Social Media Advertising as a Vehicle for Developing EFL Students' Critical Language Awareness: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study in Language and Advertisement Class

Abstract

The rapid expansion of social media has made digital advertising one of the most pervasive forms of multimodal discourse consumed by EFL university students on a daily basis. Despite its ideological richness—combining persuasive language, visual rhetoric, and social power relations—social media advertising remains underutilised as a critical object of study in Indonesian EFL higher education classrooms. This study investigates how the integration of social media advertising analysis into the Language and Advertisement course (Semester VI, Department of English Literature, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Khairun Ternate) can develop students’ Critical Language Awareness (CLA). Drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework—text, discursive practice, and social practice—integrated with Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar, the study employs a qualitative classroom-based design with a total sample of 35 students (30 female, 5 male). Data were collected through pre-analysis tasks (pretest), CDA-structured in-class activities, post-analysis tasks (posttest), guided class discussions, and students’ written reflections. Pretest-to-posttest comparison reveals a marked qualitative shift: from surface-level, literal readings of advertising content towards ideologically aware and critically reflexive discourse analysis. Students progressed from identifying superficial promotional features to articulating how language, visual elements, and multimodal strategies construct identity, normalise consumption values, and reproduce social power relations. These findings confirm that social media advertising texts constitute productive and contextually relevant materials for CLA development in EFL higher education. The study contributes to SDG 4: Quality Education.