Investigating Hortatory Force in The EFL Reading Passages

Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies

Bardia  Fallah ¹ (Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2015-12-20 Accepted : 2016-02-03 Published : 2016-02-01

Keywords: Evaluation, Critical Discourse Analysis, Textbook, Hortatory text, Genres of Governance, Legitimation,

Abstract :

This study investigates some the reading passages in terms of hortatory messages. To this end amethodology based on Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted. The reading texts from ELTtextbooks were examined through a model which drew on Fairclough's approach to CDA,specifically (Fairclough, 2003) in which three characteristic features of hortatory texts areintroduced. The analysis reveals that 15 reading passages of the corpus involve in hortatorymessages which are characterized by the above mentioned features i.e. Evaluation, Prediction,and Legitimation strategies. These texts features were considered as markers of contemporary‘genres of governance’ which are significant semiotic means to exert power in the process ofglobalization. These categories were also connected to the social issue of Habermatian model ofmodernity in which the ‘lifeworld’ can be ‘colonized’ by the ‘system’s instrumental rationality’(Edgar, A. 2006). They were further linked to the concept of ‘promotional culture’ (Wernick,1991) in the contemporary world. In the concluding section of the study, it was suggested thatpedagogical approach to literacy in the textbooks be ‘critically’ revised to engage macro andmicro social issues in reading comprehension activities. To this end a critical reading model,proposed by Wallace (2003) is proposed.

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