Embodiment and Cultivation of Media Literacy in the Business English Teaching Context: A Corpus-Driven Study on Textbooks

Abstract

Media literacy, the skills that enable individuals to effectively find, evaluate, and communicate information in various mediums, has become the new essential for English learners. In particular, Business English graduates with business skills, language competence and media literacy have been in high demand. However, it remains unclear how media literacy is developed in Business English programs. Since textbooks provide content knowledge and class activities that reflect the philosophy of syllabus, this study aims to investigate the embodiment and cultivation of media literacy in Business English textbooks. Via a corpus-driven approach, we analyzed 52 representative headwords via #LancsBox in a self-built textbook corpus. Results showed a relatively high occurrence and richness of vocabularies indicative of media literacy, and the integration of business concepts and media literacy into the design of instructional activities. This study explored how corpus was employed to evaluate media literacy in Business English textbooks and shed new lights on cross-discipline research. Pedagogical and methodological implications were drawn for corpus-driven textbook analysis and Business English instruction.