Certificate of Achievement
has completed the following course:
Critical Language Awareness in Action: Change the World One Story at a Time
This course shows how narratives we tell shape the way we understand the world and imagine change, using the framework of Critical Language Awareness (CLA). Working with examples of various linguistic devices and strategies that frame reality in certain ways and guide interpretation, learners develop CLA skills of Noticing, Exploring and Acting. Ultimately, the course equips learners with tools to challenge harmful narratives with ethical alternatives.
3 weeks, 3 hours per week
Joanna Chojnicka
Lead educator
University of Groningen
Erika Darics
CLADES project lead
University of Groningen
Transcript
Learning outcomes
- Identify the formal and functional properties of language and multimodal communication, specifically pronouns, agentivity and responsibility, and framing.
- Classify the features observed using appropriate metalanguage.
- Investigate how the meaning of the above linguistic features is constructed and with what consequences for their interpretation.
- Interpret values and assumptions that underlie communicative choices, and how these choices shape our social realities.
- Reflect on your own values, positioning, and responsibility as a communicator.
- Practice challenging and transforming harmful communication by offering alternative, ethical, and empowering stories.
Syllabus
- Who’s in the story? How does our use of pronouns contribute to specific ways of representing, including and excluding social groups?
- Who’s doing what? How do we attribute agency and responsibility in language through the aid of both grammatical and lexical choices?
- How is the story told? How does framing in textual and other modes of communication affect our perception of the story?
Issued on 19th June 2026
The person named on this certificate has completed the activities in the transcript above. For more information about Certificates of Achievement and the effort required to become eligible, visit futurelearn.com/proof-of-learning/certificate-of-achievement.
This certificate represents proof of learning. It is not a formal qualification, degree, or part of a degree.
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