Language Use and Social Change - An Analysis of the Rhetorical and Linguistic Features of Michelle Obama's Speech on Girls' Education, Empowerment and Equality

Abstract

This dissertation analyses Michelle Obama’s speech at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in 2015. The key themes in the speech were girls’ education, women's empowerment, and social equality. Correspondingly, the dissertation takes a sociolinguistic approach to showcase how political rhetoric in illocutionary acts like speeches can be used to drive positive social change. The study utilises a qualitative research approach with a descriptive research design that integrates content analysis to explore the rhetorical strategies (ethos, pathos, logos, and anecdotes) and linguistic features/devices (metaphors, modality, imperatives, and repetition) that Michelle Obama uses in her speech. A sociolinguistic analysis of the whole of the speech, incorporating feminist stylistics and feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), allows for exploration of how the feminist advocacy movement can leverage language to be vocal in socio-political spaces that are traditionally dominated by patriarchal ideologies. The findings of the study showcase that Michelle Obama’s rhetoric serves a dual purpose: to persuade and to perform. The study contributes to sociolinguistic research by highlighting how social discourse can utilize rhetoric to enhance political speech, feminist linguistics, and confront regressive norms.