Innovation in Language Learning
Potential risks of bringing authentic materials to an ESP classroom or media manipulative techniques students should be aware of.
Alexey Tymbay, Technical University in Liberec (Czech Republic)
Abstract
The study identifies the amount of headline/article discrepancies in the corpora of online articles on sensitive political topics: 25 to 50% of Internet headlines distort the publications they introduce. Language means and manipulative strategies employed by different authors vary considerably: extensive use of expressive language, style variation, information substitution, subjective modality and selective citations are identified as major causes of these distortions. Manipulated headlines establish false logical sequences and form wrong causative implicatures that may affect inexperienced readers, in particular, ESP students. Complete avoidance of authentic materials, however, can demotivate students; therefore, it is suggested developing a number of text analysis exercises for the students to be able to "decrypt" the online articles' style not to be harmed by the misinformation and manipulation techniques.
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