Lingua inglese II The discourse of Broadcast news

Aims Lettorato: Acquisition of communicative competence in English beyond B2 level as part of a learning path leading to advanced competence (C1)

Aims con’td The development and refinement of the ability to apply grammatical, lexical and orthographic skills to transcription. The development of independent study skills and interactive participation, group work and independence of judgement in the analysis of a discourse type.

Aims cont’d Knowledge of the discourse structure of news programmes; ability to apply the knowledge and understanding to the description and analysis of television news

Course content News as a Form of Discourse The Discourse Structure of News Programmes News Presentation Features of Studio Presentation of the News News Reports The Live Two-Way as News Update News Interviews Transcription conventions.

organisation Interactive lessons for the communicative competence element in groups (lettorato). Groups have been organised – see self-access lab Lectures and exercises in transcription and description for the broadcast news element

Course evaluation Final exam for lettorato Final exam for modulo: Transcription and description of a news programme and comparison with one other for the course. This is completed individually and presented as a final assignment. An average is made of the exam result and the assignment result

Course assignment Each student is assigned a news programme and works on the transcription and description during the year. Another programme (different channel) is used for comparison but not transcribed. The student presents their transcription and is prepared to discuss the descition and comparison using appropriate metalanguage

Reading Martin Montgomery The discourse of Broadcast News A linguistic Approach Monica Bednarek News Discourse Discourses of European Identity in TV news Thornborrow et al in European Identity: what the media say Bayley and Williams (eds)

Discourse Many and varied definitions: a term used in linguistics to describe the rules and conventions underlying the use of language in extended stretches of text, spoken and written. Language in action and the patterns which characterise particular types of language in action; e.g. the discourse of advertising

Discourse(s) ‘a group of statements which provide a language for talking about - a way of representing the knowledge about - a particular topic at a particular historical moment. [...] Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language’ (Hall, 1992: 291). ‘It is the continuous reinforcement, through massive repetition and consistency in discourse, which is required to construct and maintain reality’ (Stubbs 1996: 92). the incremental effect of discourse (Baker 2006)

Montgomery Discourse is a patterning of language beyond and between sentences or utterances. A discrete level of linguistic organisation. Principles of linguistic organisation do not stop with the sentence but shape the way we combine sentences together into discourse Cohesion and coherence

Discourse lies at the interface of the linguistic and the social. Discourse analysis involves elaborating the principles of organisation that underpin the coherence of discourse. Language is a form of action. The performance of an action through linguistic means is dependent on features of context in which the utterance takes place.

Ideational and interpersonal Discourse as action represents the world, is constitutive of social relationships, it is interpersonal as well as ideational in its function. Characteristic functions of broadcast news: announcing, reporting, greeting, challenging.

Discourse practice Discourse acts are part of chains of action Individual acts are shaped in the light of preceeding or succeeding acts Headlines introduce bulletins;News reporters ‘sign off’ Discourse practices: the regular sequential arrangement of recognisably similar discourse acts to serve institutionalised communicative purposes.

Discourse structure The discourse of broadcast news can be seen as a structured set of discourse units in which smaller units such as discourse acts cohere into larger units such as completed news items or interactional exchanges within a news interview. Structures build from smaller to larger units

AN example Watch the Italian, French and UK broadcasts for the 50° anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and read the transcripts. Prepare to comment on the different approaches in terms of visual and verbal text.

Copies of the transcripts on Prof Blog Copies of the broadcasts in the self access lab. Come to the next lesson prepared to comment