From Language Acquisition to Epistemic Vigilance: Rethinking English Language Education through Critical Media Literacy in the Algorithmic Age

The contemporary information landscape, profoundly altered by algorithmic mediation and artificial intelligence, demands a radical reconfiguration of educational priorities. This paper examines the integration of Critical Media Literacy (CML) into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms as a response to the epistemological challenges of the digital era. Building on empirical findings from the TruthSeekers project—a six-month intervention conducted with 29 Turkish high school students—this study argues that language education must transcend traditional communicative goals and foster epistemic vigilance: the reflective, critical engagement with information in increasingly opaque informational ecosystems. Through a theoretical synthesis and empirical analysis, the paper proposes an interdisciplinary pedagogical framework wherein linguistic competence and critical consciousness co-evolve.