A Reflective Turn in CDA Pedagogy: Applying a Sociocognitive Lens to Self-Reported Shifts in Critical Awareness

Abstract

The qualitative research design explores the perceived effects of learning Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on students' critical reading awareness at English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university. Dropping the research based on the intervention, it uses students' self-reports of changes in their attitudes towards texts after completing a CDA course. Data were gathered with the help of five undergraduate students in a two-stage process, i.e., a written before/after reflection task on a news article and a discussion during a focus group. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on van Dijk's sociocognitive framework, organized into three levels: semantic, cognitive, and social awareness. Results show a distinct self-reported process of transitioning between surface-level reading and critical literacy. The participants discussed shifting the emphasis from vocabulary and literal meaning to lexical bias and framing (semantic); the presence of textual authority in doubting its interpretation and situating meaning (cognitive); and the perception of texts as neutral, leading to the identification of underlying ideologies and power dynamics (social). The study finds that a short-term CDA training program with structured reflective practice can help foster long-term critical thinking. It suggests that incorporating reflective practice into CDA instruction is pedagogically important for making critical awareness visible and viable to students.