Ukrainian HEI Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Fostering Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in EFL Learning

Abstract

The study examined Ukrainian HEI students’ opinions and perceptions of media literacy and critical thinking skills in EFL learning before and after participation in the set of trainings. Being created in the framework of the Jean Monnet Module project “EU strategies extrapolation for boosting students’ media literacy in Ukrainian higher education”, it was aimed to empower students with essential skills for navigating the complexities of the modern media landscape, evaluating information sources, forming such students’ competencies as critical thinking, fact-checking, digital security, resistance to media manipulation. A sample of 40 second-year undergraduate students, aged 19 to 23, willing to develop their media literacy and EFL capacities, who demonstrated at least A2 level of English language proficiency, were questioned through Google Forms by means of the specially designed questionnaires. The outcomes of the study revealed that the issues of media literacy and critical thinking were of particular importance among the young people, but they also pointed out their awareness of being insufficiently skilled in working with media products, their concerns about the quality of digital content they had consumed and priorities of being independent in media consumption choices. The activities conducted during the study significantly affected students’ gaining knowledge of media development, their value-meaningful attitude to the media space, the desire to detect false information, and distinguish fakes, manipulation, propaganda, and disinformation.