Open AccessUnravelling Racist Ideological Attitudes in Texts for EFL Students’ Consciousness Awareness
Author(s) -
Franck Amoussou
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
addaiyan journal of arts humanaties and social sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2581-8783
DOI - 10.36099/ajahss.4.1.2
Subject(s) - ideology , racism , consciousness , set (abstract data type) , sociology , situated , critical consciousness , critical discourse analysis , social psychology , linguistics , epistemology , psychology , pedagogy , gender studies , politics , political science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , programming language
The present paper seeks to raise students‘ consciousness about how language can be used to encode ideological meanings. It also aims to enhance their critical thinking about how social structures- notably racist practices- implicitly impact their behavior and attitudes. In that sense, it draws on critical discourse analysis (hereafter, CDA) to disentangle the meanings of a set of texts dealing with racial discrimination in Go for English Tle used to teach upper sixth students English in Benin. The study basically focuses on van Dijk (1993)‘s and Fowler & Kress (1979)‘s analytical methods to disclose the transparent and hidden situated meanings conveyed in/by the texts at stake. The results of the analysis reveal that racism, as a social practice, is not peculiar to any specific group or community; rather, it is expressed through discourse in all continents. It is concluded from the findings that CDA can serve as a potent theoretical and emancipatory tool for the analysis of important sociolinguistic, linguistic, educational, and multiracial issues facing students.