The CATESOL Journal

Language learning classrooms are sites of discovery not only of language, but of identity, culture, and community. The pedagogical approach described here, critical media work (CMW), integrates language teaching and social issues by using media literacy as a bridge. CMW explores antiracist discourse in popular media (digital and analog) to dismantle simplified, binary thinking about race. CMW encourages semiotic analyses of antiracist discourse and examines messages along continuums that emphasize complexities and intersections of race, language, and culture. We share how language teachers at two urban colleges that serve immigrant populations integrate CMW into their classes, and we discuss the effectiveness of this pedagogy in terms of language learning and antiracist education. We maintain that language teaching and social justice education can support each other and that media literacy provides a meaningful and effective foundation for engaged antiracist pedagogy.