The Construction of Pro-Science and Technology Discourse in Chinese Language Textbooks

This paper examines the pro-science and technology discourse constructed in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying analytical techniques of critical discourse analysis (CDA), the paper critically investigates how the discourse is constructed and what ideological forces are manifested in the textbooks. More specifically, it analyses how textual features, such as lexical choices, grammatical elements and generic structures, are manipulated in the construction of a version of science and technology written for the child reader. Further, the article explores how the discourse positions child readers to read in ways that the discourse is constructed, and concludes that the discourse serves the interest of the government and its cultural elites but not the interests of the child reader.