Discourse Analysis Week 10 Riggenbach (1999) Chapter 1 - Quotes

Discourse analysts consider context to be of primary importance. The wider definition of discourse implies that constituents of text are not the only worthy areas of study and equally important are such matter as the inferencing of meaning by readers and listeners and the social dynamics that shape speech events and influence the learning environment of the student. Rather, discourse is this sense is a “cultural complex of signs and practices” that contribute to regulating how we live socially.

Discourse Analysis Patterns can be observed….

Discourse Analysis Micro-level features are individual, identifiable constituents. One objective of this type of activity is that grammatical structures “gain life” from a language student’s perspective. Students observe grammar as it is used in real language targeted at real people rather than as it is presented in grammar textbooks targeted at ESL learners.

Discourse Analysis A macro-oriented discourse analysis activity, for example, might ask learners to explore the social factors that influence their learning environment. Most analysts of oral discourse believe it is important to recognize that spoken discourse is structured by speaker-hearer conceptions of the social activity or social even taking place.

Discourse Analysis What happens from one discussion to the next may be quite different, but on closer examination, discussions resemble each other and are thus recognizable as speech events that adhere to certain “rules”.

Discourse Analysis Kramsch (1983) points out that face-to-face interaction involves a “sphere of intersubjectivity” between two or several people, which is the source of problems and successes in expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning.

Discourse Analysis To determine and the understand context in spoken discourse, information is needed about the speakers, their relationship to one another, the genre (is it a political speech, a church sermon, a conversation?), and the setting. Context can refer to the utterances (in speaking) or the sentences (in writing) that situate a particular structure – that precede and follow it. This sense of context is relevant for micro-level discourse analysis activities, since an appropriate objective is to explore how particular features function on the discourse. Particular language features are affected by their textual and soci0- cultural environment.

Discourse Analysis The concept of communicative competence, then, is compatible with a discourse orientation to language: language is intricate and multidimensional, yet it is also systematic. Truly proficient or communicatively competent learners must be cognizant of the complex of factors that affect perceptions about their language abilities.

Discourse Analysis Sociolinguistic Competence Language is seen as a means of socialization. …in order to to accurately and comprehensively interpret spoken messages or written text, listeners and readers usually require schemata, or background information about content and about the rhetorical structures and conventions that shape text. Developing skills that bring to consciousness the constructs and assumption underlying a text is therefore a worthwhile, if not essential, endeavor. Two primary objectives of this approach were, first to expose learners to speech event that they would be likely to encounter and, second, to replicate contexts that would elicit these speech events and that would thus provide learners with opportunities to practice them.

Discourse Analysis Linguistic Competence Now, however, there seems to be an emerging interest in teaching grammar by using techniques that encourage students to operate in the role of language researcher: they examine grammatical structures as they naturally appear in both written and spoken discourse, and they inductively develop hypotheses about the rules regarding these structures. Linguistic accuracy can be realized at different levels and with different features other than morphosyntax, but means of discourse analysis activities that focus on micro-level structures. A challenge for learners is to develop the skills to observe that some activities and events (in spoken exchanges) and some genres (in written exchanges) may have highly predictable discourse structures, whereas others may have more variable discourse organization.

Discourse Analysis Discourse Competence Discourse competence is described as the ability to connect utterances or sentences so that there is cohesion and coherence. Discourse analysis activities can indeed be an appropriate means of raising this contextual awareness while at the same time encouraging a micro-level focus on the specific constituents that contribute to text-level coherence and cohesion.

Discourse Analysis Strategic Competence Inferencing and contextualization are also considered strategies that can be consciously learned and that are useful for improving reading skills. Allowing students to act as discourse analysts/language researchers can stimulate an awareness of systematicity in the language.

Discourse Analysis Logically, the use of discourse analytic tools by language students is one way to employ communicative teaching methods and at the same time stimulate in learners an interest in language.

Discourse Analysis It is believed that providing learners with the tools to develop language research skills can appeal to their autonomy, build confidence, and tap into their natural inquisitiveness. Cultivating an interest in the target language is undoubtedly advantageous. Discourse analysis activities are problem-solving, language based tasks. The task-based nature of language-oriented “discovery” activities provides opportunities for students to integrate their linguistic and cognitive competence. There is evidence that learners learn more productively if they are aware of what specifically they are learning.

Discourse Analysis Tasks optimally are designed so that the language learning that takes place inside the classroom is activated for application to situations outside the classroom and so that learners have optimal opportunities to focus not only on language but also on content and on the learning process itself. …activities that activate the “system for the discovery of the new” have great potential for the language classroom, since learners who engage in language learning with their own language-learning processes are often successful language learners. Language is viewed as a tool that can be used to serve a number of ends: learners will differ in the ends for which they use language, and these differences can lead to a variety of cognitive skills.

Discourse Analysis