“Be a better version of you!”: A corpus-driven critical discourse analysis of MOOC platforms' marketing communication

• Published in: Linguistics and education Vol. 69; p. 101021
• Main Authors: Mısır, Hülya, Işık-Güler, Hale
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Inc 01.06.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Business communication; Corpus analysis; Corpus linguistics; Corpus-driven critical discourse analysis; Critical discourse analysis; English for academic purposes; Enterprising-self; Higher education; Higher education discourse; Job market discourse; Massive Open Online Courses; Online instruction; Self-help discourse; Higher education discourse; Massive Open Online Courses; Job market discourse; Self-help discourse; Corpus-driven critical discourse analysis; Enterprising-self
• ISSN: 0898-5898; 1873-1864
• DOI: 10.1016/j.linged.2022.101021

•MOOC platforms’ marketing language prioritizes skill development over intellectual advancement.•MOOC platforms’ language promotes an ideal subject that fits in a neoliberal job market.•The skills-oriented language points to job insecurities and advise the individual to (re)build oneself.•Promotional persuasion strategies in MOOCs’ language use reinforce a self-betterment discourse.•Life-long learning becomes a way to be and remain employable and marketable in the job market. This study examines the representation, reconstruction, and promotion of the 'ideal subject' of the job market in the promotional materials of the online/life-long learning platforms known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). We take a corpus-driven critical discourse analysis to investigate the marketing language in the subscription e-mails and websites of six English-medium MOOC platforms. The analysis shows that the platforms use an array of promotional persuasion strategies, including advice-giving, autonomization and responsibilization of individuals and reinforce a self-betterment discourse to create marketable employees. Through the use of a distinct blend of higher education, marketing, and self-help discourses, the skills-oriented language explicitly references job insecurity and urges the individual to (re)build oneself tirelessly to remain demandable/marketable, neglecting an intellectual advancement angle. This ideology legitimizes the neoliberal demands for the enterprising-self and employability and feeds into one's fear of failure, ranking individuals in the society based on a value-adding/detracting practice.