HOW TO UNDERSTAND A MEDIA TEXT IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: AMBIGUITY AS A STRATEGY OF MANIPULATION

Learning a foreign language is a multifaceted process, the purpose of which is to attain mastery over the skills of using the target language. The skill of reading involves working with several authentic texts including media texts. Reading and understanding the media discourse is one of the aspects of the second language learning which needs special attention. Second language teachers therefore often employ tasks and teaching methods that are centered round the reading of newspapers and other sources of information. Understanding the media text is a complex process. Due to the fact that the purpose of the media nowadays is not just giving information but persuasion and manipulation (e.g.[1-10]) it is not enough to know vocabulary, syntax and surface meaning of an article to be able to determine the author's intention. Second language learners need to be able to see the implication in the text, be aware of strategies of persuasion and manipulation which are numerous and diverse. Hence there is a need to develop such skills in learners of the language. The aim of this paper is to show that ambiguity of the information has become one of widely used strategies of manipulation which should be taken into consideration while reading the media text. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) [8-10] the study focuses on linguistic construal of uncertainty, their pragmatic function and perlocutionary effect. The data has been taken from standard British and American newspapers, news websites of the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, among other media sources that cover the relations between Russia, the USA and the UK. The results show that the lack of specific details along with the regular use of linguistic means for realising uncertainty (some semantic groups of words, indefinite pronouns, epistemic modals, Passive Voice, Present Perfect tense, interrogative headlines and others) in media texts serve to perform the strategy of ambiguity which in its turn is aimed at manipulation of public opinion. Implementing the Constructivist approach to language teaching and learning [11-13 and others] the study argues that the semantic, pragmatic and discursive analysis of the media text and development of sociopragmatic and discursive competences help to educate thoughtful, independent and open-minded learners to make them capable of resisting the manipulative impact of mass media on public opinion.