VietTESOL International Convention 2026

While an increasing number of studies have examined textbook images and gender representation in educational materials, fewer studies have investigated how gender is visually represented in English textbook images through Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar. This study aims to examine gender representation in the American Language Hub Starter and American Language Hub Level 1 textbooks through Visual Grammar framework by investigating how male and female participants are visually represented and exploring how they are positioned in relation to viewers. This study focuses on images containing gender-identifiable human participants, while images with unclear gender cues were recorded but excluded from gender-specific analysis. Methodologically, the study employs a visual grammar-based content analysis, focusing on two metafunctions: representational meaning and interactive meaning. The images were coded in terms of participant gender, process type, activity type, gaze, social distance, horizontal angle, and vertical angle. Quantitative coding was combined with qualitative interpretation to identify recurrent patterns of gendered visual representation. The findings reveal that female participants are more frequently represented in passive or display-oriented images, while male participants show a slightly stronger association with physically active or action-oriented activities. In terms of viewer engagement, male participants tend to establish more direct visual engagement with viewers, whereas female participants are more often positioned as objects of observation through indirect gaze. The findings suggest a shift from overt gender underrepresentation to more subtle forms of gender differentiation in visual roles, activities, and interactive positioning.