Awareness-raising for Evaluative Expressions by Using the Lead of Newspaper Articles

Abstract

The use of evaluative expressions in the text does not only reflect the speaker/writer's attitude and viewpoint but also a value-system of the community which the speaker/writer belongs to. Awareness of an evaluative function of language can help mature learners to interpret the speaker/writer's intention and attitude behind the text. In this study, the concept of evaluation is applied to a second language reading class. Comparing lead paragraphs of four different newspaper articles on the same topic helped students who had very little or no experience in linguistic analysis to identify value-laden expressions. Reading a short passage about the same issue also enabled the students to predict the meaning of unknown words and expressions. The comparing process motivated the students to choose one article over others and promoted further reading of the text. The study also revealed inexperienced learners' misconceptions that if a newspaper article had fewer evaluative expressions the article kept an objective point of view and that certain media discourse could be free from the reporter’s opinions.