Developing critical interpretation skills of media texts among students at non-linguistic universities

Abstract

Introduction . The results of the study on the development of critical interpretation skills regarding media texts among students at non-linguistic higher education institutions during foreign language instruction have been presented. The research problem stems from the fact that work with foreign media texts is often limited to comprehending content, whereas the analysis of evaluative vocabulary, persuasive language, and the author’s stance is employed less consistently. The goal of the research was to identify the specific features involved in developing skills to recognize evaluative and emotionally charged vocabulary, explain the communicative function of linguistic devices, and interpret the connection between these devices and the author’s stance. Materials and Methods . The study employed a review of academic literature, a pedagogical experiment, pre- and post-testing, content analysis of written comments, and statistical data processing. An eight-week experiment involved 96 second-year students from non-linguistic institutions with English proficiency levels of B1–B2, divided into experimental and control groups. Research Results. The experimental groups demonstrated more pronounced positive progress across all three indicators. Skills in recognizing evaluative and emotionally charged vocabulary developed more rapidly, while the ability to explain the communicative function of linguistic devices and interpret their link to the author’s stance was acquired more slowly. Discussion and Conclusion . The findings indicate that working with linguistic devices designed to influence the audience fosters the development of critical media text interpretation skills among students.