In today’s digital age, media literacy has become a crucial skill for learners of English as a foreign language. Integrating not only film, but also TV series into the EFL classroom provides a relevant and authentic context for language acquisition and engaging with complex topics, such as identity formation, alike by approaching them through the lens of a contemporary medium familiar to adolescents. The relationship between these two subjects is a complex and interconnected phenomenon, as media – such as TV series – exerts a profound influence on individual and collective identities through features like character portrayals, questions of ethics and morale, identification potential, and critical reflection thereof. This research project aims to explore the potential of TV series when dealing with identity construction, e.g. within the realm of  “questions of identity and gender” the newly introduced topic to the North-Rhine-Westphalian A-levels as of 2022, by making both vertical and horizontal storytelling tangible through a customized media literacy model and, in a next step, providing concrete application examples.

Julie Intveen