A Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Advanced ELT Textbooks Based on Fairclough’s Framework

Critical Discourse Analysis uncovers the relationship between discourse, ideology, and power. This study investigated and analyzed contents, social relations, and subject positions in conversations of four popular advanced ELT textbooks. The findings indicated that for contents, giving/asking for information and interaction were outstandingly significant. Regarding social relations, friend was the most conspicuous item. For subject positions, societal, friendship, and occupational took the first to third positions, respectively. The language utilized in ELT textbooks was not value free and discourse, tone, and intonation were based on the western ideology. Neo-liberalism, neoclassical ideology selected by the producers had effect on learners’ attitudes towards social problems.