Rhetorical skills and inclusion in the context of contemporary social challenges

Abstract

Research objectives (aims) and problem(s): The aim of this study is to present the potential threats posed by modern communication technologies. The communication environment surrounding an individual influences the structure of their neural network. Intensive immersion in content offered by today’s cyberspace tends to detach users of digital media from the limits of the body, physical space, and temporal constraints. Prolonged exposure to virtual worlds may result in the loss of the ability to attain awareness of one’s authentic “self.” The proliferation of non-verbal interactions risks undermining the ability to actively use language; as a result, the critical function of human consciousness may be weakened. In this context, what challenges does contemporary education face?

Research methods: The author draws on selected critical commentaries on education by renowned scholars in the humanities (Ortega y Gasset, Adorno, Liessmann, Wikforss) and, in a contemporary context, scrutinizes the impact of technological change on the development of rhetorical (speech) skills among university students. This analysis is conducted against the backdrop of constructivist reforms in education. The article was prepared as part of the research project VEGA 1/0142/24 Jazyková inkluzívnosť: medzi integratívnou a reštriktívnou komunikáciou [Linguistic Inclusiveness: Between Integrative and Restrictive Communication].

Process of argumentation: The article begins with an introduction that characterizes modern society as a “post-typographic culture” (Ong, 1982). It then identifies potential pitfalls associated with cyberspace and highlights the weakening of language skills resulting from the excessive passive consumption of virtual content. The decline in active language use poses a threat to the development of the individual’s critical consciousness.

Research findings and their impact on the development of educational sciences: For the full integration of individuals into society, that society must be composed of autonomous subjects. Therefore, within the educational process in today’s post-typographic culture, it is necessary to strengthen the development of active speech practices and the autonomous consciousness of learners.

Conclusions and recommendations: As a safeguard against the potential decline of linguistic abilities in future generations, this article proposes the inclusion of rhetoric at all levels of education. Historically, rhetoric emerged in the public sphere of ancient democratic societies; however, over the past century, it has often been reduced to an instrument of propaganda serving totalitarian power structures. In the contemporary context, rhetoric must be adapted to new communication needs and media channels. In this regard, the German school of rhetoric associated with Saarbrücken proposes the concept of so-called functional rhetoric (Geissner, 1974).