Discourse_Analysis

Discourse Analysis as a tool to help our Learners’ Reading and Writing Skills An Introduction to Discourse Analysis “Discourse analysis is the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, etc.” (Richards et.al. 1985) “Discourse Analysis is the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used.” (McCarthy, M 1991) In short discourse analysis examines how stretches of languages become meaningful and unified. It is concerned with how grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are used to create larger units of communication in particular contexts. Discourse analysis therefore considers language at text level and in context. A text as a written record of a communicative (oral or written) event. Discourse is the interpretation of that event in context. Discourse analysis is the analysis of actual language in use. Take the sentence below: “Who’s the fish'” Taken in isolation it could appear as nonsense and semantically incorrect, but if spoken in a restaurant it becomes meaningful, and the reply might be “ I am. She’s the chicken.” This suggests that discourse may be composed of one or more utterances or sentences that contain grammatical or lexical mistakes. What matters is that the meaning is conveyed. The two key features of a text can be defined as follows;  Cohesion: The formal links between both sentences and clauses. They are the ties which bind a text together. Cohesion results from the use of cohesive devices to link all the propositions in a text.  Coherence: The quality of meaning and unity of a piece of discourse, in that each sentence or utterance are connected to form a meaningful whole with respect to the context. Cohesion Grammatical ties and a variety of lexical ties that bind texts together. These cohesive devises are: • Reference • Substitution • Ellipses • Conjunction • Lexical Relationships Reference: Endophoric references are pro-forms used to refer to something in the text. They can be either anaphoric references which refer backwards in the text or cataphoric references refer forward. Exophoric references refer to something outside the text. Owen was still unsure whether they had picked him. It would be the biggest game of his life- the Champions League Final Substitution: The use of proforms to stand for earlier mentioned entities or events. There are three types of substitution; Nominal; A: This pint is flat. B: So is this one. Verbal; A Billy always tries his best. B: So does Tommy. Clausal. A: Are you going to the match' B: I think so. In each case one, do and so can only be interpreted in relation to what has gone before. Ellipses: The omission of clauses, phrases or words which can be recovered from knowing the context, or from elsewhere in the discourse. e.g. “I prefer the blue” has more meaning once we know the preceding sentence was “ The red hat is nice” As with substitution, ellipses can be nominal, verbal or clausal. Conjunction: A device for marking logical relationships in texts. There are four broad types: Additive- marked by words such as and, thus or nor, furthermore. e.g. He ate an apple and a sandwich. Adversative- marked by words such as yet, but, however, instead, even so. e.g. He left it late. However he checked in just on time. Causal- marked by words such as so, then, therefore, because, in that case. e.g. He fainted because it was so hot. Temporal- marked by words such as then, next before, after that, soon. e.g. First chop the vegetables. Then add the meat. Lexical Cohesion: Here two words or more in a text are related in terms of their meaning. The two major types are Reiteration and Collocation. Reiteration includes repetition, synonym, super ordinates (hyponymy) and general nouns. Collocation is the way in which words regularly co-occur e.g. a golden tan. Collocation also considers the restrictions on how words can be used together. e.g. Which prepositions go with which verbs. Coherence Coherence is less specific than cohesion . It is based on the application of context to language which establishes sequences of ideas which are plausible. The existence of cohesive devises alone is not always enough to create discourse. Widdowson (1978) created an ingenious example to support his argument that cohesion is neither necessary nor sufficient for the establishment of coherence. A: That’s the phone B: I’m in the bath. A; OK. The utterances seem to go together without the use of cohesive devices. We create a context and identify the functions of each utterance to establish coherence. Coherence then, can be viewed as part of top-down processing of texts. We search for a situation or context in which the text makes sense. In doing this we combine our linguistic knowledge with our knowledge of the world and our shared knowledge to create mental pictures which may change as more information is produced. Implications for our Teaching: We communicate for many different reasons and do so by using language appropriate to the particular situation. The acquisition of these skills in one’s own language (L1) is a lifelong process, but the basic skills come quite early in life. Second language (L2) learners are faced with the problem of adjusting their L1 strategies to fit the new language and culture. They are therefore faced not only with learning new lexis, grammar and pronunciation, but also the appropriate way to use them according to the social and cultural context. Communication typically involves the co-participants in the exchange employing more than one language skill at any given moment. The language produced is discourse. Discourse analysis can therefore highlight some of the inherent problems and processes and draw students’ attention to how they might convert their L2 knowledge into purposeful and successful communication. As Language teachers, we need to be concerned not only with grammar and vocabulary at sentence level, but also with discourse competence. Our students need the ability to understand and produce discourse which conforms to the norms of different genre (e.g. a business letter vs. a postcard to a friend). We must therefore help our learners become aware of and follow the rules of discourse. What is Discourse Analysis' “Discourse analysis is the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, etc.” (Richards et.al. 1985) “Discourse Analysis is the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used.” (McCarthy, M 1991) To sum up: Discourse is concerned with how vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar are used (or ignored) to create larger units of communication in a particular context. Discourse analysis goes beyond the sentence level to text level and in context. What is a text' A text has two key features Cohesion: Cohesion results from the use of cohesive devices The ties which bind a text together. Coherence: The quality of meaning and unity of a piece of discourse. How each sentence or utterance is connected to form a meaningful whole. Cohesive Devices Reference Substitution Ellipses Conjunction Tense Agreement Lexical Relationships Reference: Reference markers are used to refer to something in or out of the text. They can refer forward They can refer backwards They can refer to something outside the text Owen was still unsure whether they had picked him. It would be the biggest game of his life- the Champions League Final Substitution The use of pro-forms to stand for earlier mentioned entities or events. There are three types of substitution; Nominal; A: This pint is flat. B: So is this ____ . Verbal; A Do you like her' B: Yes, I ____. Clausal. A: Are you going to the match' B: I think ___. Each can only be interpreted in relation to what has gone before. Ellipses The omission of clauses, phrases or words which can be recovered from knowing the context, or from elsewhere in the discourse. e.g. “I prefer the blue” has more meaning once we know the preceding sentence was “ The red hat is nice” As with substitution, ellipses can be nominal, verbal or clausal. Conjunctions or Linkers Devices for marking logical relationships in texts. They can: Add - marked by words such as and, thus or nor, furthermore. e.g. He ate an apple and a sandwich. Contrast- marked by words such as yet, but, however, instead, even so. e.g. He left it late. However he checked in just on time. Show cause/effect - marked by words such as so, then, therefore, because, e.g. He fainted because it was so hot. Show a time sequence- marked by words such as then, next before, after that, soon. e.g. First chop the vegetables. Then add the meat. Lexical Cohesion Where words in a text are related in terms of their meaning. 1. Reiteration or Lexical Chains Repetition: I ate a sandwich and an apple for lunch. The sandwich was delicious, but the apple was sour. Synonyms: Tourist Police stop Teenager on Stolen Motorbike Police officers arrested a seventeen year-old youth after stopping him for a routine check. The young man in question failed to produce an ID card…….. Super ordinates (hyponymy) Think about the words you might expect to see in the instruction manual for building a model plane Aeroplane 2. Collocation Where words regularly co-occur e.g. a golden tan. Collocation also considers the restrictions on how words can be used together. e.g. Which prepositions go with which verbs. Coherence less specific than cohesion. based on the application of context to language. top-down processing of texts: we combine our linguistic knowledge with our knowledge of the world (schemata) and our shared knowledge to make sense of a text. Cohesion is neither necessary nor sufficient for the establishment of coherence. Consider the two texts below: 1. My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. Doesn’t suit her, red. Her is a pronoun consisting of three letters. However, a letter isn’t as fast as an e-mail. 2. A: That’s the phone B: I’m in the bath. A; OK. The utterances in 2 seem to go together without the use of cohesive devices. We identified that established coherence. Cotton Cotton is an amazing plant. Inside its round fruit, called bolls, are masses of white fibres. When the fruit ripens, they split open and these fibres are blown away. However, in the cotton fields, the bolls are picked before this can happen. Cotton grows best in warm and wet areas. Thai silk is very smooth. Additive Cause/effect Contrast Time sequence Also Therefore However Meanwhile And As a result Even so Then Moreover so But Later A Selection of Discourse Analysis Activities for our Students Activity Procedure How it will help our Students Identifying reference markers Students match reference markers to words/phrase in the text Raise their awareness of the meaning of pronouns etc. Adding reference markers to a text Students add reference markers to words/phrase in the text Raise their awareness of the meaning of pronouns etc. Adding conjunctions to a text to a text Students add conjunctions (and edit texts) Increase understanding of the relationship between different parts of texts Identifying examples of substitution and ellipsis Students identify examples of each in the text Raises awareness of this and takes them away from using unsalaried long forms Identification of lexical chains e.g. synonyms, repetition, hyponyms Students predict and identify these in texts Shows them how these help make a text cohesive and coherent Recombination activities Re-ordering jumbled texts ( Could also be done with cartoon speech bubbles) They practise a wide range of discourse activities Approximation activities Students reconstruct a bullet-point text using cohesive devises They practise a wide range of discourse activities Activity Procedure How it will help our Students Transfer activities Students re-write a text in a different genre writing according to genre or formality Matching discourse types Students identify text types Recognition of genre or style Genre Analysis -recognizing and producing Text Structure by genre Students predict, learn about the style of a text type and then produce their own. Helps students recognize text types and how they are organized Predicting Text content (and vocabulary) from Titles Students predict Text content (and vocabulary) from Titles Teaches students how top down processing can help them Matching/giving titles to passages or paragraphs Match/give titles to passages or paragraphs Teaches students how top-down processing can help them