Introduction Summary of the article/Dissertation Critical Review on the Research Organization, arguments and evidences in each part: Abstract and Introduction Literature review Methodology Results and mechanics Conclusion evaluate existing methodological approaches inconsistencies in results

1. University of Gondar
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Department of English Language and Literature
Postgraduate Program (PhD in Applied Linguistics)
Course Title: Seminar on Selected Topics (APLI 732)
Article Review:
Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Implication in English
Language Teaching: A Case Study of Political Text
By
Destaw Wagnew
Course Instructors: Abebe Asres (PhD, Associate prof.)
Andargachew Getu(PhD)
June, 2023
Gondar, Ethiopia

2.  General Introduction
Summary of the Article
 Critical Review: Evaluating the Organizations,
Arguments, Evidences and Language usage in
each part
 Overview
Topic and Abstract
 Introduction of the study
 Review of Related Literature
Methodology
Data Analysis
 Discussion and Implication
 Appendices and References
 Language usage problems
 General Conclusion
Reference

4. General Introduction
Man has passed through significant historical
achievements
 imitates and builds to symbolize his
achievements.
 Analyzing the forms, arrangements, symbols,
and figures of the structures usually lead to many
new ideas.
 Historical and religious buildings are among
these structures

5.  Elaheh Rahimi
obtained her MA in Applied Linguistics at Kerman
University.
 Currently,PhD student at University of Canterbury
 Experienced in teaching English and publication of
international journals.
 Her research interests include cognitive linguistics, critical
discourse analysis and teaching.
Massoud Sharififar
 earned his PhD in linguistics from the Science University
of Malaysia.
 He is a Professor in the Department of English language at
the Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran.
 His research interests include linguistics, translation, and
discourse. He is one of the referees in Iranian Foreign
Language Journals.

6. General Introduction
Topic:“Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Implication in
English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Political
Text”
 This review tries to examine the article based on some
common measurement principles(arguments, evidences,
structure and language usage).
 comprises summary of main points in the article
 critical reflections on the main arguments, limitations and
strengths of the study
 Implications for the development of critical
thinking/education setting .

7. The article"Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Implication in
English Language Teaching " was conducted by
Rahimi(PhDCandidate) and Sharififar(PhD, prof) in the year
2015,
To investigate the impact of critical discourse analysis on the
critical thinking of male and female students.
The abstract section of the article indicated
the main purpose of the study,
the research design,
the participants,
data gathering tools and
the main findings of the study
 The introduction part forwarded some pertinent issues about
CDA and language learning:
 Basically, it explained the failure of socio cultural and CDA
theorists to consider the relevance of CDA with language
learning and learning support as a whole.

8.  The article noted that most of practices in reading
classes are traditional.
 traditional reading classes are not supported regarding
three principal ways:
1) using a method for finding the meaning of text;
2) using the texts that are more stimulating;
3) connection of texts and reading activities to
social contexts.
 the study advises teachers to support learners with
some skills and scaffolding of activity.
 In doing so, educators can employ CDA techniques
and help students analyze a discourse and find the
hidden meaning and explore the association between
discourse, ideology, and power.

9.  The aim of study was to introduce the field of critical
discourse analysis in educational system in relation with two
overriding dichotomous questions:
 RQ1. Does critical discourse analysis facilitate nurturing
critical thinking in students?
RQ2. Does impact of CDA would be the same for the male
and female students?
 Raised some critical points concerning the relevance of CDA
in the educational settings.
 critical discourse analysis is closely linked with educational
setting( source of problems& where CT changes)

10.  Assumptions : uneven power between speakers and listeners,
readers and writers is related to their different accesses to
processes of linguistic and social situations.
 Schools can promote the mastery of discursive practices: the
discourse, texts, genres, lexical and grammatical structure of
everyday language.
 Classroom talk is fundamental medium to construct ''reading''
of textbooks and reshape it into trustworthy interpretation.
 Therefore, investigating how to do critical studies of text and
talk to apply it in successful research strategies is essential

11. summary… Cont’d
 The literature part raised some relevant and main points
concerning CDA and critical thinking. Eg it states:
 The concept of CDA and critical thinking precisely
 How these two concepts are related each other
 Significance of CDA for the development of CT in the
process of learning.
 Factors related with cda , such as 1) text, 2) interaction, and
3) social context
 CDA researches pertinent to education that shows how
power is used and resisted in educational settings

12. Summary… Cont’d
The methodology part, it tried to show:
 The number of participants selected(64)
The instruments employed to gather data (a text for
analyzing and a questionnaire) and
The procedures how the study carried out, including the
pretest-pots test designs.
Though the participants were not clearly stated here, we
can understand that they were MA students majoring in
translation and English language teaching in different
terms at Kerman institute of higher education.

13. The next part, data analysis,
 Tried to answer the research questions raised in the study.
 The research questions were used as a theme to present the
result of the study as:
 I. Increasing critical thinking through critical discourse
analysis and
 II. The impact of critical discourse analysis on male and
female students.
 The data collected through questionnaire and CDA of a
political text during 1month were analyzed in a mixed
approach.

14. Summary… Cont’d
 The researchers showed how they proceeded to conduct their
study in the pretest and posttest.
 The same text (Obama's speech) was used to be analyzed by
students both before and after intervention.
 This project was introduced as a kind of class activity or
class assignment.
 In first version of analysis, some students merely reworded
the entire text and wrote a summary about Obama's speeches
in two or three paragraphs.
 Then, students were trained how to analyze a text based on
the van Dijk's CDA techniques introduced by shams (2005).

15. After taking the training,
 The study proved that based on the first and second analyses,
about 85% percent of students’ critical thinking developed.
 Students' tried to focus on the linguistic elements and their
functions in illustrating the writer's ideologies and convictions.
 They analyzed the text according to Van Dijk's model
 In this vein, their understanding of the text enhanced
 As the data revealed, CDA fosters students' critical thinking.
 The teacher is advised typically to work on students' information
processing skills to develop different skills like collecting
information, analyzing, interpreting, paraphrasing.

16. The questionnaire items were analyzed
quantitatively (frequency and percentage) and
qualitatively.
There are five open and closed- ended items in
the questionnaire.
In general, the comprehensive frequency of
positive response for male is about 100 while
that of the females' is 134; on the other hand the
comprehensive negative response for all items is
52 for male and 25 for female.
From this figure, we can conclude that the
influence of CDA fo the development of CT is
higher for female students than for male.

17. Summary…cont’d
 As the conclusion of the article pointed out:
 Language should not be regarded as a superficial fact.
 Creating different opportunities can foster language learning
better than we imagine
 Developing the skill of CDA is fundamental for EFL
students because in this way they prevent to be in control of
writers' and publishers' ideologies.
 Employing CDA as an applicable tool for language
comprehension makes passive students more critical and
creative ones.
 This can be better performed if teachers give open
opportunities to reach at their own interpretations.
 engaging students in CDA helps them to develop awareness
regarding the cultural, social, and political situation of a
country, which is the main source of the text.

18. There is also a summary like discussion.
 It presented the main findings of the study about:
 How the CT level of students developed as they learned
CDA;
 how their attitude is changed to positive concerning
language learning through discourse analysis
 The implication of the study is that teaching critical ways
of thinking helps the students to be independent learner who
are self-assured and rely on their own intellectual ability.
 The text chosen for analysis should have the potentiality to
attract the reader's consideration both from surface level and
their profundities, it should be about fact and inferential
ones.
 The other implication of the study is that teachers can apply
critical activities in EFL classes to help students' develop life
long ability in critical thinking

19.  The appendices contains list of questionnaire items, and the
reference section shows list of sources the researchers
consulted. These references are presented in the APA style,
which is one of the most widely used referencing styles in
academic writing.

20. Overview
 The next section will focus on critiques of
the strengths and limitations of the article.
It will present :
 the main arguments raised
 evidences forwarded to prove or disprove
those arguments.
 the structural organization of the study
 language usage in each part of the article

21. Topic and Abstract
 Big topic is the most challenging to write about
 likely exposed for omissions and oversights .
 Consider sufficient time, experience and resources to
complete the researches(Gray , 2004) .
 A title should be short yet provide enough keywords
(Fischer & Zigmond, 2023).
 The title of the reviewed article looks general as it focuses
on the impact of discourse analysis on teaching English.
 Narrow the focus of investigation so that people cannot get
distracted with multiple interpretations.
 By considering the different features of the topic: variable
components, the methodologies, setting or other aspects of
the issue (University of South California, 2023).


22. Critical Review … cont’d
 Of course, the detail revealed that the main purpose
was examining whether critical discourse analysis
facilitates the critical thinking of male and female
students.
 The abstract tried to highlight the main points of the
study precisely in one paragraph.
 Didn’t specify the sampling techniques, the setting and
recommendations/implications.
 Although the formats of an article abstract depends on
the discipline, most abstracts encompass reason /
objectives, the problem , methodology ,
results/findings reached and implications (Andrade,
2011).
 It is important to determine what the authors found,
and decide whether to read the rest of the paper.

23. Introduction of the study
 presented the concepts precisely.
 The ideas raised about the concept of CDA and the main gaps
seen in the educational setting, the limitation of theorists to
consider CDA in the language classroom, the intention of the
study and other issues raised are relevant
 Besides, the main arguments sucha as CDA and CT, weather
CDA fosters critical thinking, if CDA has similar impact on
students in terms of gender difference, etc. are stated in brief.
 In the introduction there should be statement of the problem,
theoretical and practical implication of the study, the link with
theory and relation with literature (APA, 2007).

24.  limitations in the introduction part :
 coherence problem- stated about discourse analysis first and
proceeded to defining the concept of education
 Relevanec:explaining more about education seems less
important, better if ot focused on the educational settings
 Organization problem-there is a heading labeled as "A.
Critical discourse analysis in educational setting". If there
is a label with "A", there should be other consecutive labels
as B, C. etc
 In text citation and language usage- example on the first
page (p. 504): As Young (1990) wrote,
The modern educational crisis is a product of the one sided
development of our capacity for national management of
human affairs and rational problem solving. The institution
of mass schooling can be either a source the problem or a
possible vehicle for the changes in learns level we require
(p. 23).

25.  The page number indicates it is a direct quote, but not
enclosed in quotation marks as APA(2007) suggest
 The form of the two basic research questions seem less
preferable;
 the two questions are formed as" yes/no" questions.
 It would have been better if the questions were revised
as:
 1. What is the impact of critical discourse analysis on
nurturing students' critical thinking?
 2. What will be the impact of CDA on male and female
students' attitude?

26. Review of Related Literature
 gives theoretical and conceptual framework.
 Discussing the frameworks of Fairclough (1995)
which are text, interaction, and social context are
basic for the analysis.
 Explaining the assumptions and concepts of CDA,
CT and other relevant issues with theories is good
side of the article.
 Citing some sources(books&researches) done
concerning the role of CDA in the educational
setting helps to backs up the study with evidence

27. Nevertheless,
 The study stated that it used Van Dijk’s model. Hence, the
literature part should have explained the Van Dijk's CDA
socio cognitive approach/models and frameworks for
analyzing a text in detail, but it did not.
 Best and Kahn, 2003 recommends the researcher show
clearly understanding of the existing pertinent literature to
the study
 For instance,
 no explanation about Van Dijk's two main types of power:
(1) the “coercive power” (2) the “persuasive power”, (Van
Dijk,2001b).
 did not state the' ideological square' which introduces four
principles for the analysis of ideology: representing Us
favorably but Them unfavorably

28.  Concerning CDA principles, Fairclough & Wodak (1997). set up eight basic
tenets of CDA as follows:
 (i) CDA addresses social problems;
 (ii) power relations are discursive;
 (iii) discourse constitutes society and culture;
 (iv) discourse does ideological work;
 (v) discourse is historical;
 (vi) the link between text and society is mediated;
 (vii) discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory;
 (viii) discourse is a form of social action
 Moreover, the topic is long; it should not include sub topics, and the topic
should have been written as "Review of Related Literature"

29. Methodology
 This part helps to base the main arguments with
practical and theoretical evidence.
 Therefore, the arguments "whether CDA fosters
CT and if its impact is similar for male and female
students", are backed up with primary (from
participants feedback of the questionnaire and text
analysis) and secondary (literature review) sources.
 The way of recruiting participants, the procedures
followed and the instruments employed are also
pertinent and appropriate
 The methodology section should be sufficiently
detailed for another researcher to replicate our
research (Pan, n.d ).

30.  balanced number of participants (32 M&32 F)
 Stating the instruments (text analysis and questionnaire) and
procedures (pretest, training on CDA, posttest, administering
the questionnaire) seems fine
 limitations in this section:
 The speech that was used in the pretest and posttest is not
clear(which speech of Obama?)
 the study did not mention how the participants selected, the
study area, the level of the participants , the type of items
employed in the questionnaire, data analysis techniques, the
issue of validity and reliability.
 the procedure has included some findings…

31.  The methodology section should be stated in simple
past tense; (APA , 2022).
 Contrary to this, most parts are explained in present
tenses.
 The items better fit for interview than for
questionnaire
 The items of the questionnaire are more holistic;
they focus on language as general.
 The items do not focus on specific language issue
 The items require the participants to say yes or no
and substantiate with detail responses.
 Each item should have been supplemented with
"how?" Questions.

32.  topic is narrow; it should have been written as "Data
Analysis and interpretation" or as "Result and
Discussion(Fischer & Zigmond, 2023).
 The study presented the results thematically based on the
main questions raised: to get organized ideas,
 The third label which was stated as
“C. Student feedback questionnaire” seems inappropriate and
ungrammatical. This should have been written under the
second theme
 presented some direct quotes taken from the participants’
response; to back up the arguments with practical and
direct sources information.
 As we can understand from the few data presented, the
study used mixed approach
 On the other hand, result indicated that about 85% percent
of student's critical thinking enlarged; but there is no clear
information or data process how this figure is obtained.

33.  Concerning research ethics, as it is stated in the analysis
section, the participants were not informed that they
were under study:In order to entice learners to
work sternly and also to obtain a reliable
outcome, the researcher did not allow
students to inform that they were the
participants of this study. This project was
introduced as a kind of class activity or class
assignment (p.507)

34.  Subjects=the six palaces, other monuments, churches
and related artifacts in the compound.
= Debrebirhan selassie monastery .
 These were selected b/c
 They are assumed to have better symbolic significance
values and assets than the other similar buildings.
 The investigator is familiar with the heritage and the
area;
 there are many symbols of sculptures in the buildings.
 prior researches and other documents, focused only the
physical structures of the castles
 potentials of symbolic values which need to be examined
scientifically

35.  Tools to be employed :
 observation,
 in-depth interview
 review of related documents
Participants and sampling Techniques
 participants of the in-depth interview will be selected
based on their role and knowledge on the castles
 2 participants from Gondar CT office, 1scholar in heritage
related fields, 1 orthodox religious leader , 2 community
elders and 1well experienced tour guide will be selected
purposely for the in-depth interview
 will provide the necessary data about the symbols, pattern
of shapes of the building parts, tools, artifacts, colors, gates
and their symbolic value and meaning,
 how and why the royal families constructed the buildings

36. arrange programs for observing
 Observation while the local tour guides interpret the
symbols
 take pictures and videos of symbolic signs
 in-depth interview with the tour guide
 demonstration based
 For in-depth information is required, interviewing is
preferable method of data collection (Kumar, 2011).
 semi-structured
 only guiding questions
 on symbolic representations and interpretations
 One by one -to get fresh data
 accompanied with video recording, documents ,written
books and photo

37.  Data will be analyzed qualitatively.
 The data analysis will take place descriptive,
interpretative, and exploratory in relation to
concepts that are drawn from the theory of
semiotics, i.e. through signifier and signified
relations and denotative and connotative meanings
 Signs of the selected symbols of window, gates,
cadge and sculpture signs of the castles will be
analyzed and interpreted.

38.  Receiving official letter of consent from UoG
 make clear the purpose of the study to concerned
bodies and participants
 Carrying out the study without harming and
threatening
 Keeping all information confidential

39. Chapt
er
Topics
Execution Years or Phases
2016 E.C 2017 E.C 2018
E.C
1 Introduction 
2 Literature Review 
3 Methodology like Data collection and analysis for the 1st research
question

4 Data collection and analysis for the 2nd research question 
5 Data collection and analysis for the and 3rdresearch questions 
6 Data collection and analysis for the and 4rth research questions 
7 Discussions of results 
8 Summary, Conclusions and recommendations and others 
9 Writing the first draft to the advisor(s) 
10 Writing the final draft 