways, if any, do texts and images of Algerian junior high EFL textbooks contribute to fostering global citizenship identity?

This study is guided by Freire’s concept of “praxis”, i.e., “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (1970, p.51). Thus, using a critical framework, I draw on the different tools that are offered by Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics Theory, and Multimodality to unveil the different ideologies embedded in the content of the EFL textbooks in Algeria. The Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis that is used in this study is based on the functional model developed by Halliday (1978) in the field of linguistics, namely the metafunction of language that deals with the content and the interpersonal metafunction of language that is about social relationships. The study will derive from the tools developed by different critical scholars to accommodate the analysis of different linguistic forms and visual structures of the textbooks (e.g., Machin & Mayr, 2012; Leeuwen, 2012; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).

Fadhila Hadjeris is former Fulbright scholar and currently a Phd. Candidate at the School of Education at the University of California Los Angeles with a major in Social Sciences and Comparative Education. Her research interests center on the implementation of Global Citizenship Education in the Algerian context with a focus on the school curriculum and teachers’ pedagogy. Fadhila has a background in Foreign Language Education and Applied Linguistics which was the focus of her first PhD that she obtained from Algeria. She taught different languages: English in Algeria and Arabic and French in the USA. She is now serving as a teaching fellow of French at UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies.