CRITICAL LANGUAGE AWARENESS (CLA)
ENGLISH
GRADE 10
2023
HOME LANGUAGE
,CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING CRITICAL LANGUAGE AWARENESS
According to the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS),
learning a language should enable learners to use the language as a
means for critical and creative thinking; for expressing their opinions on
ethical issues and values; for interacting critically with a wide range of
texts; for challenging the perspectives, values and power relations
embedded in texts; and for reading texts for various purposes, such as
enjoyment, research and critique.
1.1 What Critical Language Awareness (CLA) is
According to Fairclough (2005), Critical Language Awareness (CLA) as a
part of language education, teaches learners how to analyse the
language that is used by themselves and others. CLA also refers to an
understanding of the social, political, and ideological aspects of
language, linguistic variation, and discourse. According to CAPS, CLA is
the analysis of how meaning is constructed with an understanding of
power relations in and between languages; it empowers the learner to
resist manipulation and to use language sensitively. CLA is about making
conscious choices of words, grammar, register, discourse, structure, etc.
This is shown in the diagram below.
,1.2 What is an ideology?
An ideology is a set of beliefs held by an individual or a group of people.
It moulds and shape our way of thinking about society.
Ideologies that people associate themselves with will influence their
perceptions, create biases and shape their opinions.
Examples of ideologies:
• Communism promotes collective ownership of property with one
political party controlling social and economic policy.
• Feminism advocates economic, social and political equality for women.
It also deals with the rights of women.
• Gender ideology is concerned with the attitudes of men and women
towards their place in society, their rights and responsibilities.
• Equality of opportunity is an ideology that wishes to eliminate
discrimination based on age, gender, colour, race, national origin,
religion, and disabilities that include physical and mental disabilities.
• Religions are all ideologies and within each one is a variation of beliefs.
Some believers strictly follow all the tenets while others are more liberal
and choose the ones they feel are more important.
• Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by
social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as
well as the political theories and movements associated with them.
• Common sense ideologies are based on location. People in a rural or
wilderness areas will share certain beliefs about safety and protection
from animals, whereas, in urban areas, people learn to cross the streets
safely.
, Language, power and advertising
• The power of advertisements is based on economic, financial, or in
general, corporate or institutional resources.
It is exercised through access to mass media and/ or through
widespread public attention.
• In advertising, a company expresses a message directly to potential
consumers.
• Compliance is enforced by rhetorical means, e.g. by repetition,
argumentation and/or emotive words.
• Adverts use rhetorical means to instil ideologies/world views.
• Adverts use mechanisms of market control. (See persuasive
techniques)
• Advertising often makes use of short texts - whether in print or
broadcast media - where every word has to work hard/be loaded with
meaning (poetic language).
• The speaker/advertiser uses personal pronouns like ‘you, we’ etc. e.g.
‘How can we help you?’ as a persuasive strategy.
ENGLISH
GRADE 10
2023
HOME LANGUAGE
,CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING CRITICAL LANGUAGE AWARENESS
According to the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS),
learning a language should enable learners to use the language as a
means for critical and creative thinking; for expressing their opinions on
ethical issues and values; for interacting critically with a wide range of
texts; for challenging the perspectives, values and power relations
embedded in texts; and for reading texts for various purposes, such as
enjoyment, research and critique.
1.1 What Critical Language Awareness (CLA) is
According to Fairclough (2005), Critical Language Awareness (CLA) as a
part of language education, teaches learners how to analyse the
language that is used by themselves and others. CLA also refers to an
understanding of the social, political, and ideological aspects of
language, linguistic variation, and discourse. According to CAPS, CLA is
the analysis of how meaning is constructed with an understanding of
power relations in and between languages; it empowers the learner to
resist manipulation and to use language sensitively. CLA is about making
conscious choices of words, grammar, register, discourse, structure, etc.
This is shown in the diagram below.
,1.2 What is an ideology?
An ideology is a set of beliefs held by an individual or a group of people.
It moulds and shape our way of thinking about society.
Ideologies that people associate themselves with will influence their
perceptions, create biases and shape their opinions.
Examples of ideologies:
• Communism promotes collective ownership of property with one
political party controlling social and economic policy.
• Feminism advocates economic, social and political equality for women.
It also deals with the rights of women.
• Gender ideology is concerned with the attitudes of men and women
towards their place in society, their rights and responsibilities.
• Equality of opportunity is an ideology that wishes to eliminate
discrimination based on age, gender, colour, race, national origin,
religion, and disabilities that include physical and mental disabilities.
• Religions are all ideologies and within each one is a variation of beliefs.
Some believers strictly follow all the tenets while others are more liberal
and choose the ones they feel are more important.
• Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by
social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as
well as the political theories and movements associated with them.
• Common sense ideologies are based on location. People in a rural or
wilderness areas will share certain beliefs about safety and protection
from animals, whereas, in urban areas, people learn to cross the streets
safely.
, Language, power and advertising
• The power of advertisements is based on economic, financial, or in
general, corporate or institutional resources.
It is exercised through access to mass media and/ or through
widespread public attention.
• In advertising, a company expresses a message directly to potential
consumers.
• Compliance is enforced by rhetorical means, e.g. by repetition,
argumentation and/or emotive words.
• Adverts use rhetorical means to instil ideologies/world views.
• Adverts use mechanisms of market control. (See persuasive
techniques)
• Advertising often makes use of short texts - whether in print or
broadcast media - where every word has to work hard/be loaded with
meaning (poetic language).
• The speaker/advertiser uses personal pronouns like ‘you, we’ etc. e.g.
‘How can we help you?’ as a persuasive strategy.
