Abstract:

In the 21st century, electronic media has become the primary field of persuasive communication. Can multimedia texts, which combine verbal, aural, and visual channels, be analysed using rhetorical tools? I believe they can. The rhetorical analysis of media texts enhances understanding and has strong practical applications in education and public discourse. As rhetoric's unique focus is on the social language of multimedia persuasion, merging its theory and practice in the 21st century has become crucial.

Modern texts (such as advertisements, quotes from films or TV series, motivational YouTube or TikTok videos, contemporary pop lyrics) are known for their brevity, creativity, and cultural relevance, providing an engaging approach to literacy education that resonates with students' interests. These texts offer significant advantages in developing text and creative writing skills.

Practice without theory is blind, and theory without practice is sterile. The lecture aims to demonstrate the practical applicability of this theory by highlighting a research project that has been running since 2021 in a secondary school, the BGSZC Széchenyi István Secondary Vocational School of Trade (Budapest, Hungary). In 2021, based on a preliminary survey of student needs, I began incorporating the analysis of contemporary media texts into Hungarian language classes as an experimental approach, given that the development of reading comprehension and text composition skills is emphasized most in these classes in the Hungarian education system. Over the past four academic years, I have involved 5 student groups and compared their results with those of control groups (a total of 154 students from five classes participated and were still participating). Tracking the development of native language competencies was possible through the comparison of grades and percentage-expressible results of various subjects and objective examinations on a monthly basis. However, student and parent feedback (via questionnaires and interviews), as well as reflective self-assessments have also greatly contributed to the evaluation of the project. These results are relevant to the subjects studied and may serve as a basis for more extensive studies in the future.

During the project sessions, students recalled previously acquired materials, effectively synthesized them with newly introduced concepts. There was a measurable improvement in the reading comprehension, text composition, and digital skills of the students participating in the project. The project also enhanced students' empathy through the exchange of experiences and opinions and improved their debate skills and language competencies. Students created high-quality motivational materials (short films, posters, fridge magnets, phone cases, etc.), which, along with their evaluation processes, will also be presented in the lecture.

The phenomena outlined in the lecture, presentation of the related research results, and specific lesson plan proposals compiled based on the research results, patterns, and exercises can all contribute to the renewal of pedagogical methods. The lecture treats the old new rhetoric as a joint, creative linguistic communication action, and education as a value-creating and value-transmitting process. The lecture also highlights possible pathways between rhetoric and other social sciences such as marketing, political science, literature, and music.

Keywords:

Applied linguistics, rhetorical analysis, persuasion, argumentation, multimedia texts, text comprehension, advertisements, storytelling, reading and writing skills, adaptive teaching.