Investigating Hortatory Force In The EFL Reading Passages

This study investigates some the reading passages in terms of hortatory messages. To this end a methodology based on Critical Discourse Analysis was adopted. The reading texts from ELT textbooks were examined through a model which drew on Fairclough's approach to CDA, specifically (Fairclough, 2003) in which three characteristic features of hortatory texts are introduced. The analysis reveals that 15 reading passages of the corpus involve in hortatory messages which are characterized by the above mentioned features i.e. Evaluation, Prediction, and Legitimation strategies. These texts features were considered as markers of contemporary ‘genres of governance’ which are significant semiotic means to exert power in the process of globalization. These categories were also connected to the social issue of Habermatian model of modernity in which the ‘lifeworld’ can be ‘colonized’ by the ‘system’s instrumental rationality’ (Edgar, A. 2006). They were further linked to the concept of ‘promotional culture’ (Wernick, 1991) in the contemporary world. In the concluding section of the study, it was suggested that pedagogical approach to literacy in the textbooks be ‘critically’ revised to engage macro and micro social issues in reading comprehension activities. To this end a critical reading model, proposed by Wallace (2003) is proposed.