Factual vs. Fake News: Teachers’ Lens on Critical Media Literacy Education in EFL Classes

Abstract

The internet and digital ecosystems have enlarged opportunities for literacy activities. Technology has altered social practices and concepts of literacy, which has profound consequences for EFL teaching and learning. This qualitative research aims at studying teachers’ ignorance, within the concept of ignorance epistemology, as they navigate their teaching roles in CML teaching, particularly in the EFL context. Through an open-ended questionnaire and interview, this study investigated how teachers assist students to establish the credibility of information and information sources through critical assessment. It also delved into the opportunities and challenges the teachers encounter in assisting students to be critical assessors of information and media sources. All these are critical since building CML aims to prepare students to be active members of today’s digital democratic world and to ease the media bubble effects of social media, which can lead to fake news or misinformation, polarization, and complex mediation between parties. Finally, ramifications and future study areas are highlighted to further the field of digital literacy.

Keywords

• digital literacy
• media literacy
• efl classes
• factual news
• fake news
• teachers’ perspectives