Artificial Intelligence and Critical Discourse Analysis: Rethinking Textual Interpretation in the ESL Classroom

Artificial Intelligence has become an integral part of human existence; it is prevalent in language processing and communication. In recent times, the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in ESL language processing has become increasingly important for effective textual analysis. The aim of this paper is to investigate how emerging AI-driven language technologies can enhance Critical Discourse Analysis in ESL education by helping learners and educators uncover ideologies, power dynamics, and cultural meanings embedded in diverse texts. To achieve this aim, Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional CDA framework was employed as a tool to guide ESL learners in analysing text beyond the surface level. In examining political discourse in an ESL context, an AI-powered tool—the Sketch Engine—was used to generate a corpus from The Punch newspaper’s coverage of the 2023 general election in Nigeria. Findings reveal that learners explored how media outlets construct meaning through repetition, lexical emphasis, and co-textual framing, which not only builds vocabulary and syntactic awareness but also promotes critical engagement with texts, enabling learners to read beyond the surface. While AI-powered tools offer significant analytical support, they also have limitations. Therefore, instructors must guide learners in interpreting and analysing texts.