Pre-Test Discourse Analysis

Pre-Test Discourse Analysis

Part A

Please explain briefly

1.      What is DA ?

2.      Please mention 2 major areas of DA

3.      Mentions each 3 experts in DA and their works

4.      Mention each 3 experts in one specific area of DA and their works (e.g. title of journal, books, or name of theory)

Part B

Explain the DA/CDA terms below (CHOOSE 3 ONLY)

1.      Discourse

2.       Discursive psychology

3.      Text

4.      Inter-dicipline

5.       Discursive practice

6.      Social practice

ANSWER

Part A

1.      Discourse analysis (DA) is a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. Discourse analysis is a broad term for the study of the ways in which language is used in texts and contexts. Also called discourse studies.

2.      2 major areas of DA

3.      3 experts in DA and their works

Crystal (1987:112) “…error analysis is a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics.”

Brown (1980:166) defines error analysis as “…the process to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of the rules of the second language and then to reveal the systems operated by learner.”

Discourse analysis is concerned with language use as a social phenomenon and therefore necessarily goes beyond one speaker or one newspaper article to find features which have a more generalized relevance. This is a potentially confusing point because the publication of research findings is generally presented through examples and the analyst may choose a single example or case to exemplify the features to be discussed, but those features are only of interest as a social, not individual, phenomenon." (Stephanie Taylor, What is Discourse Analysis? Bloomsbury, 2013)

4.      3 experts in one specific area of DA and their works (e.g. title of journal, books, or name of theory)

 Hodges, B.D., Kuper, A., & Reeves, S. (2008) Discourse Analysis. British Medical Journal. 337

Part B

Discourse Analysis is the investigation of knowledge about language beyond the word, clause, phrase and sentence levels. All of them are the basic building blocks of successful communication. In discourse analysis researchers have to infiltrate language as a whole beyond the micro level of words and sentences and look at the entire body of communication produced in a given / particular situation. Discourse analysis refers ‘to attempts to study the organization of language above the sentence, or above the clause, and therefore to study larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts’ (Stubbs 1983:1). However, Michael Stubbs redefines Discourse in his later work as ‘It is therefore more accurate to say that text and discourse analysis studies language in context: how words and phrases fit into both longer texts, and also social contexts of use’ (Stubbs 2001a:5).

Discursive psychology (DP) is a form of discourse analysis that focuses on psychological themes in talk, text and images. In discursive psychology the focus is not on psychological matters somehow leaking out into interaction; rather interaction is the primary site where psychological issues are live. It is philosophically opposed to more traditional cognitive approaches to language. It uses studies of naturally occurring conversation to critique the way that topics have been conceptualized and treated in psychology.

Discursive Practice is a theory of the linguistic and socio-cultural characteristics of recurring episodes of face-to-face interaction; episodes that have social and cultural significance to a community of speakers. This book examines the discursive practice approach to language-in-interaction, explicating the consequences of grounding language use and language learning in a view of social realities as discursively constructed, of meanings as negotiated through interaction, of the context-bound nature of discourse, and of discourse as social action. The book also addresses how participants’ abilities in a specific discursive practice may be learned, taught, and assessed. 

Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often applied within the context of human development, social practice involves knowledge production and the theorization and analysis of both institutional and intervention practices.