Aspects of the defamation and scapegoating of Arabs and Muslims in EFL reading textbooks : a survey study

Abstract EN

The study reported in this paper was conducted in order to identify the EFL reading textbooks that contain materials which unjustifiably depict the Arab culture and its members, as well as the Islamic system of beliefs and its followers in a negative manner.

The reading textbooks inspected for the study were published between 1978 and 1997, and many of them have widely been used in EFL reading classes at Jordanian universities and/or community colleges.

The paper describes some aspects of the defamation process by providing specific examples which illustrate how certain topics of general interest are exploited and treated by some authors of reading textbooks in a manner that reflects hostile and biased attitudes towards the Arabic culture and its members, and/or Islam and its followers.

The paper concludes by formulating several recommendations on how to deal with this type of textbooks by individual EFL instructors, particularly in the Arab and the Islamic contexts.