This thesis is directed towards investigating the nature of English language learning in a foundation-year programme in one public university in the United Arab Emirates. The aims of the thesis were based on the need to provide a possible explanation for the significant number of learners achieving low results, or failing their English language courses, in this programme. It was felt that a critical Jungian perspective could help uncover the existence in the Emirati tertiary system of both conscious and unconscious student resistance to English and of, synchronous, discursive forms of linguistic imperialism. This notion was based on findings in the literature, principally in Analytical Psychology, which suggest that the individual psyche is composed of profound and powerful personal and collective unconscious elements as well as critical theory, which maintains that the language classroom cannot be extricated from the influence of surrounding political, or even geopolitical, forces. The thesis sought, through the use of both a critical discourse analysis and critically-oriented case studies, to provide insight into the nature of the dialectical tension believed to exist, in this milieu, between the propagators of the language and those adopting it. The findings provided considerable evidence of a tension operating both at the discursive level and at the psychological level in the use of English in the foundation-year programme. The findings suggested that the discourse presented to learners, from western textbook writers and editors, is heavily Anglo-Saxon in its use of motifs and topics and that there is room, at least on a macrostructural level, to offset this tendency and reconsider the cultural weighting of topical content so as to more appropriately cater to an Arabic and Muslim audience. Also, the primary data revealed that the study’s participants were critical of the use of English as the university’s medium of instruction and there was consensus among them that a significant number of Emirati students, as well as some members of the public, were not receptive to the intrusion of this foreign language into their lives. Critical Discourse Analysis and critical case studies were combined in the shaping of the research methodology and this enabled the researcher to gain an in-depth and qualitative insight into the nature of English propagation and adoption. Key data collected from the research interviews was placed into a Jungian taxonomy and combined with the critical discourse analysis. Upon examination, it provided the researcher with information, supported by relevant literature, that led to a number of recommendations directed, in particular, to language teachers (and publishers) regarding the need to shape discourse to cater to the cultural needs of the learners and to consider the psychological impact that the tertiary English language policy was having on the Arab student body. The thesis strongly maintains that the discursive content of the language materials delivered to such students needs to be more extensively adapted in order to cater to the student body so as to minimize, as much as possible, potential cultural alienation. It also advocates the provision of Jungian psychological counseling in English language programmes because it would encourage policy makers to acknowledge the role of the unconscious in learning as well as provide invaluable support to language learners who are experiencing conscious or unconscious resistance to the English language in such a setting.

The purpose of the present essay is to illuminate to which extent figurations of victims in cases of intimate partner homicide is conditional upon the sexes of these individuals. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to determine whether or not these gendered discrepancies reproduce or transform the existing gender-related social systems? The theoretical as well as methodological basis consists of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA), which is combined with Judith Butler’s concept of performative acts. To answer the abovementioned questions I have requested/collected an empirical material consisting of 20 district court judgments (ten for male victims and ten for female victims).The results of this essay indicate, according to my interpretation, that the established figurations of the victims in these cases are determined by the victim’s sex in several but not all discourses. Furthermore, I establish that the demonstrated gender determined discourses contribute to re- produce prevailing standards regarding sex/gender in which male victims are associated with a guilt-burdened role while female victims are considered innocent.

abstract: The presence of language minority students in American schools is a growing phenomenon in present-day times. In the year 2008, almost 11 million school-age children spoke a language other than English at home. Educational language policy is largely influenced by the attitudes that society holds regarding the presence of language minority speakers in the community. One of the sources of these attitudes is the written press. This research aimed at identifying and analyzing the ideologies that newspapers display in connection with language minority speakers. The underlying assumption of the study was that the English language occupies a dominant position in society, thus creating a power struggle in which speakers of other languages are disenfranchised. Using critical theory as the theoretical framework enabled the study to identify and oppose the ideologies that may reproduce and perpetuate social inequalities. The methodological approach used was critical discourse analysis (CDA) which aligns with the main tenets of critical theory, among them the need to uncover hidden ideologies. The analysis of articles from English-language (The Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune) and Spanish-language (La Prensa Hispana) newspapers allowed for the identification of the ideologies of the written press in connection to two main hypothetical constructs: education and immigration. The analysis of the results revealed that the three newspapers of the study held specific ideologies on issues related to the education of language minority students and immigration. Whereas the East Valley Tribune showed an overarching ideology connected to the opposition of immigrant students in schools, the hegemonic position of theEnglish language, and a belligerent stance toward the immigrant community, The Arizona Republic showed a favorable attitude to both English Language Learners and immigrants, based on reasons mainly related to the economic interest of the state of Arizona. La Prensa Hispana, on the other hand, showed ideologies favorable to the immigrant community based on humanitarianism. In summary, the results confirm that newspapers hold specific ideologies and that these ideologies are reflected in the content and the manner of their information to the public. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

During the fall of 2017, a campaign named #metoo went viral on Twitter. The purpose of #metoo was to highlight how many that had experiences of sexual harassments and assaults. The campaign did also gain a lot of attention in traditional Swedish media. By looking at #metoo in Swedish printed media during the month of November in 2017, I have examined how the concept of sexual violence have been articulated, negotiated and represented. Sexual violence is a matter that has been important for both feminist scholars and activists for a long time, both from a theoretical and material perspective. Guided by a critical discourse analysis and a feminist poststructural approach, I have looked at sexual violence as a phenomenon that is discursively made and therefore, also non-stable and always up for negotiation depending on the specific time, place and context it is produced in. In my material, I have found three themes, boundaries, institutionalisation and tensions. They all, in different ways, support that by providing a picture of sexual violence as a fluid concept without clear boundaries, a tendency to turn all the issues of sexual harassments into a failure of the employer liability and the working environment. Also, by providing a picture of a colliding word view of sexual violence as both a brand new phenomenon in Sweden (especially related to immigration) and something that has always been a reality in many people’s life.

The purpose of this study is to explore the expressions of a commercialising fashion journalistic genre by focusing on how ELLE.se, Sweden’s biggest online fashion platform, use advertorials and click-based content. This is investigated through three research questions focusing on what journalistic and marketing discourses that are apparent in advertorials and click-based material; what blend of genres that are seen in different kinds of text commercial on ELLE.se and what discursive conflicts between journalistic ideals and commercial pressure are seen in the production of advertorial content. Theories used in the study are marketisation of public discourse together with Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the commercialisation of news and lastly genres, also focusing on fashion journalism as a genre. In order to explore the expressions a discursive analysis is used on advertorials and click- based material on ELLE.se whilst qualitative interviews with respondents producing the content are conducted to investigate the third research question. The results of the study show that numerous journalistic and marketing discourses are apparent in advertorials and click- based material, with personification through conversational discourse, the pursuit of happiness by portraying the reader as an imperfect person and a friendly brand through corporate advertising as three recurrent themes. A majority of the text commercial at ELLE.se balances between editorial content and advertisement, demonstrating many aspects of an evolving hybrid genre. Lastly, respondents in the qualitative interviews identify digitalisation, loss of journalistic quality and decreased reliability as three discursive conflicts between journalistic ideals and commercial pressure. The result stresses how the impact of commercialism and how journalistic and promotional discourses are continuously blended, showing aspects of ongoing hybridisation and converging genres.

This is a study of how the image of Sweden is constructed in international media. Using the country as a swinging bat in debates on socialism and progressiveness is nothing new but has had an upswing during recent years as a result of the global rise of right-wing forces. With the help of Critical Discourse Analysis, four articles from the United States and the United Kingdom are analysed. These are then presented according to Fairclough’s three-layered model. With the help of previous research on Sweden in international media, fake news and nation branding, these findings are then explained and put into context.The study finds that the image of Sweden presented in media tends to follow the narrative of Good Sweden and Bad Sweden. On the one hand is the classic welfare state in the north, which takes care of its people and with high levels of trust between the actors. On the other hand is a country in ruins as a result of letting in too many immigrants. Both narratives rely heavily on stereotypes. The discussion tends to use Sweden as an example, when it is really about ideologies and values. Another result shown by the study is that fake news is a common trace in news about Sweden, not only in alternative media but also in the established elite media. This can be seen as a result of the hardening situation in the media business as well as the rise of right-wing forces.

Magister Artium - MA / The controversial singing of the Shoot the Boer song by Julius Malema was a focus of media attention during the period of March 3, 2010 to September 12, 2011.This study aims to analyse the discourses participants draw on in the expression of their positions of race and identity in selected online texts, as well as the different meanings and interpretations the Shoot the Boer song has acquired over time. Using the data drawn from three court rulings, namely the South Gauteng High Court, North Gauteng High Court and the Equality Court and commentaries from various online websites, this project focuses on the various ways in which issues of race are realised through language by focusing on the construction and interpretation of Julius Malema and the Shoot the Boer song within different contextual spaces. This study uses a critical discourse analysis framework, as well as theories of intertextuality, resemiotization, contextand chronotope to analyse the texts which were generated in response to the song. Key findings include the ways in which participants who consider themselves as part of a minority group, construct themselves as 'victims‘ in relation to Malema and the singing of the song. Similarly, another key finding is that the broader discourse of fear exhibited in the various commentaries links to a general fear of 'black power‘ where Malema is a signifier of this 'black power.‘ Overall, the thesis argues that the meanings of the song are multiple and shift with the changing chronotopia of its performance. It therefore support Blommaert‘s (2005) emphasis on the importance of 'text trajectories‘ in establishing the meaning of texts, and argues that the historical meanings associated with the Shoot the Boer song form a complex set of frames on which different participants draw when interpreting the song in 2010.

This thesis examines how national identities are discursively constructed in online discussions around immigration in Finland. The discursive construction of Finnish national identities is analyzed both in the light of the construction of ‘sameness’ and of ‘otherness’, drawing upon critical discourse analysis and the notion of a nation as an imagined community. The analyzed data is from a Finnish discussion forum, Suomi24. The discussions analyzed generally construct an exclusionary identity: Finnishness is often represented as something inherent and impossible to combine with, for example, Islam or Russianness. Elite discourses as well as discourses previously identified in Hommaforum, a Finnish ‘immigration critical’ forum, were reproduced in the discussions, implying that online discussions, in addition to reproducing elite discourses, can also foster them. The prevalence of exclusionary discourses and stereotypical representations in a moderated discussion forum speaks for the normalization of such ways of talking about immigration, ‘us’ and ‘others’.

SILVA, Ana Paula Rabelo. Os processos de letramentos nas transformações de identidades de três gerações de mulheres escolarizadas. 2017. 360f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2017. / Submitted by Gustavo Daher (gdaherufc@hotmail.com) on 2017-04-06T16:45:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_aprsilva.pdf: 3513156 bytes, checksum: 81787a4ac1bfebb5b759274281d3c595 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-04-07T12:22:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_aprsilva.pdf: 3513156 bytes, checksum: 81787a4ac1bfebb5b759274281d3c595 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-07T12:22:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_aprsilva.pdf: 3513156 bytes, checksum: 81787a4ac1bfebb5b759274281d3c595 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / A ausência de dados para a realização de um artigo sobre educação de três gerações de mulheres (de um mesmo grupo familiar, doravante GF) que tivessem passado pelo letramento acadêmico foi o fator motivador para a escolha do tema. Assim, a presente tese propôs-se a realizar, sustentada pela Análise de Discurso Crítica (ADC), uma pesquisa intersecional considerando grau de escolaridade, gênero social, raça e classe na análise das transformações de identidades de 24 mulheres (brancas e negras) que experienciaram o letramento acadêmico. É objetivo principal analisar as transformações de identidades de gênero social – considerando as mudanças discursivas, sociais e culturais – por meio do acesso a diferentes gêneros discursivos. Da mesma forma, também são objetivos: a) analisar como o letramento acadêmico de mulheres, sobretudo as negras, mensurado pelo acesso aos gêneros discursivos da academia, pode indicar a ascensão e o empoderamento das mulheres; b) identificar como o acesso aos gêneros discursivos pode estar associado a disputas de micropoderes, permitindo o empoderamento das mulheres, em especial, das mulheres negras; c) identificar como o acesso ao letramento afeta nas transformações de crenças e valores e sugere disputas de micropoderes. A pesquisa, de cunho qualitativo, tem como dimensão teórica e metodológica a Análise de Discurso Crítica (FAIRCLOUGH, [1992] 2001, 2003; CHOULIARAKI, FAIRCLOUGH [1999] 2007; MAGALHÃES 1995, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012; RAMALHO, RESENDE, 2011; RESENDE, RAMALHO, 2013). Além das considerações iniciais e finais, está dividida em três partes: uma teórica, uma metodológica e outra analítica. Os capítulos teóricos tratam de “Desigualdades de raça e gênero no acesso à educação”, com o propósito de contextualizar as questões relacionadas ao acesso ao ensino superior e à história das lutas das mulheres em três gerações do feminismo (CAMERON, 1995; LOURO, [1997] 2014; OSTERMANN, 2006; FRASER, 2007; MAGALHÃES, 2008, 2009). “ADC e gênero social”, está dividido em: modalidade e avaliação, com base em Fairclough ([1992] 2001, 2003), e discurso e gênero social (WODAK, 1997; CAMERON, 2003, 2005; MAGALHÃES, 2005a; HEBERLE, OSTERMANN, FIGUEIREDO, 2006; MOSS, 2007). “Letramento e gênero discursivos” trata da compreensão de letramento, baseada em Street (2012, 2014) e Magalhães (1995) e de gêneros discursivos, dialogando com Bakhtin ([1953] 2011), Fairclough ([1992] 2001), Motta-Roth (1998, 2008) e Solin (2011). A segunda parte da tese apresenta os procedimentos metodológicos, e tem como principal instrumento de geração de dados a entrevista (individual ou coletiva). Na análise das práticas experienciadas no espaço acadêmico – Parte C –, foram introduzidas as categorias da ADC: modalidade e avaliação (FAIRCLOUGH, [1992] 2001, 2003). As transformações de identidade nos GFs de mulheres brancas ocorreram mais significativamente por geração. Há uma tendência entre as 24 mulheres a apresentar um modo de ser e de viver o mundo que não rompa com o seu tempo histórico, isso permite que coexistam identidades diferentes e conflitantes, alimentando outros projetos de identidade ou de resistência e podendo impulsionar identidades pessoais a se consagrarem como futuras identidades coletivas. Nas identidades, há disputas de micropoderes. Vale ressaltar que é significativo que a pesquisa não tenha levantado dados de nenhum GF completo de mulheres negras.

My critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the New York Times' front-page and editorial articles, within the framework of Herman and Chomsky's (1988) propaganda model, shows that the newspaper constructed the intervention in Rwanda as suicidal for the United States and beyond the capacity of the international community. On the other hand, U.S. and NATO intervention and military airstrikes against Serbia were represented as surgical and the only options available to save ethnic Albanian lives in Kosovo. My analysis finds that the New York Times' constructions of the two conflicts, conflict actors and victims of the conflicts heavily favored the official U.S. policy of nonintervention in Rwanda and intervention in Kosovo. In particular, the analysis of the Kosovo conflict discourse in the New York Times found strong support for the dichotomization hypothesis of the propaganda model. I further analyzed U.S. policy papers or the official propaganda discourses alongside news media discourses, and also reviewed my CDA findings alongside key historical episodes related to the two conflicts. My analysis shows, while the New York Times showcased and regurgitated arguments that were in favor of U.S. policy of intervention in Kosovo and nonintervention in Rwanda, the newspaper--deliberately or otherwise--omitted and distorted key details that could potentially and fundamentally reshape perceptions of the need or lack of need for U.S. interventions in each of the two conflicts. Lastly, my analysis finds that there was high degree of similarity between the official propaganda discourses and the discourses in the New York Times.