[MUSIC] English for teaching purposes.

Which text models does a teacher's

oral discourse make use of? >> All discourse has
a variety of major functions. Presentation and argumentation
are two of the most important as we will see in detail, but
they are certainly not the only ones. Very often however, teacher discourse
combines very textual typologies and is therefore somewhat
distinct from a pure product. Explanation, argumentation,
or narration, for example. All discourses are,
in a certain sense, hybrids. They almost always combine
a variety of textual sequences, and we need to think about which one of these
is dominant, so as to better understand the purpose of all discourse, namely
to explain, to argue and to describe. Of course, one of the teacher's
functions is to present and to do it with a deductive purpose. That is, to explain.
Generally towards creating
an objective discourse, but explaining yourself is
not what is used to be. Now that the internet is full of
resources, a never-ending revelation of content, teachers can no longer allow
themselves to be redundant with respect to what others say on the internet, or
with reference to material that students can themselves consult in all sorts of
detail, using their tablets and phones, possibly even in class, at the very moment
that the teacher is explaining something. That is teachers cannot simply turn and
explain something that anyone can find for themselves in any place at
any time on the internet. The contribution that guarantees added
value to what is being explained in such circumstances is originality. This is the
decisive element
in teacher discourse. In many disciplines, especially those
that do not strictly conform to purely demonstrative objectives but instead
are located in ambits that are probable or possible, very often the humanities and
the social sciences such as Sociology,
theology, law, education. Teachers dedicate a good amount of
their discourse to argumentation. That is,
to routine their thesis through argument, based on examples, analogies,
authority, causes, deductions, with a view to keeping these
as consistent as possible. They're there for
avoid falling in to fallacies. Clearly argumentation is
a decisive activity in teaching. Equally clearly, it is so because
one of the key competences expected of university students is
the development of critical thought. And the existence of good
models of argumentation is very important in stimulating
students critical reasoning. Teacher discourse also incorporates other
macro functions as we have just mentioned. Sometimes in a mixed manner which can
present themselves as we will see through functions that more specific. A macro
function that has
always been around that has lately expanded considerably in various
ambits of social life is narration. If teacher discourse can naturally
produce narrative sequences, namely the explanation of a process or of
an experiment, the chronology of events, then we should never underestimate the
value of storytelling as a technique for persuading and for
capturing the attention of our listeners. From the simple introducing of an
anecdote into your discourse through to
the generation of complex narratives, teacher discourse can be seen as actually
rather close to other types of discourse, such as advertising, politics, or
commerce, which also use such techniques. So, the teacher making the decision to
start teaching in English needs to know just what linguistic springboards
there are to help in constructing good narrations. It is also true that
descriptions, logically, play a decisive
role in teacher discourse. There is a final text model, conversation,
that is also highly relevant. We should never lose sight of the fact
that knowledge is often constructed thanks to the dialog between teachers and
students. [MUSIC]