Empowering critical media literacy in EFL: Theachers’ evaluation of didactic materials involving the recognition of presupposed information

Data from the paper: According to teachers, how will the materials help students recognise the strategies of implicit communication.

Abstract: This paper proposes to use a textual analysis procedure involving the recognition of linguistic implicitness to promote Critical Digital Literacy (CDL) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The technique, called Implicit Content Extraction (ICE), allows detecting and analysing (non-bona fide true) presuppositions, thus enabling students to identify how much and what potentially manipulative information is being conveyed in a text. This technique has been put to the test in ready-to-use teaching materials oriented towards communicative tasks. The materials were evaluated by EFL teachers (N=10) who took part in a semi-structured interview. The analysis shows a positive reception of the materials, which meet the need for CDL and a willingness to implement the technique. Concerns about the explicit treatment of presuppositions are also addressed, pointing to a low ability of students and teachers to analyse implicit strategies in a text.