24.03.

2023

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS &

LANGUAGE TEACHING

Dr. Erdem Akbas

Erciyes University, 2023
www.erdemakbas.webs.com
https://york.academia.edu/ErdemAkbas
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/erdem_akbas/

Assessment of the course

Type of Assessment Percentage

Midterm Exam 40%

Final Exam 60%

Classroom Materials:
https://depo.erciyes.edu.tr/index.php/s/wEeE8jy2twRHGaj
Password: Discourse2023BA

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Motto of the class

■ Do you know what a foreign accent is?
■ It is a sign of bravery. (Amy Chua)

■ Please do translate this first..

■ Now, discuss what is meant here!?

What is Linguistics about and why do we need it?

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Power of Language and context?

■ Language has a magical property: when we speak or write we craft what we have to say to fit the
situation or context in which we are communicating.
■ But, at the same time, how we speak or write creates that very situation or context. It seems, then,
that we fit our language to a situation or context that our language, in turn, helped to create in the
first place.
■ This is rather like the “chicken and egg” question: Which comes first? The situation we’re in (e.g. a
committee meeting)? Or the language we use (our committee ways of talking and interacting)?
■ Is this a ‘‘committee meeting” because we are speaking and acting this way, or are we speaking
and acting this way because this is a committee meeting?
■ After all, if we did not speak and act in certain ways, committees could not exist; but then, if
institutions, committees, and committee meetings didn’t already exist, speaking and acting this
way would be nonsense. The answer here is that this magical property is real and language and
institutions “boot strap” each other into existence in a reciprocal process through time

Socially-situated identity and activity

■ When you speak or write anything, you use the resources of English to project yourself as a certain kind
of person, a different kind in different circumstances. You also project yourself as engaged in a certain
kind of activity, a different kind in different circumstances.
■ You project a different identity at a formal dinner party than you do at the family dinner table. And,
though these are both dinner, they are none the less different activities.
■ An oral or written “utterance” has meaning, then, only if and when it communicates a who and a what
(Wieder and Pratt 1990a).
■ What is meant by a “who” is a socially-situated identity, the “kind of person” one is seeking to be and
enact here and now. What is meant by a “what” is a socially-situated activity that the utterance helps to
constitute.
■ We can point out that whos and whats are not really discrete and separable. You are who you are partly
through what you are doing and what you are doing is partly recognized for what it is by who is doing it.
■ So it is better, in fact, to say that utterances communicate an integrated, though often multiple or
‘‘heteroglossic,” who doing-what.
■ Considering all, discourse analysis is based on the details of speech (and gaze and gesture and action)
or writing that are arguably deemed relevant in the context and that are relevant to the arguments the
analysis is attempting to make

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What is discourse?
■ The prevailing sense of "discourse" is defined by Oxford Disctionaries as "A spoken or written
treatment of a subject, in which it is handled or discussed at length; a dissertation, treatise, homily,
sermon, or the like."
■ Discourse is most simply understood today as a sort of unit of language organized around a
particular subject matter and meaning.
■ This can be contrasted to other ways in which language has been broken down into much smaller
units of analysis, such as into individual words or sentences in studies of semantics and syntax.
■ In addition, the idea of discourse often signifies a particular awareness of social influences on the
use of language. It is therefore important to distinguish between discourse and the Saussurean
concept of the parole as a real manifestation of language(Saussure, 11-17).
■ Saussure's distinction between langue and parole is such: langue is a
linguistic system or code which is prior to the actual use of language and which is stable,
homogenous and equally accessible to all members of a linguistic community.
■ Parole is what is actually spoken or written, and varies according to individual choice. Thus while
discourse is also what is actually spoken or written, it differs from parole in that it is used to denote
manifestations of language that are determined by social influences from society as a whole, rather
than by individual agency.

What is discourse analysis?

– The answer to this question is not quite straightforward. Not only is discourse
difficult to define, but it is also not easy to make a clear cut division of discourse
as such. Therefore, depending on the form linguists distinguish various kinds of
communicative products. A type of discourse might be characterized as a class
of either written or spoken text, which is frequently casually specified, recognition
of which aids its perception, and consequently production of potential response

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What is discourse analysis?

– The answer to this question is not quite straightforward. Not only is discourse difficult to
define, but it is also not easy to make a clear cut division of discourse as such.
Therefore, depending on the form linguists distinguish various kinds of communicative
products. A type of discourse might be characterized as a class of either written or
spoken text, which is frequently casually specified, recognition of which aids its
perception, and consequently production of potential response

■ ‘’We’’ here is descriptive? Language is doing something/functional. It is something encouraging in tis

context.
■ Proud? Why? It sounds arrogant. It is a claim of being different from other countries. This also
encourages people from England (supporters), players and others from other countries to support the
team.
■ Such a interpretation can not be obtained just from a textual analysis.

What is Discourse Analysis

■ Discourse analysis is a primarily linguistic study examining the use of language by its native
population whose major concern is investigating language functions along with its forms,
produced both orally and in writing.
■ Moreover, identification of linguistic qualities of various genres, vital for their recognition and
interpretation, together with cultural and social aspects which support its comprehension, is
the domain of discourse analysis.
■ To put it in another way, the branch of applied linguistics dealing with the examination of
discourse attempts to find patterns in communicative products as well as and their
correlation with the circumstances in which they occur, which are not explainable at the
grammatical level (Carter 1993:23).
■ The first modern linguist who commenced the study of relation of sentences and coined the
name ‚discourse analysis’, which afterwards denoted a branch of applied linguistics, was
Zellig Harris (Cook 1990:13).
■ Originally, however, it was not to be treated as a separate branch of study – Harris proposed
extension of grammatical examination which reminded syntactic investigations

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What is Discourse Analysis

■ The emergence of this study is a result of not only linguistic research, but also of researchers
engaged in other fields of inquiry, particularly sociology, psychology, anthropology and
psychotherapy (Trappes-Lomax 2004:133).
■ In 1960s and 1970s other scholars, that is philosophers of language or those dealing with
pragmatics enormously influenced the development of this study as well.
■ Among other contributors to this field the Prague School of Linguists, whose focusing on
organization of information in communicative products indicated the connection of grammar
and discourse, along with text grammarians are worth mentioning (McCarthy 1991:6).
■ The range of inquiry of discourse analysis not only covers linguistic issues, but is also concerned
with other matters, such as: enabling computers to comprehend and produce intelligible texts,
thus contributing to progress in the study of Artificial Intelligence.
■ Out of these investigations a very important concept of schemata emerged. It might be defined
as prior knowledge of typical situations which enables people to understand the underlying
meaning of words in a given text.
■ This mental framework is thought to be shared by a language community and to be activated by
key words or context in order for people to understand the message. To implement schemata to
a computer, however, is yet impossible

Discourse

■ Discourse is: ‘language above the sentence level or above the

clause.’
■ Stubbs 1998
■ The study of discourse is the study of any aspect of language
use.
■ Fasold 1990
■ The analysis of discourse is the analysis of language in use…it
cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms
independent of the purposes or functions that they serve in
human affairs.
■ Brown and Yule 1983

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Discourse

■ ‘Discourse’ is for me more than just language in use: It is

language use, whether speech or writing, seen as a type of
social practice.
■ Fairclough 1992

■ Discourse constitutes the social…Discourse is shaped by

relations of power, and invested with ideologies.
■ Fairclough 1992

Big D and Little d

■ Discourse (non-count) vs.

‘Discourses’
■ Saying, Doing, Thinking,
Behaving, Believing, Valuing,
Interacting combinations
that show who we are
(Gee)

■ The ‘Discourse of medicine’

■ The ‘Discourse of romance’

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Discourse is…

■ How language reflects reality

■ How language creates reality
■ How language shapes our identities and interactions
■ How language is used as to tool to control people

What is the meaning of this sentence?

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Meaning depends on…

Multimodal
Discourse
■ How Analysis
Critical Ethnography
■ Where Discourse of
Analysis Speaking
■ When
Discourse
■ To whom Analysis

■ Why Conversation Genre

Analysis Analysis

Pragmatics

An example to Discourse Analysis

■ How would you ask someone to come and see you around 9 am?
■ Be here around 9? Not polite?
■ Could you please be here at nine? A bit more?
■ If you could be here at nine, that would be great.. Is this a better way? Could this be a command?
■ Let’s see (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFRa7Ovym8s)
■ What do you think now?
■ Although the structure changes, it is functioning as a command, right? This is what a discourse
analyst can come up with the data and the context.
■ Considering "Discourse: a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a
sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative"
(Crystal 1992:25), discourse refers to too wide area of human life,

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An example to Discourse Analysis

■ How would you ask someone to come and see you around 9 am?
■ Be here around 9? Not polite?
■ Could you please be here at nine? A bit more?
■ If you could be here at nine, that would be great.. Is this a better way? Could this be a command?
■ Let’s see (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFRa7Ovym8s)
■ What do you think now?
■ Although the structure changes, it is functioning as a command, right? This is what a discourse
analyst can come up with the data and the context.
■ Considering "Discourse: a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a
sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative"
(Crystal 1992:25), discourse refers to too wide area of human life,

Written and spoken discourse-1

■ Apart from obvious differences between speech and writing like the fact that
– writing includes some medium which keeps record of the conveyed message
– while speech involves only air, there are certain dissimilarities that are less apparent
■ Could you please identify a few of the differences between W/S discourse?
■ Speech develops in time in that the speaker says with speed that is suitable for him.
■ Even if it may not be appropriate for the listener and though a request for repetition is possible, it
is difficult to imagine a conversation in which every sentence is to be rephrased.
■ Moreover, talking might be spontaneous which results in mistakes, repetition, sometimes less
coherent sentences where even grunts, stutters or pauses (a pause after a question?) might be
meaningful.
■ The speaker usually knows the listener, or listeners, or he is at least aware of the fact that he is
being listened to, which enables him to adjust the register.

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Written and spoken discourse-2

■ As interlocutors are most often in face-to-face encounters (unless using a phone) they take
advantage of extralinguistic signals as grimaces, gesticulation, expressions such as ‚here’, ‚now’,
or ‚this’ are used.
■ Employment of nonsense vocabulary, slang and contracted forms (we’re, you’ve) is another
feature of oral discourse.
■ Among other significant features of speech there are rhythm, intonation, speed of uttering and,
what is more important, inability to conceal mistakes made while speaking.
■ Let’s see two examples from an EMI Class (Mathematics) where the teacher deploys some extra
linguistic signals (focus on them) and some other significant features of speech!
■ Pet aversions (Until 20:51): https://youtu.be/AJvjtK2mmpU?t=1205
■ Pergel (Until 29:19): https://youtu.be/AJvjtK2mmpU?t=1723

Written and spoken discourse-3

■ In contrast, writing develops in space in that it needs a means to carry the information.
■ The author of the text does not often know who is going to read the text, as a result he cannot
adjust to readers’ specific expectations.
■ The writer is frequently able to consider the content of his work for almost unlimited period of
time which makes it more coherent, having complex syntax.
■ What is more, the reader might not instantly respond to the text, ask for clarification, hence neat
message organization, division to paragraphs, layout are of vital importance to make
comprehension easier.

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Written and spoken discourse-4

■ Additionally, owing to the lack of context, expressions such as ‚now’ or ‚here’ are omitted, since
they would be ambiguous as texts might be read at different times and places.
■ One other feature typical of writing, but never of oral discourse, is the organization of tables,
formulas, or charts which can be portrayed only in written form (Crystal 1995:291).
■ Naturally, this division into two ways of producing discourse is quite straightforward.
■ Yet, it is possible to combine the two like, for example, in the case of a lesson, when a teacher
explains something writing on the blackboard, or when a speaker prepares detailed notes to be
read out during his speech.
■ Moreover, some of the foregoing features are not so explicit in the event of sophisticated, formal
speech or a friendly letter.

Spoken discourse analysis-1

■ The examination of oral discourse is mainly the domain of linguists gathered at the University of
Birmingham, who at first concentrated on the language used during teacher – learner
communication, afterwards altering their sphere of interest to more general issues.
■ However, patterns of producing speech characteristic of communities, or members of various
social classes within one population were also of ethnomethodologists’ interest.
■ A result of such inquiries was discovering how turn taking differs from culture to culture as well as
how standards of politeness vary.
■ In addition, manners of beginning discussions on new topics were described (McCarthy 1991:24).
■ What is more, it can be stated that certain characteristics are common to all societies, for
instance, indicating the end of thought or end of utterance.
■ How would you signal that you finish?
■ The words that are to point the beginning or the closing stages of a phrase are called ‚frames’.

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Spoken discourse analysis-2

■ McCarthy (1991:13) claims that it is thanks to such signals that people know when they can take
their turn to speak in a conversation.
■ Let’s see an example of how attempts of turn taking can be signalled:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RjRZ9jMfs0
■ However, in spite of the fact that frames can be noticed in every society, their use might differ,
which is why knowledge of patterns of their usage may be essential for conducting a fluent and
natural dialogue with a native speaker.
■ ‘Hey’ in Turkish and English conversation?
■ Moreover, these differences are not only characteristic of cultures, but also of circumstances in
which the conversation occurs, and are also dependent on the rights (or ‚rank’) of the
participants.
■ Apart from that, it was pointed out that some utterances are invariably interrelated, which can
enable teachers of foreign languages to prepare learners adequately to react as a native speaker
would.
■ Ex. How are you? Doing fine.

Spoken discourse analysis-3

■ Among the phrases whose successors are easy to anticipate there are for instance: greeting,
where the response is also greeting; apology with the response in the form of acceptance or
informing – and acknowledging as a response.
■ Such pairs of statements are known as adjacency pairs.
■ While the function of the reply is frequently determined by the former expression, its very form is
not, as it depends on circumstances in which the conversation occurs.
■ Thus, in a dialogue between two friends refusal to provide help might look like that:
– no way! I ain’t gonna do that!,
■ but when mother asks her son to do something, the refusing reply is more likely to take different
form:
– I’m afraid I can’t do that right now, can you wait 5 minutes?
■ Frequently used phrases, such as "I’m afraid", known as softeners, are engaged when people
want to sound more respectful.
■ Learners of a foreign language should be aware of such linguistic devices if they want to be
skillful speakers.

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A quick examination of a conversation

■ Let’s watch it without any background
knowledge. Tell us what happens in the video.
■ Now, a bit of background:
■ The conversation takes place in a home
context.
■ The child is around 18 months old and the
father initiates a conversation.
■ The child has not eaten ice-cream in his life.
■ He just learned the word ‘dondurma’ in Turkish
and he does not know the word ice-cream in
English.
■ Let’s watch again and share our views.
■ Shall we have a micro-look at it?

A quick examination of a conversation

■ Let’s watch it without any background
knowledge. Tell us what happens in the video.
■ Now, a bit of background:
■ The conversation takes place in a home
context.
■ The child is around 18 months old and the
father initiates a conversation.
■ The child has not eaten ice-cream in his life.
■ He just learned the word ‘dondurma’ in Turkish
and he does not know the word ice-cream in
English.
■ Let’s watch again and share our views.
■ Shall we have a micro-look at it?

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Written discourse analysis-1

■ The examination of written language seems to be easier to conduct than the scrutiny of oral
texts.
■ It is simply because more data is available in different genres, produced by people form different
backgrounds as well as with disparate purposes, it is more developed and of interest not only to
linguists but also language teachers and literary scholars.
■ Each of them, however, approaches such a study in a different way, reaching diverse
conclusions, therefore only notions that are mutual for them and especially those significant for
language methodology are accounted for here.
■ What is worth mentioning is the fact that in that type of analysis scholars do not evaluate the
content in terms of literary qualities, or grammatical appropriateness, but how readers can infer
the message that the author intended to convey.

Written discourse analysis-2

■ Apart from differences between written and spoken language described beforehand, it is
obviously possible to find various types and classes of discourse depending on their purpose.
■ Written texts differ from one another not only in genre and function, but also in their structure
and form, which is of primary importance to language teachers, as the knowledge of
arrangement and variety of writing influences readers’ understanding, memory of messages
included in the discourse, as well as the speed of perception.
■ That means a range of structures and forms make a text distinct from another (See the activity)

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A quick analysis of two different texts: Tell us any peculiar

structure/form?
TEXT 1: (132 words, produced by 2nd year students CANSU AKYOL- HATİCE NUR DOĞAN – ZEYNEP NUR DOĞAN)

Once upon a time, in Kasseria there was a joyful English Language Teaching Class which
was full of bighearted students. In this class, there were three intelligent and hardworking girls
named Cansumius, Zeynorious and Hatchengle. Also these were such mysterious girls that
nobody knew who they really were, where they came from and with whom they did hang out...
One day, when this sweet class was having an Advanced Text Analysis course, their lecturer
Mr. Erdemous realized that the class had not done their homework, but the three famous girls.
He got mad and started to shout at students. 'You all made me sad!' said he. 'Five points will
be taken from your score back!' And suddenly, a huge black hole emerged on the smart board
behind him and swallowed him up….
What makes you think that it is not an academic text?
■ Any idea about K1 words (First 1000 words), K2 words (1001-2000 words) in English and
Academic Word List (AWL)? Consider the following words:
■ Applicable, Improve, Mistake, Individual?

Applicable Individual
Improve (K2) Mistake (K2)
(K1) (AWL)

109 K1
7 K2
5 AWL
11 off

https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/

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Another text
TEXT 2: (257 words, produced by 1st year ELT student Büşra Yeşil at Erciyes University, Kayseri)
This paper has attempted to provide an overview on CLT method based on its background, advantages
and followed by implementation of CLT in Turkish context. As explained above, CLT is a method that is
important in terms of learning a new language .It aims at communicative competency in learning a
language. The important part of competence includes using language forms appropriately, preparing
proper situations to improve communications, feeling free, taking part in games. Authentic materials,
scrambled sentences, games, strip stories, role-plays are the technics that are used in this approach.
However, implementation of CLT in Turkey is not applicable. Teachers who are concerned to apply CLT
method in their classrooms may encounter some barriers because of insufficient teaching resources,
crowded classes, education system of Turkey. The competence of Turkish students may not enough to
participate in oral communicative activities. We can draw a conclusion, instead of exam-oriented system,
it is more beneficial for students to practise, participate in oral communicative activities. If teachers give
up teaching only grammar in every class and finishing the lesson without doing any activity, students can
have a chance to improve their oral skills. Teachers should use different activities communicating in
forms of plays, roles and work of solving problems. The goal of students should be then having interaction
with one another instead of passing the standardized tests. All activities should ensure interaction among
students and help coaction. If these conditions are provided and fulfilled completely, CLT can be one of
the most efficient techniques in the well-designed education circle.
What makes you decide on the genre of this text?

190 K1
12 K2
28 AWL
27 off

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One more text to consider (to compare with the

academic text before)
TEXT 3: (309 words, produced by 1st year ELT student İbrahim Eskin at Erciyes University, Kayseri)
In this paragraph, the discussion centers on advantages and disadvantages of CLL approach. Three advantageous
aspects run as follows: At the threshold of the course, learners are heavily reliant on counselor's translation, and
counselor focuses mainly upon fluency rather than accuracy. It enables learners to use the target language
communicatively as they steadily gain independence. In reflection stage, learners rectify their mistakes and try to
learn from one another's faults. Besides, in this stage, they have the opportunity to candidly express their attitude
towards the way they are taught. Such amendments can simply accelerate their progress apart from the fact that
counselor can take students' comments and criticism into consideration for further improvement. As the last asset,
CLL assists learners to increase the awareness of individual responsibility for their own learning. It indicates that CLL
is not only paying dividends for language learning but also making a valuable contribution to the character trait of
learners. With regard to disadvantages of CLL, the list goes: First defect is that CLL completely relies on inductive
learning; however, deductive learning is also crucially required for the function of distinct skills in the target language
as it is a grand strategy of learning. Furthermore, since CLL lacks a conventional language syllabus, it is expected to
evolve its own curriculum, which makes aims and objectives unclear to pursue and accurate assessment arduous to
carry out. Along with the previous disadvantages, there is one more concern to be added: teacher has to be fairly
proficient in L1 and L2 for a competent management method in the classrooms. In translation, for instance, the
success of method depends greatly upon the translation expertise of the counselor. Naturally, the question of
whether or not teachers must be trained in advance to attempt counseling arises. As explicitly stated above, CLL
owns both vantages and drawbacks in language teaching process.
Which text seems to be a better written one?

219 K1
16 K2
37 AWL
37 off

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Discourse Analysis
■ Please visit the course I created on TedEd for the introduction to DA class.
■ https://ed.ted.com/on/kr0F72jf
■ If you have any question, just drop me an email/message on whatsapp!

Written discourse analysis-3

■ Moreover, written texts analysis provides teachers with systematic knowledge of the ways of
describing texts, thanks to which they can make their students aware of characteristic features of
discourse to which the learners should pay particularly close attention, such as cohesion and
coherence.
■ In addition, understanding these concepts should also improve learners’ writing skills as they
would become aware of traits essential for a good written text.
■ One of the major concerns of written discourse analysts is the relation of neighboring sentences
and, in particular, factors attesting to the fact that a given text is more than only the sum of its
components.
■ It is only with written language analysis that certain features of communicative products started to
be satisfactorily described, despite the fact that they were present also in speech, like for instance
the use of ‚that’ to refer to a previous phrase, or clause (McCarthy 1991:37).
■ As mentioned before, written language is more integrated than the spoken one which is achieved
by more frequent use of some cohesive devices.
■ Cohesive devices apart from linking clauses or sentences are also used to emphasize notions that
are of particular importance to the author and enable the reader to process the chosen
information at the same time omitting needless sections.

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Links within discourse

■ Links in discourse studies are divided into two groups: formal – which refer to facts that are present
in the analyzed text, and contextual – referring to the outside world, the knowledge (or schemata)
which is not included in the communicative product itself (Cook 1990:14).
■ Since it is difficult to describe the processing of contextual links without referring to particular
psychological inquiries, therefore, we look at the representation of formal links.
■ By and large five types of cohesive devices are distinguished, some of which might be subdivided:
■ 1. Substitution: in order to avoid repeating the same word several times in one paragraph it is
replaced, most often by one, do or so. So and do in its all forms might also substitute whole phrases
or clauses (e.g. "Tom has created the best web directory. I told you so long time ago".)
■ 2. Ellipsis: it is very similar to substitution, however, it replaces a phrase by a gap. In other words, it is
omission of noun, verb, or a clause on the assumption that it is understood from the linguistic
context.
■ 3. Reference: the use of words which do not have meanings of their own, such as pronouns and
articles. To infer their meaning the reader has to refer them to something else that appears in the
text (Tom: "How do you like my new Mercedes Vito?" – Marry: "It is a nice van, which I’m also thinking
of buying".).

Links within discourse

■ 4. Conjunction: specifies the relationship between clauses, or sentences. Most frequent relations of
sentences are: addition ( and, moreover e.g. "Moreover, the chocolate fountains are not just regular
fountains, they more like rivers full of chocolate and sweets."), temporality ( afterwards, next e.g.
"He bought her perfume at a local perfume shop and afterwards moved toward a jewelry store.")
and causality ( because, since).
■ 5. Lexical cohesion: denotes links between words which carry meaning: verbs, nouns, adjectives.
Two types of lexical cohesion are differentiated, namely: reiteration and collocation. Reiteration
adopts various forms, particularly synonymy, repetition, hyponymy or antonymy. Collocation is the
way in which certain words occur together, which is why it is easy to make out what will follow the
first item.
■ It is clear from the analysis of written language that when people produce discourse they focus not
only on the correctness of a single sentence, but also on the general outcome of their production.
■ That is why the approach to teaching a foreign language which concentrates on creating
grammatically correct sentences, yet does not pay sufficient attention to regularities on more global
level of discourse, might not be the best one.

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Discourse Analysis
■ Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to
analyze written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event.
■ Discourse can be defined in three ways:
– Language beyond the level of a sentence
– Language behaviors linked to social practices
– Language as a system of thought
■ Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language 'beyond the sentence'.
■ This contrasts with types of analysis more typical of modern linguistics, which are chiefly
concerned with the study of grammar: the study of smaller bits of language, such as sounds
(phonetics and phonology), parts of words (morphology), meaning (semantics), and the order
of words in sentences (syntax).
■ Discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.

Discourse Analysis
■ In order to understand Discourse and Discourse Analysis, we also need to make sure
we are aware of some of the key terms.
■ Genre?
– Genre refers to the type and structure of language typically used for a particular purpose
in a particular context.. The relationship btw DA and Genre is ‘’ DA is Genre analysis’’
■ Register?
– The term register refers to specific lexical and grammatical choices as made by
speakers depending on the situational context, the participants of a conversation and
the function of the language in the discourse (cf. Halliday 1989, 44).
– In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a
particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting contrary to an
informal setting, an English speaker may be more likely to use features of prescribed
grammar—such as pronouncing words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an
alveolar nasal (e.g. "walking", not "walkin'"), choosing more formal words (e.g. father vs.
dad, child vs. kid, etc.), and refraining from using words considered nonstandard, such
as ain't.

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Discourse Analysis
■ Speech Acts:
In language use, in one sense we are talking about 'functions': we are concerned as much
with what people are doing with language as with what they are saying.
■ When we say that a particular bit of speech or writing is a request or an instruction or an
exemplification we are concentrating on what that piece of language is doing, or how the
listener header is supposed to react; for this reason, such entities are often also called
speech acts
■ Take the simple utterance It ’s cold in here.
■ What does it mean? Who could say it to whom in what situation?
■ At first sight, this is a statement about the temperature in a particular room.
■ However, this is not always the communicative intention with which this declarative
sentence is uttered.

Speech Acts: Utterances as Actions

■ Most people who say It’s cold in here to another person will want this person to do
something about the cold.
■ In this case It’s cold in here may mean Could you please close the window? or
Could you please turn on the heating? or Could you please lend me one o f your
famous hand-knitted sweaters?
■ In short, the utterance may serve as a polite request for some appropriate action
in order to make the speaker more comfortable.
■ Depending on the relationship between the participants o f the conversation, it
could also be used as a command.

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Speech Acts and Speech Acts Theory

■ As we have seen, utterances can be used to perform actions.
■ Actions performed via utterances, such as requesting, threatening, or thanking, are
based on speech acts.
■ The systematic study o f speech acts is based on speech act theory. Speech act theory
has its roots in thoughts formulated by John L. Austin in How to Do Things with Words
(1962) and John R. Searle in Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy o f Language
(1969).
Locutionary, lllocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts
■ All actions performed by utterances can be divided into three related acts: the
locutionary act, the illocutionary act, and the perlocutionary act.

Speech Acts :Locutionary, lllocutionary, and

Perlocutionary Acts
■ The locutionary act is the physical act o f producing understandable language that
may be regarded as meaningful within a given context.
■ Consider the indirect request Do you know where I left my textbook?
■ What we intend to do by producing an utterance is called the illocutionary act, i.e. in
this case the intention o f asking for information.

■ The cognitive or emotional effect an illocutionaiy act has on an addressee or

addressees in reality is called the perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect).

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Speech Acts : lllocutionary Force

■ The locutionary and the illocutionary act are within our control, whereas the
perlocutionaiy act is not.
■ In these examples, the first speaker’s illocutionary act of requesting succeeds because
the speaker has managed to produce an utterance that is suitable to convey her
communicative intention, even though the perlocutionary effect is negative.
■ This communicative intention is often called the illocutionary force.

Speech Acts : Types

■ Generally, linguists distinguish between several main types o f speech acts, to describe what humans may do
by performing these acts.
■ We use representatives (or assertives) to make statements about the world (Germany is a country in Europe);
■ directives like requests or commands to get others to perform certain actions, e.g. to do us a favour, or to
answer our questions (Please send me an e-mail)',
■ commissives like promises or threats to inform others about our future actions (I will write to you every day)',
■ expressives like greetings, thanks and congratulations to express our feelings (HU, Thank you! or Happy
birthday!); and declarations for actions that are performed by pronouncing the appropriate formula, e.g.
marrying a couple or baptising somebody.

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Discourse Analysis
■ The scope of discourse analysis
■ Discourse analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of spoken
interaction.
■ In addition to all our verbal encounters we daily consume hundreds of written and printed
words: newspaper articles, letters, stories, recipes, instructions, notices, comics, billboards,
leaflet spushed through the door, and so on.
■ We usually expect them to be coherent, meaningful communications in which the words
and/or sentences are linked to one another in a fashion that corresponds to conventional
formulae, just as we do with speech; therefore discourse analysts are equally interested in
the organisation of written interaction

Discourse Analysis
■ Spoken discourse: models of analysis
■ One influential approach to the study of spoken discourse is that developed at the University
of Birmingham, where research initially concerned itself with the structure of discourse in
school classrooms (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). The Birmingham model is certainly not the
only valid approach to analysing discourse, but it is a relatively simple and powerful model
which has connections with the study of speech acts. An extract from their data illustrates
this:
(T = teacher, P = any pupil who speaks)
T: Now then . . . I've got some things here, too. Hands up. What's that, what is it?
P: Saw
T: It's a saw, yes this is a saw. What do we do with a saw?
P: Cut wood.
T: Yes. You're shouting out though. What do we do with a saw? Marvelette.
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood. And, erm, what do we do with a hacksaw, this hacksaw?

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P: Cut trees.
T: Do we cut trees with this?
P: No. No.
T: Hands up. What do we do with this?
P: Cut wood.
T: Do we cut wood with this?
P: No.
T: What do we do with that then?
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood with that. What do we do with that?
P: Sir.
T: Cleveland.
P: Metal.
T: We cut metal. Yes we cut metal. And, er, I've got this here. What's that? Trevor.
P: An axe.
T: It's an axe yes. What do I cut with the axe?
P: Wood, wood.
T: Yes I cut wood with the axe. Right . . . Now then, I've got some
more things here . . .

Discourse Analysis
■ This is only a short extract, but nonetheless, a clear pattern seems to emerge(and one
that many will be familiar with from their own schooldays).
■ The first thing we notice, intuitively, is that, although this is clearly part of alarger
discourse (a 'lesson'), in itself it seems to have a completeness.
■ A bit of business seems to commence with the teacher saying 'Now then . . .', andthat
same bit of business ends with the teacher saying 'Right. . . Now then'.
■ The teacher (in this case a man) in his planning and execution of the lesson decides
that the lesson shall be marked out in some way; he does not justrun on without a
pause from one part of the lesson to another.
■ In fact he gives his pupils a clear signal of the beginning and end of this mini-phase of
the lesson by using the words now then and tight in a particular way (withfalling,
intonation and a short pause afterwards) that make them into a sortof 'frame' on
either side of the sequence of questions and answers. Framing move is precisely what
Sinclair and Coulthard call the function of such utterances.

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Discourse Analysis
■ The two framing moves, together with the question and answer sequence that falls between
them, can be called a transaction, which again captures the feeling of what is being done
with language here, rather in the way that we talk of a 'transaction' in a shop between a
shopkeeper and a customer, which will similarly be a completed whole, with a recognizable
start and finish.
■ However, framing move and transaction are only labels to attach to certain structural
features, and the analogy with their nonspecialist meanings should not be taken too far.
Let’s see this:
1. Ask T
2. Answer P
3. Comment T
■ This gives us then a regular sequence of TPT-TPT-TPT-TPT, etc. So we can now return to our
extract and begin to mark off the boundaries that create this pattern:

Discourse Analysis
T: Now then . . . I've got some things . h too. Hands up. What's that, what is it? I
P: Saw. I
T: It's a saw, yes this is a saw. N What do with a saw? 1
P: Cut wood. I
T: Yes. You're shouting out though. I! QUltacd~ do with a saw? Marvelette. I
P: Cut wood. I
T: We cut wood. 11 And, erm, what do we do with . . . etc.
■ We can now isolate a typical segment between double slashes (//) and use.it as a bask unit in our
description:
■ T: /I What do we do with a saw? Marvelette. I
■ P: Cut wood. I '
■ T: We cut wood. //
■ Sinclair and Coulthard call this unit an exchange. This particular Exchange consists of a question,
an answer and a comment, and so it is a three-part exchange. Each of the parts are giveri the
name move by Sinclair and Coulthard.

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Discourse Analysis

A taste of analysis
■ What to Analyse: Audience and Purpose:
– Who is the intended audience for each genre?
– What discourse community (or communities) is this audience in?
– What is the audience likely to know? Want to know? Why?
– How much time will this audience want to spend with the information presented in
the genres?
– What is the purpose of the information presented in the genres? (inform, persuade,
entertain)
■ What to Analyse: Rhetorical Issues:
– How does each genre help to establish the information's credibility? Is it effective?
– How does each genre help to evoke an emotional response from the
audience? Which emotions? Why?
– What types of evidence are used to support the claims of the information in the
genres? Is it appropriate? Why or why not?

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A taste of analysis
■ What to Analyse: Structure
– How is the information shaped by the genre (s)? (Consider the limitations/freedoms
of space, time, layout, audience, and so on.)
– How are the genre organized to convey its message?
– How does the structure facilitate the purpose of the information in the genre(s)?
■ What to Analyse: Style and Language
– How formal/informal is the language?
– What specialized vocabulary is used?
– What other language features do you notice?

Samples
■ Russian bear attack: Woman 'recovering‘
■ Sleeping Beauty (Little Briar Rose)
■ Reference Letter

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Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics

■ A number of aspects of language use that are discussed by people working in the
area of discourse analysis are also discussed in the area of pragmatics.
■ As you know, pragmatics is concerned with how the interpretation of language
depends on knowledge of the real world.
■ Pragmatics is interested in what people mean by what they say, rather than what
words in their most literal sense might mean by themselves. Therefore, a
consideration of the ways in which people mean more than what they say in spoken
or written discourse is strongly linked to the relation between DA and Pragmatics.

Discourse analysis and Language Teaching

■ To attain a good command of a foreign language learners should either be exposed to it in genuine
circumstances and with natural frequency, or painstakingly study lexis and syntax assuming that
students have some contact with natural input.
■ Classroom discourse seems to be the best way of systematizing the linguistic code that learners are
to acquire.
■ The greatest opportunity to store, develop and use the knowledge about the target language is
arisen by exposure to authentic discourse in the target language provided by the teacher
■ Language is not only the aim of education as it is in the case of teaching English to Turkish students,
but also the means of schooling by the use of mother tongue. Having realized that discourse
analysts attempted to describe the role and importance of language in both contexts simultaneously
paying much attention to possible improvement to be made in these fields.
■ It has also been settled that what is essential to be successful in language learning is interaction, in
both written and spoken form.
■ In addition, students’ failures in communication which result in negotiation of meaning, requests for
explanation or reorganization of message contribute to language acquisition.
■ One of the major concerns of discourse analysts has been the manner in which students ought to be
involved in the learning process, how to control turn-taking, provide feedback as well as how to teach
different skills most effectively on the grounds of discourse analysis’ offerings

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Discourse analysis and Language Teaching

1.Application of discourse analysis to teaching grammar
■ There are a number of questions posed by discourse analysts with reference to grammar and
grammar teaching.
■ In particular, they are interested in its significance for producing comprehensible communicative
products, realization of grammar items in different languages, their frequency of occurrence in
speech and writing which is to enable teaching more natural usage of the target language, as well
as learners’ native tongue (McCarthy 1991:47).
■ While it is possible to use a foreign language being unaware or vaguely aware of its grammatical
system, educated speakers cannot allow themselves to make even honest mistakes, and the more
sophisticated the linguistic output is to be the more thorough knowledge of grammar gains
importance.
■ Moreover, it is essential not only for producing discourse, but also for their perception and
comprehension, as many texts take advantage of cohesive devices which contribute to the unity of
texts, but might disturb their understanding by a speaker who is not aware of their occurrence.

Discourse analysis and Language Teaching

1.Application of discourse analysis to teaching grammar
■ Anaphoric reference, which is frequent in many oral and written texts, deserves attention due to
problems that it may cause to learners at various levels.
■ It is especially important at an early stage of learning a foreign language when learners fail to follow
overall meaning turning much attention to decoding information in a given clause or sentence.
■ Discourse analysts have analyzed schematically occurring items of texts and how learners from
different backgrounds acquire them and later on produce.
■ Thus, it is said that Japanese students fail to distinguish the difference between he and she, while
Spanish pupils have problems with using his and your.
■ Teachers, being aware of possible difficulties in teaching some aspects of grammar, should pay
particular attention to them during the introduction of the new material to prevent making mistakes
and errors

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Discourse analysis and Language Teaching

1.Application of discourse analysis to teaching grammar
■ The most prominent role in producing sophisticated discourse, and therefore one that requires
much attention on the part of teachers and learners is that of words and phrases which signal
internal relation of sections of discourse, namely conjunctions.
■ McCarthy (1991) claims that there are more than forty conjunctive words and phrases, which might
be difficult to teach.
■ Moreover, when it comes to the spoken form of language, where and, but, so, then are most
frequent, they may take more than one meaning, which is particularly true for and. Additionally, they
not only contribute to the cohesion of the text, but are also used when a participant of a
conversation takes his turn to speak to link his utterance to what has been said before
■ The foregoing notions that words crucial for proper understanding of discourse, apart from their
lexical meaning, are also significant for producing natural discourse in many situations support the
belief that they should be pondered on by both teachers and students.
■ Furthermore, it is advisable to provide learners with contexts which would exemplify how native
users of language take advantage of anaphoric references, ellipses, articles and other grammar
related elements of language which, if not crucial, are at least particularly useful for proficient
communication

Discourse analysis and Language Teaching

2. Application of discourse analysis to teaching vocabulary
■ What is probably most striking to learners of a foreign language is the quantity of vocabulary used
daily and the amount of time that they will have to spend memorizing lexical items.
■ Lexis may frequently cause major problems to students, because unlike grammar it is an open-
ended system to which new items are continuously added.
■ That is why it requires close attention and, frequently, explanation on the part of the teacher, as well
as patience on the part of the student.
■ Scholars have conducted in-depth research into techniques employed by foreign language learners
concerning vocabulary memorization to make it easier for students to improve their management of
lexis.
■ The conclusion was drawn that it is most profitable to teach new terminology paying close attention
to context and co-text that new vocabulary appears in which is especially helpful in teaching and
learning aspects such as formality and register.
■ Discourse analysts describe co-text as the phrases that surround a given word, whereas, context is
understood as the place in which the communicative product was formed

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