1

Ideological Traces and Identity Imposition within Governmental Materials for Adult
Secondary Education in Chile

Diego Alejandro Cabezas Bravo

Universidad de Santiago de Chile

Abstract
The last twelve years in Chile have been a time of social unrest and general
disconformities in educational matters. Students have gone out to the streets to march
untiringly and protest demanding free and quality education. Accordingly, since then, the
Chilean government has taken numerous measures in this area; however, the real solutions
have not yet come. Moreover, a significant sector of the population has continuously been
ignored, not only by the Chilean government but also by the social movement in general:
adult students of primary and secondary education. In this fashion, it is crucial to draw the
attention of the authorities and the discourse community of Applied Linguistics to this area.
As a means to make the desire of giving adult education its real importance, this study
focuses on the search for traces of ideological discourse and imposition of identity to
maintain the current status quo. The corpus analyzed consists of the seven reading passages
taken from the textbooks provided by the Ministry of Education of Chile for secondary
adult education in the area of English. These ideological traces are explored using a model
that merges the Seven Standards of Textuality (Beaugrande y Dressler 1981) and Ways into
texts (Pennycook, personal communication 2012), from a critical discourse analysis (CDA)
perspective. The findings show that the corpus contains a conservative, catholic, chauvinist,
heteronormative and capitalistic ideology. Therefore, the discussion is focused both on
whether these reading passages are just a mere description of reality or actual political
discourse and on the potentials of the textual model to unveil such ideologies.
Keywords: Ideology, Political Discourse, Text. Critical Discourse Analysis.

Table of Contents

Page

2. Abstract _________________________________________________________ 5
3. Introduction ______________________________________________________ 6
3.1 Research question ________________________________________________ 8
3.2 Hypotheses ______________________________________________________ 9
3.3 General Objective ________________________________________________ 9
3.4 Specific Objective_________________________________________________ 9
4. Type of Study ____________________________________________________ 10
5. Theoretical Framework____________________________________________ 11
5.1 The power of language ___________________________________________ 11
5.2 Discourse and Text _______________________________________________13
5.3 Discourse and the World___________________________________________15
5.4 Discourse and Ideology____________________________________________18
5.5 Identity and Resistance____________________________________________22
5.6 Discourse and Power______________________________________________26
5.7 Discourse and Politics_____________________________________________28
5.8 Oppressor and Oppressed__________________________________________29
5.9 Critical Discourse Analysis ________________________________________ 33

6. Contextualization _________________________________________________ 35
6.1Education _______________________________________________________ 36
6.2Adult Secondary Education _______________________________________ 38
6.3Standardized Testing _____________________________________________39
7. Corpus _________________________________________________________41
8. Models for analysis _______________________________________________42
8.1Text and The Seven Standards of Textuality__________________________43

8.2Ways into texts __________________________________________________ 47

8.3Lexico-Grammar approach_________________________________________52
9. Methodology _____________________________________________________55
9.1 Critical Reading of Text Model ____________________________________ 60
10. Text Analysis____________________________________________________ 61
10.1 Reading Passage 1 _______________________________________________ 61
10.2 Reading Passage 2 _______________________________________________ 73
10.3 Reading Passage 3 _______________________________________________ 86
10.4 Reading Passage 4 _______________________________________________102
10.5 Reading Passage 5 _______________________________________________112
10.6 Reading Passage 6 _______________________________________________126
10.7 Reading Passage 7 _______________________________________________135
10.8 Overall Analysis _________________________________________________147

11. Conclusions _____________________________________________________161

12. Projections _____________________________________________________ 166
13. References ______________________________________________________169

3. Introduction
The last twelve years in Chile have been a time of social unrest and general
disconformity in educational matters. Since 2001, students have gone out to the streets to
march untiringly and protest demanding free and quality education. Accordingly, since then
the Chilean government has made several small reforms in order to comply with Chileans
mandate in the pursuit of social calm. Notwithstanding, the solutions have not even met the
smallest original desires of change and improvement so as to match the minimum
requirements for proper education. Most of these government policies have gone to solve
the problems at kindergarten level, some others to the regular primary, secondary and
higher education. In this way, it is possible to assert that even though numerous measures
have been taken, and they have been an enormous step towards obtaining a better
educational system, the real solutions have not yet come. Moreover, an important sector of
the population has been consistently and continuously ignored, not only by the Chilean
government but also by the social movement in general: adult students of primary and
secondary education. There has not been the tiniest effort to reach a more democratic and
fair system for adults who could not finish school in the regular system for several reasons.
In this fashion, it is critical to draw the authorities and the general populations attention to
this area.
Therefore, this study is meant and seeks to demonstrate and illustrate the traces of
ideological and political discourse aimed at the imposition of identity to maintain the
current status quo present in reading passages taken from the series of textbooks provided
by the Chilean Ministry of Education, for the first Module of flexible adult secondary
education in the area of English.

In order to carry out the investigation, first Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough
(1989), Fairclough and Wodak (2001), Huckin, Andrus and Clary-Lemons (2002) ,
Blommaert (2005), Wodak (2006)) is used as a big umbrella approach to determine the
positioning towards the analysis of discourse, then the Seven Standards of Textuality
(Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981) will be used in order to evaluate whether each reading
passage constitutes a text in itself, together with Ways into texts (Pennycooks, 2009)
model, which is a direct questioning to each reading passage from a critical perspective.
These two models are used with the close support of the Lexico-Grammar approach
(Beaugrande, 2006) analyzing how the Content and Function words interact matching the
seven standards and answering the questions of the ways into text. Additionally, the
participants in this discursive interaction are characterized as Oppressed and Oppressor;
Oppressor the one generating the text and Oppressed the one receiving it. All these
approaches are merged together to create an entirely new model of analysis denominated
Critical Reading of Texts. This model is intended to demonstrate how this apparent
neutral discourse, displayed as a mere description of reality, hides the ideological discourse
of dominant groups as a means of imposing identity onto the receiver of these reading
passages.
Critical Discourse Analysis has had a rocketing explosion, not only in first world
communities, like Europe or North America, but also in the Chilean and Latin American
reality. In this way, the present research project, it is not only meant to be another piece
within this field as an scholarly investigation and as input to empower the Chilean and
Latin American school of Discourse Analysis, but also, as an effort to draw authorities
attention into the forgotten world of adults public education and to add scholarly obtained

input to the current education social movement in cry for help in the struggle to get a better
education.
To accomplish these objectives this work has been organized as follows: first: there
is a complete account of the objectives, problem statement, hypothesis and type of study.
Secondly, there is a description of previous works and the state of the art in the fields of
language, such as the Power of Language, Critical Discourse Analysis and Ideology;
consequently there is a framing of the most important concepts of this research project,
such as Discourse, Power, Politics, Ideology, Identity and the World interjecting with Text.
Finally, there is a contextualization of the Chilean education system, an account of adult
flexible education and the negative and pervasive influence of standardized testing.
Before going deeper into this work, it is of high importance to point out and clarify
that there are some quotations taken from sources in Spanish that were translated by the
researchers.
3.1 Research question
Are there any traces of ideological and political discourse present in the reading
passages taken from the books and mock test provided by the Chilean Ministry of
'Education for the first Module of flexible adult secondary education in the area of English?
Is there any linguistic evidence showing the imposition of identity to maintain the
current status quo in reading passages taken from the books and mock test provided by the
Chilean Ministry of Education for the first Module of flexible adult secondary education in
the area of English?

3.2 Hypotheses
The reading passages present in the books provided by the Chilean Ministry of
Education for the first Module of flexible adult secondary education in the area of English
are ideologically generated by privileged groups, therefore, they are political discourse
aimed at imposing identity and maintaining the current social order. 3.4General Objective
3.3 General Objectives
Demonstrate and illustrate the traces of ideological discourse aimed at the
imposition of identity to maintain the current status quo present in the reading passages
taken from the books and mock test provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education for the
first Module of flexible adult secondary education in the area of English.
3.4 Specific Objectives
Demonstrate through linguistic evidence the way in which the ideological and
political discourse conveyed through in the reading passages taken from the books and
mock test provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education for the first Module of flexible
adult secondary education in the area of English.
Illustrate through linguistic evidence the way in which identity is imposed to
maintain the current status quo in reading passages taken from the books and mock test
provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education for the first Module of flexible adult
secondary education in the area of English.

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4. Type of Study
This investigation project can be framed within the big umbrella of the qualitative
paradigm, leaving the researcher the work of collecting and analyzing the data without
intervening it. In addition to this, due to the fact that the analysis of the reading passages is
done using the Seven Standards of Textuality and the Ways into text with the support
and sustenance of a Lexico-grammar approach, and a later description and projection of
the findings, this investigation falls into a descriptive explanatory interpretive approach.

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5. Theoretical Framework
In this section, we will set the boundaries for The power of language, Discourse,
Power, Politics, Ideology, Identity, World intersecting with Text and Oppressor and
Oppressed. This work will be done in order to, first, call the attention to the importance of
language and differentiating Text and Discourse. Secondly, to clarify the essential role that
Context and the World around Text play when analyzing a specific piece of writing.
Thirdly, Ideologies are described and how they are expressed through Discourse in
communicative situations is shown, together with the critical issue if Identities within the
ideological area. Fourth, it is discussed the way in which power is exercised through
discourse. Fifth, what constitutes Political Discourse is demarcated. Finally, how the
participants in an ideological communicative situation can be defined.
5.1 The power of language
() if language itself is all powerful, how did it come to be, in the mouths of who
and how can we get outside it to question it? (Holborow, 2006 p.3) In this essential
questioning, it is possible to appreciate the importance of language, which is entitled with
power and in the need of an abstraction for its analysis.
Language is thought to be only a way of expressing one's thoughts. However,
Foucault (1972) is contrary to the belief that the discourse is a mere representation of
reality. He considers it to be more of a discursive practice that systematically forms the
objects of talking; he is affirming that discourse also has the ability to transform and
construct realities. In this way, in a social vision of language, it is conceivable to declare
that language possesses the power not only to resemble or transmit the real world through

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words but also create reality. Some social interpretations of language stress that language
plays a decisive social role and argue that language is not just part of society but
constitutive of it (Holborow, 2006 p.2)
Furthermore, Holborow, based on the work of Marx and Engels, claims that the
origin of language is closely related and interconnected with the emergence of
consciousness, being both processes of modern collective civilizations in need of facing the
material world around them. In this way, the complexity of language progressed at the same
time that consciousness did, both together in a unique relationship manifested in human
nature. This evolution in complexity in human interactions came with the complexation of
labor.Language arises from the social demands and needs of the material world and also,
through human cooperation and activity, contributes to the transformation of that world. It
is then itself transformed as human society (p.6).
The social interaction and cooperation are then essential for language and vice
versa. As it can be appreciated in these words, language is not related to an abstract social
interaction, but a concrete struggle of social change and the alteration of the contextual
world.
Another important point addressed by Holborow is language overlaps with
ideology (p.24). This statements can be related to van Dijk (1998, 2000, 2005) Fairclough
(1989), de Beaugrande (2004), Macdonald (2003) and others who argue that ideologies and
the exercise of them is primarily and foremost realized through language. In addition, they
declare that ideologies are put into action as a vital part of dissimilar hierarchical relations
in the social interaction. As follows, Macdonald (2003) states

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Ideology refers to a systematic framework of social understanding, motivated by a will to

power, or a desire to be accepted as the right way of thinking, which has wide []
support within a particular society or substantial social group. (p.28)
Subsequently to this previous critical view of language, it is important to have a
look at the way how to analyze language and specifically, language in use, known as
discourse. For this reason, Critical Discourse Analysis appears as the logical option.
5.2 Discourse and Text.
An inexperienced individual or someone not immersed in the field of Discourse
Analysis may attempt to assert that discourse is orally generated while text is its written
form. At first, this assertion may sound fair; however, this cannot be more apart from the
reality in our field. The distinction between these two elements of language is far more
complicated than this simple differentiation and, following Van Dijk (2001), a bit blurry
in its definition.
In an attempt to frame this distinction in a better way, Alvarez (2001) asserts that,
on the one hand, Text is a linguistic configuration, It is a set of linguistic elements (words,
sentences, etc) organized by strict rules of construction. On the other hand, Discourse
"is the concrete realization of the text, by a particular sender in a given communicative
situation, that is to say, a text is formed by the concrete surface structure, whether written
or spoken, and discourse is the text itself adding the context and conditions, which surround
its utterance.
Additionally, going deeper into the difference between text and discourse, De
Bauegrande (2004) asserts that in a genuine dialectic communicative situation text can be

14

defined as an actual system of selections and combinations and discourse as a real multisystem of related texts. Accordingly, discourse not only carries the meaning of a single text
but several texts interconnecting each other working at the same time and carrying many
complex, meaningful messages at once. It is because of this that Van Dijk (2001) claims
that it is still problematic to define what discourse is accurately due to the difficult task of
delimiting it, whether a discourse is unique or it is constructed by one single or several
discourses.
In the same line of thinking, it is also very important to clarify and highlight that
according to Alvarez (2001), Van Dijk (2001), Renkema (1993) and others, a text can be
produced in both written and spoken forms, leaving aside the standard definition of
everyday language as text as only the written form. Making this distinction is crucial for the
understanding of this work. The object of study is not a mere text alone, but the discourse
generated by the written system. As follows, the written discourse does not only carry one
single discourse meaning but numerous significances took out from the written text to
analyze.
According to Van Dijk (1981, 2001), three dimensions construct discourse: the
linguistic, the psychological and the social, which make the discourse area a
multidisciplinary field. The first being the verbal structure, which involves the oral
production of sounds, body interaction, and sight that can be captured in a written form.
The second, the psychological, refers to the communication and expression of ideas. In this
sense, the speaker/listener or writer/reader possesses certain background knowledge, mental
processes, and mental representations, which allows them to produce or understand

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discourse in a personal way, but socially shared. Finally, the social includes speech acts,
conversations, context, society, and culture.
Consequently, a written text, as discourse, cannot only be considered as the addition
of its constituencies but as all the psychological and social characteristics involved in its
production and reception too. Van Dijk (2001) also remarks that discourse is in itself a
social interaction, which has an important component of cognition involved in it; being this
element the bridge or mediator between discourse and society. Therefore, in the analysis of
written discourse is fundamental to take into consideration not only the linguistic
dimension but also the three dimensions altogether. In this sense, the social element comes
to play a pivotal role within the critical analysis of discourse. The social construction of
society, together with the distribution of power make the social element of discourse a field
of struggle.
5.3 Discourse and the World
The world around us plays a mammoth role for the understanding of discourse,
especially the psychological and social dimensions of it. For this reason, the interpretation
of the linguistic dimension cannot be carried out without the necessary knowledge of the
world. Brown and Yule (1983) recognize that the knowledge we have about the world
around us sustains and supports our interpretation of discourse (language in use). In
addition to the understanding of discourse through our knowledge of the world, we
associate it in connection with a literal interpretation through the "words on the page".
According to the authors, we can understand discourse due to the bottom-up and
top-down processing that occur simultaneously. Bottom-up processing allows us to

16

understand the meaning of words and sentence structure, and then reach the compound
meaning (general meaning). Top-down processing is based on the sense of the sentence and
context to predict the most likely meaning of the sentence (precise meaning). Due to the
top-down processing predictive power, we are able to detect the message of a text despite
grammatical or spelling errors. This last statement becomes essential for a later
understanding of the analysis. One critical factor is the acceptability, proposed by de
Beaugrande (2004, 2006) and Dressler (1981), which states that the receiver of the text
despised of any grammatical or spelling errors has the command of conveying coherence or
cohesion, thus, obtaining the intended meaning (See. The Seven Standards of Textuality).
Thus, the context surrounding the speech influences the way we perceive the content of this
speech.
Furthermore, the world of grammarians, which was at some point focused only on
the internal construction of language supported mainly in the work of Noam Chomsky
(1972) and its Generative Grammar theory, nowadays has been increasingly worried about
what the context has to say when analyzing language, and not only the close near linguistic
context and its constituencies, but also the social context. This evolution is possible to
behold in the words of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) who argue that To a grammarian,
text is a rich, many-faceted phenomenon that means in many different ways. (p. 3). Each
text possesses several voices in its construction that are heard and understood differently
depending on the context where it is read.
Additionally, it is imperative to state that discourse is not just language in use with
an immediate given context as stated before, but also as Foucault (1972) asserts; it is a set
of relations, which exists among discursive events, that is to say, discourse is a historical

17

and social construction. In the words of Gee (2008, p. 115), discourse is Stretches of
language that cohere in a way that make sense to a certain community of people as a
contribution to a person or story. As it is possible to deduce, time plays a significant role
in the reading and understanding of an individual text since it allows us to recognize a
larger frame of discourse, taking into account not only the linguistic immediate context but
also the social and historical one. In the same sense, from the school of pedagogy, Paulo
Freire (1970) and, from sociology, Gabriel Salazar (2012), both proclaim that men and
women are historical subjects who create discourse with historicity.
Historical factual knowledge is applied in the processing of speech in the same way as any
other social knowledge: it can be assumed, it needs to be restated, that it can be brought
into memory when required and allows models applied to as many inferences (van Dijk,
2002, p. 56)
Due to this, it is of key importance to add that I disagree with Saussures vision who
prioresses the synchronic dimension of language over the diachronic aspect,
underestimating the power of history and enrapturing language from any creative
dynamism, as declared by Holborow (2006).
Reading the world precedes reading the word and reading the word implies the
continuity of reading the world (Freire, 1985, p. 11). Analyzing and reading discourse is,
above all, an act of knowing, an act of retrieving the knowledge of the world, because
understanding the relations that exist between the world and the words make the reading of
discourse a dialectic act. Reading without having total consciousness of the social struggle,
injustices and inequalities of the world is, in the first instance, an incomplete biased reading
due to the lack of the understanding of the possible ideological impositions through

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discourse. On the other hand, reading with full understanding of the world, can lead to
comprehend the elements to fight alienation and ignorance. Therefore, the act of reading
discourse constitutes a weapon against domination and ideological imposition.
5.4 Discourse and Ideology
Ideologies are basically the foundation of all the social representations shared by a
social group or community, meant to legitimize the oppressors position of power and
inequality or to empower the oppressed groups or individuals for their struggle and
resistance. In this sense, it depends on the personal perspective to consider a groups
ideology as positive or negative or do not consider it at all (Van Dijk, 2005). Furthermore,
in the same line of Van Dijk, Beaugrande (2004) defines ideologies as a framework of
ideas that legitimise what is natural, normal, proper, and legitimize what is not
(chapter 1)
These shared beliefs deal with important matters in life like moral decisions or the
way life is carried out; a mere color or brand choice when purchasing has nothing to do
with ideological issues but a personal selection. In the words of Van Dijk (2000) In the
same way that we do not speak of individual languages, we do not have individual
ideologies (p. 11). This assertion highlights the societal feature of ideologies, which
cannot be considered as an individuals characteristic but of a community. Ideologies are
the manner a group of individuals decides to live their life and the moral frame that
encircles their community. This fact is reaffirmed by Van Dijk (1998, p. 135) who declares
Ideologies are not merely sets of beliefs, but socially shared beliefs of groups.

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The collective beliefs of a community are assumed to be common sense among the
members of this same community. Common sense assumptions can be ideologically
shaped by relations of power (Fairclough, 1989, p. 4). In this way, the groups in power try
to dominate the oppressed individuals through the monopolization and the imposition of
their group common sense and identity, which are mainly exercised by means of discourse.
Thus, common sense discursive practice can embody unequal hierarchal relations of power.
As follows, dominant groups endowed themselves with a moral obligation to
maintain society rolling on the right track, imposing their ideologically generated common
sense. Accordingly, following the words of Van Dijk (1998) dominant groups will in such
a case not openly refer to their interest, but on the contrary engage in arguments that claim
that their actions or policies are for the common good (p.259). The general welfare is
thought to be the ultimate aim of the groups in power; however, through hiding their
ideological beliefs in common sense discourse practices they are taking no more than
desperate measures to assure their power and their dominance over the general population.
As it is possible to deduce, Ideologies play an essential role in matters of conflict,
domination and resistance among groups, that is to say, in the social struggle. The exercise
of power in modern society is increasingly achieved through ideology and more particularly
through the ideological working of language (Fairclough, 1989, p. 2) Accordingly, as a
way to openly embrace the ideological driven framework of this work, it is possible to
assert and differentiate between two macro ideological groups highlighted by Beaugrande
(2004), left-wing and right-wing ideologies. On the one hand, left-wing ideology considers,
among other things that human rights are to be inclusive. Moreover, it declares that the
current societal organization of society produces exclusion and inequalities, that the breach

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between the inside members and not members of a community ought to be minimized in
order to reduce or reconcile any conflict, and that social progress, in an inclusive sense, is
part of the duty of the states and their institutions, for instance, Socialism. On the other
hand, a right-wing ideology embraces that human rights are to be exclusive and unequal, in
exact amount according to each persons share of wealth and power without taking into
consideration how these were obtained. In addition, this group struggles to intensify the
borders between insiders and outsiders so each group maintains their proper places .
Furthermore, in contrast to a left-wing ideology, a right-wing one considers that conflicts
should be manfully fought until victory or death to ensure the survival of the fittest;
those who prove unfit are exclusively the ones to blame for any disempowerment and
alienation they suffer (Beaugrande, 2004, chapter 1). Finally, this group considers social
progress is an irresponsible endeavor and constitutes a negligent intromission of the state,
for example, free market ideologies.
Bolvar (1986, 1994) proposes that texts are constructed within social interaction, so
they constitute value systems that are expressed together with ideologies. From her
viewpoint, there are three main categories when going deeper into the critical analysis of a
piece of writing: the social interaction, two participants and the text itself. The first feature
entitles that all texts are constructed within a social communicative interaction which forces
the reader, as a part of society, to know how to read the interaction where they are
immersed in. It is also important that readers make themselves conscientious about how the
text is created in a daily interaction and which the aims sought by the text in this interaction
are. The second characteristic proposed by Bolvar (1986, 1994) frames the idea that for
any social interaction where a text is involved; there must be at least two participants. One

21

that creates the text seeking to convey a particular meaning thinking of a receptor of the
text, and another that reads the text trying to create a certain sense out of it. It is of
fundamental importance to highlight that from one text there is the possibility to figure out
more than one single meaning due to the capability of texts of carrying more than one
voice. However, in society, there are some people or groups that possess ideologies,
feelings, specific interests, in this way, the statements expressed in text are to be regarded
in relation to their origin, the values and propositions expressed in them, understanding the
voice related to that group. The third is a text that is the base of the model posted by
Bolvar. She considers it, in a pure linguist way having two dimensions the autonomous
and the interactive. The former has to do with the semantic aspect considering the recording
of experience in the propositions and themes. In addition, the latter is related to the
semantic-pragmatic dimensions. It is the relation between the participants expressed mainly
through the social interaction, pragmatics, and semantics. The principal factor in Bolvars
model is to understand that the participants in the social interaction of writing and reading a
text negotiate not only information but also evaluation. This assessment is expressed
through two ways, the evaluation in life and the evaluation in text. The first related to
the manner feelings, visions of the world and values are conveyed through language and the
second the manner the evaluation is transferred through linguistic variations appreciated in
the sentences of the text. Together with this we can mention Luis Alvarez (2013), who
accurately asserts that As language is present within these social dimensions, the
construction of ideologies is inevitable (p.145), being the social dimensions the social
systems and institutions.

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To finish, ideologies are associated with the distinctive properties of a particular

group, such as identities, which are the way individuals recognize themselves. However,
identities are not static, according to Canagarajah (2004), they can change through time;
they are not unitary, a single individual can negotiate and maintain dual identities. They are
not given; therefore, they come from the person not fixed onto them. The group itself
creates its identity and fights to keep it and, at the same time; it struggles for the spread of
it.
5.5 Identity and Resistance
In the previous section, the communitarian feature of ideology is defined which
cannot be considered a personal characteristic, alternatively, identity is a more individual
feature particular to each person, in this way, it is a field of struggle. Identity can be defined
as how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is
constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the
future. (Norton, 2000, p. 5).
In this manner, it can be assumed that this is very close to the understanding of
ideologies, as long as the addition of individual identities conform ideologies. Additionally,
this definition illustrates the way individuals position themselves in front of the world
around them in terms of social interaction, that is to say, how people display their identity
through the use of language in a communicative interaction. This means that the identity
plays a pivotal role in communication since identity, as being part of the construction of
ideologies, is built through and at large by language. In fact, according to Duff (2012),
language conveys social information such as group identity, socioeconomic status or
educational background simply by choosing the type of register, accent or code in an

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individual conversation. Furthermore, Gumperz (1982) claims language differences serve

primarily to mark social identity and are perpetuated in accordance with established norms
and traditions (p. 39). So, discourse is constituted as an abstract system of power,
revealing that discourse has been used as weapon of social dominance even in ancient
times, when the first step for empires to conquer new regions was to forbid the utilization
of the native language in order to destroy the submitted regions national identity.
In this view of identity theorists question the binary interpretation of identities, due
to the fact that identities are socially constructed in inequitable relations of power, changing
over time and space, and possibly coexisting in contradictory ways within a single
individual (Norton and McKinney, 2011) or, in the particular case of the person immersed
in the flexible secondary education, an adult student. That is to say; identity is not a matter
of black and white; it is a more complex process which is not fixed or immutable.
Furthermore, it is practically impossible to find a hundred percent correlation in the identity
of two given individuals, making the research in this area a task that is not only difficult,
but challenging and groundbreaking.
As the construction of identities goes beyond the linguistic arena, it is important to
bear in mind the interdisciplinary category of the field of identity research. Taking into
account this issue of paramount importance Canagarajah (2004) elaborates a new
realization of identities, including disciplinary constructs from philosophy, rhetoric, literary
criticism and the social sciences, as well as diverse theoretical positions ranging across
feminist scholarship, language socialization studies, Bakhtinian semiotics, and Foucauldian
poststructuralism. He details six key features as follows:
1. The Self is shaped considerably by language and discourse.

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2. The Self is composed of multiple subjectivities deriving from the heterogeneous codes,
registers, and discourses that are found in society.
3. These subjectivities enjoy unequal status and power, deriving differential positioning in
socioeconomic terms.
4. Because of these inequalities, there is a conflict within and between subjects.
5. In order to find coherence and empowerment, the subject has to negotiate these competing
identities and subjective positions.
6. Selves are not immutable or innate; they are reconstructed and reconstituted in relation to
the changing discursive and material context.
Then, it is noticeable that identities are not constituted by a single characteristic,
they are not disconnected from the rest of a persons personality or prearranged over an
individual, but multiple in characteristics, conflictive within and among individuals,
negotiated and, most importantly, evolving.
As we have seen so far, identities are not permanent in time, tending to change as
the social circle of the individual changes and adapting to different environments, for
example, to schools. According to Bowles and Herbert (1976), schools reproduce the
hierarchical division of labor, together with the cultural imposition of the dominant class in
capitalistic societies. Therefore, in our society, schools are a way of manipulating the
general population into the construction of homogeneous identities. Notwithstanding,
Henry Giroux (1981) pointed out that schools are not only a place of domination but also a
place of resistance. This resistance is seen throughout the whole range of processes within

25

schools and consequently, also in the foreign language teaching/learning arena. Identities
play a central role in this resistance which are shaped and molded by the social context of
the school.
Students are immersed within school environments where they are thought to be
passive and uncritical. Harklau (2000) states that students alienated under the supremacy of
more powerful communities face two bad alternatives; to conform them, destroying their
own self-constructed identities or to fail by openly resisting to the concepts imposed by
schools or, in the case of adult education, by a more pervasive and direct institution, the
ministry of education, using the standardized tests.
Alternatively, Canagarajah (2004) asserts that students are not, at least not all, blind
to the hidden curriculum imposed by schools. This hidden curriculum is the way by which
the dominant class imposes its view on school, and education in general and transforms
schools into a medium of ideological and social reproduction. As students are not nave to
fall into the hands of the hidden curriculum without any kind of resistance, they create
social and intellectual spaces where groups can constitute themselves as horizontal,
homogeneous, sovereign communities with high degree of trust, shared understanding and
temporary protection from legacies of oppression (Pratt, 1991, p.40). These spaces are
known as safe houses or, in the field of social science, underlife. Safe houses are places free
from the surveillance and coercion of the teacher or any other kind of authority. Thus,
individuals can freely create and express the identities they have constructed.
As it is possible to assume, students do not need to choose between the two bad
alternatives mentioned by Harklau (2000), they can somehow avoid showing their real
identities in coerced environments and fully express them in the safe houses. Even though

26

there are some common safe houses like passing notes, small groups interactions, peer
activities, library and online interactions (chat, facebook), etc., students can make almost
any site in the educational environment free of surveillance by colluding in constructing a
culture of underlife behavior. In this way, the third option is the most viable one, allowing
them to avoid the negative consequences of the two others and, at the same time, resisting
the discourse impositions.
In safe houses, students can display suppressed identities and go beyond the
constrictions and prohibitions of the formal educational environment, developing
subversive discourses. From a pedagogical view, this subversive discourses can
complement and enrich the one acquired in class; notwithstanding, most teachers may see
these subversive discourses as a threat to their appreciated authority, placing the
preservation of power over language learning success.
Finally, the receiver of the text, the reading passage in this case, is not an abstract
reader, but an adult student whose identity is a field of struggle and dispute. For this reason
it is of paramount importance to understand the way identities are constructed within the
educational process; in this case, the important role that the textbooks play in this
construction, and through the construction of identity, the manufacture of ideology.
5.6 Discourse and Power
Former totalitarian governments used explicit violence to impose their will and their
ideological beliefs, but as the social order has developed to become more free and
democratic, the use of violent methods has become unacceptable. Social participation has
increased, such as the right to vote regardless of race, gender or religion, jeopardizing the

27

elite's hegemonic capacity to control the populace, imparting a sensation that power was
slipping out of the hands of people in power. (Chomsky, 1997). However, as proposed by
Fairclough (1989), the implementation of power is still exercised through different means;
for example, coercion through vicious ways including physical violence is still part of
everyday social struggle around the world. In this way, discourse is not yet the only manner
to impose ideologies or to manufacture identities or consent, but then again, it is the
primary tool to do so. Consequently, language has great significance in the fabrication,
preservation and change in social relations of power due to the close link between the use
of discourse and the unequal relations of power.
Discourse is shaped by relations of power and invested with ideologies
(Fairclough, 1992, Chapters 8 and 11). In this sense, discourse is the means by which the
relations of power are implemented and reproduced. In our current society, the
implementation of power is mainly a discursive practice; in this way, language contributes
to the domination of the privileged minority groups onto the vast majority of the oppressed
individuals. In consequence, Fairclough (1989) points out that the only way to overcome
the pervasiveness of unequal hierarchical relations of power in order to reach the total
emancipation of oppressed masses is to work towards the general consciousness through
the unveiling of hidden ideological manufacturing of consent within commonsense
discourse practice. Therefore, a critical reading and analysis is needed in order to reveal,
interpret and explain unequal relations of power (Rogers, 2004).
Agreeing with De Beaugrande (2006), discourse and language as organs of control
is more straightforwardly appreciated in the work in language education. This discursive
environment, like no other, has an extreme desperate rampage towards success of a good

28

language activity. Globalization processes have made discourse a desirable tool to be

obtained rapidly and accurately. For this reason, predominantly in schools the performance
of teachers is intentionally directed towards the suppression of particular language activities
in favor of others (Mey, 1979). The groups in power see education as one of the most
powerful tools to impose their common sense discursive practices in a hidden and covered
manner. Moreover, as stated by May (1979) if control is to be effective, it should not be
recognized as such (p.15); in other words, it should be made part or enforced as if it was
part of the common sense beliefs of the community where it is being imposed onto. In this
way, discourse is not only the most common way of imposing and maintaining unequal
relations of power, but also the most effective due to its capacity of carrying hidden
ideological impositions. Notwithstanding, discourse does not only have the ability for
enforcing oppressing ideologies but it also has the capacity of resistance revolutionary
practices. (May 1979)
5.7 Discourse and Politics
It is important to state and remark that one understanding of political discourse is
not exact in the same as considered in Dorna (1993), Puntaje and Morales (1996) , Van
Dijk (2004, 2005) and Bolvar (2001, 2002 and 2008), where the political discourse is
regarded as the macro genre ascribed to the political square, and at times attributed only to
politicians. On the contrary, following Chilton and Schaffner We define as potentially
political to those actions (linguistic or not) which involve power or its opposite, the
resistance" (2001, p. 304). Thus, political discourse not only belongs to politicians, as
Alvarez (2001) also mentioned, but to any individual engaged in the struggle for power

29

between the oppressed and the oppressor, as Freire (1970) named the entities involved in
such dispute.
Nevertheless, even if in this research project there is no identical vision with van
Dijk about who exercises political discourse, he points out an amazingly important issue
regarding the political discourse, stating that: Politics is one of the social domains whose
practices are virtually exclusively discursive; political cognition is by definition
ideologically based; and political ideologies are largely reproduced by discourse (2004,
p.1). According to Fairclough (1989), contemporary society suffers from several ways of
domination in different fields, thus power exercised in society as a whole is not only
political, but it can also be religious, economic and knowledge related. In this way,
researchers also have the "power" in some way, to control discourse within our own
discourse community. As a result, we can argue that oppressors use discourse mainly to
exercise and maintain their power and oppressed to resist.
5.8 Oppressor and Oppressed.
When we talk about the social organization in order to situate the participants of a
particular communicative event into a proper spectrum, we need to focus on the social
inequalities and unequal relation of power present in our modern societies. In this respect,
initially, there is a strong believe that these inequalities are a natural part of our social
development, among other scholars Hobbes (1651) and Rousseau (1754) are the most
preponderant supporters of this view; the former argues that human begins are naturally
evil and the latter that they are naturally good. Even if their starting points are quite
dissimilar, they agree on that people are naturally different, and that the inequalities in
social terms are as broad and as natural as the enormous physiological differences. In this

30

way, these theorist state that society is full of inequalities, because people are intrinsically
different; therefore, an individual is wealthy or successful due to self-empowerment,
because the individual had the ability and aptitude to make a good use of the opportunities
life presented to them, and the others are miserable, as they did not take their chances.
Notwithstanding, there are many other scholars and social theorists who regard the previous
considerations preposterous, among which the anarchist thinker Michael Bakunin (1882)
stands out, taking the stance to the opposite extreme. He considers that people in
themselves a social reality; society is the apparatus shaping human beings according to its
needs; so, education stands as the prime tool. If society is unequal, then, the whole
humanity is going to be different and they are going to live in inequality and injustice; this
has nothing to do with individual abilities, but with the matter of opportunities.
Consequently, if inequality is a natural process, we are trapped in it, but if it is a social
consequence, we can transform society to provide a better and more just world for
everyone.
Accordingly, the societal organization distinguish by Bakunin (1882) argues that
society is separated into two significant groups bourgeois and proletariat, the first group are
the ones who are never able to receive the necessary opportunities to overcome, and the
second are the ones who control and receive all opportunities to maintain and enforce their
power. Additionally, following with the social organization of the modern world, Chomsky
(2004) sees this stratification as a three-way path. He recognizes three major social groups:
the spectators or bewildered herd (working middle and lower class people), the
specialized class (the instrumental class) and the ruling class (the landowners and
businessmen). Even if Chomsky considers these three principal actors as the most relevant
participants in the class struggle, we argue that they can be further broken down into only

31

two main groups; on the one side the ruling and specialized class and on the other the
spectators, both matching the bourgeois and proletariat classes mentioned above; in other
words, the oppressors and the oppressed.
Considering this social stratification, in the field of written texts as a social
interaction, Bolvar (2000) argues the reading of most text is ideological (p.24). She
proclaims that the process of reading is a means of reaching other communities, thus,
creating social and individual identity. According to her, the educated adult readers not
only read what they can and want from the text within their limits, but also what it is not
present in the text. This last statement is of key importance for this paper, due to the fact
that our intention is not only analyzed or obtained from the text itself, the written words,
but what it is not in the word too, the world where the text participates in a communicative
interaction. However, due to the material social deprivation and the social struggle present
in our society (Hegel, 1802 and Salazar, 2012), the readers of the corpus analyzed do not fit
the educated reader definition given by Bolvar; on the contrary, they may fit in what she
calls uneducated reader. Even if we can agree with the way the uneducated reader is
defined, we do not accept her lexical option when naming it. What is more, considering the
previously mentioned theories about social grouping, and more specifically, following
Hegel (1802), Memmi (1968), Freire (1970), Bhabha (2002), Fanon (2004), Mclaren
(2012), Giroux (2010) and Meja (2014), we consider or define our reader or receiver of the
texts as Oppressed. That is to say; Oppressed is anyone who is under the power of other in
virtually any way. On the other side, we find the counterpart of the oppressed that these
very same authors consider the Oppressor: anyone who dominates others in virtually any
way. Therefore, in the case of the participant in this political skirmish between the

32

Oppressor and Oppressed, any discourse generated to maintain the power from the
oppressed can be considered ideological.
Furthermore, according to Cabezas et al. (2009) progressive democratic groups in
modern societies, who reflect autonomously, but act collectively, like unions and
communitarian organizations, threaten current status quo by making demands and taking
action outside of the conventional means of oppressed-controlled government participation;
by taking part in objective-oriented collectives, people recognize that their demands and
needs are shared, so that in solidarity they find their motivation to continue struggling. In
this way, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is responsible for analyzing discourse from
the trenches of the oppressed groups against the dominant groups (Fairclough and Wodak,
2001). Thus, it can be said that by taking a CDA position we are not only analyzing
political discourse, but also creating at the same time political discourse in itself, as we play
a significant role in the creation of political resistance discourse.
5.9 Critical Discourse Analysis
As the big umbrella approach covering and driving this investigation Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA) can be defined as an interdisciplinary approach to textual study
that aims to explicate abuses of power promoted by those texts, by analyzing
linguistic/semiotic details in light of the larger social and political contexts in which those
texts circulate (Huckin, Andrus and Clary-Lemons, 2002 p107)
Therefore, in order to thoroughly analyze and determine the ideological bias and the
particular type of individual intended to be trained by the flexible adult secondary
education, specifically in the area of the English subject, Critical Discourse Analysis

33

(CDA) will be used. According to Fairclough and Wodak (2001), CDA focuses on the
analysis of specific examples and extensive social interaction when they take a linguistic
form or partly linguistic. CDA recognizes the discourse as a social practice which
contributes both to sustain and perpetuate the social status quo, but also helps to transform
it.
Language has taken a key role in modern societies causing the increase of conscious
intervention over the linguistic practices in order to control and mold them. This
phenomenon was called by Fairclough speech technologization " (as cited in Fairclough
and Wodak, 2001), which is consistent with the economic, political and institutional
objectives of the dominant class, which also means, among other things, the design and
redesign of language practices.
In this sense, Wodak (2006) goes even further into the ideologically driven force of
CDA arguing that it is:
fundamentally interested in analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural
relationships of dominance, discrimination, power, and control when these are manifested
in language. In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is
expressed, constituted, and legitimized by language use (p.53).
As follows, CDA is considered a passionate and committed practice in favor of the
dispossessed and oppressed sectors of society in opposition to the dominant groups openly
acknowledging its emancipatory motivation. It embraces this apparent subjectivity as a plus
without losing academic rigor of analysis.

34

The origin of CDA can be traced to the theoretical work of, among others, Antonio
Gramsci, Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Louis Althusser and the Frankfurt
School including Jrgen Habermas.
In addition, according to Blommaert (2005) CDA uses various theoretical
approaches. Importantly, an investigation from the viewpoint of CDA can be guided to a
greater or lesser extent by one or more of these approaches. a) Historical perspective, b)
repetition, predictability and reproduction of certain practices, c) creativity and innovation,
d) mediation between the text and the social. This last approach is embraced in this research
project, considering the link between the world around the text; that is to say, the social
context, a core, and a fundamental element.
CDA has suffered several criticisms such as the following: the vagueness of many
of the concepts and analytical methods, a priori open to subjectivity in the analysis, which
is simply an ideological framework replaced by another (the capitalist by anti-capitalist),
emphasis is placed too high on functional linguistics and that there is not a complete
account of the historical development because it only emphasizes a particular timeframe. In
addition, it is restricted only to certain types of communities as it focuses mostly on first
world societies, which, except in rare cases, cannot be extrapolated to the Third World
societies (Blommaert, 2005).
In this way, in order to counter attack these criticisms it is of high importance to
generate a historical contextualization of the phenomenon treated by the linguistic means in
a specific timeframe, going beyond the functional linguistics, disregarding the ideological
criticisms as they themselves are ideologically intended. Fairclough (1989) asserts that
power implemented in modern societies is not only political, but it can be knowledge

35

related. In this fashion researchers also have the "power" to some extent, to control
discourse within our own discourse community. Therefore, researchers who passionate
themselves within CDA make a crucial decision, they do not follow the "scientific" mass
that blindly embraces the tenets and the theoretical grid hawking their objectivity, but they
openly take a side in the social struggle (Cabezas, 2013)
Furthermore, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is responsible for analyzing the
discourse from the trenches of the oppressed groups against the dominant groups
(Fairclough and Wodak, 2001). So it can be said that by taking a CDA position we are not
only analyzing the political discourse, but creating political discourse in itself, as CDA
researchers are a significant part of the creation of political resistance discourse. Due to
this, when taking an opposition position, the oppressed side, investigators are taking an
honest position; far from being detrimental, it is beneficial and enriches their working
analysis.
6. Contextualization
In the following section, there is an account of general and important conceptions
about the ideological driving force of Education. Additionally, we describe the most
important issue to understand the world around the text to be analyzed, Adult Secondary
Education, which is the nearest social context. Finally, the issue of Standardized Testing
is briefly addressed, in order to understand its pervasiveness and the influence these tests
have onto the reading passages that are part of the corpus for this research project.

36

6.1 Education
Education has been one of the most important methods to integrate people into a
civilized society. It is the way social organizations transmit the accumulated knowledge
from generation to generation. It also helps people to receive all of the necessary values and
codes in order to fit in the current social system. However, due to the importance of
education in modern societies as a means to overcome underdevelopment, educational
systems have been in the limelight of critics. Thus, it is fundamental for this research
project to be aware and question its ideological purpose and its ulterior motives.
Firstly, it is important to state that educational systems have been analyzed from
different social approaches; from political to psychological points of view, education is
constantly in the eye of the storm. Some analysts, especially from the left side of the
spectrum in political ideologies (Marxists or Anarchists), are critical of the educational
system, arguing that it is unfair, and serves to coerce people into accepting their roles in an
unequal society (Chomsky2004, p.1). They see society as a social class fight among the
rich and the poor, and have argued that education is the ideological apparatus of the ruling
class to perpetuate the status quo. According to them, education should be a means to
liberate people from being under the power of the rich and controlling devices. However, in
reality, the traditional educational system causes unbalanced social situations and the
everlasting fight between classes.
Consequently, the question of how the main objectives of education are achieved is
open to many views and theories. On the one hand, there exists the idea that people are all
equal in terms of rights and duties and that educational systems should give everybody the
same opportunities. Moreover, as stated in Alternativas y Propuestas para la

37

(Auto)Educacin en Chile (APAEC) (2010 p.46), modern societies, among other defining
features are usually addressed and understood as those that affirm the value of social equity
and tend specifically to it. Thus Chile, as a modern society, should aim at this equity
with its educational system. On the other hand, there is the idea that an educational system,
by perpetuating the status quo, maintains the order and balance of the social system as
stated in APAEC (2010 p.50). However, in both positions, the same effect is perceived:
everyone who undergoes the process of being educated into the formal educational system,
whether forced or not, accepts the perpetuated conditions imposed by the ruling class.
Nowadays, the circumstances under which people are educated bring into question
the way in which they are taught. According to the humanistic ideal of education, people
should be educated in such a way that they continually analyze and criticize the things they
are taught. As stated in the article The Meaning of Education: The one real object of
education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions page
Notwithstanding, there have been critics of educational systems such as John Dewey (1916)
and, more recently, Noam Chomsky (2004), who claim that current educational systems
suppress the ability to think critically, molding peoples minds in order to avoid free
thinking and creativity.
As it can be seen, education is an issue that is subject to different commentaries and
criticisms; some of them giving credit to what education has achieved in modern societies,
others criticizing the social situation the educational system creates. Bearing this in mind,
we must understand that these criticisms or praises do not come from an objective point of
view but from a bias of ideological origin. Silvio Gallo (2012), Brazilian educator and
anarchist philosopher, states that education is a process focused on the training of

38

individuals which attempts to form a certain type of human being. This idea of an ideal
human being changes according to the society wanted, thus the vision on education varies
depending on the ideal society in the mind of the critic. In this matter, Gallo sees two
options we educate individuals committed with the maintenance of the current society or
we educate individuals engaged to its transformation. (p.1).
It is for this reason that, when analyzing the reading passages from the books
provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education, it is of fundamental relevance to be aware
of the type of individual the Chilean educational system aims at instructing.
6.2 Adult Secondary Education
The aim of the Ministry of Education in Chile is to ensure an equitable, good quality
educational system. In order to accomplish this objective, the Ministry re-launched in 2013
a program called Normalizacin de Estudios, in the way of Adult Flexible Education
formerly known as Chile Califica, designed for young people and adults above 18 who
have not started or finished primary or secondary education and do not have enough time to
attend classes regularly.
According to the Normalizacin de Estudios web page program (2013), it consists
of a free educational program, flexible (attendance is not compulsory), characterized by
meeting students needs. The classes are taught in places near the working place and
domicile of the students, thus, facilitating learners attendance. So as to undertake this task,
classes are held not only in school facilities but also at churches, community centers, fire
stations, etc. Another important characteristic is that classes last less than the regular
classes where children and youngsters attend.

39

The educational process is carried out by executing agencies (public or private)

properly selected and authorized by the Ministry of Education, such as educational
institutions, technical training organizations, NGOs, municipalities, foundations,
corporations, higher education institutions, among others. These entities receive a monetary
compensation for each test approved by the students.
In the area of adult secondary education, there are two segments, one that includes
the first and second year, and another one for the third and the forth. In order to attend the
first level, the students must have finished the eighth year of primary education or the first
of secondary.
As regular education, this adult program has several subjects among which English
is one of them. The other subjects are Language (Spanish), Mathematics, Social Sciences
and Natural Sciences. In order to complete the first segment of education, the student must
successfully pass a standardized national evaluation. The participants have three
opportunities to approve each subject. It is important to highlight that all subjects must be
approved, if not, the student has to take the same segment once more the year to come.
6.3 Standardized Testing
At this point, it is important to mention that around the world tests determine and
motivate most of the educational procedures and in the Chilean reality this is not an
exception. This fact plays a key role in understanding the kind of individual aiming at being
instructed in Chile. Tests are dangerous tools with questionable benefits. In this way, tests
are intended to be seen from a critical perspective avoiding the general submissive
acceptance. Tests are not the only instrument of assessment; however, they are regarded by

40

most teachers as the most relevant and employed instruments. Moreover, in the particular
case of the Adult Flexible Education program, they are considered to be the only method by
which students are allowed to be promoted to the next educational level. This type of
standardized testing, according to Taylor Gatto (2010), turns the whole educational practice
into a mere repetition of contents depriving students of their innate curiosity capacity. This
fact transforms teaching in a dehumanizing action of violence.
If tests are centralized and external to the teachers, as it is in this adult education
program, teachers are told what the tests are going to be about and what the most relevant
aspects to be evaluated are, which are stated in the course program. Thus, their classes are
mainly focused on the testable aspect of knowledge. Due to this, the reading passages of
each book have a strong influence, being taken as an element to be tested and not an
element to be questioned. Like this, the texts have a tremendous impact.
Humans are historical beings who seek their own enlightenment, to be more, and
together with others, transform themselves, others and the world around them. (Freire,
1970). Curiosity is an innate human characteristic which is impossible to take away from
students; nonetheless it is reduced to the minimum so as to prevent a radical detour from
the test contents. Test and curriculum are situated even above human nature to shape
student behavior and fulfill the present need.
Standardized evaluations direct and determine the educational processes. Therefore,
the educational environment should be a place where the individuals involved in it, teachers
and learners, engage in a horizontal dialogue (Freire, 1970) which it is impossible to carry
out as long as standardized tests are present.

41

These standardized tests are educational processes; as so, according to Brown

(2003, p.81), there exists a theoretical construct that supports their implementation.
However, the theoretical orientation behind them implies a relationship between, what
Paulo Freire (1970) called the oppressor and the oppressed. In this process, the oppressor
is the one who provides the rules of the game, and the oppresseds only path is to follow
them unquestionably. There is little room for the students innate curiosity to take the wheel
on the journey of learning since all new knowledge is dictated by the state through the tests.
Whether we like it or not, standardized testing is a vital part of the Adult Flexible
Education program. Nonetheless, this is not an excuse to submissively accept their
imposition. We have to see them from a critical point of view and critically analyze the
power relationships and the consequences that such educational tools bring to our world. In
the same line, we have to open our eyes to see the violent and unfair nature of
standardization and its bureaucratic nature. For this reason, there is an urge for analysis of
the books provided by the oppressor from the trenches of the oppressed.
7. Corpus
The corpus for this paper will consist of 17 reading passages taken from the
materials provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education for Adult secondary education,
specifically the materials for the first module which encompasses the first and second year
of regular secondary education. Fourteen of these reading passages appear in the four
coursebooks, and three are part of a mock test.
The Ministry of Education gives a set of four books for the first module of the
English language. Each of these books represents a learning unit. Book one is called El

42

ingls en la vida diaria. In this book, there is only one reading passage titled A family in
England ; however, some of the remaining readings do not have a title. Book number two
is All about you, where there are four readings, the first one is about personal
information, with no title, the second one is about physical description, also without a title,
the third one is about a new school, also without a title and, finally a reading passage called
Cultural page. In book unit number three City and work there are five readings, the
first is A visit to Santiago, the second is Looking for the council, the third is
Telephone conversation, the fourth is Houses, homes and homelessness in Britain and
finally the fifth with no title is about an apartment building. The final book which includes
the last unit, number four Lunch time, contains four reading passages, the first with no
name is about personal routines, the second with no title is about free time activities, the
third is called At the restaurant and finally the fourth reading passage is Cultural page.
In addition to the books reading passages, three of them will be taken from the one
single mock test located on the Ministry web page. The first reading passage is called
Pope John Paul II, the second does not have a title and it is about a job advertisement
and, finally, a reading about personal information, with no title either.
8. Models of Analysis
The intention of this section is to set the boundaries of the models of evaluation and
analysis that could serve to describe and explain the way the corpus shows the traces of
ideological bias and identity intentioned by this ideological discourse within the reading
passages to be analyzed. There will be seventeen reading passages, twelve of them will be
taken from the four books provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education and three from

43

the mock test available on the Ministrys web page. For this reason, the present work can be
included in the frame of the descriptive-explanatory approach.
In order to carry out the analysis, a new model will be created, the Critical Reading
of Text. This new model will interject several model that were meant to be used alone;
however, this time they will work as one. For this, the The Seven Standards of Textuality
will be be presented to evaluate whether each reading passage constitutes a text in itself, a
textoid or a non-text. At the same time, each reading passage will be scrutinized by asking
the questions suggested by the Ways into texts model which are proposed from a critical
perspective. These two models will be used with the close support of the Lexico-Grammar
approach, analyzing how the Content and Function words interact matching the seven
standards and answering the questions of the ways into text.
8.1 Text and The Seven Standards of Textuality
In order to enter the world of text, it is of key importance first to place the proper
boundaries to what constitutes a text. Agreeing with De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981),
the most urgent problem to be solved in the field of text analysis is how texts work in a
communicative interaction. For this reason, the first and foremost important concern is to
clarify the definition of text that is to say, to answer the question, what is a text? In this
section, this question will not be answered in depth (see Discourse and Text). However, in
order to analyze the reading passages and expose how a text works in a communicative
interaction, the theory proposed by De Beaugrande (1981, 2004, 2006) will be followed. In
this way, it can be added to the previous discussion about a text that a text is a
communicative event, which must meet the seven standards of textuality. Any other attempt
of text outside of the box of the seven norms will not be considered as a text; therefore, it

44

will be regarded as textoid or a non-text and it will be outside of the scope of this work.
Finally, it is of key importance to highlight, once again, that a text is not only the written
form but also the spoken, as long as it complies with these seven standards.
Notwithstanding, in this project I will only take into consideration the texts in a written
form, the reading passages from adult education textbooks.
The standards of textuality are seven: cohesion, coherence, intentionality,
acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality. The first two, coherence and
cohesion, are more closely related to the internal structure of the text, and the remaining
five criteria are external to the text. Wodak (2008) noted that, on the one hand, purely
linguistic research methods or closer to text linguistic regard as more relevant the first two
criteria related to the inner construction of the text (text - grammar) and the other five
external factors are seen as secondary. On the other hand, within the discourse analysis
area, the external factors are the ones to be considered to play a fundamental role, and the
inner standards are seen as a result of particular factors.
According to De Beaugrande (1981, 2004, 2006), the first two are focused on the
textual materials; Cohesion and Coherence. The first of these rules, Cohesion, can be
understood in the way in which the text is constructed and how the elements interact and
connect with each other in the textual surface, allowing us to interpret the text as a
structural unit. This interpretation is possible through the appropriate use of grammatical
structures and connecting elements: linking words, punctuation, textual organizers and nonverbal elements.
The second is Coherence that is the relationship established between concepts and
meanings present in a text, and also how these concepts relate to the world knowledge of

45

the interlocutors. In this matter, there is a significant relationship to what the educator Paulo
Freire (1985) brings from the field of education. He asserts that "reading the world precedes
reading the word and reading the word implies the continuity of reading the world. [...] this
movement from the world to the word and from the word to the world is always present.
(p. 11).
Following Freire, we can mention that the text alone does not lead to anything, it is
the receiver who gives the sense taking the meanings contained in the text, relating them to
real-world knowledge. This act of reading does not end with the mechanical decoding of
the surface structure of the text, the word, but it is extended to the knowledge of the world
where the text is produced and received, thus coming to life.
The five following standards are focused on the external elements of the text,
specifically on the users of it, that is to say, both the producer and the receiver. The third is
Intentionality, which is related to the attitude and intention of those who produce the text,
either speaker or writer who consciously intend to convey knowledge or reach a goal within
a plan. The following is Acceptability, which is the counterpart of intentionality. It is
related to the receivers attitude and how the reader of the text perceives the received
message and, through this, the intention of the sender. One of the powers of the receiver is
to maintain the coherence and cohesion, as it is this participant the one who can tolerate
some imperfections present in the text.
The fourth standard is Informativity. This standard helps us to assess to what
extent the information contained in a text is new, relevant and how it relates to the
information already known. This is the key to maintaining a balance between new and
unknown information so that there is a communicative situation, here the producer of the

46

text should consider not making the task of the receiver too difficult to the point of
endangering communication.
The sixth is Situationality. It refers to those factors that make the text relevant to a
particular communicative situation. The text producer must adapt it to the time it appears to
be appropriate; some words or expressions are understood only in particular situations and
not in others. Finally, the seventh is Intertextuality, which refers to the interpretation
generally made of a text, by the receiver, as well as the composition of one, that creates the
producer, depending on the knowledge of other texts. Thus, it is possible to say that new
texts, to a greater or lesser degree, are related to other previous texts since they have certain
characteristic patterns in common.
De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) assert, taking the concepts previously coined by
Searle (1969), that these seven standards of textuality function as the constitutive rules of
textual communication, that is to say, they cannot be transgressed without violating the
communication process itself. There are also regulatory principles, which do not define
communication itself, but control it. De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) identified at least
three, efficiency, effectiveness, and appropriateness.
The Seven Standards of Textuality set the appropriate margins to delineate the
constitutive principles of a text. Although these seven features serve as a frame for text,
they are not enough to go deeper into the depths of text analysis. For this reason, it is
necessary to structure how to get into a text.

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8.2 Ways into texts

Anita Bolvar (2002) asserts the need for a critical reading of texts, when she
proposes that:
A critical reading, therefore, means to conceive the text as a process and product of social
interaction in which the participants of such interaction have communicative purposes,
personal and social interests, knowledge about the world and certain issues, and positions
and ideologies about what they are saying" (p. 312).

In this way, a text (or discourse) is considered as process and product at the same
time, which is continually changing. Moreover, following De Beaugrandes (1986) theory,
it is possible to remark that those who read a text are the ones that have the power to give
greater coherence to it. Thus, if there are different readers or listeners of an individual text,
there will be different representations of meaning and coherence delivered by the text, so
the process and product will be different discursive events. Furthermore, it is conceivable
that the participants in the social interaction centered on a particular text have various
purposes according to the knowledge they have about the world and dissimilar interests,
which lead them to the interaction, often being ideologically motivated.

It is for this reason that is of significant importance to objectify one path of analysis
to scuba dive into a text. In this fashion, Alastair Pennycook (2009) proposes Ways into
Texts which consists of a series of questions to frame an approach to critical text analysis.
This method entails six main categories: 1) Pretextual, 2) Contextual, 3) Intratextual, 4)
Intertextual, 5) Subtextual and 6) Posttextual.

48

The first, Pretextual formation delineates that Texts occur in particular forms with
particular histories. In order to discover this physical construction of a text the question that
needs to be popped is: What can you say about the text from its physical form and location?
In addition, Texts exist in social, cultural and historical contexts, which constitutes de
Pretextual relation of texts. The following are the questions proposed by author:
Where does the text come from?
How and why has it been produced?
Who or what is the author?
What kind of text is this?
What is its history as text or text type (genre)?
What can you predict about its content?
Who is likely to read it?
What kind of social power does the text have?
What other clues indicate its origins, purpose, function, etc.?
The second, Contextual influences, defines that a text always has meaning in a
particular context. Thus the question for this feature is: What is of importance in the
particular current usage of the text? In the same manner, a text possesses Contextual
relations which are unveiled by the following questions:
Who is using the text?
Who else is involved with this use?
Where is the text user?
What else is there in the environment related to the text?

49

Why is the text being used?

What social relations of power in this context might affect the text and its possible
meanings?
What other contextual relations are important?
The third, Intratextual constructions, states that Texts are put together in particular
ways. What can you tell from the internal workings of the text? is the necessary question to
understand this premise. Afterward, so as to go further into the Intratextual relations the
questions are:

Topic What is the text about?

Vocabulary
What keywords seem significant?
What pairs/ contrasts between words are there?
What metaphors or phrases seem important?
What particular word choices seem to have been made?
Grammar
What grammatical relations are of importance?
What use of pronouns, active/passive sentences, questions, statements, etc. are important in
the construction of meaning?
Who is doing what?
Text structure
What makes the text coherent?
How is it structured?
What genres or text types are there?
What else may be of importance within the text?

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What relations of power are discernable from within the text?

The forth item is Intertextual connections which is related to the relationship a text
has with other texts. How does the text refer to or carry parts of other texts? Additionally,
several other question can be asked in order to expose the Intertextual relations, or in other
words, in which way a text exists relative to other texts,
How does the text relate to other texts?
What other texts does it overtly refer to?
Are there covert references or echoes of other texts?
Whose voices (quotes, references) appear in the text?
What roles are given to different voices?
Are there pictures or other such features?
How do they relate to the text?
Do pictures or other features echo other pictures, etc.?
Does the text appear to enter into a dialog with other assumed texts?
What similarities and differences are there with other texts on the same topic?
What relations of power operate across and between these texts?
The fifth element is the Subtextual relations; that is to say, that texts are produced
by and reproduce broader frames of meaning. What discourses, ideologies or cultural
frames inform this text? In the same respect, when dealing with Subtextual relations it is
possible to assert that Texts are given meaning by discourses and ideologies.
What picture of the world does it appear to develop?
What discourses (ideologies) does the text draw on?

51

Is there evidence of similar discourses in other texts?

What subject positions are assumed or created?
What things are not said? What absences are there?
Whose interests does it appear to serve?
What relations of power might be served by the particular discourses and ideologies that
this text evokes?
The sixth and last of these principles of a critical approach to texts analysis is
Posttextual interpretations. It is this one which deals with how Texts are read, interpreted,
resisted and appropriated. What do you know about how the text is read, understood,
reacted to? Following the Posttextual interpretations the questions to be asked are:
What do you know about how the text is read, understood, reacted to?
What might be a preferred reading of the text?
What different possible readings are there?
How do readers react? Do they acquiesce? Do they resist?
Why do people read this in different ways?
What types of discourse, cultural knowledge or ideology appear to interact as different
people read?
How do relations of power affect the interpretive process?
Before going any further, it is important to state that Pennycooks (2009) Ways
into Texts was taken from the materials of the course Anlisis del Discurso in the
Magster en Lingstica at USACH (Universidad de Santiago de Chile). The author
himself sent this material by email through personal communication, and that is the reason
this model is not to be found in any other work.

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8.3 Lexico-Grammar approach

This investigation is meant to unveil the hidden ideological elements present in the
apparent innocent reading passages of adult secondary education in the area of English,
which in Chile is a foreign language. According to De Beaugrande (2006), and as we have
noticed before, language is an organ of control which is most clearly appreciated in
language education. In this context, teachers are deliberately directed towards the use of a
certain type of language activity suppressing others. In this fashion, De Beaugrande also
asserts that for this ideologically generated discourse practice to be effective, it should not
be recognized as such. Therefore, it is not expected to have explicit evidence of the
ideological internal work of the text at first sight, but after a close scrutiny of the context
together with the lexical and grammatical level, the real ideological intention will emerge.
For this reason, in order to complete the triangle of analysis initiated by the Seven
Standards of Textualities followed by the Ways into Texts, the Lexico-Grammar
Approach is presented as the next logical step to understand how a text works in a
communicational situation at the grammatical and lexical level. The first two are mainly
centered on the external elements that construct a text, and functional linguistic is centered
on the internal components of a text which are contextually generated.
Following the previous discussion about discourse and the world (see. Discourse
and the World), it is possible to comprehend that in the area of text analysis the cultural
and social contexts play a fundamental role, being the result of different elections within
the language system. These elections are far from being unbiased but adapted to the social
context and to the function assigned by the text produced; that is to say, it shows several
different elections and views marked by the knowledge of the world of the participants,

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power relationships and ideologies. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), a text
is a rich, many-faceted phenomenon that means in many different ways (p 3). For this
reason, a text must always be understood and analyzed within the situation it is positioned.
In the case of reading passages of adult education in the area of English, they must be
examined taken into account the situational context variables of the Chilean educational
system where these students are immersed.(see Education)
Consequently, according to De Beaugrande (2004), the conception of Lexicogrammar encompasses the integration of the lexicon and the grammar. These two terms
were commonly separated from each other in the past, due to the perception from the part
of formalist linguists that, on the one hand, grammar was an orderly system and, on the
contrary, lexicon was apparently messy. Notwithstanding, as De Beaugrande wittily asserts,
everything you say in practice has an integrated lexical and grammatical organization ,
thus they do not interact as different systems but as the same system altogether.
As follows, the relation between meaning and grammar will be analyzed paying a
close look at the vocabulary and the syntax. In this way, linguistic evidence will be
delivered showing the way in which the ideological bias is carried out, imposing only one
vision of the world. In other words, the analysis will demonstrate that the producer of the
text constructs meaning through lexical selection; in this way, it will be clear that discourse
has the potentiality to be ideologically constructed, therefore, politically intended.
Using the words of Blommert (2010), it is possible to emphasize that the
fundamental idea of the Lexico-grammar approach is meaning potential . To be precise,
the creator of discourse chooses from all the possible meanings present in the system of
language only the most appropriate ones for the communicative purpose, which are closely

54

related to the context they are immersed in and the intentions of the producer, sometimes
ideological.
Furthermore, as stated by Halliday (1978, p. 34), Language is the ability to mean
in the situation types, or social contexts, that are generated by the culture, in this way
discourse is to be understood as a social practice, which means it is submerged in a social
context. Thus, a text must not be regarded as an independent entity apart from social,
historical, cultural, ideological and political conditioning. For this reason, it is essential to
understand the tremendous meaning potential that is associated with the lexicon, grammar
and the world around the text. Therefore, the Lexico-grammar approach serves as a tool to
illustrate concrete examples in the text where the ideological discourse is present.
According to De Beaugrande (2004, Chapter 3) the Lexico-grammar of English
necessitates substantial delicacy in applying conventional terms, e.g., the Content Words
of Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs, and the Function Words of Articles,
Auxiliaries, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections. He introduces the term delicacy
to mean that there is a scale that when it goes to the higher level reaches a more lexical end
and towards the lower level a more grammatical end. As follows, it depends on the context
if the lexical or grammar end prevails. He states that there are concrete and detailed
restraints upon selection and combination when the delicacy is higher. In this way, the
lexico-grammar support for this project will be given in the analysis of content and function
words. Function words being close constituencies which are a finite number of elements
and Content words being open constituencies with an infinite number.
As a final point, it is important to clarify that the analysis of the Content and
Function words from a Lexico-Grammar point of view will not be an isolated task, but it

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will serve as an additional support to observe the Seven Standards of Textuality and to
answer the questions in the Ways into Texts section, so as to understand the different
linguistic elections in a better way.
9. Methodology
The field of Critical Discourse Analysis has been the target of several critics, among
many others; it has been accused of having miscellaneous methodologies based entirely, or
almost entirely, on personal, subjective appreciation. In order to counter attack these
accusations and to embrace CDA as an approach that provides demystifying and
emancipatory effects, we have created a multidisciplinary model, including theoretical
background and scholars from numerous disciplines and epochs. In this way, this Critical
Reading Model will help us to read off and analyze each reading passage in a systematic
and organized manner. For this, we have, initially, considered the understanding of
language by Fairclough (1992), who believes that language works in three levels: Text,
Discourse and Society; these levels are used to organize the seven standards and the
questions into a tridimensional working model. Additionally, we resort to the work of
Hegel (1802), Freire (1970), Bhabha (2002), Fanon (2004), Mclaren (2012), Giroux (2010)
and Meja (2014), as oppressor and oppressed to characterize the participants in the
construction and interpretation of the texts. Secondly, we also use, as the base for the entire
model, the theory proposed by Beaugrand and Dressler (1981) "The Seven Standards of
Textuality", which was afterwards restated and revisited by the same Beugrande (2004 and
2010). In this same way, we turn to Pennycook (2009) and its " Ways into Text" ; this
model provides to be an excellent way to systematize the accomplishment of the seven
standards. Consequently, this is a multidisciplinary attempt to retaliate against the

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ideologically intended critics and also to gather the necessary data in order to contribute to
the emancipation of the oppressed in the field of education and society as a whole. See
figure 1.
To commence, we have divided the model of analysis into the three primary
concentric circles; each of them representing and explaining the working of the three
Faircloughs levels. The inner and first circle contains Text, the most basic and initial stage
for the understanding of any written message within this model, where the inner and purely
linguistic structure of the text is to be found. This is followed by a bigger circle including
Discourse and finally, there is the outer circle representing Society, where Discourse goes
beyond being "language in use", but the main tool for ideologies of the oppressed by
"representing and constructing society which reproduce unequal relations of power,
relations of domination and exploitation" (Beaugrande.Discourse studies 1 page 28).
These three ranks are not deconstructed each time a reading passage is analyzed and read,
but worked along the whole analysis as the pervasive form shaping the investigation.
Accordingly, we have to understand that this models participants are primarily
supported by the work of the Marxist social theorist Hegel (1802) and brought, developed
and popularized in the field of education by the critical pedagogue Paulo Freire (1970),
who described the agents involved in the social struggle, that is to say class struggle
between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, as oppressor and oppressed. As we have stated
before this research is immersed in the Critical Discourse Analysis approach. As a result,
we openly positioned ourselves on the side of the oppressed when reading off and analyze
each piece of reading. Therefore, when mentioning the writer, producer, creator or any
other term given to the architect of the reading passages we are directly referring to the

57

oppressor imposing their views of the world and exercising power through them; when we
refer to the reader, receiver, or recipient of the passages we acknowledge them as the
oppressed. These two agents are located in parallel but opposite places within the model, as
it can be seen in figure 1.a. Even if they do not have the same amount power and do not
exercise it in the same manner, they have at the end the same capacity to understand and
create a text, in this case, to impose their power, the oppressor, or to resist power, the
oppressed.
Subsequently, we can also appreciate in the same figure 1.a that the seven standards
proposed by Beaugrande and Dressler are surrounding the message; additionally, we draw
out our attention to Pennycooks working model to optimize the matching of the standards.
Even if Pennycook, never expected his model to resemble or to be used together with
Beaugrandes standards, both of them fit almost perfectly together, completing this Critical
Reading Model. They way they work together is the following: first, each analysis is
divided into seven different sections based on the seven standards; most of them are
accompanied by the sections of the "Ways into Text", working together as one.
Accordingly, we can mention that, initially, coherence and cohesion standards are located
just in the middle of the graphic representation of the model next to the message, within the
inner circle of text; both standards are the elements constructing a text, without stopping the
interaction with the rest of the other standards and levels. At this point, we must clarify that
the authors originally intended both standards as two entirely independent ones; however,
we understand they are two inseparable elements; this is when the "Ways into Text" comes
into play. In order to systematize and structure the accomplishment of these two standards,
we include solely the "Intratextual constructions" questions (the individual questions are

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shown previously in the Ways into Text section). Therefore, coherence and cohesion are
located in the same section, notwithstanding, they are given the number 1.- and 2.- to
highlight that originally they were two different standards, developed and analyzed together
in the same section, giving away and explaining how each particular text is put jointly in a
particular way. Next, in point 3.- of the analysis we evaluate the Informativity standard of
the reading passage, helped by the questions recommended by "Pretextual formations",
dealing with the time, place and amount of information provided by the reading passage,
that is to say, how each reading passage has its own particular form of a particular history.
After that, we go into the standard number 4.- Situationality, in which we focus on the
particular contextual outer situation each reading passage is immersed in, being aware that
each text has meaning in a given context. Then, we concentrate on the relation this
particular text has to other texts on the following standard 5.-, Intertextuality. Right after, in
section 6.-,we turn to Intentionality, and it is in here where this model has a minor
imperfection; there is no section introduced by Pennycook suitable to match with this
standard, being this the reason why in Figure 1.a no sub-section appears next to it. In this
way, we decipher the intention the writer of this reading passage has solely based on the
evidence shown by the rest of the standards reading off. Furthermore, the right opposite
side of Intentionality is Acceptability, which is developed in section 7.- assisted by the
Posttextual interpretations questions, making us aware that this text is read, interpreted,
resisted and appropriated. Finally, as way of wrapping up the entire analysis we resort to
the Subtextual relations in order to understand that texts are produced by and reproduce
broader frames of meaning which work at a societal level influenced by unequal relations
of power and ideologies.

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Consequently, we must clarify that this Critical Reading of Text focuses mainly on
the linguistic evidence showing traces of ideologies and/or unequal relations of power, that
is why, unlike the original model of the Seven Standards of Textuality, we do not center
our attention on every single aspect directly composing the reading passages, but as we
have stated, only on the relevant constituencies pointing out to the social struggle.
Moreover, there are many aspects which are universal to all the text compiling our corpus,
because of this, there are several elements that are just described in the first analysis and
referenced in the rest. Another pertinent aspect that needs to be elucidated in order to
accomplish this in a systematic way is that we numbered, as the following [1], each
sentence in an effort to arrange every reference made to each one of them within the texts.
Additionally, we have to make clear that the questions taken from the Ways into Texts
are not answered one by one, but as it was a narrative text illustrating each aspect.
As a final point, we need to know that this attempt to carefully systematize and
consistently organize a Critical Reading of Texts is mainly directed to unveil the
overlapped ideologies present in each reading passage and the materials as a whole unit.
Notwithstanding, as several models have been gathered together in this one broader
approach there are still several gaps that need to be overcome, the lack of a set of questions
that match Intentionality and the absence of a standard that considerate even broader frames
of meaning and directly matches the Subtextual relation. Therefore, this model is still work
in progress that needs further development after gathering all the data results in a future
investigation.

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7. Text Analysis.
In this present section, we are going to put into play the Critical Reading of Text
model to scrutiny and analyze each one of the seven reading passages delivered by the
Chilean Ministry of Education for the first and second year of Adult secondary education in
the area of English.
7.1 Reading Passage 1.

[0] A family in England

[1] Alex and Salle Brown live in Manchester, in the north of England, since 1999. [2]
Alex is a teacher and Sally works as a secretary. [3] They have two children, Peter and
Helen. [4] Peter is twelve and Helen is ten. [5] They live in a modern house. [6]
Downstairs, they have a kitchen and a living/dinningroom. [7] Upstairs, they have three
bedrooms and one bathroom. [8] They rent the house. [9] They pay about three hundred
and sixty pounds for it.
[10] They usually get up at six o`clock in the morning. [11] After having breakfast at
eight they leave the house.

1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence

As a starting point, we resort to the Intratextual Constructions stating that texts are
put together in particular ways, so at this instant the internal elements working in the text
come into play. In this way, it is reasonable to assert that in order to convey the ulterior
intentions intended in this text Cohesion and Cohesion are managed through strategically
positioning the primary thematic content as the first content word presented at the
beginning of the opening clause [0] or title of this reading passage: - family -. The
whole text works around the construction of the idea of - family in England -. The title

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given to the reading passage is "A family in England" , England being one of the inner
circle countries where English is the native language (Kachru, 2006). In this fashion,
intentionality is worked from the very beginning positioning two nouns (or content words)
as the most important elements of the title, these are family- and England. The reading
passage states right from the start, in a quite explicit manner, the aim of bringing the British
culture as an important part of the learning of English.
Another important element the construction of coherence and cohesion is that the
subjects are located at the beginning or near the front of each sentence, all deriving from
the thematic content or replacing it with a content word that semantically plays the same
role such as they -. Subsequently, following the title, the first sentence [1] begins with Alex- and - Salle Brown-. These two content words or proper nouns are the most crucial
members of the social organization denominated family- within this text. They are two
common first names followed by only one surname giving the idea that they are legally
married due to the same surname. This fact may strike as the normality of a family in
England. However, it is of crucial importance to take coherence construction not only as an
internal property of the text, but also as the consequence of the external contextual
condition which affects it; because of this, it is extremely relevant to state that according to
the 2010 National Statistic Center in England marriage rates are one of the lowest in
history. Thus, it is possible to say that the implicit inclusion of a married couple as the most
important part of a family in England is the consequence of a conservative catholic
capitalistic ideology within this text, not as the norm in an English family. In this way,
there is the need for recognizing the importance of including matters related to the local
culture when creating a text used in the teaching of English as a Foreign language (Mckay,
2001).

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In the way this text is organized, it shows a pre-eminence of the male members. In
sentences [1], [2], [3] and [4] the men are always named first, locating them most of the
times in the front or near front of each of these sentences stressing the fact that men
somehow have more importance that women. In addition to this, one of the important
lexical options made by the author is the one presented in this same sentence [2], where the
occupation of these two members of the family, Sally and Alex, is introduced. These two
content words are in a high delicacy positioning, being any profession or job a suitable
choice. However, it is possible to assume that the decision made in this precise sentence is
not random, due to the origin of the two content words chosen teacher- and secretary-.
On the hand, the male individual is regarded as teacher-, a position of the traditional role
endowed with power in modern society and commonly reached only by obtaining a
professional degree at the university level. On the other hand, the female counterpart of this
social organization is presented as a secretary- a menial and submissive job, which does
not necessarily need a professional degree to be exercised and is acted as a subservient
relation. In this way, once more, men are located in an evident higher position in detriment
to women.
Additionally, the semantic relationship between the first content words in sentence
[1] is highlighted by the fact that in sentence [3] the noun - children - is brought into play.
This issue eliminates the option of the two people with the same surname being brother and
sister or any other family relation, but unquestionably the father and mother of these children-. In addition to this, several content words, such as: they (replacing "Alex and
Salle Brown" in sentence [3], and "family" in sentences [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] ), help to
continue with the inner cohesion of the text.

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The thematic content initiated and controlled by -family- is intentionally linked up

with the concept of -house-. The coherence of this reading passage is further developed in
the sequence of several nouns: -kitchen- living/dinningroom-bedrooms- bathrooms, giving
the idea of a -modern house- [5]. At this point, it is important to highlight the link made
between -family- and - house- and in sentence [8] the inclusion of the verb -rent-. The
insertion of this high capitalistic concept is at least curious when linked with the notion of
family-. Family is the basic social organization which has endured through time in
different compositions. Notwithstanding, the connection between -family- and -rent- is just
perceived in capitalistic societies as one of the components of the disposal culture and the
detachment of the land. Once more, Intentionality is worked towards to the inclusion of
only a particular ideology and the way it sees the world.
Furthermore, in this particular piece of reading there exists an interesting word
choice, adding another capitalistic conception to the game. In sentence [5] the content word
-house- is introduced as the final element. This content word is in a low delicacy position,
where several words could have been chosen, instead of -house-, to refer and call the place
in which this English family live, such as flat, home, apartment, condominium, caravan,
etc. Notwithstanding, due to the elemental construction of the text only two words would fit
the profile: house or home, as they are the most common and simplest words to identify the
place a person or, in this particular case, a family lives. In this way, the previous low
delicacy position becomes a high delicacy one when taking into consideration the context
of the producers, as well as the receivers of the text. As a result, the choice of houseover home- has some particular and deeper meaning than just a random selection.
As follows, choosing house- as the most important element of the final part of the
paragraph has some understanding aftermaths. On the one hand, the content word selected

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for this reading passage -house- is closely related to the material features of a family and it
gives away the idea that a family is a concrete object which gathers around a concrete
building, commonly known as house-. This element has little or nothing to do with the
idea of love, kindness or any other affectionate constituent acting together in the
development of a -family-. On the other hand, the content word -home- not only refers to
the concrete building where this family- can live their everyday life, but also to the
affectionate relationships assembled in a particular place, adding a more abstract element to
the equation, an element that in this specific text is left aside.
Wrapping up, this conservative capitalistic vision of family should not strike as an
adverse fact, on the contrary, just as a part of a multicultural world. However, this distinct
conception of family delivers the message of one vision of the world, not the broad range of
family constructions that there exist in a cosmopolitan and multicultural country like
England such as, mono parental families, same-sex married families, unmarried couples,
non-biological children families, families composed of friends willingly living together,
etc. In this way, not only the discourse created can be considered political discourse
delivering only one vision of the world, but also the imposition of it, due to the lack of
other type of discourse widening the vision of the reality. As we know, not only what is
explicitly included gives meaning to the text, but also what it lacks, left aside or just
ignored.
3. Informativity
Subsequently to the analysis and explicit consideration of the internal elements of
the text, the Pretextual Formation contemplation is the first and foremost step to be taken.
The text does not occur in an abstract acontextual space without a particular history or
physical construction and surroundings. In this way, after observing the physical structure

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of the reading passage, it is possible to assert that this text is situated at the right top of the
left page just above an exercise which evaluates the recognition of numbers. This fact
makes it the first discursive structure to be seen when turning the page (number). In
addition to this, we can also mention that it possesses three paragraphs, one long and two
one-sentence simple and basic paragraphs. Thus, without even beginning reading it or
going further into the analysis we can affirm that it has an elemental construction and that
one of the main focuses of the reading passage is basic numbers.
Going to deeper into this standard, it is possible to assert that the information given
by the text perfectly matches the state of linguistic development the readers possess, due to
this they can grasp the main ideas intended by the writer. The simple and basic content
words included in the text, such as -family-. -children-, -house- and -rent-,which give
coherence to the reading passage, make the reader understand the main idea without the
necessity of interpreting every single word. Additionally, Informativity interchanges with
Intentionality working together in several areas, as in this discourse different voices
collided. First the intention to teach English which is the most explicit aim of the text,
including the basic lexical vocabulary item related to family, housing, and numbers. This is
also appreciated in the basic grammar structures included, mainly focusing on the simple
present of the verb to be. In this very same way, another attention-grabbing lexical element
integrated with this reading passage is the only connector used and-. The simplicity of the
text is highlighted by this preference. Because of this, we can assert that this text has been
either artificially constructed or modified and/or graded to meet the proficiency level of the
readers. Intentionality to teach English as a second language, to get acquaintance with the
English culture, to impose a conservative view of family and to impose a capitalist familiar

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organization is highlighted by the fact that the function words are minimized, so the effects
of content words are stronger.
Additionally, It is of paramount relevance to emphasize that texts in general, and
this text in particular, exist in social, cultural and historical contexts, which are the social
elements that affect not only Acceptability, Informativity, Intentionality or Situationality,
which are widely considered the external factors of texts, but also how this text construct
Coherence. For this reason, we should be aware that this text is produced, planned and
designed from its very origin by the Chilean Ministry of Education to be used in adult
education. This text is included in the textbooks delivered for free to every school working
with adults, being under the supervision and funding of the Ministry. Another important
element to be highlighted is that, according to its creators, it has the objective of teaching
English as a second language to adults, as a part of the national curriculum.
Notwithstanding, based on the asymmetrical relationship between the governmental
institution and the rest of the Chilean population in general, it is also possible to assert that
it has the objective of imposing a specific vision of the world, an ideology, the one of
individuals in power.
4. Situationality
Other external elements playing a fundamental role in the understanding and
meaning constructions from the texts are the so-called Contextual Influences which must
also be taken into consideration before diving into the text analysis itself. One of these is
that this text is used by teachers of English as a foreign language who work at adult schools
and adults who attend this school in order to finish their secondary education. In this way, it
is also relevant to draw the attention to the fact that the individuals involved in these adult
programs necessitate to undertake a standardized test at the end of the educational year so

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as to obtain the diploma given by the Chilean government. The standardized test is
intimately related and closely resembles the text passages included in the course books in
this area. Thus, students are somehow forced to acquire the contents and vocabulary
without deeper analysis or criticism, due to its final requirement of the exam approval.
Furthermore, not only students are obliged to grasp and seize the texts as a mandatory
guide, but teachers are also mandated to use only these texts as the trust of their very same
students is put on them to teach them how to pass the sanctified test.
Before going deeper into the analysis, it is crucial to highlight that the reader of
this text is not an assiduous reader but someone who has left school, in many cases, a long
time ago and has basic or no knowledge of English. Thus, when reading this text, all efforts
are directed towards the understanding of the text and not in the critical analysis or any
other way of seeing the text beyond the simple explicit information. This is the reason the
receiver of this text accepts all intention intended by the writer whether they are on the
surface or hidden in the discourse. In addition, the area of Acceptability definitely plays a
significant role in understanding and decoding the message underlying this piece of writing.
The text is contextualizing what a family in England is supposed to be, including what
appears to be a natural feature of an English family rent- which is not the norm neither in
England nor in Chile. What is more, it conveys the idea that the composition of a normal
family in England is the standard with two parents and children, all together living in a
comfortable house which is rented and paid by the work of both parents. Even though other
types of family may come to mind, they are disregarded by the text, so they are irrelevant
for the posterior activities of understanding.

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Even if adults go to class regularly, their studying conditions are far more complex
than in regular schools. People attending evening school programs have no more than an
hour per week to study and work with these reading passages, the rest of the week they
study one hour on the following subject: language (Spanish), Science, Mathematics and
History. It is also pertinent to declare that most of them study and work at the same time, so
they lack the necessary time to read or study the texts outside the classroom environment.
These further disadvantages add additional difficulties to criticize or see beyond the surface
structure of the reading passages.
Many of the adults immersed in this educational program are part of migrant
communities who came to Chile to find work and are not only unaware of the English
language or reality, but they are also unacquainted with the Chilean reality. In this country,
in order to get a job, which gives a little more than the necessary income to overcome the
line of poverty, a high school degree is asked as a minimum requirement. Due to this,
migrants who do not possess the obligatory documents to prove their school education seek
to finish school here in Chile. At this point, it is crucial to note that many of these people do
have formal school education and instruction and, in many occasions, they did finish
secondary school in their countries of origin. Notwithstanding, bringing these documents
and certifying them in Chile, depending on the country, costs around six hundred thousand
Chilean pesos, a high price that migrants in general do not want or cannot afford. Even
more, receiving this documentation takes more than six months as a minimum or even a
year. As it is possible to appreciate, the possibility to work outside the box or encouraging
the understanding of the text from a more critical perspective is hampered by the urge to
fulfill the basic need of obtaining the diploma at any cost.
5. Intertexuality

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Subsequently, we can include Intertextuality elements as a part of the Intertextual

Connections of the text and say that it is a descriptive piece of writing which can be found
mainly in other EFL coursebooks, such as Touchstone, Interchange, Headway, etc.
According to Faras (2004) in instructional practices used in FLLT in Chile since 1898
there has been a transition from entirely monomodal texts to more complex multimodal
constructions of text in recent years. However, even though this particular text has a close
connection and resemblance to the ones to be found in the previously mentioned EFL
course books, it lacks the multimodal structure that reading passages tend to have
nowadays. Thus, it is relatively complicated to establish any further assumption about the
relation it has with other texts due to the lack of direct quotes or references to outside
voices. In addition to this, we can mention that it also lacks an image together with the text
or any other multimodal clue integrated to it which would allow additional analysis.
Another element which is relevant to be mentioned is the inclusion of the content word
rent-, a fact that is not seen in any of the reading passages related to family- in any other
EFL coursebook. This same fact together with the notion that this text has been artificially
created or modified gives the idea that the inclusion of rent is not random, but a direct
intention to include capitalistic monetary values with this text.
6. Intentionality
The present text is the first reading passage to appear in the set of books provided by
the Chilean Ministry of Education to teach/learn English as a part of the national
curriculum in adult education. This discourse delivers and interfaces
numerous intentionalities: to teach/learn English as a second language, to get acquainted
with the English culture, to impose a conservative view of family and identity, which are
accomplished through multiple means and manners. The first two are not particularly

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relevant to this analysis due to their explicitness, unambiguousness and for being the open
aim not only considered necessary by the Chilean government, but also by the students
attending this type of instruction. Nevertheless, the two following aspects are the relevant
ones because they can be considered ideological construction and not necessarily explicit
7. Acceptability
After resorting to the Posttextual Interpretations, we can assert that due to the fact
that the readers do not possess the necessary instruction, nor the time to read off the hidden
intentions of the text, the preferred reading would be the one explicitly asserted by the
oppressor, which in this case would be spotting some vocabulary related to the house and to
the composition of a family and its activities. However, as a trained reader and a researcher
my first reaction would be to spot the hidden intention, specifically, the supremacy of the
material world over the affectionate, the lionization of men in comparison with women, the
exclusion of not conservative constructions of families and the imposition of economic
terms unnecessarily. Therefore, therefore, we can appreciate that there is an immense
unequal relation of power when understanding and reading a text passage, there is a
different preferred reading when comparing the research and the intended readers.
8. Conclusion
As a final point and a manner of conclusion, another important relation included in
the text are Subtextual Relations, that is to say, texts are produced by and reproduce broader
frames of meaning which state that texts are given meaning by discourse and ideologies. At
this stage, we can now say that the text as a whole conveys an extremely male chauvinist,
heteronormativity, and capitalistic discourse. The text is heteronormativity due to the fact
that it expresses heterosexuality as given, instead of being one of the many possibilities.
This is seen in the elements that are not included in it, like a homosexual couple or any

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other type of family other than the one that a conservative view mandates, causing a subtle
harm to those who do not entirely fit within its bounds. Additionally, the text continues
with the conservative view adding the male chauvinist characteristic in its lexical
construction and in the location of the content words. In every sentence where a female and
a male are included, the male is the first to appear, being located in the front or near front of
every clause showing its superiority. Moreover, men are given a higher status not only in
age, as men are older than the women included in the text, but also in the occupation given
to the father , teacher, and the mother , a secretary. The first it is a position where power is
exercised and can only be achieved after studying a professional career and the latter is a
submissive occupation which suffers from the power exercised onto it and it does not
necessarily need tertiary studies. Finally, the capitalistic discourse is appreciated in the
inclusion of the material word house- over the affective -home- and in the introduction of
the term rent to give the family a materialistic features , conveying the idea that this
element is the driven force of it.

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10.2

Reading Passage 2.

[0] Hello! [1] Im Rodrigo Ortega. [2] Im from Mendoza, Argentina, but my parents
are from Santiago. [3] They are Chilean. [4] Im twenty three years old and Im
a salesman in a shoe-shop in a shopping centre.
[5] My father is a mechanic, but he is not working now. [6] His name is Pedro.
[7] My mother is a housewife. [8] Her name's Rosa.
[9] My sister is seven and my brother is fifteen. [10] Their names are Antonella
and Piero. [11] They are students
[12] I also live with my uncle, Juan. [13] He is my mothers brother. [14] He is divorced
and he lives with my cousins Camilo and Jimena. [15] My grandfather, who
also lived with us, died last month.

1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence

As a way of initiating the analysis of this second reading passage, we shall focus
first on the internal elements which are the constituencies of the cohesion and coherence of
the text. In this way, we need to analyze the manner the text is put together through the
questioning made by the Intratextual Construction as we already did with the previous text.
Among other elements, it is imperative to look for the key significant words, contrast
between words, grammatical relations, use of pronouns, etc. However, it is also important
to restate that these features should not be taken as a mere coincidence or a random
decision, but as a clear ideological positioning.

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One of the first elements worth mentioning is the fact that this text does not possess
a title announcing what the text is about or helping to obtain the thematic content
beforehand. So, at this instant, we can commence with [0] Hello- which marks the
beginning of this reading passage, by telling the reader that this is not a regular narration,
but part of a descriptive text told directly to her/him. Hello- is a nonclause material or
conventional function word used to initiate a conversation in a polite way. Because of this,
we are able to affirm that the producer intends to create a text closer to the reader. Thus this
apparent minor and irrelevant introducing element is not quite so. We are already aware
that the texts producer is neither equal nor close to the final receiver. Therefore, the
oppressor uses Hello- as a first step towards the masking of their intentions, and as a start
to the hiding of their ulterior intentions from the very beginning of the text. As it was
previously asserted, if the control is to be effective, it may appear to be so (Mey, 1979), and
this is a proper instance to start working its concealing.
Furthermore, in addition to the idea pointed out above, this expository text has the
verb to be as the main verb. Out of twenty-one verbs seventeen of them are the verb to
be . This is one of the elements showing the simplicity of the text, which has either been
adapted or openly created in order to fit the desired structure. This fact illustrates that the
characteristics expressed by the text arrangement are not a mere coincidence or common
use of the English language, but an elaborate design of the texts creator, in this specific
case, the oppressor. In the same fashion, the contraction of the verb to be depicting
informality emerges as another attribute directed to the same target: to enhance the
closeness between the sender and the receiver of the message, as the contraction of the verb
to be, or any other contraction for that matter, belongs to the field of informal writing or

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everyday oral conversation. Another interesting detail that could be drawn out from the
prominence of the verb to be over any other verb is that, by doing so, the reader may tend
to focus the attention on other words rather than the verbs which may tend to lose their
importance due to repetition. However, this aspect is not enforced solely by the repetition
of this particular verb, but, as we will analyze in depth when dealing with the Pretextual
relations, by the fact that the oppressor explicitly asks the oppressed to focus on the family
relation lexicon through the pre-reading activities proposed. Additionally, the contraction
of the verb to be is not consistent, as it cannot be appreciated in [3], [5], [9], [11] and [14],
yet this reduction of the verb can certainly be seen in [1], [2], [4] and [8]. At first, this
apparent inconsistency may seem random, nevertheless, when comparing the two
correlative and almost equivalent sentences, [6] and [7], it is feasible to affirm that there is
a tendency to heighten the male character over the female one. This is because in [5] the
verb to be is fully expressed to announce the masculine participants name, highlighting
this feature, and it is contracted at the time of proclaiming the female counter parts name,
thus reducing its importance. As a result, we can reassure that the way the cohesive
elements are arranged within a text mean more and work further than just holding the text
together as Zenteno (1982) stated.
Another important component among the cohesive and coherence elements within
this text is the central character who is masculine. This minor perceptible aspect may not
strike as extremely relevant, although it is a significant part of a marked tendency towards
the male dominance so far. This subject called Rodrigo Ortega- is represented by -I- in
[1], [2], [4] and [12], showing that he is the texts narrator. This is reinforced by the
function word my- referring that these other subjects are part of his family, when

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introducing them in the second clause of [2] and, at the beginning of sentences [5], [7], [9],
[13] and [15]. Because of these cohesive elements, we are aware that this reading passage
goes around the male character previously mentioned.
Continuing with the relevant elements intensifying the male dominance, we can
mention that in this reading passage there are nine subjects out of which six are males and
three females. On the one hand, the male characters appear, first, as the narrator -Ipreviously mentioned in [1], [2], [4] and [12] and in [15] as part of us-. Secondly, another
man is introduced as -father- in the first clause of [5] and as part of my parents- in the
second clause of [5], Pedro in [7], as part of they- in [3] and in [15] as part of us-.
Thirdly, -brother- appears in [9], as Piero in [10], as they- in [11] and in [15] as part of
us-. Fourthly, there is -uncle- in [12], as He- in [13] and [14], and in [15] as part of us-.
Finally, -grandfather- shows up in [15] as -grandfather- and as part of us- in the same
sentence. On the other hand, the female characters materialize, first, in [7] as -mother-, as
Rosa in [8], in [2] as part of parents-, as part of they- in [3] and in [15] as part of us-.
Secondly, another female subject comes into sight in [9] as sister-, Antonella in [10], as
part of They- in [11] and as part of us- in [15]. Finally, the last female character emerges
in [14] as a member of cousins- and -Jimena-. As it is feasible to appreciate, we can state
that there is a high tendency to the male prominence in the number of appearances in this
reading passage.
Moreover, the male tendency does not end with the features mentioned in the
preceding paragraph; the texts creator, apart from choosing a male character when
mentioning the name of the narrator, mentions only one last name. In Chilean culture,
different from the English speaking countries idiosyncrasy, every person maintains two last

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names; the first one is the fathers, and the second one is the mothers. However, in the case
of the main character of this text, he only has what seems to be the fathers last name. The
rest of the characters are not introduced with any last name what so ever, implicitly stating
that the male patriarch is the one overshadowing the rest.
Additionally, in this same area, we can approach the vocabulary where interesting
components, illustrating the ideological load in this reading passage, can be found. An
excellent way to commence this section is to focus on the occupation given to the narrator
in [4]; he is characterized as a salesman- who works in a shoe-shop- at a shopping
center-. One attention-grabbing ingredient is the fact they chose a -salesman- a clearly
capitalistic submissive service job which does not generate any other material value to
society than just being an intermediary in an economic transaction. Moreover, this
individual works in a -shopping centre- the pinnacle of the capitalistic societies where
thousands of monetary transactions are made without generating a lasting material value
other than money. Another relevant aspect to examine is that the unisex term salespersonwas ignored by choosing the word used only for males salesman-, thus reinforcing the text
male driven characteristic. In this way, not only the male dominance can be drawn out of a
single word, but also the capitalistic inclination of the same terminology.
Another important lexical choice is the fathers occupation who is described as a
mechanic-, a common job usually performed only by men. This occupation is not quite
involved or essential in capitalistic societies; however, he is also described as not
working- which is one of the significant features of capitalism, having perfect functional
individuals unemployed out of the working force due to monetary issues. Therefore, this
lexical preference is showing once more the proclivity of the text analyzed. Likewise, the

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female parent is described as a housewife-. The content word housewife- entitles the
submissive side of a woman who stays at home taking care of the house issues. She is not
paid for the job, so it is not considered by western capitalistic societies as a real job. Even
more, there is not an equivalent term for a man who does the same activities, the closest
term would then be househusband. However, this word does not carry the submissive and
diminishing load that the female counterpart term does. According to Oxford Dictionaries
, a househusband is defined as A man who lives with a partner and carries out household
duties traditionally done by a housewife rather than going out to work . Therefore, this
lexical selection is not a random one, but one directed to maintaining the current capitalistic
chauvinist status quo encouraged by the creator of the text. If the intention was to depict a
traditional family homemaker- could have been a plausible more fair word choice, as it is
loaded with more affectionate and cooperative features. In fact, it carries the home
protection, not only in monetary terms, but also affectionately. The use of homemaker
would not only give [7] Rosa her just position within the text, but also would locate her into
surface of equality between men and women.
The inclusion of the male member in [x] as my uncle- adds another factor to the
masculine tendency of this reading passage which is even more enhanced by the addition of
another member my grandfather-.
Another significant component is the fact that, when describing the male parent, [5]
and [6] three characteristics are mentioned mechanic- , -not working- and Pedro-, but
when illustrating the female parent there are only two: -housewife- in [7] and Rosa- in [8].
Once more, the male primacy is highlighted. Also, in the case of the younger siblings, they
are described with the same number of features. The siblings are characterized as they-,

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having the same content words (adjectives) describing them students- in [11]. They are
depicted having less importance than the father- and mother- who are described as
they in [3]. This gives more importance to adults rather than kids.
At this point of the analysis, related to the power relations that are discernable from
within the text, it is possible to remark that the male characters are in supremacy over the
female counterparts. Among other elements mentioned before, we can also point out that,
through some lexical determination, the text shows a clear tendency towards the values and
organization of capitalistic societies.
3. Informativity
In order to obtain a complete understanding of the Informativity standard related to
this reading passage, it is necessary to take a close look at the Pretextual relations it
possesses. In this sense, it is of paramount importance to be aware that texts exist in a
social, cultural and historical context. This is the reason we necessitate to go beyond the
immediate linguistic context given by the cohesion and coherence analysis. Hence, in this
section, we analyze the physical context of the text in question.
To begin with, we can say that this text exists in a particular manner, implying it has
a particular physical construction. One of its peculiarities is that it is not located in a single
page, but in two pages at the same time. It is built by fourteen sentences divided into ten
lines, ten sentences in page three and four in page four. The first group of utterances is at
the bottom of the page, and the second one at the top of the next page. This creates a simple
physical context that can be followed by any literate reader. Another important component
of its formation is that, previous to the passage, there is a pre-reading activity where

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vocabulary about the family members is taught. As a result, the receiver of this text, even
before starting to read, is supposed to know about related vocabulary, helping directly to
the Informativity it is supposed to have. As part of another pre-reading activity, the students
are asked to highlight the recently taught words, but this time in the reading passage. In
addition to this, just beneath the reading passage, a true or false post-reading activity can be
found, in this case it is mainly focused on personal information about the family members.
Subsequently, it is possible to say that this passage is a descriptive text concentrated on the
discrimination of lexical items related to family and family relations. These types of texts
are commonly found in elementary EFL coursebooks, using basic content and function
words.
4. Situationality
After having a glance to the Informativity area, where we see that this text appears
at a proper stage of the English learning focusing on lexical items about personal
information and family relations, we can take the next step into the Situationality. This
standard is shaped by going into the Contextual relations present in the reading passage.
Now we have to bear in mind that a text always has meaning in a particular context, in a
particular situation. Due to this fact, this text would not have the same force or the same
impact if it used by individuals with an advanced level of English or someone not interested
in this area. It is in this area that not only the educational context plays an important role,
but the social context of the participants as well.
First, this text is being sent by the Chilean government to be used by adult students
in the struggle of finishing their secondary education. Thus, in this special communicative
situation, we can realize that the receiver and sender are not two equal sides; they do not

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possess the same influence to enforce power in this unequal situation. In fact, the receiver
is in a detrimental position in comparison to the sender; there is no chance for response or
any questioning. As it has been mentioned before, the students have to approve a
standardized test at the end of the educational process where this text it is immersed,
therefore, when facing the text the receivers have small or no room to detour from the
concrete realization of it. In addition to this, they can only passively appreciate the reading
without going deeper into a more critical inquiring.
5. Intertextuality
The next logical and proper step to be taken is to approach the Intertextuality
standard. In order to facilitate the analysis of this reading passage, and as a way of seeking
its matching with Intertextuality, we need to deal with the questions proposed by the
Intertextual relations. Consequently, we need to know that this text, and all texts for that
matter, exists in relation to other texts.
First or most importantly, this particular text does not make any direct reference to
other texts, neither within the materials provided by the Ministry or any other text outside
these materials. However, it does relate, not in an explicitly but in a covert way, to other
texts within EFL coursebooks due to its lexical and grammatical construction. There exit
many reading passages in books series such as Touchstones, Headway, Face to Face, etc.,
where some passages use the same lexical elements, family relations and simple function
words, together with short and simple sentences. At this point it is possible to affirm that
this text, even if not direct quotes or references are made, echoes the voices of conservative
powerful groups who feel comfortable spreading the views of patriarch families in which
women play submissive and diminishing roles.

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Continuously, by looking again into its physical context, we can also affirm that the
text lacks immediate images or any other multimodal elements accompanying the passage
which could create a more complex meaning. However, we are conscious that this text does
not exist in an abstract environment, but as a part of an EFL coursebook. Bearing this in
mind, we can pay attention to the cover to this book where a picture related to this text is
situated together with its title All about you-. This picture makes reference to a salesmanas in [4] who works in a shoe-shop-. This individual is formally dressed standing next to a
costumer. This shop- employee-costumer/consumer relationship is deeply rooted into the
soul of the capitalistic relationships which are basically attached to money transaction. At
the same time, it is possible to observe that this shop is inside a store-complex or a
shopping center, also part of the height of capitalism.

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6. Intentionality
The next phase is to enter into the Intentionality standard which works blurrily in
the text due to the fact that different voices collided in this discourse. First, there is the
intention to teach English which is the explicit aim stated by the Education Ministry.
Because of this, there is an insertion of basic lexical items related to family, common
occupation and basic verbs, such as the verb to be. This can also be distinguished in the
basic grammar structures included, mainly focusing in the simple present of the verb to
be. In this very same way, other noticeable lexical elements integrated in this reading
passage are the two connectors used and- and but-. The simplicity of the text is
highlighted by this preference. Due to this, it is possible to assert that this text has been
artificially constructed or modified and/or graded to meet the readers proficiency level.
Furthermore, after revising the standards of cohesion, coherence, informativity,
situationality and intertextuality, we can affirm that the intention of teaching family related
vocabulary explicitly expressed through the instructions, previous to the reading passage,
are not more than a superficial objective, hiding some deeper intentions. We can strongly
declare that, whether intentionally or not, this text intends to impose a conservative and
male chauvinist view of family, where the role and importance of women is diminished and
overshadowed. This is not only carried out by the lexical options made, but also by the
repetition of some subjects over others, the order of the positioning of content words, the
number of adjectives per subjects, among other elements. In addition to this, it enforces a
capitalist view of the organization of life by including its values through the lexical options.

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7. Acceptability
At this instant, we need to be aware of the Posttextual Interpretations which state
that texts are read, interpreted, resisted and appropriated in different ways according to their
different receptors. Therefore, we are obliged to restate once more that the receptor of
this reading passage is not an assiduous reader, neither in English nor in Spanish, but
someone who has left school and in most of the cases has basic or no knowledge of
English. Because of this, when approaching this text, every single effort is aimed at the
understanding of it and not to critically analyzing or any other way of seeing
the text beyond the simple explicit information or the information ask or given by the
instruction located just above the passage. This is the reason why the receiver of
this text accepts all purposes intended by the writer, whether they are in the surface or
hidden in the discourse. In addition, this area of Acceptability definitely plays an important
role in understanding and decoding the message underlying this piece of writing. The text
is contextualizing what a family in Chile is supposed to be, including what appears to be a
natural distribution of occupational roles. Even though other types of family may come to
mind, they are disregarded by the text so they are irrelevant for the posterior activities of
understanding. In this way, the relations of power do affect the interpretative process, not
allowing a free interpretation of the text, by imposing the contents to be tested afterwards.
8. Conclusion
As a final point and as a manner of conclusion, we need to go further than the Seven
Standards of Textuality. In this fashion, there is a final important relation included in the
text which are the Subtextual Relations, that is to say, texts are produced and reproduced by
broader frames of meaning which state that texts are given meaning by discourse and

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ideologies. At this point, we can now say that the text as a whole, as discourse, conveys an
extremely male chauvinist, heteronormative, conservative and capitalistic discourse.
Primary, the text suggests a conservative view by adding a male chauvinist characteristic in
its lexical construction and in the location of the content words. In every sentence where a
female and a male are included, the male is the first to appear, being located in the front or
near front of every clause showing its superiority. Similarly, men are given a higher status
in terms of occupation, being the father a mechanic, and the mother a housewife. Even
more, men are described not only by higher degree adjective, but they are described using
more adjective than women and there is evidence that when using contraction there is a
tendency to mark men dominance as well. Even if this text eludes being completely
conservative due to the addition of the concept of divorced- , it still does have only one
construction of family which is composed following the conservative precepts, such a
married couple with two kids, one male and one female, and the father as the main financial
support of the family. The text is also heteronormative because it expresses heterosexuality
as given, instead of being one of many possibilities. This is seen in the elements that are not
included in it, like a homosexual couple or any other type of family other than the one that
a conservative view mandates, causing a subtle harm to those who do not entirely fit within
its boundaries. Lastly, the capitalistic discourse is appreciated in the inclusion of the
material lexical item such as salesman- and shopping centre-, conveying the idea that
these elements are the driven force of it, enhanced by the image added previously.
Therefore, we can emphasize that this reading passage more than just teaching English as a
foreign language, it attempts to maintain the values and ideology that a conservative
capitalistic view of society imposes.

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10.3 Reading Passage 3.

[1] He is from U.S.A. [2] He`s a famous and very good-looking actor. [3] He has
got blond hair, blue eyes, little nose, and a beautiful mouth and smile.
[4] She`s a very good singer. [5] She`s quite irreverent. [6] She`s always doing
something extravagant. [7] She has got blond hair, green eyes, little nose and a sensual
mouth.
[8] She`s a singer too. [9] She is from Colombia. [10] She sings and dances very
well. [11] She has got long, black hair , but now she has blond and curly hair. [12] She has
got a big nouse and mouth.
1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence
As it has been done with the two previous reading passages, we need to focus first in
the cohesion and coherence of the text, the internal elements, which are placed together
applying the Intratextual Constructions. In this way, accomplishing the understanding of
the text implies, initially, to bring into surface internal important elements such as key
vocabulary, contrast between words, grammatical interrelations, etc.
Opening the analysis, we can affirm that it is normal to expect that the kick off of
the reading passage would be a title that not only gives the general thematic content, but
also works as an anchor holding the text around one single topic. Notwithstanding, in the
case of the present passage there is no such constituent, forcing the reader , or in this case
the researcher, to unscramble this thematic content out of the cohesion and coherence
created by the overall meaning of the rest of the sentences. This text is part of an exercise

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which possesses as a title Listening-, giving no or zero evidence of any theme whatsoever.
Even though, we are aware that texts are set together in particular ways, and this is the
manner, they give away thematic content or topic. In this way, initially after a first raw
reading, we can affirm this text is about the physical description or appearance of famous
individuals that are depicted in both words and images, using subjective appreciations.
The physical appearance thematicity is given by the dominance of the use of
common contents words, in this case, nouns and adjectives, the former related to the
description of the observable physical features and the latter to the account and evaluation
of these very same characteristics. These key words seem more than important and
significant for the understanding of the passage due to their, at first glance, objectivity.
Initially, it is feasible to appreciate that [1], [2] and [3] are part of the description of the
same individual, because the three of them begin with the same pronoun He- and, also,
they are part of the same paragraph, creating the cohesion of this passage around the
pronoun -He-. To begin with, in [1] he is characterized as U.S born origin due to from the
U.S.A- which is not relevant to the physical description themacity, however, it can involve
that the features that follow are proper of a U.S individual. The main subject of this
paragraph is also described as -famous- and a very good looking actor-. When describing
one might expect that the elements included in the same sentence are equivalent in order to
maintain coherence, which is not the case. Thus, it is sensible to assume that the famoustrait, that is to say that the individual is more than well known by the general population, is
the direct consequence of the former very good looking--, without including any
evaluation of his performance as an actor. Following, the characterization as very good
looking- is a subjective assessment made by the writer, capable of influencing the reader,

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describing the actor not merely as -good looking-, but as very good looking-, enhancing
this estimation. Then, in [3] his physical look is detailed, using the name (nouns) of several
parts of his body, specifically his face, such as -hair- , -eyes-, -nose- and -mouth-;
additionally, the related but not completely correlation content word -smile- is included, not
being a part of his face, but a facial expression instead. In this context it is particularly
interesting the use of the word ------beautiful when describing mouth and smile-, this is
completely different to the adjectives used to describe hair- as blond-, -eyes- as blueand -nose- as little-, these three being observable characteristics and beautiful a subjective
assessment. In this fashion, the initial appraisal as -good looking- is no more than
enforcing a model of beauty based specific characteristics, in this precise case, it is
affirming that attractiveness is shown by blond hair- , -blue eyes- and a little nose. In
conclusion, it is possible to remark that this at first apparent objective physical description
is more than just that, it is a subjective evaluation of a person`s appearance, setting specific
boundaries of beauty.
Additionally, [4], [5], [6] and [7] are parts of a different paragraph cohesively united
by the pronoun She- which is presented in front of each of the four sentences, explicitly
giving away the direct relation of these sentences. First in [4] she is characterized as a
very good singer-, thus, in addition to the appearance adjectives cohesion is made through
the characterization of the subject`s occupation and performance in such occupation.
Notwithstanding, in[5] and [6] two different kinds adjectives are introduced irreverentand extravagant- respectively, these two are not physical description or performance
assessment about her occupation whatsoever, they are personality or behavior adjectives .
This is quite interesting, because this is not found neither in the previous nor in the

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following paragraphs. Moreover, within this paragraph it is brought into play the only
negative construction in the whole reading passage, expressed through the be +always+
ing- structure as in -`s always doing something extravagant-. In here extravagant- or in
any other context, it does not carry a negative load by itself, but its negative or positive load
is given by this same context, accordingly, the negative consignment is given
grammatically by the be +always+ ing- construction and not by the lexical option, which
takes further effort that just a mere lexical election. Furthermore, in [6] a similar physical
description structuring is carried out, as in [3], the individual is said to have blond hair-, green eyes- (a different color to [3], but similar in particularity), -little nose- and sensual
mouth- (in [3] beautiful- is used, however, these two are quite positive adjective
enhancing the characterization of each individual`s mouth). With the insertion of the
content word or adjective sensual- as final descriptor, the writer is denoting an extremely
positive load to the entire sentence and attractiveness to these characteristics, creating a
coherent relation between the first and second paragraph, both rolling around the good and
pleasant appearance of the two people.
Continuing with the analysis, a third paragraph is presented in [8], [9], [10], [11] and
[12], where She- is the only and main pronoun located in front of every sentence
cohesively unifying the five of them. Initially, this person is described as a singer too-, -a
singer- referring to the personage occupation and -too- adding the reference to the previous
paragraph main subject occupation who shares the same profession. Additionally, in [9] her
country of origin is shown from Colombia-, as the same is done in [1], where the birth
place of that paragraph subject is declared. In [10] a particular phenomenon is presented,
where her performance as -a singer- is exposed sings and dances very well- and not only

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that, but it is also mentioned that this performance is very well-, that is to say, this
paragraph is also roaming around positives characteristics. As in the two preceding
paragraphs, in sentences [11] and [12] several nouns mentioning parts of the body are
presented, together with adjectives describing these parts. First, in [11] her hair is said to be
long- and black-, nevertheless, right after this claim the function word or conjunction
but- is introduced followed by some other description adjectives, which are again blondand curly hair-, and the adverb now-. This construction makes reference, initially to the
previous appearance of the character, using the conjunction now- telling the reader that the
previous features are part of the past. Following, in [12] the nose- and mouth- are set as
big-, impaling negative characteristics, due to the lack of adjectives saying that her looks
are neither positive nor negative.
In consequence, we can establish that this entire reading passage is indeed focused
on mainly the physical characteristics of three main subjects, each particular description
separated by one different paragraph. It is really interesting to mention the repetitive
phenomenon that has appeared in the previously analyzed passages and can also be remark
in this one, which is the dominance of the male individual, this is can be demonstrated by
the appearance of the male first, locating it as dominant above the female participants. It is
also relevant to mention the persistent fact of including negative features only to the
feminine individual, contrasting with the particularly positive to the masculine. To put it
briefly, the relations of power which are imposed in this reading are the ones where men
are lionized highlighting the positive angle only.
3. Informativity

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Following the cohesion and coherence analysis it is of paramount importance, as it has

been done before, to continue with the Informativity standard, because of this, it is
necessary to take a close look at the Pretextual relations, being aware that texts exist in a
social, cultural and historical context, thus we are not only analyzing the physical context of
the present reading passage, but also the amount and type of information it delivers.
Before going into deep watters on this section of analysis, we have to bring up the
fact that the several texts present in this investagion share more than one specific
characteristic, because of this, we can assert that the elements which are not to be repeated
here are the following: the Who or What the author is/are, Who is likely to read it and the
kind of social powers the text has. For the sake of a better understanding and a smoother
flow of the reading these are absten from here, but can be consulted in the previous
analysis.
First of all, it is feasible to mention that this precise text is located at the right
middle and bottom area of a two page exercise, pages 10 and 11 of the book number two.
The activity commence by naming and asking the students to draw some parts of the body
in the top left page, following a picture of a baby asking them to label each of these
elements into the picture. Right after, the text in questioning appears having as a title
Listening-. This might not be relevant at first glance, however, this text book does not
possesses an audio CD or any other audio material together with it, as many other text
books does, because of this, it is at least odd to have a listening activity which at the end is
not quite so. Additionally, the reading passage is presented simultaneously with a set of
names of famous personages framed in, and pictures of these very same individuals,
pictures which will be dealt with later on. One important element can be stressed here, the

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fact that the pictures are brightly positioned at the top or near top of the page, giving them a
more influential quality due to the relevance they obtain when attracting the attention of the
reader. Going further, we can also point out that this passage is constructed by three short
paragraphs, each of them describing a different individual, followed by the question
What`s his/her name?-, Announcing the aim of this exercise that is to recognize the
physical description of each person that has to be connected to its proper name and picture.
The name of each individual has nothing or little to do with any linguistic goal;
nonetheless, it might have been intended by the producer of the text in order to get the
reader a bit closer to the English cultural community culture. This as a parallel aim, and as
a way of encouraging learners to get familiarized with a English speaking country culture is
far from being a downside, however, the fact that there is not a single individual possessing
characteristic different from a Caucasian-blond-blue/green-eyes girl or boy gives the idea
that these are the solely and unmistakable special features for an English native speaker,
which cannot be further from the reality, as it has been widely proven (Chomsky 1997) the
capacity of speaking a language has nothing to do with the outer physical characteristics, let
alone the race of the person. Therefore, we can, more than suppose, state that the writer is
somehow trying to convey the message of an idealization on the appearance of a native
English speaker, which may be relevant for the readers to achieve.
Consequently, we can confirm that this reading passage is a descriptive text aiming
at, linguistically speaking, recognizing several parts of the human body, together with
adjectives to that allow an individual to distinguish a physical description. In this way can
see that the text appears, somehow, at the right linguistic time to reassure and reinforce
some of the vocabularies dealt previously. As it is noticeable in the preceding section, it
has several elements pointing to the application of relevant lexical items, in particular the

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contents words related to names of human physical characteristics (nouns) and the
subjective assessment of such (adjectives), which are to be evaluated afterwards with
reading comprehension exercises, for example True or False and Filling the gap
exercise.
In conclusion we can affirm that, even though, this text is located at a relevant stage
in learning process of the language, it becomes less relevant in the physical construction,
when including solely outsiders stereotypes which are not likely to be present within the
common classroom these reading passages are used in, forcing the teacher or user of the
text to resort to either teaching extra vocabulary in order to practice with real-life
individual, classmate for example, or to stay with books materials. Caused by the lack of
time and resources, mentioned in the previous sections, students and teacher are likely to
simply use the text, giving it a stronger influence in the exercising of power.

4. Situationality
One more time in this section we are focusing on the Contextual relations, which
lead us to accomplish the Situationality standard. These relations tell us that the texts
always have meaning or meaning in particular contexts and in particular situations. In this
way, we cannot assume this text as an abstract event with an idealized and harmful use of
language, but part an educational context with specific actors. This particular standard and
the relations, which walk us to achieve it, are common and shared by all the reading
passages in this series of book, because of this, it is not necessary to repeat what have
already been said before. Therefore, to clarify once more all the elements affecting
Situationality, we can consult the first reading analysis in this very same standard.

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5. Intertextuality
Additionally, we need to visit the Intertextuality standard for this particular reading
passage, in this manner, to approach to the understanding of how this text connects and
relate itself to other texts, within the series of EFL books to which it belongs and others
outside of this inner context. Because of this we have the direct help of the questions
proposed in Intertextual relation.
Initially we can state that this text does not make any allusion, neither overtly nor
explicitly, to any other text external to the materials delivered by the Chilean Ministry of
Education. Moreover, there are several texts that could include quotations or direct
reference to outside reading, but these types of texts, EFL coursebooks, are not likely to
include direct quotations or reference other than particular exceptions when the authors
want the reader to consult internet sources about the same passages, like internet link or so,
which is a new tendency nowadays. However, as we have seen before, none of these book
or reading passages seem to be particularly updated to current trends in teaching or any
other use of TIC`s, let alone online extra materials. What is more, when analyzing the
Infomatvity standard, we realized that, even though this passage has as a title Listening,
it is not hand in with any extra material whatsoever, thus it even lacks of the basic direct
references it claims to have, which in this specific case would be the reference to an
external audio CD.
Notwithstanding within these same materials we can find suggestions that lead us to
consider that this text does put together situations alluding to previous and subsequent
texts. These references can be broken down into two kinds, ones explicit and the others

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explicit. The former specifically can be traced back to the adjacent and the preceding page,
both part of an exercise in which, first, students are asked to draw parts of the body, that are
brought into play again when reading the text, and secondly in the exercise they are asked
to match a series of body parts to the drawing of a blond green eyed small child.
Additionally, the latter is found in the posterior pages where a couple of reading activities
are proposed; in these activities students are explicitly asked to read again to, first, answer a
True or False exercise and secondly to complete a chart with the information already
given for our reading passage. Therefore, most of the references, at first sight, made by this
reading passage are related to the parts of the body, that is to say, the target vocabulary to
be learnt in this section.
Subsequently, at the time of dealing with the images included together or as a part
of this text we can assure that they make explicitly direct reference to one another,
transforming this text into a multimodal text, and also making reference to the external
world assuming multiple voices. The exercise, which this reading passage is part of,
requests the reader to match the paragraphs, each of them referring to one single character,
to a name and the pictures of such personage. Initially this direct reference is not harmful at
all, however, when going deeper to analyze the character chosen to be part of this exercise
we can affirm that such harmfulness is not quite so at the end.
First, the personages chosen are: Tom Cruise, a famous US actor, Britney Spears, a
well-known US singer, Madonna, also a famous US singer, Leonardo di Caprio, another
well-known actor from the States and, finally, Shakira, a famous Colombian singer. It is
relevant to mention that this is the order in which they appear mentioned in the exercise, yet
the descriptions are not directly part of the exercise, but they have been included to make
an important point; the first person to be mention is a male US character, followed by only

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US origin individuals and the last one is a female and the only Latino personage. The writer
of this text is openly locating males in a higher position over females and, additionally,
diminishing the only Latino individual locating her lastly; what is more, they are in
majority from the United States, exalting this country and culture by positioning it in a
superior stance. Furthermore, on the one hand, these photographs are suspiciously showing
clearly the face of the Northamericans in a close-up to their facial characteristics and, on
the other hand, they are blurrily showing the face of the Colombian woman in a half body
shot. Moreover, when dealing with the gender difference we can clearly appreciate that the
two men included are smiling widely, while two of the girls have serious expressions,
creating the illusion of attractiveness or charm on the men and ugliness or disappear on the
women. These US personages can also be described physically as white Anglo-Saxon, a
stereotype of the European and Northamerican elite who defend traditional values and
reject the influence any other ethnic group or culture other than their own, the recognize
physical characteristics are blond hair, green or blue eyes and Caucasian.

Accordingly, this precise reading passage mirrors the ones found in other EFL
textbooks. As this text comes into play after introducing several vocabulary related to outer
looks, it is possible to relate to Touchstone when dealing with the same topic, in which,
specifically in the book 2b, we can find a similar text with the corresponding picture

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showing the relevant parts of a persons body. However, in that case just common unkown
individuals are shown or even cartoons and the vocabulary ranges the whole spectrum of
possible adjectives, for example from brunette to bland or from black eyes to green ones.
In conclusion, we can emphasize that, even if at first glance the pictures and any
other reference to other text might appear to be due to the desire to get the reader closer to
en English native speaker culture, in this reading passage characteristics from a foreign
nation or culture are idealized, exalted and marked, while the Latino features are
diminished, so the capacity of describing the readers classmates is disregarded in detriment
of the imposition of this white Anglo-Saxon identity.

6. Intentionality.
As it has done before, we have to restate that in this stage of the analysis we need to
work around the current standard solely based on the theory of The Seven Standards of
Textuality, without any extra help or guidance of The Ways into Text, due to the lack of
work within the model towards either relations or connections that might lead us to the
elements of intention in a text. In this fashion, we can initiate by establishing one of the
most explicit voices present in this reading passage which is the one intending to build up
and cooperate to the learning/teaching of a second language. This voice gives away the
intentionality through the repetitiveness of , first, several parts of the body eyes-,-nose-,mouth- and smile-, in this way, the reader can grasp and retain the meaning of these words
trough reading them from the text, secondly, be naming numerous adjectives describing and
modifying the nouns (names of parts of the body), e.g. color (blue, green, blonde and
black), opinion (beautiful, extravagant, irreverent and sensual) and size adjectives (little and
big). Additionally we can mention that chunk has got- is also continuously repeated in

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order to make the association with the description and identification of body parts, this is
appreciated together with the persistent appearance of the adverb very- as a way of
intensifying the descriptions presents. As we can see the recurrence location of certain
lexical items, in this case relevant content words, is a resource being use to educate on
English as a second language area. The previous assertion is reinforce by the fact that the
function words are diminished by far mostly repeating two and- and a-, two more are
also included but they are only mentioned once but- and the- ; this fact demonstrate that
the current text is either adapted or arterially generated in order to fit the linguistic
requirements explicitly shown.
Additionally, when going deeper and further into the intentionality field, we can
assert that, even though it has not been mentioned explicitly, this reading passage has been
assembled to, not only achieve linguistic aims, but also to accomplish the imposition and/or
installation of North American/European Anglo-Saxon stereotypes, that is to say, one
superior or accepted physical appearance. This has been done, as we could see when
dealing with Intertextuality, by including almost only individuals from North
American/European Anglo-Saxon origin. Therefore, we can strongly declare that this last
implicitly aim is not included accidentally, but totally the opposite; as this text has been
artificially built nothing has been done randomly or left to fait.

7. Acceptability
As we have done it in the preceding analysis, we necessitate being aware that texts
are read, interpreted, resisted and appropriated in different ways, for this, we are makeing
use of the Posttextual Interpretations, which guide the path to attain to the understanding
of the Acceptability of the present reading passage.

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Firstly, this reading passage, as it has already being mentioned several times before,
is read as part of an English as a foreign language class by teachers and students, with no
or little further attention to the elements not explicitly stated or any of its consequences, due
to the contextual factors previously mentioned. Therefore, taking into consideration the
linguistic and contextual evidence, we can presuppose that this text is plainly read as a mere
description of common famous individuals who are assumed to be extremely attractive and
role model in matters of appearance. In this way, the most logical reaction to it would be to
look for the clues and the answers that would help the students and the teachers to
accomplish the task requested by the writer, which in this case, it is matching the names
with the pictures and the descriptions in the reading passage. What is more, the preferred
reading of the present text cannot be other than the recognition of the physical clues it
delivers for the understanding the contents it intents. However, there are more possible
readings to be taken out of the text; one of this, it is the already pointed out imposition of
attractiveness stereotypes not naturally present in the Chilean culture, where this etxts are
immersed in, through Anglo Saxon individuals who possess similar physical characteristic
among them, leaving aside all the possible Latino features that could have been included
but were not. Additionally, the oppressed could read the text as a petition for changing their
natural looks, in order to look for products which could help this changed of appearance.
Critical teachers or students can read off the overlap intention of the oppressors
behind this reading passage and might intent to resist such imposition, avoiding the general
acquiescence, nevertheless, once more, due to the social contextual factors this task seems
more than impractical. Even if there exist such reaction within some teachers or students,
they do not possess neither the time nor the physical environment to express or discuss their
thoughts on the matter; this has directly to do with the multiple reactions and ramification

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that the different understanding of the same reading passage could bring. On the one hand,
the ones used and molded to the system are not be able to read off the underlying message,
focusing in completing the requested task, on the other hand, the ones who go further into
the reading of the text do not have the sufficient time, due to the final task of approving an
standardize test, make others to see what they see within the text. In addition, there are
several discourses, cultural knowledge and ideologies interacting within this reading which
collide and difficult the questioning or an undisputed acceptance. This occurs to the strong
influence that the oppressive groups exercise through the imposition of one view of the
world when including this discourse construction.
8. Conclusion
Finally, to wrap up the scrutiny of this reading passage we turn into the Subtextual
Relations reading off how this particular text is produced by and reproduce broader frames
of meanings which is given meaning by discourses and ideologies. In this way we can
assert that this text delivers a discourse imbedded with male chauvinist intention, showing
an apparent unequal relation of power, and an Anglo-Saxon stereotype of beauty, closely
related to neo capitalistic ideologies.
Initially, we can emphasize that this text shows its chauvinist inclination by
illustrating only positive contents words when describing a male character and a mixture of
positive and negative words when depicting the female individuals: this way males are
positioned in a higher degree of quality. Additionally, it is possible to mention that a man is
located and brought up first in both the set of pictures and in the set of descriptive
paragraphs. What is more, males are shown as happier in the set of pictures, showing them
noticeably with a broad grin, unlike women who are either sad or barely smiling.

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Notwithstanding, there is an interesting difference between this text and the previously
analyzed; this is that in here, there are more women than men, that is to say, the number of
women is superior to men, three girls and two boys. At the end, this dissimilarity in number
does not make a big difference in the unequal relation of power between men and women,
but is extremely relevant to mention this mitigating element. Therefore, even if in this
particular reading passage there is one distinguishing feature in which women are not
pushed into the background behind men, there is still an enormous gap in the relation of
power leaded by men.
The other additional significant element within this text is the installation of an
Anglo-Saxon standard of beauty. In this fashion, we can establish that most of the content
words, mostly adjectives and nouns, are directed to state and reaffirm solely physical
features present in Northamerican or European nations, what is more, they are not mostly
repeated, but they are also intensify by adding extremely positive adjectives next to them.
Moreover, there is the inclusion of a Latino origin woman present; however, she is shown
with the same Anglo-Saxon characteristics, in this case obtain artificially. This make us
assume that the oppressor is not only showing the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon look, but
also stating that this can and should be acquired if there is not part of the target culture.

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10.4 Reading Passage 4.

[0]Names
[1]There are thousands of different names in Chile. [2]Some are from Spain,
others are taken from other cultures. [3]Just a few are really from Chile. [4] There
are always some fashionable names. [5]Nowadays there are a lot of boys and
girls named Nicols, Sebastin, Ignacio, Matas, Catalina, Javiera, etc.
[6]Some common names are very similar in different languages. [7]For example
Juan in Spanish is John in English, Giovanni in Italian and Jean in French. [8]
In Britain, the most common surname is Smith (over 7.000.000 in Britain
and 18.000.000 in America). [9] In fact, there are nearly 30.000 people in Britain
called John Smith.
1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence
To begin with, we require to initiate our analysis going into the particular ways texts are
put together, using the questions and order proposed by the Intratextual constructions; in
this manner achieving the understanding of Cohesion and Coherence. As one of the first
linguistics indications, the title guides us to the thematic conducting the entire reading
passage, the title in this case is [0] Names-. Because of this, we can initially assume that
this text topic is about, literally, names; not exactly how people called specific objects, but
proper names. Therefore, we are aware from the very beginning that this reading is dealing
with names, being able to patricianly predict its content and, more importantly, being
conscience that we need to focus our attention into certain lexical items which are likely to
be evaluated afterwards. At the outset, it is potentially important to bring up that the most

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recurrent word in this reading is name-, its pluralnames-, or the verbalization of this same
content word named- . As it is openly appreciated in [1], [4], [5], [6] and [8], additionally,
it is seen in an inexplicit way in [2] where name- is cohesively referred as Some- and
also as others-, in [3] as a few- and in [9] as called- the synonym of the verb named-.
For that reason, the name matter is the foremost significant aspect in this text.
When going further into the analysis it is possible to affirm that in [4] There are
always some fashionable names- the inclusion of the word -fashionable- is outstandingly
relevant , due to the fact that, the entire sentence is announcing that in the following one the
reader might find some examples of names, and not just examples, but fashionableexamples. This detail reinforces the importance, relevance and up to date of the information
to be given. What is more, in [5] the content word Nowadays- strengthen the fact that this
information is the latest, so extremely pertinent. Up to this point nothing seems quite
relevant in the field of ideologies, however, in sentence [5] the ideological and the unequal
relation of powers star to appear in the surface. First, in [5] there are a lot of boys and
girls named- the male component are mentioned before the female, which could have
been just a radon element without any significant relevance, notwithstanding, it is a quite
pertinent ingredient because it is constantly repeated along the whole bunch of reading
passages. Moreover, in this exact sentence [5] there are five names shown as example of
fashionable names-, once more, men are located before women, naming Nicols,
Sebastin, Ignacio, Matas, Catalina, Javiera, etc.-. and not only that, as we can openly
behold there are four male names and only two female, which is explicitly not a fair
distribution of constituencies between genders. In this same fashion, in the sentence
characterized with the number [6] the creator of this reading passage is announcing a set of

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examples about - Some common names- -in different language- , giving away the idea that
there is going to be the comparison of a few names. However, in the following sentence [7]
there is only one name compared in different languages, and guess what, one more time, it
is a male proper name Juan in Spanish is John in English, Giovanni in Italian and Jean in
French.-.
Names are composed by first names, second names or middle names, as they are called
in the States and some European countries because they only have one surname, and
surnames, which are the family names, also called last names. In NorthAmerican and
Europe most of the time when a couple gets married the woman takes the mans last name,
losing her own, and in most Lantino countries, every person has two last names, one from
the mother and the other from the father, in the majority of cases the first last name is the
fathers. Accordingly, in [8] Smith- is said to be the most common surname- in Britain,
so whether it is intended or not Smith- comes from a male reigned tradition. Additionally,
in [9] there is a stronger illustration of this detail, using the construction in fact- the writer
is creating a more powerful and more influential statement, saying that there is a great
amount of John Smith- in Britain. Once again the example chosen is masculine and not
feminine. Concluding we can affirm that females are shown in a lower position in every
single sentence where both genders appear, by locating the male components in the near
front or front of each sentence and womens just right behind them, in addition, the text
shows clear evidence of male superiority when choosing not just more male examples, but
straightforwardly preferring only to male example in two of the sentences.
These last developed events are reinforced and highlighted by the use of simple and
repetitive structures and basic verbal constructions. To begin with, it is feasible to talk
about the recurrence of There are- which is present in [1], [4], [5] and [9]. This fact

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enhances the rest of the elements in the text by forcing the reader to focus the rest and not
in this repetitive structure. Additionally, this piece of reading illustrate a narrative passage
where the main verb is the verb to be in every single sentence [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6],
[7], [8] and [9], in [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] and [9] as are and in [7] and [8] as is. The
use of simple and repetitive content words is another piece of evidence pointing to the
simplicity of the writing and the importance of the information given by the rest of content
words. What is more, when dealing with the function words, it is reasonable to assert that
the most recurrent constituency is in- which is repeated ten times within this short text,
another evidence of its marked tendency to overshadow certain grammatical element in
detriment of others, in this case, eclipsed by the extremely male chauvinist content words
location.
Additionally, the reading passage mentions three times the frequency of names in
different cultures, in some using number and in others words. At the start, in [1] it is said
that in Chile it is possible to findthousand- diverse names, and in [3] it is alleged that just
a few- of the names are originally from Chile, that is to say, an extremely small amount are
taken from Chiles own culture. Moreover, in sentence [2] Some- of these names are
mentioned to came from Span- and -others- belonging to outside cultures, so, when in [4]
it is asserted that There are always some fashionable names- it is likely to assume that it is
not referred to Chilean , but foreign cultures. In this way, there is a notorious unequal
relation of power between what it is used to characterized Chile in opposition to foreign
cultures. What is more, in [7] Juan, a common name in Chile is used as the main proper
name, located in the near front of the sentence, compared to the same name in other
cultures, - Juan in Spanish is John in English, Giovanni in Italian and Jean in French-, in
this way it is shown how this name is not proper from Chile but an assimilation from

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abroad, stressing the point previously made. Moreover, the way this reading passage is
constructed in order to diminish the Chilean culture is emphasized by the use of enormous
numbers to show the frecuence of certain names like in [8] -7.000.000- Smith in Britain and
-18.000.000- Smith in America or in [9] -30.000- John Smith in Britain, on the other hand,
when dealing with the same fact in Chile, just minor words are used such as some- in [2]
and thousand in [1]. Thus we are able to determinate that this text is grammatically and
lexically built to diminish Chilean culture and idolize British and American one.
To conclude, we can assert that this narrative reading passage is focused mainly on
proper names in Chile and US and Britain, highlighting and enhancing the masculine
constituencies from the beginning all the way to the end, minimizing females and in some
cases directly eliminating any trace of them. In addition, it is of paramount relevance to
point out that the national culture, the one where the text is used in, is minimized in
detriment to foreign ones. In this fashion, it is also fascinating to point out that there are
many content and function words that are constantly repeated simplifying the
understanding of the passage, therefore, giving more importance to the elements not
repeated.
3.Informativity
Subsequently, we necessitate being conscience that texts exist in social, cultural and
historical contexts. Because of this, it is important to resort to the Pretextual relations in
order to achieve the present standard properly. However, before that we need to restate that,
as the majority or all the text share more than one characteristic, several elements are not
going to be repeated throughout the investigation, specifically in this section the Who or
What the author is/are, Who is likely to read it and the kind of social powers the text has,

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therefore, this can be checked in the previous analysis. As the starting point in this section,
we can assert that the information delivered by the text is affected by its physical formation
and location. In this way, we see that this reading passage is located at the left near top of
page 20 from the second book of the set of materials delivered by the Ministry of
Education, beneath which, there are several reading comprehension questions, occupying
more physical space than the actual reading. Moreover, there is a lot of space between each
of the questions, but there is little space between each line of the passage, making it
extremely difficult to take any notes or even the reading itself. Specifically, the text is
divided into two paragraphs one composed by four lines and the other by five; the four line
paragraph mainly refers to Chile and the five line one to other foreign cultures. Therefore,
even in the physical construction there is at least a slight inclination to diminish the local in
detriment of the foreign.
4. Situationality
One more time in this section we are focusing on the Contextual relations, which
lead us to accomplish the Situationality standard. These relations tell us that the texts
always have meaning or meaning in particular contexts and particular situations. In this
way, we cannot assume this text as an abstract event with an idealized and harmful use of
language, but part of an educational context with specific actors. This particular standard
and the relations, which walk us to achieve it, are common and shared by all the reading
passages in this series of books, because of this, it is not necessary to repeat what have
already been said before. Therefore, to clarify once more all the elements affecting
Situationality can be consulted in the first reading analysis in this very same section.
5.Intertextuality

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The foregoing discussion can be commence by stating that texts exist relative to other
text, because of this, we need to resort to the Intertextual Relations, this way, we
systematize the arguments. Therefore, the first statement that needs to be said in this matter
is that this particular text is initially related to other reading passages within the set of
materials part of the corpus analyzed here. This is seen when we focus in the title Cultural
Page which is common to other two texts, one part of book number three and another part
of four. Additionally, there is a specific passage that, even if the title is different
Actividad, it is possible to relate to these other three readings. The four readings share the
explicit and direct reference to foreign cultures, by using the following content words: England- in the first book, -Britain- and America- in the second, -Britain- in the third, and
American- and British- in the fourth. Therefore, we can assume that these four reading
passages, the one being discussed here and the other three, refer to mainly foreign cultures,
where English is the native language. It is, at least, appealing that the countries included,
US and UK, are part of the biggest global powers, the G8; There are some other countries
part of the inner circle of English speaking countries, Canada, Australia and Jamaica, but
these are not even mention, so it is reasonable to assume that this is mainly because they are
not part of G8 or do not possess the necessary global power, clearly showing that the
inclusion or exclusion of outer cultures is decisively made by unequal relations of power.
Another relevant issue worth mentioning before going on to more substantive matters is
that we can openly see that the text makes a direct allusion to exact figures in [8] -In
Britain, the most common surname is Smith (over 7.000.000 in Britain
and 18.000.000 in America)- and in [9] -In fact, there are nearly 30.000 people in Britain
called John Smith.-. This numbers might have been gathered in a national wide survey;

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however, there is not a direct link to a real or to any specific census whatsoever. This fact
allows us to assert that this data could have been invented or modified to fit the
requirements of this particular text. Therefore, this reading passage has been either
artificially constructed or modified. Then, just to complicate matters still further, the fact
that this text is completely artificial endows the writer with the entire responsibility of any
unfair ideological imposition and any unequal relation of power reinforced.

6.Intentionality.
As we know a further methodological problem concern this area of Intentionality,
because one of the model composing this new model of analysis is the Ways into Text,
which lacks of questions referring the understanding of Intentionality. However, this
downside at first becomes in an advantage when including the Seven Standards of
Textuality; this gives us the opportunity to freely develop the issues concerning this
standard and , at the same time, propose additional question to systematize this section even
better. This leads to the question of whether this reading passage shows any intentionality
at all. At this point we can safely emphasize that there are many voices colliding within this
reading, some of them the explicit recognized by the creators of the text: the intention to
teach English as a Foreign language, and others trying to impose certain ideological
elements. The first one is straightforwardly shown and easily discovered, because it is
declared from the very beginning in the title [0] names- , the repeated prepositions,
function words in- and a-, the simplification of content words verb to be there is/areand the inclusion of quantity content words some-, -just-, -a few-, all evaluated in the final
standardized test. The second one is overlapped and hidden at plain sight in the text, not

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easily to grasp if the reader is not aware of the writers intentionality, which is the intention
to propose a higher degree of importance to the foreign cultures and to maintain the
superiority and unequal relation of power between men and women. This is seen in the
inclusion and lionization of the world wide powers US and UK above the local culture
(discussed in depth in 3. Informativity and 5 Intertexuality) and in the clear tendency of
locating men in a higher position in comparison with men ( also discussed in depth in 3.
Informativity and 5 Intertexuality). As a result, even if it is not openly assumed by the
Chilean Government, this text does have ideological load within its constituencies.
7.Acceptability
In the present section for the sake of completeness we turn once more to the
Posttextual Interpretations so as to accomplish the complete understanding the way this
particular text is read, interpreted, resisted and appropriated in different ways. It is
important to understand that texts are first and foremost read and understood as they were
intended in the first place; this is because readers are not aware or do not expect the writer
to have a hidden intention other than the one explicitly seen in the surface of the text, let
alone, resist this concealed purposes. In this way, the primarily projected reading would be
the one openly declared by the writer, that is to say, the understanding of the thematicity
given by the title of the passage Names-, the location of the most repeated and therefore
most prominent constituencies: the construction-there are-, the function word -in-, proper
names of countries Britain-, -America- , -Chile- and -Spain-, the several proper names
mentioned and the figures (this last element, due to the fact that they are the same in readers
native language). Additionally, the reader might tend to look further into the reading just to
complete the task asked by the post reading questions: looking for proper names of men

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and women in Chile and the most common English surname; in addition, the reader might
even go beyond the text owing the petition of the producer about locating the most common
names and surnames in Chile, and some English native names, both of which do not appear
in the text. In consequence, the preferred reading is the one proposed by the oppressors.
Notwithstanding, as a trained reader and as a researcher, I tend to look for the ideological
intentions directly. Therefore, my preferred reading is the one unveiling the hidden
purposes, in this specific case, the lionization of foreign cultures above the local and the
glorification of men in detriment of women.
8.Conclusion
Finally, the inescapable conclusion which emerges from what we have seen so far is
that texts are given meaning by discourses and ideologies. Thus, in order to untangle this
issue we travel further than the Seven Standar of Textuality opting to use the Subtextual
Relations. In this way, summarizing, it seems to us that this specific text does contains
unequal social relations of power hauled from the inequitable societal organization, boosted
by the strong influence exercised by the Chilean Government. First, there exist within this
reading passage the exaltation of foreign cultures ultimately to the detriment of the local
culture, not just that, but the exaltation of world economic and military genocidal powers.
Secondly, it is possible to observe, once more, the repetitive and consistent lionization of
males and the exclusion or minimization of females. These two marked ideological
elements seem to match the interest of groups in power personified in governmental
authorities which are the ones in charge of delivering this specific reading passage, as a
result, it serves their interest and ideological intentions.

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10.5 Reading Passage 5.

[1]Mauricio and Anna are living in a house in the suburbs in Santiago. [2] There are
five people in the family; the couple and three children. [3] Anna is a primary school
teacher. [4]Her work is within twenty minutes from the house. [5] On the way to school
there is a church, a newstand, houses and a park. [6] At the end of the park crossing the
street you can see the school.
[7]Now, Mauricio is working at home. [8] He is making a hand made piece of
furniture. [9]He is a craftsman. [10] The show room and the joiners workshop are in the
backyard. [11] In Mauricio and Annas home there is a lot of furniture made by Mauricios
hands. [12] In the living room there is a table and two armchairs. [13] In the kitchen there
are two cupboards. [14]In the bedroom there is a beautiful carved bed.

[15]Ana is

very proud of Mauricios work.

[16]When

Anna arrives home everybody in the family is doing something. [17]Sebastian, the
youngest son, is cleaning his room. [18] Maria, their daughter, is doing the shopping at the
supermarket. [19] And Mauricio junior, the eldest son, is doing the dishes in the kitchen.
1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence
As the rest of the analysis, it is of paramount important to commence traveling into the
internal affairs of each text; therefore, we are aware that the Intratextual Relations are the
ones to help in this never ending task. In this way, in order to realize the real nature of this
precise reading passage, we need to resort to the fact that, in general, texts are placed
together in particular ways.

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In an intriguing move, we can figure out the topic of this text right from the very beginning
by focusing solely in the first sentence [1]. In many texts part of the set of materials, or any
other text out there, the first instinct would be to look for the title so as to decipher the
thematicity of the reading, however, in this precise opportunity there exists a lack of title,
for this reason, now we turn into the sentence [1] to assist in this mission. Consequently,
examining the foremost relevant content words part of this sentence Mauricio- and Annaas the main subjects and living- as the main verb, we can conclude that the topic of the
text is the way of living of this couple.
After interpreting the thematicity, the next central issue, when dealing with
decoding the internal element of a text and the way it is built, is the lexical options, or in
other words, the vocabulary. However, we must clarify that the relevant issues in here are
not all the words or any particular words per se, but exclusively the ones that are significant
to give away the ideological driven force of the passage. Additionally, in a way of giving a
global idea of the ideological construction, together with the lexical matters, we address the
grammatical relations of these very same constituencies, seeing how they interact and
position with each other. Because of this, we can assert that in [1] the male character is
positioned in the front of the sentences leading the couple part of the subject. This male
individual denominated -Mauricio- is mentioned before the female individual Anna-; the
deliberate placing of the man before the woman shows superiority within the sentence and
the male is not just positioned before, but it is also piloting the sentence when being located
in front as the first constituency, reinforcing even more its superiority. Furthermore, if we
go deeper into the relation of these two elements, content words, present in [1], we can
affirm that the proper noun Mauricio- possesses eight characters and Anna- shows only

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four, thus the masculine name is longer physically having a major number of letters,
strengthening male dominance even further. Another important factor is the fact that in [2]
it is revealed that this text is about a whole family- formed of five people-, together with
this the previously mentioned individuals can be related to the couple-, as they are the
only two people specifically named before, so the- is used to refer to this precise coupleand no other, so they could have been described in equal terms, as couple- implies
equality, but the relation in [1] proves that this was not the case; additionally, -three
children- are brought up which we assume are going to be described later.
Notwithstanding, it is possible to appreciate that the consistent male superiority so far is
apparently broken by introducing supplementary characteristics of the female subject first
in [3]. In this sentence Anna- is said to be a primary school teacher- which is a power
position in the relationship created within a school. This specific school is stated to be
twenty minutes from the house-, so she needs to commute to work, which in comparison
with [7], where Mauricio-`s characteristics are introduced, it is in detriment beneath
Mauricio- who is affirmed to be -working at home-. Therefore, the earlier statement about
the male superiority over the female to be broken in [3] might have been just a minor
stumble and not a definite element.
In [11] once again Mauricio- is located in the near front of the sentence leading it before
Anna- locating him in a superior spot. Moreover, in this same sentence, the male is cited
two times as the main subject and object of it. This [11] is a passive voice constructed
sentence where the object is supposed to be more important than the subject doing the
action; however, in this case the subject of the action Mauricio- is not diminished at all
beneath the object, but enhanced, as playing a prominent part in the object of the sentence

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as well. This is seen in [11] he is declared to be the subject when being introduced with
by- before his name, although he is not the exact subject, his hands are Mauricios hands-,
he is the one having the hands, so at the end, he is the one to be the subject and no other.
Additionally, in this same sense, he is part of the object in [11] as the action is said to be
carried out in - Mauricio and Annas home-; the home belongs to both apparently, but as
Mauricio- appears first, thus he is in a higher position over Anna- in owning the place.
Therefore, as a conclusion, we can assert that the position and repetition in frequency of
Mauricio- in [11] emphasizes the male superiority found in the first sentence of this reading
passage.
Additionally, one of the most captivating elements regarding the lexical options together
with the grammatical structuring in this reading passage is sentence [15]. It is extremely
interesting that even if through the grammatical structuring we can affirm that Anna- is
located in the front of the sentence leading it, therefore, in a higher position over
Mauricio- who is the object of the sentence, the lexical choice demolishes and turns the
whole thing upside down. The relevant matter here is the content word, verb, chosen
proud-, saying that Anna- is proud- of Mauricios work-, so exalting Mauricio a much
higher position in its relation to Anna-; in addition the function word very- is included to
enhance even more the word proud-, acclaiming him at an even more elevated level. It is
imperative to assert that in any case we are saying that proud- has a negative load in its
meaning, the ideological element comes into play when this words is used only to praise
the male and the not even use a minor adjective to comment on the females work.
Additionally, the most interesting finding in this same matter is perhaps the fact that this
sentence [15] is also a one sentence paragraph increasing its meaning in comparison with

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the rest of the sentences. Finally, wrapping up we can address the idea that this being one of
the most relevant sentences of the reading passage shows clear details pointing to men
supremacy through the lexical option, the grammatical organization and the physical
location of the sentence, this last issue is developed later in the analysis.
What is more, this male dominance when seeing the couple Mauricio- and Anna- is also
seen in the construction of the reading paragraph as a whole. On the one hand, even if
Anna- is described first, her characteristics are given as part of the sentences [1], [3], [15]
and [16] as the prime element, in [2] as a part of the family- and the couple- and in [12]
as part of the owner of the house as - Mauricio and Annas home-, she is in clear detriment
under Mauricio. On the other hand, Mauricio is mentioned and described as the most
important factor in [1], [7], [8], [9] and [11], one more sentence just for him than Anna-;
in this same area he is part of the sentences [2] also as part of the family- and the coupleand [12] also as one of the owners of -the home-. As a result, even though the difference is
not enormous, it seems reasonable to assure that this is another significant evidence
reinforcing the argument that this text is constructed lionizing men in detriment of women.
Another evidence of male prevalence can be openly found when deconstructing the
elements of family. The family- mentioned in [2] is formed of the couple-, Mauricio and
Anna, and three children-. The three children- are brought up again in [16] by saying that
the family- is carrying out activities at the moment Anna- comes home, which is broken
down into pieces in the sentences [17], [18] and [19]. These three sentences are highly
important, because in these ones the three children- are mentioned in [17] -Sebastian- ,
[18] Mara and [19] Mauricio-. Initially, we can appreciate that two of the three children
are male, so they show certain superiority in number of men against women. In the attempt

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of going further than just the mere number of times the individuals are repeated, it is
sensible to say that the first one to be revealed is a male Sebastian [17]; what is more, the
last one mentioned is Mauricio junior-[19] who is said to be the eldest son-, therefore ,
the older children is probably -Mauricio junior-. Another element of superiority, the age
issue, is brought into play; however, it asserted that Mauricio junior- is the oldest sonand not child or kid, which is a quite fascinating and important lexical choice. Because
then, it is possible to consider that he is not the oldest kid, just older than the other boy
Sebastian- [17]. Even if this last ingredient is accurate, the age of Mara- [18] is not even
considerate. As closing element, we see that all the evidence points out to the idea that
women are being diminished and positioned in a lower level in comparison to men.
Additionally, another phenomenon that can be addressed is the one that of materiality over
affectivity. In the sentence [4] her work-, Annas work, is said to be within twenty
minutes- -from the house-. This is quite interesting because as it is assumable the prime
place for affective relationships is a persons home, in this case the house-, however, in
this sentence [4] work- is located as the most important element and not the house-, in
this way locating the material money related site work- in a higher position over the
affective place house-. In this same field, it is probable to appreciate that in [15] the work
craftsman- of Mauricio- is congratulated, which is the construction of furniture,
described in [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13] and [14], but Anna-`s occupation -teacheris barely named in [3] without any specific description, just the neighborhood where she
works in [5] and also in [6]. Therefore, on the one hand, a concrete strongly belonging to
the material world job, such as craftsman-, is praised; on the other hand, an affective,

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abstract and long-term-results job, such as teacher- is reduced in importance, once again
the material field is put over the affective one.
One of the apparently most insignificant elements, but noteworthy and pervasive at the
same, is the latent religious-conservatory force seen throughout the whole text. This is one
of the epicenters observed when deconstructing the concept of family in [2], describing it as
being formed a couple- and children- a clear conservatory conception, when they refer to
couple as a man and a woman (-Mauricio- and Anna-); in this same area, the childrenare two boys and one girl (-Mara-, -Sebastian- and Mauricio-), another conservatory
element of the formation of a proper family is suppose to have. Together with this last
issue, we can add the contradictory minor and, simultaneously, quite relevant fact about the
addition of -church- in [5]. In [5] a description of the path Anna- walks to work is
presented, in a captivating move, the content word church- in positioned as the first place
seen in this path. Even if this is a trivial element, it is still curios the inclusion of this
concept, when there are not that many of these places in Chile. One might assume that the
insertion is created the relation between family- and church- as a common concept,
increasing the conservatory load of the text.
As a final point, we can conclude that this reading passage possesses elements of
ideological construction in its thematicity, vocabulary and grammatical construction.
Together with the lastly mentioned conservatory driven force within, we can also restate the
positioning of the material world above the affectionate one and, most importantly, the
consistent and pervasive element of male superiority whenever is in contrast to female.

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3.Informativity
The next reasonable and proper step to be taken is the one of Informativity, which is
mainly based on the Pretextual Relation, these relations take us to the physical and social
context where the text is read and produced. Notwithstanding, as it has been done in most
of the previous analyzes, we would like to avoid the repetition of unnecessary elements
already stated. Because of these, we are not including in this specific examination: where
the text comes from, how and why it has been produced, who or what the author is, who is
likely to read it and what kind of social power does the text has.
Besides the elements not included this time, we can highlight the importance to get
acquaintance with the physical form and location of the text. This is a four paragraph
reading passage. The first five-line one is mainly based on the family as a whole, Anna-`s
occupation and the path she has to walk through to work, the second sixline one is
complete about the work of Mauricio-, the third is a one-line paragraph about how -proudis Anna- of Mauricio-`s work and the fourth final four-line one is about the activities the
children are doing when her mother Anna- comes home. In this way we can see that
Mauricio- has two paragraphs solely for him as the main character and part of another one,
as a member of the family; while the rest of the family, -Anna- and the children-, has a
part of two (the first one and last) for Anna- and a part of two as well (the first one and
last as well) for the children. Therefore, even in the physical construction the male
character has superiority, having more paragraphs talking about him, longer and more
significative ones as well. What is more Mauricio- is the prime subject the longest
paragraph and the one-line one, this last one has strong physical power as is the smallest

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one by far, including the topic sentence , supporting sentences and the concluding sentence
in only one sentence, increasing is power to influence the understanding of the text.
Additionally, we can mention that this text is located in the right bottom of the pair of
pages 4 and 5; this text is occupying half of page 5. In the previous page, number 4, there is
the drawing of a map, showing a few places of a city and their names. Together with this,
there is a pre reading activity asking the reader to make a list of the places they see on the
map, next to an example -There is a cathedral-. As the same as the inclusion of a churchin the reading the popping up of cathedral- as the example makes the importance of the
religuos7conservative load of the reading even stronger. Furthermore, we can assert that as
the pre reading activities are directed to places in a city, the most important element in the
piece of reading must be the ones related to the name of places, content words (the name of
the places) and a certain grammatical structuring there is-. Thus, the elements emphasized
by the physical construction are not the leading ones when carrying the ideological load,
but the perfect complement for preventing their explicit complete understanding.
4.Situationality
One more time in this section we are focusing on the Contextual relations, which lead
us to accomplish the Situationality standard. These relations tell us that the texts always
have meaning or meaning in particular contexts and particular situations. In this way, we
cannot assume this text as an abstract event with an idealized and harmful use of language,
but part of an educational context with specific actors. This particular standard and the
relations, which walk us to achieve it, are common and shared by all the reading passages
in this series of books, because of this, it is not necessary to repeat what have already been

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said before. Therefore, to clarify once more all the elements affecting Situationality can be
consulted in the first reading analysis in this very same section.
5.Intertextuality
The current standard might be initiated affirming that texts in general exist in relation to
other texts; therefore, Intertextual Relations seem to be the prime way to match the analysis
with Intertextuality. Initially, we can say that this reading do have a close relation with
other texts present in the set of materials delivered by the Chilean Ministry of Education for
Adult education in the area of English. One of the elements showing this fact is the
conservatory construction of family they present, that is to say: a mother, a father (married
couple) with children, in all cases with a part of the offspring females and the others males.
In text 1, there is a married couple with two children a boy and a girl, in text 2 there is also
a married couple (a man and a woman) with three kids, two boys and one girl and in this on
(text 5) there is another couple with three children , they also have two boys and one girl; in
this way, we can behold that every time a family is included in one of these text the
structure of the family follows the precepts of conservatism and religion.
Another ingredient worth mentioning is the inclusion of Santiago has the physical
environment where these reading passages are supposed to be developing in. In the text 2,
6 and 7, the city of Santiago is the context they are immersed in, centralizing the
surroundings of the texts by eluding including different areas of the country, as these
materials are no just used in the capital, but throughout the whole territory.
Additionally, this text does not construct meaning by itself alone, but together with
the physical environment encircling it, thus creating a multimodal discourse together with

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the pictures shown in the contiguous page. As we stated above when describing its
physical environment, the pictures located in the previous page ,or as direct part of the text
if we consider these two adjacent pages as one by fully opening the pages, affect the
understanding of the passage by using some o the words and images in the drawing as part
of the written text. In this way, these words become more relevant and more easily
recognizable.
6.Intentionality.
Once again, this is the limp limb of our analysis, as there is a lack of questions
guiding this standard. Notwithstanding, this initial negative portion turns into an
improvement by giving us the chance to freely develop the issues of Intentionality,
together with the space to propose a few new ideas to future analyzes.
The question is then, does this text as a multimodal discourse, show any signs of
certain intentionally within this text. One more time we can reaffirm that several voices
collide when reading off this reading passage. First and foremost the explicit intention of
teaching English as a Foreign language, visible in the addition of specific lexical items,
such as the places included; these items are reinforced by a pre and post reading activities,
so they are the linguistic aim of the text, explicitly stated. However, there are other hidden
voices that are not so easily to spot, probably, due to their ideological load; these are voices
are seen through the grammatical structuring, the lexical choices and thematicity. In this
way, this text possesses both clear and obscure voice in it.
The intentions hidden between lines are not so easy to read off, and they are
presented throughout the whole text. To begin with, we can say that by imposing the topic

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of family organization the creator are not directly imposing anything, let alone showing any
kind of intriguing voice, but by enforcing a conservative construction and formation of
family, they are just illustrating their own view of a perfect, hiding the whole range of
possible of forming one. Even more, as we saw above, in the Intertextuality standard, the
inflection of this solely building is seen in more than one other text, so this is not just a
mere coincidence, but clear evidence of such desire of imposing a conservative view on
how to structure a family. Additionally, there s a barely perceivable intention to over value
the material world, by among other element, position the material element in a higher level
in comparison with the affective ones, or directly eliminating any trace of affection from
the passages, by just including material elements. Moreover, it is possible to appreciate that
once more, there is more than consistent elements giving away evidencing pointing that in
this reading passage there is a clear voice proclaiming male supremacy and other
announcing female dependence and minor role in society. This last evident-but-not-soeasy-to-grasp fact is seen when giving more physical space to the male character, also by
providing it with the head in every sentence it appears, by using more male character and
by using lexical item praising only it, and considering the female only as rice for the beef,
the male.
Therefore, even if there are several voices run into each other within the same text,
this text possesses clear evidence of the different ways they work. The ones that propose
linguistic aims are the ones more easily to grasp, and the ones with ideological load are the
ones hidden within its structure.
7.Acceptability.

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Texts are read, interpreted, resisted and appropriated in different way, because of this
we resort to the Posttextual Interpretations to match with the Acceptability standard. To
commence we can affirm that this text, as we are aware of the context where it is immersed
in, is read as a tool to complete the Normalizacin de Estudios program,so the primer
way in which this text is interpreted is looking for the linguistic hints that match the pre
post reading activities. Due to the lack of both time and experiences resources, most of the
reader do even bother to resist to any of the hidden ideological elements present, what is
more, most them are not even aware of their existence, let alone there is a possible struggle
to oppose or question their ideas. What is more, as the teacher, who are the ones with the
experience or at least have the expertise working with reading passages written in English ,
are constrained by the curriculum to be evaluated in the standardize test at the end of the
process, they are not able to carry out the exercise of neither individually nor collectively
read off the text beyond their linguistic aim. Moreover, if by any chance there exist a
teacher or a reader/student that might take the necessary time to unscramble and unveil the
ideological load within the texts, this solely action might cause the ultimate failure in the
standardize test, because the little time available to grasp the enormous amount of contents
was used for other purposes. Therefore, even if the reader gets the complete understanding
of the passage they might feel over affected in the material world for not having fulfilled
with the standardization, which is not even slightly open to questioning.
8.Conclusion
Finally, now we are conscious that text is given meaning by discourses and ideologies.
Even if at this point there are no standard to be fulfilled, there exists the Subtextual
Relation, which can serve as a wrapping up when finishing the analysis of a written text. In

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this reading passage, many pictures from the outside world appear to be developed.
Initially, the conservative construction of family strikes as extremely important, two parents
a male and a female, and children boys and girls. However, this has nothing wrong per se,
the problem emerges when this structure is the only one shown, not only hiding
unwanted types of families, but also unwanted behaviors complete erased from this
passage.
As this is a governmental material, it is expected to receive a wide range of views;
instead, there exist an extremely narrow set of options gathered. Furthermore, the
conception of materiality is expressed throughout the written, stepping onto the affective
world that in the end has a deeper and long lasting effect in every person. This fact appears
to perpetuate a narrow vision of the world, serving to maintain the current state of thinking
of the reader untouched.
Additionally, what is the most shocking and fascinating element seen in this reading
passage, it is the lionization of men and the diminishing of women. The creator assumes
the position of male domination as its own, not only by questioning the relevance and
importance of women in this precise text, but through several reading passages in the set of
materials part of the corpus. In this way, the mere idea of considering this just a matter of
coincidence that unwillingly occurs solely in this text vanish, turning this fact into a regular
element, therefore, a strong ideological construct serving the interests of the writers.

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10.6 Reading Passage 6.

[1] Hello. [2] My name is Vicky. [3] Im from Valdivia, but I live in Santiago. [4]
I work from Monday to Friday in a factory. [5] I get up at six every morning. [6] I
take a shower. [7] I get dressed. [8] I put make up. [9] I comb and dry my hair. [10] Then I
have breakfast. [11] That is the best time in the morning. [12] I drink a cup of coffee to
wake up and a glass of juice. [13] I eat some fruit, a slice of bread and butter or jam. [14]
Then Im ready to start the day. [15] I leave home at seven oclock. [16] I go to work by
bus. [17] I arrive at work at five to eight.

1. Cohesion and 2. Coherence

In order to continue following the process carried out so far to analyze the
ideological load present in the reading passages part of the corpus we resort once more,
initially, to the Intratextual Relations, in this way, figuring out the manner this specific text
is placed together, thus compelling with Cohesion and Coherence.
In this fashion, one the most import steps, in order to realize what internal elements
are relevant in the ideological area, we must find out which the topic of this text is about.
Therefore, we need to resort to trust the title to give away the thematicity of the text;
however, the only heading this reading possesses is one stating reading- which says too
little or nothing about what we might encounter within the text. As it lacks a title, we must
attempt to decipher the topic by going further into the reading. In [1]-Hello- gives the kick
off using a non-clause material, function word, which is not more than a polite way of
initiating a conversation, in this case, a one-way dialog. Additionally, in [2] the main
subject Vick- introduces herself, thus before going deeper we can now assume that this

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reading passage is about a single individual, expecting to encounter, among other elements,
personal information. The prime constituency showing the main objective is the title, but
as this reading does not precise of one, the evidence hand-in by [1] and [2] have sufficed to
start our analysis. Following, the present text has both fascinating lexical options and
grammatical arrangements that allow us to read off the ideological intention it hides in its
internal composition. To begin with, in a way confirming that the topic driving and
directing this text is [1] Vicky- and its personal information; -Vicky- is replaced by-I- in
[3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16] and [17]. Therefore, it is more
than sensible to affirm that the whole passage is about Vicky-;also [1] and [2] give away
the idea that the main subject is talking directly to the reader, so the following I-s all
belong to the same person Vicky-. This is a one person reading passage; here stands out
the fact that it is a woman the main character. Normally, the gender issue would not be
worth mentioning or would just anecdotic, however as this has been a relevant element
standing out throughout the whole process of analysis it is more than pertinent. This is the
only text where a woman is the main character giving the necessary importance to this
gender.
Another significant ingredient is that -Vick- in [2] and [3] affirms to have been born
in Valdivia- , but in the same sentence immediately she states to currently being living in
Santiago, so it is openly stated that there is a migrant activity moving from a South region
to the capital city of Chile. In this way, at first this might appear to be a mere description of
a common event in Chilean reality; nevertheless, this can also be considered a way of
naturalizing centralization of resources to the main area of monetary exchanges and
commercial transactions, diminishing an attempt to democratize the distribution of these

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very same resources. In the same fashion, in [4] the main verb, content word, is work- , in
other words, this person not only moved to Santiago-, but she specifically moved to
work-, taking labor force out from an extreme region to the central economic center. Even
more, she carries out work- in a factory- which is more likely to be a menial job. Also in
[4], she asserts to perform the work- activity from Monday to Friday, just followed by [5],
where the adverbial phrase every morning- is included, giving the idea that the routine is
followed every day ,even when the subject Vicky- only works on weekdays; what is more,
this routine finishes in [17] declaring she arrive-s at work. It is at least intriguing to have
this apparent contradiction between the time frame she works, Monday to Friday, and the
fact that this is carried out every morning; everything points to the idea of Vicky- going to
work every day, or caring out all her morning routine rounding around the idea of working.
Additionally, the content word work- is repeated three times one as a verb in [4] and as a
noun in [16] and [17], this is the most repeated content word, apart from I-. Therefore, in
conclusion, even if most of the reading passage includes words and structures probably
aiming at morning routines, there is clear evidence pointing to that this text is focusing on
highlighting the relevance of work and the idea of living life only around it, in detriment of
the affective social world.
Another relevant element worth considering, when reading off the ideological load
in the text, is the verbs related to routines and their complements, specifically their
grammatical organization and lexical optioning. These are: in [5]-get up- , [6]-take a
shower-, [7] get dressed-, [8]-put make up-,[9]-comb and dry- -hair-,[10]-have breakfast,[12]-drink a cup of coffee-,[13] eat-, [15]-leave home-, [16]-go to work- and [17]-arrive
at work-. In this precise area, it is intriguing that the whole bunch of activities is related to

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the material world and strongly physically loaded; there is not the slightest attempt to
include any affective gesture or any other action towards the emotional region.
Additionally, the sentences [8] and [9] refer to a persons physical appearance, specifically,
actions made in order to look better according to social standards, which is nothing out of
the ordinary; however, these two actions are reinforcing women social stereotypes, who are
supposed to take care of their appearance in pursue of their femininity, forcing them to
carry out certain uncomfortable rites , like using make-up. Consequently, even if in this
passage the leading role is given solely to a female, there are still relevant characteristic
impositions diminishing their function in society.
Finally, In this text there are now evident lexical and grammatical substantiation
pointing to the supremacy of the material world over the affective one, centralization of
economical resources, enhancement of work as the main element in a person`s life and
stereotyping towards women`s behavior.
3.Informativity
This standard helps us to realize that texts in general exist in social, cultural and
historical contexts, appearing in exact moments in a communicational event. Thus, we opt
to use the Pretextual Relations as a way of accomplishing this standard systematically. But
again, before that, we must clarify that most of the texts in this corpus share more than one
characteristic; therefore, more than a few elements are not going to be repeated throughout
the analysis. Specifically in this section, the Who or What the author is/are, Who is likely to
read it and the kind of social powers the text has are going t be addressed, so they can be
checked in the previous analyses.

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Initially, we can say that this is a seven-line one-paragraph text located at the right
bottom side of the set of pages 3 and 4. At first sight, this statement may strike as irrelevant
or unnecessary, maybe it is; notwithstanding, when we go deeper into the explanation this
apparently extraneous fact becomes crucial for the understanding of this text ideological
load. Right above the reading passage and also in the contiguous page there is an extensive
pre-reading activity, where there are several lexical items roaming around the topic of
routines. At the top left, a light blue box with routines and meals vocabulary appears as one
the most outstanding elements; this precise box not only shows the mentioned vocabulary,
but this vocabulary together with the direct translation to Spanish of every single word
presented. Additionally, just beneath the light blue box, in the left page, there are several
food drawings with their names next to every picture in English. Next to this, just above the
reading passage, it is possible to see another box, this time it is a chart divided in four
according to the four meals of the day, previously introduced in the light blue box. In this
pre-reading exercise, the reader are asked to complete the chart with food and drinks (the
ones shown in the contiguous page) for an ordinary day-. So the relevant element in here
is not these pre-reading exercises per se, but the fact that these activities aim directly at the
linguistic element in the passage, while the ideological load, described in the previous
standard, is mostly present in the elements that are not included in these exercises. In this
manner, we can conclude that the linguistic aim does not match, at least not always, with
the ideological load; they work together within the text , but do not work using the same
constituencies.

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4.Situationality
One more time in this section we are focusing on the Contextual relations, which
lead us to accomplish the Situationality standard. These relations tell us that the texts
always have meaning or meaning in particular contexts and particular situations. In this
way, we cannot assume this text as an abstract event with an idealized and harmful use of
language, but part of an educational context with specific actors. This particular standard
and the relations, which walk us to achieve it, are common and shared by all the reading
passages in this series of books, because of this, it is not necessary to repeat what have
already been said before. Therefore, to clarify once more all the elements affecting
Situationality can be consulted in the first reading analysis in this very same section.
5.Intertextuality
Texts do not exist individually in an abstract atmosphere, but they inhabit a concrete
social world in relation, sometimes even direct relation, to other texts. In a way of
systematizing the way in which we find out how these specific texts are related to other
text, whether within or outside the corpus, so we resort to the Intertextual Relations to help
in this task.
In this area then, the first and foremost issue to be addressed is the relation this text
hast with all the texts present in this last book of the corpus. The reading passages taken for
the corpus are part of the set of materials provided by the Chilean government, this are
separated in four course books; specifically, this passage is part of book number four that
has as a name Lunch Time-. This element might not have exact direct relation with this
text, but as it is part of the book this title affects it strongly at the end, which starts to make
sense when we realize that the activities surrounding this text physically are all related to

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both food and routines in a persons day. Therefore, by saying lunch time- there is a
explicit reference to routines and food, and element difficult to consider relative to
ideological imposition; however, when we think that this element is the central linguistic
aim, but not the ideological aim, it is possible to assert that there exist an explicit intention
to attract the reader`s attention to different elements others to the ones carrying the
ideological load, possibly, to avoid any possible questioning.
6.Intentionality.
We have stated a few times before the drawback caused by the lack of help from the
Ways into text when going in this standard; however, we again take this as an advantage
which gives us de liberty to explore freely in the way we accomplish this task.
Notwithstanding, this explorations not at random, let alone, less academic, but purely based
on the linguistics and social evidence present in the reading passage.
One of the most apparent and explicit voices announcing such intentionality is the
one intending to educate in the area of English as a foreign language, focusing in the
inculcation of relevant lexical items related to routines and food. These elements come to
play in a correct time, after the reader have been shown and practiced with verbs and
vocabulary related to this linguistic aim. Additionally, from the title of the course book to
the pre-reading activities point out to this very same linguistic objective reaffirming that the
voice of the foreign language education is not being hid whatsoever. On the other hand, the
elements and voices carrying the ideological load are not so openly shown. The text
delivers a clear intention of giving a positive idea of centralization of recourses naturalizing
this practice, including the central economics poles as a natural element in the discussion.
Furthermore, there is also confirmation that the text points to the enhancement of the

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material world in detriment of the effective one; this is seen, or not seen, in the lack of
abstract examples of affection in the daily routine exposed, which is not natural, but an
attempt of naturalizing the lack of emotionality. What is more, this apparent enhancement
of the physical world is reaffirmed by locating work as the prime and most repeated
element. Therefore, even if several voices collide throughout the whole reading, some of
them are intended to be spotted at first sight, a lot of elements are even directed to help the
spotting, and others are hidden in the same passage avoiding its immediate grasping.
7.Acceptability
As the direct opposite side of intentionality, this stage is mainly focused in the way
texts are read, interpreted, resisted and appropriated. Because of this we turn to the
Posttextual Interpretations to fulfill the understanding of the standard. One of the most
relevant issues worth mention is that text are primarily read and understood as the creator
of them intended. The proffered reading is the one given by the explicit hints in the text,
what is more, as this reading is one explicitly intended to assist in the learning of a foreign
language, it is sensible to assume that this is what the readers get. Therefore, the elements
playing a direct part in the linguistic aim, in this case, routines and food are the ones being
the driving force when understanding this passage. What is more, the reader expect that the
creator of the text, the Chilean governments, acts towards their benefit, the
readers/students` benefit not the opposite, so when reading the text the trust is not an issue,
following the explicit elements all the way.
Notwithstanding, as a researcher, one that has encounter several elements pointing to
the presence of more than a few ideological traces, the trust on the explicit linguistic
objective, as the only or prime purpose, has melt away, having a different preferred reading.

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This appears at the time of reading off aware of the hidden intentions, such as the material
over the affective world, the centralization of resources in our society or the stereotyping of
women`s role when taking care of their appearance. Thus, they way a disbelieving reader
reacts towards the text is quite different to the one a nave reader has; therefore changing
the preferred reading. However, this is primarily an individual duality, because due to the
lack of material recourses, previously described, they collective unveiling is prevented.
8.Conclusion
Finally, we go to the area of Subtextual Relations in an attempt to wrap up the
analysis. We have to be aware that texts are given meaning by discourses and ideologies.
The ideologies present in this passage are a direct consequence of the discourse embraced
by the creators of the passage. Among other things, the desire of centralizing the monetary
resources to maximize the profits and decrease the expenses, also the idea of making the
job the driving force of low social class individual, again, to maximize the profits and
decrease the expenses. Additionally, there exists evidence that takes us to perceive the
consistent desire to diminish the role of females, in this prices case, by creating a shallow
image of their behavior. Therefore, by including this ideological loaded elements we can
assume that the creator of the reading passage are trying to perpetuate their ideals.

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10.7 Reading Passage 7.

[0] Cultural page

[1] People eat different kind of food around the world. [2] What do you usually
eat as your first meal? [3] Probably your answer is a cup of tea or coffee and
milk, bread and butter.
[4] Chilean breakfast is quite different from American or British breakfast.
[5] American people have fruit juice, coffee, toasts, cereals, muffins, eggs
and bacon. [6] British people have beans and tomatoes on toasts. [7] For them
this is the main meal.
[8] Chilean lunch is usually at two in the afternoon. [9] It is the most important
meal. [10] They eat one or two dishes and dessert. [11] Well, they used to. [12] For
the last years, people usually dont have time to eat lunch, so they eat
fast food: a sandwich, a hot dog, chicken wings, chicken and chips in a fast food
restaurant.

1.Cohesion and 2. Coherence

As a starting point to our analysis, we require initiating to focus into the particular
ways texts are put together, in other words, how texts are built at the lexical, grammatical
and thematic level. In order to carry out this task, we are going to follow the questions and
order proposed by the Intratextual Constructions; in this manner, achieving the
understanding of Cohesion and Coherence systematically. This combination of the
Standards of Textuality and the Ways into Texts gets the best of both worlds, the broad
reach of the former and the consistency and critic of the latter. However, we are not
presenting the infinite range of elements part of this two standards, but as the Internal

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Constructions demands us to, only the factors creating the ideological force within the
reading passage.
Because of this, primarily, we must figure out the thematicity guiding this passage.
As the first linguistics sign to be presented, the title directs us, most of the times, to the
thematic power conducting the whole reading passage. In this case, the title is -Cultural
page-, which does little or nothing for the understanding of the thematicity; the only hint it
delivers is that the reading deals with cultural issues. The topic encountered is maybe too
broad to comprehend at its fullest, so we are in the need of a more specific theme, requiring
further measures to get in touch with. At this stage we need to look deeper into the text, as
we have done before, we tackle sentence [1] to get the longing thematicity. This is done
because we are aware that the first sentences of a proper text is the topic sentence the one
carrying out the whole meaning of the paragraph, a type of summary giving away the
thematic account. Accordingly, the sentence number [1] has People- as the main subject, eat- as the central verb and different- and food- as the most important content words in
the complement. As a result, we can assume, making a direct connection with the title that
the reading passage is mainly based on the cultural differences in the area of eating
habits.
Subsequently, it is reasonable to consult the lexical and grammatical construction of
the passage, which can reveal the ideological load. First, we can continue with sentence
number [1] that we dealt with just above. The final part of the complement is around the
world-; then, the comparison made about eating habit is including, according to that
assertion, cultures all around the world. Involving customs about eating from all worlds
round is an interesting and positive element in a writing such as this one. Notwithstanding,

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the problem emerges when analyzing the whole text and just finding three cultures, or
countries, mentioned. Yet again, this is nothing harmful, but the only cultures met are the
Chilean- in [4] and [8], together with

-American- in [4] and [5], and also the

British- in [4] and [6]. At this moment, the problem is not in any case including the
British- and American- ones, let alone including the Chilean- one, which is supposed to
be the one of the readers. The issue here is that in [1] it is affirmed around the world-, so
by including American- and British- the writers are making a direct association between
their cultures and the powerful content word world-. Therefore, it is sensible to assume
that the world- is solely considered to be formed by the U.K and U.S.
Following the analysis, we can add the intriguing structure found in [2]. In this
precise sentence, a question is presented - What do you usually eat as your first meal?-,
which is quite strange and intriguing, as this can be considered a one-way dialog where the
writer is the only one talking. So this question is not intended to be answered but to seed a
doubt. Astonishingly, the inquiry popped in [2] is answered right away in [3] - Probably
your answer is a cup of tea or coffee and milk, bread and butter.- This intention is unveiled
by the explicit addition of the content word answer- next to the verb is-. The ideological
load is read off here by what we have just described: in a one-way dialog there is a direct
question to the reader, reaffirmed by the inclusion in [2] of you- and , your-, which is
answered in [3] by the own writer. Then, what is the reason the writer included the
question, this could be just to impose the answer they explicitly give in [3]. Therefore, we
can sensibly consider this as a way of imposing a stereotype that the reader may or may not
consider as theirs, but the solely fact that there is a degree of imposition cannot be
considered as positive.

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Another issue that can be addressed is the way the text is constructed to convey
cohesion in the third paragraph. This is done, first, by naming the main subject of the
paragraph in its fullest in [8] Chilean- and afterwards replacing it by they- in [10], [11]
and in the middle part of [12] as well, and also by people- at the beginning of the second
clause in [12]. This fact is extremely fascinating, because Chilean- is supposed to be the
nationality and culture of the oppressed using and receiving the text, in the same way, it
can also be assumed that they are the ones of the oppressor too, as this text comes from the
Chilean Ministry of education; either way, it is not tremendously relevant so far. However,
we could have anticipated that the reasonable pronoun to be chosen to help with the
coherence might have been we- instead of they-. Therefore, choosing they- over wethe oppressors are positioning the text in an outer context beholding the Chilean- reality
from outside, in other words, giving an additional force to what is stated in the text by
making it more objective.
One last element worth mentioning is a particular lexical option taken in sentence
[12]. In this sentence it is stated that People-, nowadays, eat fast food- because they do
not have the necessary time to consume anything else. This strongly capitalistic factor
introduced in [12] does not have the least support or veracity whatsoever within the text
itself, or outside of it for that matter. Moreover, if a survey might be found asserting that
most of people, or at least a big number of individuals in Chile, eat fast food in detriment of
home-made meals, this would not been enough to impose this kind of behavior as a
irrefutable fact, reinforced by the objectivity aspect dealt with previously. What is more, the
writer of this text reinforces even more this point by adding at the end of the sentence that
this is carried out in a -restaurant- , and just that, a particular set of adjective fast food- is

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also inserted next to the previous word. Therefore, there is a repetition of the contents word
fast food- two times in [12] highlighting the importance of fast food in the eating habits of
Chileans-. This is quite intriguing, because -fast food- is widely known as a pervasive
characteristic of the British, and especially of the American culture, but in here this feature
is assigned to the Chilean one, so the different- characteristics announced in [1] are not so
at the end. Consequently, there exist evidence to strongly affirm that this precise text is a
way of imposing a mainly capitalistic loaded eating habit characteristic, that not only means
the use of spear time at work, but also leaving the habit of eating with the family at home as
an affective rite in detriment of eating out in a restaurant, turning a collective habit into a
individualistic material routine.
In conclusion, there is both lexical and grammatical substantiation showing
ideological cargo in this reading passage. Among other elements, it illustrates the perversity
and superiority of the world powers, U.S and U.K, by describing them as the world-.
Additionally, there is the concealed intention of imposing capitalistic elements within a text
about eating habits. These two factors are astutely reinforced by the supposed objectivity
showed throughout the text, which is no more than another move to mark deeper the
ideological elements included.
3.Informativity
Subsequently, we necessitate consulting the Pretextual relations to accomplish the
matching of informativity systematically. For this reason, once again, we are not including
several elements shared by the whole bunch of reading passages part of our corpus, so in
this section we are only discussing the relevant features given by the text from its physical
form and location, no more than, the rest have been stated in previous analyses.

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Initially, this text has as its direct physical environment the one of the pair of pages
21 and 22, part of the book four of the materials delivered by the Ministry of education.
This text in particular occupies the top half of the left page 22, just above a post reading
practice, directly connected with the text analyzed. The exercise asks the student to make
a list of what Chilean, American and British people usually eat for breakfast, information
that can literally be taken from the reading passage; this is further guided by the position of
a table where the students have to put the list of the information required; this exercise
allows zero or null critical questioning to the text, it is just a matter of locating the items
already stated in the text and copying them in the chart. In this way, this post-reading
activity affects the text directly by explicitly asking the students to focus their attention
solely in the food vocabulary items and not in the elements carrying the ideological load,
making those giving their meaning in a concealed manner.
Additionally, in the contiguous page 21 another chart is presented having several
food categories next to a column named Prices-. This precise table lacks instructions
together with it, which are located in the previous page; however, they are not going to be
considered here because they do not directly interact with our text. The relevant factor in
this chart is the straightforward relationship made between food and prices, therefore,
money. This kind of relation, together with the addition of the content word -restaurant- in
sentence [12] in the text, creates the idea that the eating habits are mainly related with
monetary transaction, when this is not a one to one direction, but a condition set by the
capitalist organization the creator want to convey.
To continue with the physical construction of the text, we can assert that this is a
three paragraph reading, built up of 12 lines; the first paragraph has three lines, the second

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one four and the last one five. In this area, we can say that even if paragraphs two and three
start with the content word Chilean- in [4] and [8]. The fact that the word Chilean- is
used to initiate two of the three paragraph making this word to stand out from the rest,
creating the idea of its importance. However, as we just commented above each of these
paragraphs roam around the thought that American- and British- are a kind of role
models to follow.
In conclusion, the physical environment plays a crucial role when understanding the
text, so no only the words within the texts are put to communicate meaning themselves,
but together with the immediate outer context. The ideological load is also planted outside
the reading passage reinforcing its power and pervasiveness.
4.Situationality
One more time in this section we are focusing on the Contextual relations, which
lead us to accomplish the Situationality standard. These relations tell us that the texts
always have meaning or meaning in particular contexts and particular situations. In this
way, we cannot assume this text as an abstract event with an idealized and harmful use of
language, but part of an educational context with specific actors. This particular standard
and the relations, which walk us to achieve it, are common and shared by all the reading
passages in this series of books, because of this, it is not necessary to repeat what have
already been said before. Therefore, to clarify once more all the elements affecting
Situationality can be consulted in the first reading analysis in this very same section.

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5.Intertextuality
As a kick off in the foregoing discussion we can assert that texts exist relative to
other text, because of this, we need to resort to the Intertextual Relations, to systematize the
arguments.
In this way we can initially state that this text is part of book four, each book
supposedly has a theme that encompasses all the activities and reading passages under a
common thematic force. This element becomes evident in the title of the course book
number four Lunch time-, which is directly related to the whole thematicity of the reading
passage: eating habits. The relation made between the title mentioned, and the thematicity
of the passage becomes relevant when this fact highlights the linguistic elements explicitly
asked to pay attention to in the pre and post reading exercises. Additionally, this same
connect can be tracked when seeing the previous text 6.- where there exists a centralization
of the importance of routines linked directly to eating habits. For that reason, it is relevant
that the reading passage connection mainly point to the constituencies that are not carrying
ideological load. Thus, the existence of this reading passage creates an atmosphere that
helps the concealment of ideological elements.
Furthermore, this precise text also exists relative to the others Cultural Page- [0]
passages found in the rest of the course books part of the corpus. This is seen in that in
book number one, in the cultural page text, the word England- is included. In the same
way, the contents words -Britain- and America- are a central part of course number two
and Britain- in the third. Therefore, the inclusion of the American- and British- cultures
is in direct relation to this other texts present in this set of materials creating a consistency
on the pervasiveness of the argument that, as clearly seen in this passage, U.S and the U.K

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are the wold-, clearly illustrating that the incorporation or segregation of other cultures is
deliberately carry out by unequal relations of power.
6.Intentionality.
The proper next step is then to enter into the standard of Intentionality, which works
quite blurrily in this text, since there are many voices colliding in a singular discourse.
Even though we are aware that in this standard there is not any assistance of The Ways into
Text we attempt to accomplish this task solely following the guidelines provided by the
Seven Standards of Textuality , in this way, continue with the academic rigorous
consistency.
One of the first voiced to be found, due to its explicitness, is the intention to teach
English as a foreign language, which is the explicit aim stated from the Education Ministry.
This is seen in the omnipresent relationship made throughout the whole reading among its
internal constituencies and the pre and post reading activities highlighting the lexical
elements related to food and drinks, this together with routines habits connected to the
previous text 6.-. Therefore, the voice desiring teaching the language is the most explicit
one easily to perceive and detect, because it is working not only inside the text itself, but
outside too, in its relation to other text, which was discussed in the previous standard.
Additionally, together with the explicit voice just mentioned, there are several other
voices concealed within the text between the lines presented. One of which it is the constant
aspiration to impose the American-and British- cultures as the most important one
around the world in this precise text, even considering them as the world-. Even when
introducing Chilean- culture is supposed to be a positive element, this is done introducing
elements closer to the American-and British- cultures than the own Chilean one.

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Another relevant view found in the reading passage is one attempting to introduce
extremely capitalistic features such as eliminating the affectionate rite of eating with the
family by replacing it with an eating out routines. What is more, they not only change a
family custom by a monetary transaction, they impose this food related money exchange to
be taking place in a fast food restaurant, which is one of the pinnacles of the lost personal
time that is instead invested in working time generating profit. This fact is reinforced by the
aspiration of creating an objective text empowering even more the words presented.
7.Acceptability
This standard is considered to be the reverse side of Intentionality, so if the past
standard is about the way the creator or oppressor conveys their intentions through the
written words, this one deals with the way these very same words are read, interpreted,
resisted and appropriated by the reader or oppressed. In order to carry out this endeavor, we
require the assistance of the Posttextual Interpretations to fulfill an appropriate
appreciation of the standard.
The preferred reading using our Critical Reading Model is the one we have been
encountering throughout the whole bunch of standards unveiling the ideological load it
possesses. Among other factors, we can behold the irrefutable intention of imposing a
narrow view of the world, where just a few world powers are considered as the whole
world, hiding and leaving aside the rest as important cultures. Together with this, we come
across with the inculcation of capitalistic monetary values as the norm, like the
naturalization of eating fast food at restaurants disregarding the rite of eating as a family, or
at least at home. What is more, we encounter with the artificial way of constructing
objectivity by putting the narrator as an external individual even if they are part of the

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description included, like using they- instead of we- when portraying Chilean- habits.
Therefore, the premier understanding of the passing, using the model, is the grasp of every
single ideological element included.
Notwithstanding, the ideological reading off does not come naturally, because as we
can presume, the preferred understanding is the one intended by the writer, as the reader is
not predispose to distrust the oppressor. In this way, the reader bumps into a text telling
about different eating customs, looking for the vocabulary requested in the pre and post
reading activities. Thus, the ideological is dodged when reading the passage without
consciously searching for it.
As a conclusion we can affirm that, even if we cannot predict the way the reader
approaches the passage or the level of trust they have on the writer, we can assure that there
is not only one manner of reading the text. This way of understanding, appropriating or
resisting the text depends on the level of awareness the reader has and can vary from person
to person.
8.Conclusion
To conclude, we need to be aware that there is not an additional standard to assess
in this process at this stage, but we do have the assistance of the Subtextual Relations,
which help in an attempt to wrap up the analysis. In this way, we are conscious that texts
are given meaning by discourses and ideologies beyond the physical words imprinted in a
page.
The pictures of the world brought to this reading passage are, first, the
predominance of two of the biggest world powers cultures American- and British- as the

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most relevant cultures to know, even more, as it is done at the ideological level, they are
considered as the world-. So, within the reading passage we encounter the discourse of
these world powers reaffirming themselves. What is more, not only they reassert
themselves, but their fast food cultures where money is positioned over spending time with
the family.

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10.2.8 Over all Analysis

The first and foremost demand made upon methodology is to systematize and
organize schemes for specific modes of discursive work, in this specific case a written text.
In order to work in this direction, it is necessary to demarcate boundaries for the results of
the analysis, descriptions, and commentaries made on each individual text enquired (texts
from 1 to 7). What is more, we can remotely visualize how any methodical analysis could
ever be based on analyzing or theorizing without taking a look to the bigger picture.
Therefore the approach constructed by the Critical Reading of Text model proposed needs
to go further to focus on continuing active study of authentic discourse as a whole to
uncover, resist and overturn the habitual sense-making procedures intended by the original
generators of the discourse, creating a more critical understanding of the hidden voices
within the text. In this final stage of the analysis we take a step back to appreciate the seven
text interacting as one; in this way we can see this series of written texts as a complete unit
working as one enormous discourse, conveying several ideological ideals part of the moral
fiber and identity the oppressors desire to conceive upon the oppressed, receivers of the
texts.
In this section we can witness the ideological traces found in each text being
ingredients of a larger textual organization. Even more, we realize that they are consistent,
and not a random event or a mere coincidence, but part of a systematic planning. In this
way, we do not merely encounter particular lexical options, as the lexical elements are the
most visible and perceptible among the textual characteristic; together with this elements
we also distinguish intriguing grammatical arrangements, constituencies repetition, among
other particular components. Consequently, in order to carry out this enterprise we require

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arranging the findings out of each reading passage analyzed into one single graphic
representation. Accordingly, we put up together two detailed charts showing the evidence
manifested in the texts and the manner it is expressed. Initially, this is seen in figure 2, the
first diagram, which is broken down into to two set of descriptors. In the vertical
categorization we number the texts from 1 to 7 to detail the findings on every single text;
additionally, in the horizontal arrangement we catalog the ideological load into four
columns. The categories included are, first, Sexism, containing the substantiation pointing
to attitudes imposing traditional stereotypes of gender roles, together with the belief that an
individual belonging to one sex is fundamentally superior to a person of the other.
Secondly, Capitalism is incorporated as the category encompassing the elements spotting
the accumulation of capital, wage labor and material world position above the emotional
one. Thirdly, Conservatism is the grouping comprehending the elements promoting
traditional and religious values and institutions in the context of social organization.
Fourthly, Culture, the final column, is covering the aspects including the imposition of
certain particular foreign cultures. Furthermore, we can see an additional chart in figure 3
which is illustrating on the one hand, in the vertical organization, the same elements of
ideological substantiation Sexism, Capitalism, Conservatism and Culture ; on the other
hand, in the horizontal column we distinguish the manner these ideological elements are
portrayed in each reading passage: Lexical Option, Grammatical Arrangement and
Repetition. In this way, these two concrete and graphic illustrations depict the manner and
the ideological fundaments are manifested.

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Text 1

Sexism

Capitalism

Conservatism

Culture

-Males are
located in a
higher position
above females.

-The material
world is placed
over the emotional
one.

-A married couple
is the primal
subject, including
girls and boy as
part of the family.

English culture
is positioned as
the most
relevant.

-Family is linked
with economic
elements and not
with affection.
Text 2

-Male
individuals are
placed as more
important than
female.
-Sexist
stereotypes are
included.

-Characters
possess subservient
service
occupations; only
generating
monetary profit
and not any
material value.
-Unemployment of
a fully functional
individual is
presented.

-A married couple
with children is
presented,
including girls
and boys.
-The father as the
only economical
support of the
family.

-Capitalistic places
are the prime
element.
-Centralization of
relation into the
capital city.

Text 3

-Specific
standards of
beauty are set.
-The lionization
of men is one of
the main
elements.

-Show business
individuals are
lionized.

-U.S. physical
stereotypes are
embedded.
-Not U.S. origin
individual has
changed her
appearance to
match the
northern
stereotype.

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-U.S.
individuals are
located in a
higher position
over one of
Latin origin.
Text 4

Males are put in

a higher level in
comparison with
females.

-European
cultures,
principally the
British one, are
set as more
relevant.

-Chilean
cultural
elements are put
beneath outer
ones which
states that these
are a copy of
outside cultures.

Text 5

Text 6

-Men are
located in a
higher level
compared to
women.

-A woman is the
main character.
-Physical
stereotypes are
assigned to
women.

-Work is located as
more important
than family life.
-Material
occupation is
positioned over
one that generates
intangible
knowledge.

-Migrant
movement to the
central economic
area is presented.
-Work is the most
important concept

-A family is
formed of a
couple, a man and
a woman, with
three children,
two boys and one
girl.
-Religious words
are included in
unnecessary
contexts.

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and the text goes

around it.
-Only material
words are included
in detriment of
affective ones.
Text 7

-Capitalistic rituals
are presented and
enhanced.
-Individual
behaviors are put
beneath family
ones.
-Home activities
are disregarded in
detriment of
monetary
transactions.

-The U.S. and

The U.K. are
considered as
the world.
-American and
British cultures
are put as more
important.

Figure.2

Sexism

Lexical Option

Grammatical
Arrangement

Repetition

-Power related
occupation is
assigned to men and
submissive to
women.

-Men are located

first and before
women.

-Men are repeated

constantly as the
main characters in
five of the seven
texts and women are
put in this place in
only one.

-There are more men

than women
mentioned.

-Men are put in the

front or near front of
most of the
sentences.

- Male last names

are the only ones
presented and these
same are assigned to
women.

-When the verb to

be is used, this verb
is contracted next to
a female and fully
expressed next to a
male.

-Sexist concepts are

-be + always + ing-

-Male names are

repeated in several
languages as
common, none
feminine is
mentioned as
common.

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chosen over the

neutral terms at
hand.
-Positive words are
used to describe men
and a mixture of
positive and negative
to qualify women.

is set to describe a
womans behavior.
-Pictures are
arranged to favor
males.

-There are more

words representing
males than females.
-Names of men have
more characters
(letters) than
womens.
-Extremely positive
words are used to
describe mens jobs
and none to qualify
womens.
-Physical personal
care words are only
related to women
enhancing
stereotypes.
-Only material
words are used to
describe females
routines.

Capitalism

-Material load words -Material words are

are chosen instead of located before
affective load ones.
affective ones.

Material and
economic loaded
words are constantly

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-Economic related
concepts are linked
with family
relations.

-Work related
elements are
enhanced above
family relations.

-Capitalistic and
material words are
chosen when there is
the option to include
affective loaded
terms.

repeated.
-Show business
industry words are
selected as
predominant and
more important.
-Work is repeated
constantly and used
in its different
grammatical
categories (noun and
verb)

-The capital city is

the only one
mentioned. When
another city is
mentioned is to
assert that someone
moved to the capital.
-Show business
industry words are
selected as
predominant and
more important.
Conservatism

-Couple is only
linked with man and
woman.

-One conception of
family is found and
repeated.

-Married couples
predominate.
-Family is always
related to children.
Cultural

-Among all the

English language
speaking countries
England is
presented.
-Anglo-Saxon
concepts describing
physical appearance
are included.
-British and

-U.S people are

shown before the
Latin American
ones.

-The content words

British, England and
American are
consistently repeated
through some of the
texts.

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American featured
are enhanced by
including enormous
numbers to describe
them and the
Chilean is done with
vague quantity
words.
Figure.3

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Previous to stepping into the analysis of the results showed by the two charts
presented, we take a close look to some intriguing information that, even if it does not fit in
the diagrams, is quite relevant once we examine the data gathered. To begin with we can
affirm that all the evidenced points at the artificial generation of these texts, or at least its
modification, to fit the linguistic aims explicitly asked in each reading passage instruction,
as well as in every pre and post reading activities. In this fashion, we can see that in most of
the reading passage simple grammatical construction and common vocabulary dominates
its structure. For example in the texts 2,3,4,5 and 7 the primal verb encounter is the verb -to
be-; like this, in text 4 the structure there are- is the most repeated, and in the texts 4 and 5
the most frequent word is the preposition in-. Additionally, as we saw throughout the
examination of each individual text some of the vocabulary encountered in each text is
previously introduced in pre-reading activities and reinforced in the post-reading ones.
Accordingly, the artificiality of these reading passages does not take the influence or the
power they can exercise over the reader; on the contrary, they force they can enforce
becomes greater as every single elements is presumably thought through carefully.
Therefore, this series of reading passages are not completely authentic but constructed to
correspond with the linguistic objective proposed in the curriculum and any other objective
the creators might intend to accomplish.
At the outset, we can mention that one of the most pervasive and consistent
elements encounter in the majority of the text analyzed is the sexist positioning and
enhancement of the male characters over the female ones. In five of the reading passages,
namely from 1 to 5, men are lionized and women diminish or plainly vanished (see figure
2.). This idealization of men is primarily carried out through particular and interesting

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lexical options. Among others constituents, the occupation assigned to male individuals is
superior in prestige and power relations such as the one seen in Text 1 where the woman is
said to be a secretary, a submissive job, and the man is allocated as a teacher, which is a
power position endowed with authority. What is more, this feature is presented aside with
incorporation of men as the first and prime subject on the sentences where male and
females are located together. In this same path, in Text.2, the same features are repeated to
diminish females position, as well as the contraction of the verb to be- when talking about
woman and fully expressed when mentioning male features. In Text. 3, apart from the
characteristics seen in one, we can behold that males are described with positive adjectives
and females with a mixture of positive and negative ones. Moreover, this interesting lexical
options are not presented alone, but close to an intriguing grammatical structuring, this is
-be + always + ing- ; a extremely negative loaded grammatical construction is set to
describe only the womens behavior and not the mens. Another relevant element found in
text 4 and 5 is the use of more male individuals as example and as main character or
participants in the passages, some of which even have more characters in their names than
in women`s, creating a physical supremacy when reading the passages. Furthermore, in text
6, the only one with a female individual as the principal character, she is used to enhancing
the stereotype of woman spending most of their time taking care of their personal
appearance. Finally, in text 7, as seen in figure 2there is any discernible element pointing to
the lionization of men found in the six previous. As it is possible to perceive in figure 3 the
sexist load in the text is mainly reinforced by some specific lexical option, together with,
but in a minor quantity, the inclusion of a few grammatical arrangements, and words and
structures repetition. In conclusion, we can strongly assert and declare that this series of

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text convey extremely male chauvinist and sexist elements lionizing men, positioning them
in a pedestal and females as a minor complement.
Consequently, another significant distinguishable trait of the corpus examined is the
constant and regular inclusion of capitalistic loaded elements. Among other matters, this is
distinguished in six of the seven reading passages, which is quite relevant, as this is not a
content explicitly proposed by the Chilean ministry of education. This category is a bit
blurrier and more complicated to categorize due to the several ingredients forming the
capitalistic ideology; in this fashion we encounter the idealization of materiality over
emotions, service occupations, unemployment, centralization of resources, monetary
relations and work as the prime engine of life. Initially, in Text 1, there exist the link
between a tremendously capitalistic content word as rent- and the concept of family- and
the material world over the affective one; this is mainly carry out through particular lexical
selection. Text 2 stands out as an enormously capitalistic loaded one, conveying
unemployment of a fully functional human being as natural, glorifying the center of
monetary transactions shopping center-, including the capital city Santiago- as the only
relevant Chilean locality mentioned and focusing in occupation generation monetary
profits; all of these is achieved by choosing specific words related to the capital
disregarding communitarian and emotional concepts. In this same path, we observe in Text
5 that work- is considered to be of more importance than family life and that the creation
of material value is far more important than the generation of knowledge; the former is
accomplished by positioning the work related elements before than family affective
relations and by repeating certain work related concepts, and the latter is matched through
particular lexical choice, such as the inclusion of proud- to praise the material work and

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none to describe the abstract one. In Text 6, once again it is possible to see the inclusion of
work as the prime constituency and a migrant movement from outer regions to the capital
city Santiago- ; in addition there exist only the accumulation of material elements in a
person routine in detriment of emotional or affective relations. Also, in Text 7, we come
across with the highlighting of monetary exchanges over family ritual, together with the
positioning of individual activities above collective actions and the idealization of work as
the prime activity in a persons life. Finally, even if the capitalistic ideological load is
included through several lexical elements, this is also reinforced by arranging the
grammatical structure to glorify the capitalistic elements.
Following with the account of the two diagrams presented in figures 2 and 3, we can
mention another different descriptor: Conservatism. This characteristic is not as pervasive
or consistent as the two previously stated, but as relevant as the others. One of the main
elements showing the conservatism in the texts is the only one conception of family in
Texts 1,2 and 5,where solely men and women couples are illustrated, each of them with
children, including boys and girls; the rest of the possible types of families are wiped away,
not even considering to include a different view. This is performed by choosing the lexical
items that only allow this construction. Other significant conservative feature are the
inclusion of a mane as the prime source of monetary income for the family in Text 2, which
is also a sexist element, and the addition of church- as one of the places in Text 5. These
two last elements might not be included throughout the whole bunch of texts, but they
become relevant when accompanied the conservative building of family- enhancing its
traits. As a result, we can affirm the conservative characteristics are mainly introduced
through lexical items and repetition, and not through the grammatical arrangements.

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Lastly, we can bring up the cultural, ideological imposition. Before we present

each of these elements we need to point out that there is not one single cultural imposition,
but the consistent inclusion of American and British cultures as positive and ideal. The
cultural element can be read off from the Texts1, 3, 4 and 7,not only by the selection of
particular lexical items, but also through repetition and grammatical structuring at a lesser
extent. In Text1, it is possible to see England- as the environmental context of the text
naturalizing the addition of this European country as a target culture to acquire. In the same
way, in Text3, we bump into the setting of Anglo-Saxon physical stereotypes enforced over
the reader as an ideal appearance that even a famous Latin American individual wants to
achieve, locating the U.S citizens mentioned over the only one from south of their border;
this is accomplish basically through particular lexical items included personifying the
Anglo-Saxon characteristics. Additionally, in Text 4, we distinguish the positioning of
British and other European cultures above the Chilean one, stating that the latter is no more
than a resemblance to outside cultures. Finally, in Text 7, we notice that British and
American cultures are seen as the only relevant in the entire planet, when they are linked
directed with the word world- ; in this same way they are positioned as the model for
Chilean one. Thus, this element is portrayed mainly through vocabulary and the prime
cultures included, the ones of the countries part of the inner circle of English speaking
countries.
Finally, we can realize that the construction of this series of text is clearly
overloaded with ideological elements. After constructing and deconstructing both diagrams,
figure 2 and 3, We encounter specific vocabulary, grammatical structuring and lexical
repetition, among other particular mechanism, all pointing to the inclusion and imposition

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of Sexist, Capitalistic, Conservative and Cultural ideological ideals; in this sense, it is

important to highlight that the most pervasive and persistent characteristic is Sexism
roaming around throughout most of the texts analyzed constructing an extremely political
discourse, which intents to naturalize the values and beliefs of the oppressors in charge of
the creation of the reading passages.

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11. Conclusions
After gathering all the necessary information, creating a new model for the critical
reading of texts and analyzing the corpus, it is indispensable to assert that this study
encompassing the seven reading passages included in the series of four textbooks of
English used in adult first and second year of secondary education in Chile corroborates
and confirms that the texts scrutinized contain linguistic ideological traces, constituting
political discourse aimed at imposing identity and maintaining the current social order.
Following the same line, we can also emphasize that the Chilean Ministry of Education
represents and acts as a privileged group, imposing one extremely particular view of the
world through the means of specific discursive practices, not explicitly recognized and
hidden within the discourse delivered in the series of textbooks for adult education. In this
way, the Chilean State position itself in one clear side of the spectrum of the social struggle,
abandoning its widespread motto of democratic societies, coined by the former U.S
president A. Lincoln (1863) the "government of the people, by the people, for the people.",
, going against their own self-recognition as a democratic country. Therefore, this apparent
harmless attempt to illiterate the Chilean people into English as a second language
embodies a concealed desire to perpetuate an invariable view of society.
Additionally, we can conclude that the reading passages deconstructed and
categorized in this study also proved that they cannot, and are certainly not, be analyzed or
acknowledged as mere texts; they are complete discursive entities, worth considering not
only their linguistic dimension, but also their social elements rounding up their built
Considering solely the internal constituencies would create a partial and insufficient
analysis disregarding the real power and meaning endowed in the reading passages

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examined. In this matter, the social construction of society, together with the distribution of
power make the social element of mammoth importance in the field of discourse analysis.
As Paulo Freire Asserts Reading the world precedes reading the word and reading the
word implies the continuity of reading the world (1985, p. 11). Reading off these texts and
examining discourse is, first and foremost, an act of recovering the knowledge of the world,
because for a total conscious understanding of a text we need to be aware of its social
context, in this case the injustices and inequalities of the social context of adult secondary
education. Therefore, the empowering of the common untrained reader in order to read
completely off these texts constitutes a weapon against domination and ideological
imposition.
As Ideologies play a pivotal role in all the social representations shared by a
community, in the case of the series of English textbooks are meant to legitimize the
oppressors position of power and inequality, above all inequality in gender position. The
sexist positioning and enhancement of the male characters over the female ones in these
texts are not perceivable at first sight; however, after questioning them using the Critical
Reading of Text model, this inequality comes into surface. The unequal exercising of
power every time a man and a women are brought into the reading is not only showed by
the lexical optioning, which is one of the most common devises used, but also through the
grammatical positioning, repetition, importance of constituencies and assignment of social
roles. Moreover, it is a clear presence of Capitalistic loaded elements such as the
idealization of materiality over emotions, service occupations, unemployment,
centralization of resources, monetary relations and work as the core of human existence.
What is more, they show conservatism, including only one conception of family; one that is

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centered in Catholic values, with a married couple (a man and a woman) and children
(males and females). This might not strike as negative; the negative issues here is the
disregarding of all the types of family in modern societies, such as mono-parental, same
sex, among others, undermines all the progress reach in our current societies. Another issue
discover when analyzing these discourses is the cultural, ideological imposition, expressed
in the consistent inclusion of American and British cultures as positive and ideal. In this
way, we appreciate that the current social powers in confrontation in society are portrayed
in these texts; what is more, there is a clear position in favor of one of the sides. These are
not two equal sides, oppressor and oppressed; therefore, to wash up our hands from the
social struggle craving for objectivity is to side with the oppressor. Quote Mandela
It is also gravitate to mention that these text show clear evidence of their
artificiality; this series of reading passages are not completely authentic, but constructed to
correspond with the linguistic objective proposed in the curriculum and any other objective
the creators might intend to accomplish. In this way, all the previously mention the
ideological load found are not a mere coincidence or a representation of reality, but a
straightforward intention to conceal the oppressor's view of an ideal society. As May
(1979) asserts if control is to be effective, it should not be recognized as such (p.31); in
other words, this control is made enforced as if it was part of the common sense beliefs of
the community. In this way, this governmental discourse is not only a way of imposing and
maintaining unequal relations of power, but also a way of carrying hidden ideological
impositions.
Then, we confirm that our understanding of political discourse is not different from
the one considered and worked by Van Dijk (2004, 2005) and Bolvar (2001, 2002 and

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2008) who assert that political discourse is constrained to the political square attributed
only to politicians. Notwithstanding, we follow Chilton and Schaffner who assert that We
define as potentially political to those actions (linguistic or not) which involve power or its
opposite, the resistance" (2001, p. 304). Thus, political discourse not only belongs to
politicians, as Alvarez (2001) also mentioned, but to any individual engaged in the struggle
for power between the oppressed and the oppressor, as Freire (1970) named the entities
involved in such dispute. In this case of the corpus included in this investigation, as it is
part of the social struggle and contains extremely ideological discourse, we consider it as
political discourse. The discourse is not an element that can be subject to objective analysis.
As stated by Foucault (1972), discourse is not only the representation of reality, but it is
also capable of transforming reality, and the intention showed by the Chilean state is not
only a way of changing reality, but stopping reality. Discourse is used and created in
society, and therefore it has an ideological load in its construction. So, embedded in the set
of materials provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education exist a strong influence of the
oppressor, which is found in the linguistic substantiation. The ones who create these
materials and this program are not widely accepted or recognized as politicians but
technicians of education. Notwithstanding, they are deeply involved in the struggle for
power. Thus they are political entities who create political discourse.
In this way, the political discourse is one that includes subjects participating in the
struggle for power. Moreover, the social world is not amoral; we cannot stop judging
discrimination, abuse or injustice. It is our duty to take a stand as long as discourse is an
engine of oppression of the political power. So, our intention is to, using the service of
CDA, locate ourselves in the position of the oppressed, in this case the adult student of

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flexible secondary education. These are not two equal sides, oppressed and oppressor; the
power to create discourse and the influence of it is not equal. Thus, we must make a crucial
decision in our professional development, we follow the "scientific" mass that blindly
embraces the tenets and the theoretical grid hawking their objectivity or we openly take a
side in this social struggle. Therefore, as a researcher who undercovers the hidden discourse
I not only intent to create scientific discourse but create revolutionary political discourse
which helps to empower the oppressed by unveiling the oppressing hidden discourse in the
governmental material of study.
An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when
dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word is deprived of its
dimension of action, reflection automatically suffers as well, and the word is changed into
idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating blah. It becomes an empty
word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a
commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without action.
Paulo Freire (1970 p.87)

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12. Projections
After undertaking the endeavor of gathering the information and conducting this
investigation, we demonstrate and illustrate, using linguistic evidence, the traces of
ideological and political discourse present in these seven reading passages taken from the
series of textbooks provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education, for the first Module of
flexible adult secondary education in the area of English. In addition, we found that these
ideological traces are not randomly directed but aimed at the imposition of identity to
maintain the current status quo, namely male supremacy, conservative view of family,
capitalistic economic values, and U.K and U.S cultural empowerment.
It is for this reason, taking into consideration our involvement in the national and
Latin American social movement working for a better lifestyle and educational system, that
we consider the first and foremost next step into the research field is the construction and
production of studies material from within the social movement. We see that the Chilean
state is not willing to even considerate the idea of openly giving the people the opportunity
to construct and create our own autonomous education, due to the strong ideas imposed
concealed in these investigated material; therefore, they follow Paulo Freire (1970) premise
it is nave to expect that the oppressor is going to give emancipatory education to the
oppressed. In this way, we are compel to, with state funding or not, work towards the
creation of, in this specific case, EFL textbooks that emerges from the social movement
itself based on what Marco Ral Mejas calls (2013) territorialized curriculum; materials
based on each community needs, following community values and the reinforcement or
questioning of the ideology the social movement or community expresses. These new
material would fit in a better and more precise way the linguistic and knowledge needs, but

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also the need of self-empowerment and, the self-impose duty, of taking education in our
own hands.
Additionally, in the most particular field, it is extremely significant and relevant
further to develop the Critical Reading of Text model in order to complete its understanding
and preciseness. As we can see, the model is primarily based on The seven Standards of
Textuality proposed by Beaugrande and Dresseler (1981) and Ways into to Text from
Pennycook (2009). Despite of the fact that most of the categories mentioned in these two
models seem to fit perfectly and work smoothly, when working together, there is still a lack
of set of questions (Ways into Text) to match the Informativity Standard; this is one of the
weak points in this newly created model. For this reason, it is advised to work towards the
construction of an additional series of question pointing to unveil the ideological load in the
Informativity standard. Together with this, we appreciate another fragile limb in this model;
the presence of Subtextual Relation (Ways into Text), which is no pointing to any Standard
of Textuality, thus working alone with no strong support. Consequently, it is of paramount
importance to set the boundaries for a new Standard that works aiming at the understanding
of the way the text scrutinized is given meaning by discourses and ideologies. In this way
the Critical Reading of Text model could perfectly work for the understanding and
analyzing the way a written discourse hides or shows its ideological load and its complete
meaning, when being part of the political field, that is to say, the social or class struggle.
Finally, it is quite relevant to remark that these two main paths to be followed by a
further development of this investigation, even if they do not seem to be directly linked,
need to be worked in parallel. They cannot be considered as different elements from
different worlds; one of the central considerations of critical pedagogy is the concept of

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praxis (Freire, 1970), theory and practice cannot and must not be divided; they need to be
developed together. This endeavor is a long road to be traveled, but it is one that completly
worth the try.
Si no hay sueo, si no hay lucha, si no hay esperanza, no hay educacin, slo hay
adiestramiento instrumental (Freire, 1996, p.46)

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