A Critical discourse analysis of English speeches on racism from the ted organization

Abstract

Although human civilization has advanced to a significantly high level in the 21st century, it cannot conceal a reality that racism remains a pressing social concern in the USA and several other countries. Outstanding figures have been invited to express their opinions on racism by TED - a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in form of impressive, powerful speeches in various languages. This study is an attempt to conduct a critical discourse analysis of English speeches on racism from the TED Organization. With a qualitative approach and the use of quantitative information via WordSmith Tools as an instrument, the study is conducted based on the view of Fairclough and Wodak (1977) that Critical Discourse Analysis aims at demystifying texts shaped ideologically by relations of power, focusing on clarifying the relationship between discourse and societal structure through interpretation and explanation by relying on systematic scientific procedures. More specifically, the study is intended to seek ideologies of the speakers and reveal author-to-audience relationship through examining the ideational, interpersonal & textual meaning of language in the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics by Halliday (1985, 1994, 2009, 2014), thereby bringing practical implications in the realm of English language education