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Immigrant Success Stories in ESL Textbooks
Author(s) -
GULLIVER TREVOR
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.5054/tq.2010.235994
Subject(s) - immigration , linguistics , psychology , sociology , pedagogy , mathematics education , history , philosophy , archaeology
Immigrant success stories found in English as a second language (ESL) textbooks used in government‐funded language instruction in Canada imagine Canada as a redeemer of immigrant newcomers. Through a critical discourse analysis of ESL textbooks used in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada classes in Ontario, I identify two primary strategies of legitimation: positive self‐representation/negative other‐representation (van Dijk, 2000) and the maintenance of a low orientation to difference (Fairclough, 2003), despite a feigning of dialogicality. The stories of these immigrant newcomers follow a very similar narrative pattern that legitimates periods of economic hardship, social exclusion, and personal struggle. However, they overwhelmingly represent hard‐working immigrant newcomers as successful and appreciative of the opportunities provided to them by Canada. I conclude by arguing that ESL teachers should recognize that the diverse experiences of newcomers may not align with these repetitive imaginings of Canada as a redeemer of immigrant others.