The mirror framework : a critical text analysis pedagogical tool for the Foreign Language (FL) learning context

Abstract

Textbooks used in foreign language (FL) classrooms, together with other authentic printed and/or audio-visual texts, serve to familiarise FL learners with the culture of the country where the target language being taught is used as L1 (Unesco, 2007). This motivates teachers to seek instructional tools through which they can analyze the way the „foreign‟ country is represented in the texts they intend to use in class. Linked to this, the paper will first present one of the most popular text analysis frameworks which FL teachers refer to when doing such text analysis. The popularity of this particular text analysis framework links to the fact that it was designed by Mike Byram (1993) whose work is seminal in the fields of FL teaching and intercultural competences. Because of Byram‟s acclaimed reputation, very often FL teachers just use his framework without ample critical reflection. In response to this, while pointing out the strengths of Byram's text analysis framework, this paper intends to go one step further and critically evaluates Byram's (1993) model. The paper reacts by suggesting that a multimodal social semiotic focus may help to add FL teacher criticality when using Byram‟s model. This is one of the contributions to the field of FL teaching and learning, since such multimodal social semiotic elements rarely feature in text analysis frameworks contemporary FL teachers frequently refer to. As a conclusion, the paper presents a step by step explanation of the original MIRROR framework which FL teachers can use critically as an instructional tool while conducting the analysis of cultural representations presented in the FL texts they have at hand.