Coursebook of German: gender aspect

The present article regards Aspekte 1 coursebook of German as a foreign language in the context of the gender policy initiated at the end of the last century by sociolinguists and by the representatives of the so called feminist criticism of the German language. This policy has been carried out up to date, and, according to many sociological and linguistic research, it is aimed at destructing gender stereotypes in teaching and reference materials. The use of this policy is conditioned by the fact that there is a problem of women discrimination in the textbooks, which provide classical gender stereotypes, where, in spite of modern social changes, women are still overrepresented in the private domain and underrepresented in the public sphere. Apart from that, gender stereotypes and gender asymmetry are embedded in the language, where the woman is often not referred to directly while the man is used in the generalizing meaning of “human”. The gender asymmetry is reflected in the idioms as well. Nevertheless the analysis of modern coursebooks reveals both some changes in the presentation of women and men’s occupations and in the language due to the usage of so-called “gender neutral” forms. The objective of our research lies in the linguistic analysis of the usage of the “gender neutral” forms as well as in the coursebooks on phraseology in order to find out gender asymmetries. In addition, the author focuses on gender stereotypes, men and women‘s behavioral patterns in different domains of life, and positive changes in the image of men and women represented in the Aspekte German coursebook.