Reading Images: Becoming Media Critical in a Foreign Culture in the Post-Truth Era

• In Event: 34.036 - The Promise and Reality of Technological Tools in Support of Literacy and Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

We live in a world populated with images, words and sounds. Becoming media critical in a foreign culture (and in one’s own culture) is essential to uncover meanings not directly accessible to the reader, as in a text, for example. Social semiotics (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996; HALLIDAY, 1978) allied to insights on visual communication (JEWITT; OYAMA, 2000) offer invaluable support in helping learners to read images critically. This paper reports on a study conducted with learners of Portuguese as an Additional Language. The learners were presented to theory and some examples before receiving samples from magazine covers to analyze. The results indicate that the students were able to derive powerful readings from the images, going even beyond initial expectations.

Author

• Isis Rodrigues Pordeus, Federal University of Minas Gerais