Books by Łukasz Pakuła
Linguistic perspectives on sexuality in education: Representations, Constructions and Negotiations, 2021
From the blurb:
This book brings together leading academics and practitioners working in the are... more From the blurb:
This book brings together leading academics and practitioners working in the area of language, gender, sexuality and education, consolidating recent developments and moving the field forward in a contemporary context. This unique and timely volume captures current themes, debates, theories and methods in the field, and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working around the world in the areas of Applied Linguistics, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Education, Sociology and Discourse Studies.
This research report looks empirically and critically at gender and sexuality in a selection of p... more This research report looks empirically and critically at gender and sexuality in a selection of primary and secondary Polish EFL classrooms, in terms of representation in textbooks and classroom discourse overall. The data includes perspectives of teachers, students and Ministry of Education advisors. While the authors find much to be concerned about, they also identify progressive avenues. They conclude with a range of constructive and practicable suggestions for different language education practitioners: teachers, teacher educators, materials writers and illustrators, and policy makers.
Authors: Łukasz Pakuła, Joanna Pawelczyk and Jane Sunderland
Young Linguists’ Insights, an edited collection, offers a fresh perspective on a number of curren... more Young Linguists’ Insights, an edited collection, offers a fresh perspective on a number of current issues in interdisciplinary linguistics. Both renowned specialists and junior researchers present the output of their work in 30 chapters grouped into six thematic sections. The scope of the publication encompasses sociolinguistics, neuro- and psycholinguistics, language and technology as well as more traditional approaches to language.
Papers / Book chapters by Łukasz Pakuła
Replika
Z JOANA CHOJNICKĄ i ŁUKASZEM PAKUŁĄ – językoznawcami, którzy badają, jak na poziomie języka ludzi... more Z JOANA CHOJNICKĄ i ŁUKASZEM PAKUŁĄ – językoznawcami, którzy badają, jak na poziomie języka ludzie LGBT+ funkcjonują w polskich szkołach – rozmawia Jakub Wojtaszczyk.
Linguistic Perspectives on Sexuality in Education: Representations, Constructions and Negotiations, 2021
This chapter offers an unprecedented study of Polish non-heterosexually identified teachers' disc... more This chapter offers an unprecedented study of Polish non-heterosexually identified teachers' discourses of sexuality circulating in and beyond the classroom. To this end, we organized one focus group (FG) and two follow-up in-depth interviews (IDIs). The overarching aim was to identify and explore discourses produced by LGBT teachers for possible convergences and clashes, and to juxtapose these with their reported teaching praxis. Our data show the discursive struggle between the need for an inclusive classroom and the jeopardy that executing this need entails for the teachers' professional identity construction, and-as a consequence-their careers within the state-run educational system. We also draw attention to the heterogeneity of discourses and fragmented inclusive/progressive language use.
Linguistic Perspectives on Sexuality in Education: Representations, Constructions and Negotiations, 2021
The dictionary-sexuality interface to a great extent remains an uncharted research territory. Onl... more The dictionary-sexuality interface to a great extent remains an uncharted research territory. Only recently has there been a small uptick in the interest in representations of sexualities in this type of reference works. From a theoretical-cum-practical vantage point, however, this research gap does not seem to be justified as dictionaries are vested with a powerful semantic authority thus potentially engendering real-life consequences. The aims of this chapter are twofold. Firstly, it sketches out the intimate and longstanding relation between lexicography and queer linguistics. Secondly, it addresses the research gap by making a case for queer critical metalexicography (QCM). To this end, a selection of sexuality-related dictionary entries is subjected to a diachronic scrutiny showcasing the practical implications of the concept of 'degrees of heteronormativity' for the purpose of critiquing reference works. Keywords queer critical metalexicography queer(ing) lexicography queer linguistics sexuality dictionaries degrees of heteronormativity This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Appendix SEX MEDAL
Linguistic Perspectives on Sexuality in Education: Representations, Constructions and Negotiations, 2021
Back in 2018 I witnessed an instance of verbal behaviour which-I believe-would be categorised as ... more Back in 2018 I witnessed an instance of verbal behaviour which-I believe-would be categorised as hate speech, for instance, in the UK, yet regrettably remains unpenalised in the Polish legal system. A social media group intended for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Poland, I used to be a member of, featured a post asserting that non-heteronormative students should not be treated on a par with the heterosexual majority. It contained denigrating and devaluating claims about such students. What is more bewildering and saddening, it was authored by a teacher. Would you expect an instant reprimand on the part of the group community defending the rights of such student minority? I certainly did. For this reason, I was rather taken aback to read only a few moderately critical comments that were followed with somewhat vehement replies by the author becoming even more verbally aggressive. My reaction was instinctive: to label the behaviour appropriately, refute the ludicrous argumentation and direct the fellow group members to relevant research literature. If I recall correctly, I was supported by merely one more member and at the same time chastised by the group admin for "name calling", that is, using the word homophobe. In an ensuing private conversation with a group administrator, I was advised of the fact that the group was not intended for "social polemics" as it was conceived of as a platform fostering discussions on language teaching only, as if language could be taught in a social vacuum. Deeming it pertinent to the case in point, I indefatigably pursued this subject by creating a new post informing fellow teachers of the insidiously perilous dangers of maintaining uncritical attitude towards using homophobic language in educational settings, including acts of suicide, and cross-referenced a report on gender and sexuality in the Polish EFL I co-authored (Pakuła et al. 2015). This was met with a preventive measure, according to the admin, of deleting it in order to avoid an "ideological war" on the forum as this was "a space for people of divergent worldviews". I can only recall my feeling of disillusionment and disappointment. In the report I mention, one of the interviewees who had been an EFL textbook reviewer for a number of years christened EFL practitioners members of a vanguard group due to their insightful knowledge not only of the language per se but also of the broader socio-cultural context. This, however, at least in this case, can be only cast away as mere wishful-thinking. A vision of an inclusively oriented teacher need not be utopian, though. However, in order to arrive at this, a certain set of criteria need to be fulfilled. First and foremost, the vital role of teacher training programmes needs to be widely acknowledged (Bellini 2012, Paiz this volume). They ought to incorporate explicit content related to LGBT+ students and
Trabalhos Em Linguística Aplicada, 2020
In this article, we discuss the narratives of struggle, resistance, and counter-resistance over t... more In this article, we discuss the narratives of struggle, resistance, and counter-resistance over the rights of the LGBT+ community at several Polish universities, which remain unnamed in order to protect our informants. In particular, we look at the discourses of LGBT+ groups struggling to establish or maintain organizations of various forms (from students' study circles to union-like institutions) within the context of internal university structure, Polish academic culture and current political developments in the country. This research draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews we conducted in the spring and summer of 2020. In our analyses of the interview material, we apply a multidisciplinary methodological framework combining CDA and narrative inquiry in order to examine linguistic phenomena participating in constructing a particular version of reality through text in talk. Such research design enables us to offer a case study of the difficulties and obstacles faced by LGBT+ activists in the Polish academia the way they understand them, and of the resistance strategies they employ in this particular context. Our research shows a wide range of resistance strategies employed by the LGBT+ community members that can be classified according to the scale of discriminatory practices they form a response to (systemic/individual discrimination) and the type of the response itself (group/individual response). On the basis of the discussed examples, our article offers an interagentive matrix of strategies of addressing LGBT+ issues emerging within the Polish academic context. RESUMO Neste artigo, discutimos as narrativas de embates, resistência e contra-resistência sobre os direitos da comunidade LGBT+ em várias universidades polonesas, cujos nomes não são fornecidos a fim de proteger os nossos informantes. Em particular, analisamos os discursos de grupos LGBT+ que lutam para estabelecer ou manter organizações de várias formas (desde círculos de estudo de estudantes a instituições do tipo sindical) no contexto da estrutura interna das universidades, da cultura acadêmica polonesa e dos atuais desenvolvimentos políticos no país. Esta investigação baseia-se em entrevistas em profundidade semi-estruturadas que realizamos na primavera e no verão de 2020. Nas nossas análises do material da entrevista, aplicamos um quadro metodológico multidisciplinar que combina ACD e investigação narrativa, a fim de examinar fenômenos linguísticos que participam na construção de uma versão específica da realidade por meio de texto em conversa. Tal concepção de investigação permite-nos oferecer um estudo de caso das dificuldades e obstáculos enfrentados pelos ativistas LGBT+ na academia polonesa, da forma como os entendem, e pelas estratégias de resistência que empregam neste contexto particular. A nossa investigação mostra uma vasta gama de estratégias de resistência empregadas pelos membros da comunidade LGBT+ que podem ser classificadas de acordo com a escala de práticas discriminatórias a que respondem (discriminação sistêmica/individual) e com o tipo de resposta em si (resposta de grupo/individual). Com base nos exemplos discutidos, o artigo oferece uma matriz interagentiva de estratégias de abordagem de questões LGBT+ emergentes no contexto acadêmico polonês.
Chisato Danjo, Indu Meddegama, Dai O’Brien, John Prudhoe, Linda Walz and Rachel Wickasono (eds.), Online Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics: Taking Risks in Applied Linguistics. York: York St John University, 86–90., 2019
Gender Representation in Learning Materials: International Perspectives, May 1, 2015
Poland, as a young conservative democracy, is witnessing an unprecedented amount of public debate... more Poland, as a young conservative democracy, is witnessing an unprecedented amount of public debate where ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ figure prominently. Both, however, tend to be perceived as foreign imports and thus fiercely contested. Consequently, the role of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials as well as teachers as potential mediators of markedly different Anglophone socio-politics is of paramount importance.
What is more, the only Polish research examining the portrayal of women in EFL materials is that by Jaworski (1986), who exposed the abundance of sexism in EFL textbooks available in Poland at that time. Regrettably, ‘sexuality’ as a culturally (but not linguistically) important identity category was not addressed or recognised in the broad Polish educational context until 2012 (Świerszcz 2012).
This chapter reports on two studies conducted as part of the research project entitled “Investigating Gender and Sexuality in the ESL classroom: Raising publishers', teachers' and students' awareness”. The aim of the first study was to qualitatively scrutinize the discursive and multimodal construction of gender, gender relations, and sexuality in two leading illustrated Primary School EFL textbooks in Poland, along with the accompanying workbooks and teacher’s books. To this end the analytical methods of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1989; Lazar 2005, 2014), Multimodal Discourse Analysis (see e.g. Giaschi 2000; Guo 2004; O’Halloran 2004; Kress and Van Leeuwen 2006) and the concept of critical heteronormativity (Motschenbacher 2010, 2011) were utilized. The analyses focused on the representation of the social roles of men and women, boys and girls in EFL materials. They also demonstrated different textual manifestations of heteronormativity.
‘Gender critical points’ (Sunderland et al. 2002) – identified in the first study - were drawn on in the second study. We also extended Sunderland et al.’s (2002) concept by introducing the notion of ‘gender-emerging points’, which we believe enriches the analytical apparatus by highlighting the dynamic character of classroom interactions and thus the central role of teachers. Here we used audio-recorded primary school classroom interactions to demonstrate how the identified ‘gender critical points’ are addressed and how ‘gender-emerging points’ surface and/or are made (ir-)relevant in the classroom setting. Thus the analysis focused on gendered ‘talk around the text’ emerging in teacher-student interactions to explore negotiation, challenge and/or rejection and ‘uptake’ of gender roles and discourse. To this end methods and insights from critical linguistic analysis were used along with Sunderland’s (this volume) agenda for future research on gender representation in foreign language textbooks.
Keywords: EFL, gender, sexuality, Poland, CDA, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, hidden sexuality and gender curriculum
Journal of Gender and Power 1(1): 49-66
Schools in general and classrooms in particular are among society’s primary socializing instituti... more Schools in general and classrooms in particular are among society’s primary socializing institutions (Freeman and McElhinny, 1996, p. 261; Adger, 2001). In particular, education, as an institution of Gramsci’s ‘civil society’ (Jones, 2006), can be considered a grassroots space where hegemonic gendered and sexual identities are constructed and regulated. This article looks at the context of the EFL classroom – a discursive space where learners are potentially (re-)constructed in relation to various (gender) roles in society as well as learning the practices, values and rules of a given society at large. In this paper we explore and discuss how the categories of gender and sexuality are represented, (re-)constructed and generally dealt with in this learning environment. We follow Foucault’s (1978, 1979) conceptualization of power as something which “weaves itself discursively through social organizations, meanings, relations and the construction of speakers’ subjectivities or identities” (Baxter, 2003, p. 8) and is enacted and contested in every interaction (see Mullany, 2007). We see power as being produced, reproduced, challenged and resisted in the EFL classroom in connection with the construction of gender and sexuality. The article discusses how views on what/who is ‘powerful’ in the context of the EFL classroom have changed over the years, from the early privileging of textbooks to the currently advocated central role of the teacher in addressing and promoting (or not) traditional and/or progressive discourses of gender and sexuality. Critical pedagogies and queer pedagogies are discussed as offering educators potent insights and tools to deal with heteronormativity and various forms of discrimination in the EFL classroom as well as helpful means for empowering all students by addressing their various identities. It is thus our contention that relationships between gender, sexuality and EFL education are in need of urgent (re)addressing as existing research is outdated, lacks methodological sophistication or is lacking in the Polish context.
It seems that despite the undeniable fact that colour research has received considerable attentio... more It seems that despite the undeniable fact that colour research has received considerable attention for centuries 1 resulting in more than 3000 publications during the last 150 years (MacLaury 1997 after Steinvall 2002, there still exists a niche to be filled. There has been no or very little research regarding colour terms conducted from the viewpoint of (meta)lexicography 2 . The present study is meant to evaluate existing dictionary definitions of Basic Colour Terms 3 (henceforth BCTs) from the colour lexicon of English, Japanese and Polish in order to detect any doubtful content which could be improved to equip the dictionary user with richer, more adequate information regarding the colour lexicon. The immediate aims of the study are to determine: 1) what definition types are used to define CTs 2) what prototypes extensional definitions point to when defining BCTs and how these relate to the data obtained from naive native speakers of the languages in question. To this end, two empirical investigations were conducted. The first one is devoted to dictionary definitions, while the second one is an experiment carried out among naive native speakers of the three languages.
Talks by Łukasz Pakuła
While anti-egalitarian backlash has been on the rise for some time now (Heinrich Böll Foundation ... more While anti-egalitarian backlash has been on the rise for some time now (Heinrich Böll Foundation ed. 2014), it seems that only very recently has it received a unifying umbrella term. Pronounced the word of the year 2013 by a committee of Polish linguists, gender, a clipped variant of a prepositional phrase – ideology of gender (Pol. ideologia gender) – constitutes a bona fide example of lexical borrowing and assimilation processes gone bad.
The overarching aim of this paper is to situate and detail linguistic processes altering the English signified of gender to be conceived of in terms of ‘moral panic’ (Cohen 1972) in the specific Polish socio-political context. Having distinguished the already well-established concept of ‘gender ideologies’ (e.g. Philips 2014) from the Polish ‘ideology of gender’ (see Pakuła et al. 2015: 27–29), I move on to trace back the processes of lexical borrowing (see Thomason 2001) and pejoration (Ullmann 1962) of the Polish gender.
Using Corpus Linguistics techniques (e.g. Baker 2014), I exemplify how different powerful social actors have facilitated imbuing gender with socially divisive meanings by evoking various traditional and stigmatising discourses of gender and sexuality. To this end, three corpora have been compiled, one comprising Polish Bishops’ Conference documents, and two other of newspapers representing opposite political profiles. Corpus data is complemented by multimodal analysis of chosen press materials. The outcome of this study is juxtaposed against the recent research regarding similar, but not identical, phenomena observed in other European countries (Korolczuk 2014), which can be inscribed in a broader right-wing populist project of the politics of fear (Wodak 2015).
Language in educational settings has come to be understood not merely in terms of a medium of ins... more Language in educational settings has come to be understood not merely in terms of a medium of instruction, but more importantly as a conduit of ideologies, also pertaining to gender and sexuality (King 2015). Indeed, language use in education has undergone substantial scrutiny both in the spoken and written variation in this respect (e.g. Mustapha and Mills 2015).
This paper explores potential benefits and pitfalls of employing Corpus Linguistics techniques for critiquing learning materials, in particular dictionaries and textbooks. It has been demonstrated that students and teachers alike pay attention to gender- and sexuality- related discourses cemented in these two types of learning materials (e.g. Pakuła et al. 2015). However, given the inherent difficulties of quantitative textbook analysis (Sunderland 2015a) and dictionary sampling (Bukowska 2010), researchers opt for qualitative analyses at the expense of pursuing alternative avenues for obtaining quantitative data. This has led to the situation in which the heterogeneous nature of research paradigms employed has resulted in limited possibilities of carrying out meta-analyses and reliably assessing the impact that this critique has had on textbook and dictionary production (see Lee 2010).
I will argue that looking at the entire language data in learning materials through the lens of Corpus Linguistics can yield interesting results with regard to gender and sexuality discourses, including levels of heteronormativity (Sunderland 2015b), that can be overlooked during sampling or qualitative scrutiny.
Prezentacja porusza zjawiska „bezpiecznych przestrzeni” oraz „ukrytych programów nauczania” jako ... more Prezentacja porusza zjawiska „bezpiecznych przestrzeni” oraz „ukrytych programów nauczania” jako potencjalne czynniki warunkujące legitymizację akceptacji różnorodności w środowisku akademickim i studenckim. Za przykłady posłużą zarówno koła naukowe, studia podyplomowe jak i badania własne, których wyraźna obecność sprzyja postępowym postawom oraz symbolicznemu i faktycznemu poczuciu bezpieczeństwa. Omówione zostaną również rozwiązania systemowe, które są obecne na Uniwersytecie im. Adama Mickiewicza. Ponadto, przedstawione zostaną badania, które prowadzone są zarówno na Uniwersytecie prelegenta (Wydział Anglistyki i Gender Studies), jak i innych uniwersytetach w Polsce i poza jej granicami. Bazując na tych badaniach, przedstawiony zostanie stan faktyczny (braku) edukacji antydyskryminacyjnej podczas kształcenia przyszłych kadr nauczycielskich.
Both gender and sexuality are still tabooed concepts in Poland and consequently they take on spec... more Both gender and sexuality are still tabooed concepts in Poland and consequently they take on special significance in the local context of education. In this presentation we look into the context of the Polish EFL classroom to discuss how various gender and sexuality discourses emerge in the EFL textbooks and classroom interactions. In particular we focus on the role of teachers as (potential) mediators of classroom interactions (see Sunderland et al. 2002) as well as ‘surfacing’ of (dominant) gender ideologies and its consequences for the ongoing classroom work. We also look into students’ and teachers’ negotiations and contestations of gendered ideologies within the classroom setting. The data to be discussed in this presentation were collected for the British Council-funded project entitled “Investigating gender and sexuality in the ESL classroom: Raising publishers’, teachers’ and students’ awareness” and comprise EFL textbooks, audio-recorded classroom interactions, focus groups with teachers and students as well as interviews with the Ministry of Education textbooks reviewers. Data analysis reveals how the Polish EFL classroom tends to be constructed as a highly gendered social space where emphasized femininity and hegemonic masculinity (Connell 1987) are drawn on to facilitate the process of teaching and learning. The analysis also shows heavy reliance on heteronormative discourse (high degree of heteronormativity, see Sunderland (2015)) constructed in the analyzed EFL materials and classroom interactions. In the spirit of thinking practically and looking locally (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1992), tentative guidelines for language education practitioners – as regards normalizing diversity (Gray 2013) in general and the teaching of gender diversity and sexual diversity in particular as part of ELT – will be offered.
‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in Polish ELT: gaining insights from within the classroom
This talk will report on an extensive fieldwork carried out in Polish state-run schools. The data... more This talk will report on an extensive fieldwork carried out in Polish state-run schools. The data we draw on were collected in the course of a British Council-funded project entitled “Investigating Gender and Sexuality in the ESL classroom: Raising publishers', teachers' and students' awareness” and comprise audio-recorded EFL classroom interactions, focus groups with teachers and students as well as in-depth interviews with Ministry of Education reviewers.
In this talk, we demonstrate how gender matters in a fieldworker’s professional experience in the present-day Poland. Here, we pay attention to the socio-political climate and ‘moral panics’ (Cohen 1972) surrounding the “ideology of gender” (P. ideologia gender) (see Pawelczyk and Pakuła 2015) and their impact on research opportunities/possibilities. We also aim to show gender dynamics within a classroom setting and how gender (and sexuality) is made relevant during classroom practices as well as during extra-curricular ‘educational chitchat’ (Pawelczyk and Pakuła 2015). Further insight into how gender matters in the Polish EFL classroom is offered via focus groups that served to uncover students’ and teachers’ perspectives. Finally, gender-related language policies are accessed through in-depth interviews with Ministry of Education reviewers. In order to analyse the gathered data, we utilise methods and insights of (feminist) critical discourse analysis (Lazar 2014) critical pedagogies (Norton and Toohey eds. 2004; Monchinski 2008) and queer linguistics (Motschenbacher 2011; Nelson 2007, 2009). We intend to point to the importance of ‘gender’ as a crucial concept in fieldwork and how this fact is linguistically manifested in the studied contexts. The analyses also show how categorization of women and men in essentialist ways -- during classroom exchanges -- is commonly drawn on in various aspects of teaching EFL in Poland. In this way EFL teachers close down discussion of gender and sexual diversity and instead impose dominant categories of femininity and masculinity as well as promote heteronormativity and, potentially, sexism and heterosexism (Queen 2006).
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Books by Łukasz Pakuła
This book brings together leading academics and practitioners working in the area of language, gender, sexuality and education, consolidating recent developments and moving the field forward in a contemporary context. This unique and timely volume captures current themes, debates, theories and methods in the field, and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working around the world in the areas of Applied Linguistics, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Education, Sociology and Discourse Studies.
Authors: Łukasz Pakuła, Joanna Pawelczyk and Jane Sunderland
Papers / Book chapters by Łukasz Pakuła
What is more, the only Polish research examining the portrayal of women in EFL materials is that by Jaworski (1986), who exposed the abundance of sexism in EFL textbooks available in Poland at that time. Regrettably, ‘sexuality’ as a culturally (but not linguistically) important identity category was not addressed or recognised in the broad Polish educational context until 2012 (Świerszcz 2012).
This chapter reports on two studies conducted as part of the research project entitled “Investigating Gender and Sexuality in the ESL classroom: Raising publishers', teachers' and students' awareness”. The aim of the first study was to qualitatively scrutinize the discursive and multimodal construction of gender, gender relations, and sexuality in two leading illustrated Primary School EFL textbooks in Poland, along with the accompanying workbooks and teacher’s books. To this end the analytical methods of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1989; Lazar 2005, 2014), Multimodal Discourse Analysis (see e.g. Giaschi 2000; Guo 2004; O’Halloran 2004; Kress and Van Leeuwen 2006) and the concept of critical heteronormativity (Motschenbacher 2010, 2011) were utilized. The analyses focused on the representation of the social roles of men and women, boys and girls in EFL materials. They also demonstrated different textual manifestations of heteronormativity.
‘Gender critical points’ (Sunderland et al. 2002) – identified in the first study - were drawn on in the second study. We also extended Sunderland et al.’s (2002) concept by introducing the notion of ‘gender-emerging points’, which we believe enriches the analytical apparatus by highlighting the dynamic character of classroom interactions and thus the central role of teachers. Here we used audio-recorded primary school classroom interactions to demonstrate how the identified ‘gender critical points’ are addressed and how ‘gender-emerging points’ surface and/or are made (ir-)relevant in the classroom setting. Thus the analysis focused on gendered ‘talk around the text’ emerging in teacher-student interactions to explore negotiation, challenge and/or rejection and ‘uptake’ of gender roles and discourse. To this end methods and insights from critical linguistic analysis were used along with Sunderland’s (this volume) agenda for future research on gender representation in foreign language textbooks.
Keywords: EFL, gender, sexuality, Poland, CDA, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, hidden sexuality and gender curriculum
Talks by Łukasz Pakuła
The overarching aim of this paper is to situate and detail linguistic processes altering the English signified of gender to be conceived of in terms of ‘moral panic’ (Cohen 1972) in the specific Polish socio-political context. Having distinguished the already well-established concept of ‘gender ideologies’ (e.g. Philips 2014) from the Polish ‘ideology of gender’ (see Pakuła et al. 2015: 27–29), I move on to trace back the processes of lexical borrowing (see Thomason 2001) and pejoration (Ullmann 1962) of the Polish gender.
Using Corpus Linguistics techniques (e.g. Baker 2014), I exemplify how different powerful social actors have facilitated imbuing gender with socially divisive meanings by evoking various traditional and stigmatising discourses of gender and sexuality. To this end, three corpora have been compiled, one comprising Polish Bishops’ Conference documents, and two other of newspapers representing opposite political profiles. Corpus data is complemented by multimodal analysis of chosen press materials. The outcome of this study is juxtaposed against the recent research regarding similar, but not identical, phenomena observed in other European countries (Korolczuk 2014), which can be inscribed in a broader right-wing populist project of the politics of fear (Wodak 2015).
This paper explores potential benefits and pitfalls of employing Corpus Linguistics techniques for critiquing learning materials, in particular dictionaries and textbooks. It has been demonstrated that students and teachers alike pay attention to gender- and sexuality- related discourses cemented in these two types of learning materials (e.g. Pakuła et al. 2015). However, given the inherent difficulties of quantitative textbook analysis (Sunderland 2015a) and dictionary sampling (Bukowska 2010), researchers opt for qualitative analyses at the expense of pursuing alternative avenues for obtaining quantitative data. This has led to the situation in which the heterogeneous nature of research paradigms employed has resulted in limited possibilities of carrying out meta-analyses and reliably assessing the impact that this critique has had on textbook and dictionary production (see Lee 2010).
I will argue that looking at the entire language data in learning materials through the lens of Corpus Linguistics can yield interesting results with regard to gender and sexuality discourses, including levels of heteronormativity (Sunderland 2015b), that can be overlooked during sampling or qualitative scrutiny.
In this talk, we demonstrate how gender matters in a fieldworker’s professional experience in the present-day Poland. Here, we pay attention to the socio-political climate and ‘moral panics’ (Cohen 1972) surrounding the “ideology of gender” (P. ideologia gender) (see Pawelczyk and Pakuła 2015) and their impact on research opportunities/possibilities. We also aim to show gender dynamics within a classroom setting and how gender (and sexuality) is made relevant during classroom practices as well as during extra-curricular ‘educational chitchat’ (Pawelczyk and Pakuła 2015). Further insight into how gender matters in the Polish EFL classroom is offered via focus groups that served to uncover students’ and teachers’ perspectives. Finally, gender-related language policies are accessed through in-depth interviews with Ministry of Education reviewers. In order to analyse the gathered data, we utilise methods and insights of (feminist) critical discourse analysis (Lazar 2014) critical pedagogies (Norton and Toohey eds. 2004; Monchinski 2008) and queer linguistics (Motschenbacher 2011; Nelson 2007, 2009). We intend to point to the importance of ‘gender’ as a crucial concept in fieldwork and how this fact is linguistically manifested in the studied contexts. The analyses also show how categorization of women and men in essentialist ways -- during classroom exchanges -- is commonly drawn on in various aspects of teaching EFL in Poland. In this way EFL teachers close down discussion of gender and sexual diversity and instead impose dominant categories of femininity and masculinity as well as promote heteronormativity and, potentially, sexism and heterosexism (Queen 2006).