Introduction

We are surrounded by media, advertising, and political messaging everywhere – in social media posts, texts, videos, TV commercials, podcasts, news programs, e-mails, print flyers and posters, newspapers, and magazines. To inform, sell to, persuade, and motivate us, the authors and sponsors of these messages and stories use the power of language, choosing to word their message in particular ways. Behind their messages lie particular worldviews, discourses, and ideologies that may or may not align with those of the audience. In making certain word and grammatical choices, they show us their perspective and invite us to share in it. To do this, these authors may use rhetorical or language power techniques like metaphor, euphemism, hyperbole, address forms, weasel language, and epithets. These can be enacted with particular grammatical features; for example, an epithet may use a noun phrase, hyperbole a superlative adjective, or weasel language a passive form. We need critical language awareness to see these connections.

While many everyday interactions involve some exercise of power, many media, advertising, and political messages do as well, even though they might seem benign. Although we usually know that we should be a little skeptical of advertising for consumer products, we also need to be aware of propaganda, biased information meant to promote a particular point of view, and disinformation, deliberately false information meant to mislead, in political and other media discourse. Propaganda and disinformation is spread through media, including social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, sometimes in ways that are not obvious.

In free democratic societies all citizens participate in governance by voting, and in liberal democracies, voting and freedom of expression are fundamental rights. However, some individuals and groups may feel that having social and economic capital — fame and money — entitles them to have a greater say in government policy than those with less capital; it is no surprise that these people often find their ways to positions of political and corporate power, and that they try to promote their ideologies to this end, sometimes using propaganda and disinformation to do so. They may use propaganda techniques and logical fallacies, take advantage of cognitive biases, appeal to emotions like fear, pride, and desire, selectively misrepresent their intentions, or simply lie. As the classical Athenians argued, participants in a democratic society need the skills of rhetoric, grammar, and logic to see through to their intentions and evaluate them clearly. Without this criticality, democracy doesn’t work.

Developing critical language awareness

Just because the messaging around us may contain bias or disinformation does not mean that we should never trust media sources. Depending on who owns or controls them, some media are more biased than others, and many journalists try very hard to be unbiased and present the objective truth. However, ultimately it is the job of readers or listeners to identify when various power techniques are being used, and whether they are being told the truth. There are several reputable websites for fact-checking like Politifact, Snopes, or Factcheck that can be referenced before believing or spreading anything remotely questionable. When consuming and sharing media-based information, it’s also good practice to be highly skeptical of conspiracy theories, to be aware of your own confirmation bias and to recognize when you are in an echo chamber — this awareness may help you from spreading misinformation. It’s also smart to read your news rather than only viewing or listening to it, because this allows you enough time to stop and re-read, to analyze the language, and to question how, who, and why the message is being presented as it is.

To recognize when these techniques and appeals are being used and to combat their effects, it can be useful to focus on the exact words that are said, written, or shared. An analytical approach called critical discourse analysis is ideal for this task because it examines language in use and connects the lexicogrammar and the context of what is said, that is, the how, who, where, when, and why, not just the what. A critical discourse analyst might look at the news headline, “Factory rioters arrested,” and question the choice of the term ‘rioters’ and the use of the passive voice, instead of the possible active voice equivalent, “Police arrested union protestors”. They might consider that this headline was in a conservative blog report and conclude that the report thus shows an anti-union bias. By understanding the power technique of weasel language and how the passive voice can be used to mask agency or responsibility, the analyst can show objective evidence for the bias of the report.

Another useful approach is called corpus analysis, an analytic technique that involves examining a large body or database of language use, searching for all the instances of a particular word or phrase, and analyzing its frequency or co-occurrence with other words. Corpus analysis can tell you, for example, how frequently a politician might use the inclusive we in their campaign speeches in comparison to their opponent – the inclusive we is an appeal to listeners to think of the speaker as like them, a kind of plain folks propaganda technique. The analyst might then hypothesize that the politician’s more frequent use of inclusive we in comparison to their opponent’s use helped them win an election, since it made the voters feel like the politicians was ‘one of them’. While there may be other ways of enacting weasel language or making a plain folks appeal besides employing these particular grammar structures – passive voice and the inclusive we – leveraging your understanding of a linguistic power technique to comprehend a grammatical structure and vice-versa is an excellent way to deepen your knowledge about both. Discourse and corpus analysis can thus help you develop critical language awareness.

For instructors and independent learners:

How this resource is organized

The approach to developing CLA presented in this resource, Critical Language Awareness: Language Power Techniques and English Grammar, is to promote comprehending and analyzing language like a critical discourse analyst. To this end there are sixteen modules: eight language power techniques (LPTs) corresponding to eight grammar features (GFs), each of which typifies, but is not restricted to, that technique. The modules can be used in several ways:

1. Independent use: Any of the modules can be used independently to serve as, or supplement instruction on, a particular LPT or a GF, in a college-level writing, rhetoric, media literacy, information literacy, or grammar course.
2. LPT track: For courses with a central curricular focus on LPTs, we recommend the order A-1-3-5-7, etc. If the LPT corpus activities (1 per module) are to be used, the instructor at least should have some familiarity with corpus analysis.
3. GF track: For grammar-only courses we recommend at least B-2-4-6-8, etc., and encourage the inclusion of module C and the GF corpus activities, although the sequence will work without any corpus focus, too.
4. Comprehensive track: The comprehensive use of the book is A-B-C-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, etc. with all the corpus activities. The LPT and GF modules are designed to complement one another, and the corpus activities enhance both sequences.
5. The activities in the modules may be used selectively, and can be used as in-class discussion activities or as independent at-home assignments. The online activities provide immediate feedback, but scores are not saved. The GF activities and the corpus activities are on separate pages corresponding to their modules, with each activity linked directly from its corresponding module sub-section.

The book will be released in two parts, in Fall 2022 and in Fall 2023:

Part One (Fall 2022)

The introduction modules serve as basic introductions to the topics as well as tables of contents linking to all the corresponding techniques and features.

After an outline and list of key concepts, each LPT module begins with general discussion to situate understandings. Each module is split into subsections that may refer and link to external readings (openly available online pieces); some may be required for discussion/reflection activities and others may be optional. Each subsection concludes with discussion/reflection activities. The second subsection of each LPT module focuses on the associated grammatical features; students can at this point go to the corresponding GF module or wait until finishing the LPT. Each LPT module concludes with general reflection questions a corpus analysis activity.

Each GF module presents information about a part-of-speech or another grammatical concept. Each begins with focus on what the feature is, including morphological information. Using clear examples, different aspects of the feature are then thoroughly explored in subsections, each linked to an interactive online activities using H5P technology and most also linked to a corpus analysis activity requiring (free) access to the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The activities are on separate pages corresponding to their modules, each activity is linked directly from its corresponding module sub-section.

How corpora are used in the modules

Many samples of various grammar items that are present in the grammar modules are from corpora. One reason for including samples from corpora is that it allows one to validate claims made about grammar and language use. Rather than simply writing, “Most times people use passive verb constructions to….” or “This adverb is most commonly used in contexts where….”, we include authentic examples of the grammar items in use. In other cases, the modules include information derived from corpus analysis. For example, in the Verb II module section on modal auxiliaries (e.g., may, might, could, would, etc.), users are presented with corpus data displaying how frequently modals are in spoken language in contrast to academic writing. Generally, these samples have been extracted from large, public corpora such as the previously mentioned Corpus of Contemporary American English. In other instances, the samples are taken from small, specialized corpora we have built of particular domains of language use in order to display the use of a particular grammar feature in a certain genre, register, or discourse domain.

In addition to the use of samples and data, specialized activities guide students through corpus searches so that they can experience corpus study for themselves. These can also be done together as a class with the instructor doing the search with the students. Users will need to register to use the corpora at english-corpora.org. Registration is free and only takes a moment. We do not expect users to become corpus experts, but we think they will enjoy doing searches and reaching their own insights about language use.

Why we need this resource

This resource is meant to develop critical language awareness in advanced high school, community college, or university-level students who need or want to learn why English grammar is relevant and how it can be used in media messaging, advertising, and political discourse, among other registers. It addresses three crucial issues:

• Students are not regularly taught media literacy skills and awareness of propaganda and disinformation. Although many high school and college/university curricula include some focus on these topics, they are often treated separately from other subjects in education, humanities, and the social sciences and not integrated into courses where they might be. Without direct and consistent focus, students may be more vulnerable to their negative effects.
• Since the advent of process writing, attention to rhetorical skills focused on specific techniques has been gradually removed from the core of composition curricula. Traditional rhetoric approaches focus more directly on integrating these skills while developing, or as a means to develop, reading and writing skills, but as other pedagogical trends have come to the fore, these techniques may be given only sporadic and inconsistent attention.
• Explicit focus on grammar has been removed from many high school, college, and university English and writing courses and curricula, because it is seen as arcane, abstract, and irrelevant. Most grammar textbooks and curricula coming from traditional linguistics and syntax perspectives rarely, or only superficially, relate their content to critical language use or rhetorical techniques. Research on language and power, corpus analysis, and critical language awareness is often situated in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, so it may be unknown in traditional linguistics, English, and composition silos. In applied linguistics and TESOL, attention to grammar has not been abandoned because it simply cannot be, since learners of English as an additional language must learn grammar explicitly. This may mean that the potential of work in these fields to make grammar relevant and less arcane, even to those not learning English as an additional language, goes unrealized.

About this resource

The development and production of this open educational resource has been made possible by a generous donation to the Clarify Initiative, a project led by Prof. Jonathon Reinhardt at the University of Arizona Department of English. Fully funded by the donation, this resource is publicly available through the university’s open textbook website.

About the authors

Jonathon Reinhardt is a Professor of English Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at the University of Arizona. He teaches grammar and courses in teaching English to speakers of other languages. https://english.arizona.edu/people/jonathon-s-reinhardt

Anuj Gupta is a Phd student in the Rhetoric & Composition program at the University of Arizona. His work focuses on UI/UX research, instructional design, accessibility, emotions in teaching and learning, computational social science and digital humanities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuj-gupta-3533541a1/ 

Robert Poole is an Assistant Professor of TESOL and Applied Linguistics at the University of Alabama. He is an applied corpus linguist and teaches various courses in the MA-TESOL program at his university. https://english.ua.edu/people/robert-poole/

Dilara Avci is an MA student in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Arizona. Her research interests are second language writing and materials development with a focus on digital literacies and critical pedagogy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilara-tunali-avci-647180b3

Module authors: Jonathon Reinhardt & Robert Poole

Last updated: 15 December 2022

This module is part of Critical Language Awareness: Language Power Techniques and English Grammar, an open educational resource offered by the Clarify Initiative, a privately funded project with the goal of raising critical language awareness and media literacy among students of language and throughout society.