The depiction of language school EFL Teachers’ beliefs and issues through discourses found in memes

Abstract

Research worldwide has focused on EFL teachers within the context of public and private schools and universities. Although studies have examined the context of EFL teachers in language schools, including their policies on skills such as reading, the use of textbooks, and cultural identities, as well as their salaries and descriptions of settings in countries such as Malta, Spain, or Canada, there has been a lack of attention paid to the phenomenon of EFL teachers' discourses in memes to comment on their beliefs and struggles within language schools. This study aims to expand on research into EFL teachers from private language centers, particularly their use of discourse and humor in memes to depict their experiences. Teachers in this setting have created humorous memes uploaded to social media sites such as Reddit, and these memes may contain discourses that inform us about EFL teachers' issues, struggles, and perceptions of the ELT field. Thematic filtering, multimodal discourse analysis, and cyber-pragmatic analysis are used to extract discourses and humor styles from image macro memes. Data were collected from posts made during the months of May, June, and July 2021. It has been found that teachers use metaphors, sarcasm, and text-image incongruities to not only change power relations within language schools or reinforce bonds with members of the ELT community, but also depict EFL teachers as creative, playful, knowledgeable individuals who imbue discourses with humor for purposes beyond entertainment.