THE MERITS OF THE MERGER OF AID AND TRADE INTO A SINGLE INITIATIVE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND LIKELY CHALLENGES

This study, based on CDA, investigates the representation of social actors in Top Notch 2A/2B as EFL textbooks used widely in language institutes in Iran. In order to meet the objectives of the study, following the framework utilized by Van Leeuwen (1996, 2008) as well as Halliday’s (1985) transitivity model, the textbooks in question was textuallyanalyzed. The study examined the linguistic representation of male and female social actors with an emphasis on deletion, rearrangement and substitution. The results of the analysis showed that the social actors were represented differently in some discursive features. Female social actors were represented as less successful and intellectual than males. In addition, they were represented as belonging to more ordinary jobs and did not play more central roles in society. More to the point, a female subordination can be implicitly understood from the textbooks.