Fairclough’s CDA as a Pedagogical Tool for EFL Political Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of consciousness raising of CDA on intermediate Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension of political texts. To achieve this purpose, among 90 EFL learners, 60 male and female participants with the age range of 15 to 30 with intermediate language proficiency level were chosen, all taking a PET (Preliminary English Test) first, for homogenization prior to the study. They were assigned into two  experimental and control groups. They all studied the same material, (Parts of Rouhani’s speeches in the 70th UN assembly), during one month which consisted of eight sessions, two sessions in each week.  Experimental group was taught through Fairclough's CDA model, the micro stage concerning textual analysis. The instrument used in the study was a political reading comprehension test made by the present researcher which was administered as pretest and posttest. The students’ pretest and posttest results were analyzed by independent and dependent sample t-tests. Then, the data analyses compared the participants’ performances before and after the treatment. Finally, the findings included some pedagogical implications for language teachers, language learners, and material developers. It can be concluded that the learners’ reading comprehension boosted through CDA and its micro stage of textual analysis.