DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Dr. Susilo, M.Pd.

Universitas Mulawarman

2008

Linguistics: Language Form Vs Language Function

Language Form

• Communication ---- language

»Grammar

»Phonology

»Words

»Sentences

»Text

»etc

Language form

• Telephone------ ?

• use one tea bag per person ---?

Language Function

• Text

• Context

• Interlocutors/particiants

• Substance

• Paralanguage

• Co-text

• Situation

Case 1

• A: Telephone?!• B: I am in the

bathroom!!!• A: Okay!!

• Context: in a house, a wife asking her husband to answer the telephone, the husband is taking a bath so the wife is going to answer the telephone.

Case 2

Compare the contexts of these two different messages!

• First, it is in the context of serving a drink

• Second, it is in the context of answering the letter

For the perfect cup, use one tea bag per person and add freshly drawn

boiling water. Leave standing for three to five minutes before stirring

gently. Can be served with or without milk and sugar

Scott,Thanks for sending me the disk.Sandy Mckay

Case 3

The university has got a park. It has got a modern tram system. He has got a swimming pool. I have got tickets for the theatre. Rio has got some beautiful beaches. She has got a good view from the window.

• Meaningful----yes• Unified ----No• Purposive ----No

Although it consists of several sentences, it is difficult to understand it as a whole.

What is Discourse?

• “an instance of spoken and internal relationship of form and meaning (e. g. words, structures, cohesion) that are related inherently to an external communicative function or purpose and given audience and interlocutor” (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000).

• “text and context, interacting in a way, which is perceived as meaningful and unified by the participants (who are both part of context and observers of it)” (Cook, 1992)

Austin (1975):Speech Act

• Locution the physical act of producing an utterance

• Illocution an intention of the speakers through the utterance.

• Perlocution an effect through locution and illocution or what one does by saying it.

• In speech act theory, the illocution is the main focus.

What is Discourse?

• stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified, and purposive

Key words:MeaningfulUnifiedPurposive

DISCOURSE-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING:

MORE CONTEXTUAL METHOD IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Why discourse-based?

• When language is used for communication, the co-participants typically employ one or more skills simultaneously: listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

• The language produced interactively by such co-participants is called discourse (language in use)

What is the final goal of our teaching?

• To enable the students to use language for communication? Or

• To enable the students to know the language?

Language is a means of communication

• To be able to communicate effectively and appropriately in various social and cultural context, the students need the so-called “ Communicative Competence”

Communicative Competence(Canale and Swain, 1980)

• Linguistics or Grammatical Competence

• Sociolinguistic Competence

• Discourse Competence

• Strategic Competence

Linguistic or grammatical Competence

• A knowledge of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure, and semantics

Pragmatic or sociolinguistic Competence

Knowledge of:• Illocutionary forces• Context of use• Verbal/ non-verbal communication(it enables a speaker to be “contextually

appropriate”—to know when to speak, when not, what to talk about with whom, when, where, and in what manner.

Discourse Competence

• Being able to select, sequence, and arrange words, phrases, or sentences/utterances to achieve a unified spoken or written whole with reference to a particular message and context.

Strategic Competence

• Know how to cope in an authentic communicative situation and how to keep the communication channel open.

• - achievement strategy: finding ways of compensating insecure or inadequate knowledge of English (ehhm, code-switching, body language)

• - reduction strategy (avoiding forms which she/he is uncertain)

Listening in Discourse Perspective

• Top-down listening processing

• Bottom-up listening processing

Top-down Listening Processing

• Schematic knowledge: content schemata---background

information of the topic

Formal schemata---how discourse is organized

with respect to different genre

Bottom-up Listening Processing

• Prior knowledge of language system (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc)

Listening Exercises• Recorded short segments from radio, TV news

broadcasts:- Extract gist/topic (first listening)- get details of news items (second listening)-what, where, when, who- Evaluate emotional impact of news items (third listening) * neutral report

* information makes us happy/sad* information worries us* information annoys us* etc.

Reading in Discourse Perspective

• A discourse-oriented reading course should allow the students to negotiate their interaction with text by constantly being involved in making choices and decisions with respect to the text.

• The goal is to expose the learners to a variety of text, genre, content area, and style of writing.

Reading Exercises

• Students understand the language (grammar, vocabulary,etc)

• Students understand the rhetorical problems (how the ideas are organized)

• Students should know the genre of the passage (types of text, topics, etc)

Writing in Discourse Perspective

• Process approach (peer edition)

• Contrastive rhetoric

• Genre Approach

Process Approach

• Teaching writing is not product-oriented

• It should be process-oriented—meaning that what the teacher should evaluate is not only the students’ final writing products, but also the process of making drafts from the beginning to the final drafts.

Contrastive Rhetoric

• In terms of how ideas are organized in the composition, non-native speakers of English has different ways. This should be recognized by the teacher to anticipate the problems of rhetoric

Genre Approach

• Genre consists of a class of communicative events, members of which share some set of communicative purposes.

• Choice of words, grammatical style, rhetoric in writing is dependent on the genre.

• The language of a letter will be different from that of advertisement, report, or TV news, etc.

Speaking in Discourse Perspective

• Speech act: pragmatic perspective

• Grice”s Maxims: cooperative principles

Grammar in Discourse Perspective

• Context-dependent options in grammar

- use of passive voice versus active voice

- use versus non-use of it clefts and wh- clefts

- use of existential “there” versus its non-use

Implications on the teaching methodology

• Making the formal learning as “natural” as possible

• Using authentic materials in language classroom

Foreign language teaching: Discourse Perspective

• The role of the teacher------reflective researcher

• The role of learners -------Autonomous learners

• The role of materials -------Authentic materials

Any Questions??

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