A discourse analysis of coffee and chocolate print advertisements: Persian EFL learner’s problems in focus

Abstract

This study was set to investigate the problems Persian EFL learners encounter in reading advertisements. Additionally, this study explored the hidden strategies behind each advertisement. In this regard, 30 Persian EFL university students majoring in English were selected. The model of this study was based on mixed models of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (1994), Fairclough (2010), Huhmann adopted McQuarrie and Philips (2008) and Kress and Van Leeuven (2006) adopted Halliday’s Semiotic Approach (1994). The findings of the study indicated that Persian EFL learners had problems not only with semantic, syntactic and phonological aspects of language of advertisements, but also with non-linguistic elements such as colors in advertisements. As a result, the findings of the present study could be helpful for EFL teachers to see possible problems their students encounter in reading advertisements. © 2015 Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved.