English-106-Discourse Analysis Graduate School Study

A lesson for Discourse Analysis a subject for graduate school subject for those who are majoring in english.

1. ENGLISH 106 Discourse Analysis

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will expose students to examine what the study of discourse reveals about the nature of language, social interaction, power relations, and the construction of meaning. They will learn the basic principles of analytical methods for the discourse analysis including: text linguistics, literary analysis, narrative analysis, conversation analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Students will also gain practical experience in applying these approaches to a variety of discourses and literary pieces including conversations, interviews, the media, academic writing, literary texts and advertisements.

3. II . COURSE OBJECTIVES:   This course aims student to expose students to different analysis revealed in the different form of Language, also this will help them know the basic principles and different patterns of analysis for them produce a convincing analysis.  

4. I - Preliminary Discussions: - Introduction to the Course II- Genre Analysis-( Bayonas & condez ) III -Textual Analysis-( Altres & AACosta IV - Content Analysis( Sonsona & Regondon ) V- Narrative— Arabis & Sab VI- Practice CA Analysis- VII- Spoken versus written language( Cabrera,Y & Bonggo ) VIII- Conversation Discourse( Apatan & Regala ) IX- Discourse and World, Linguistic relativity( Anino and Notarte ) X - Discourse and Ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) XI- Critical Discourse Analysis XII- Semiotic Analysis( Royo&Licomes XIII- Literary Analysis( Ma gdula & Sios e) XIV- Social Roles-Discourse Roles ( Remolado & Alejandrino) XV- Classroom Discourse ( Cabrera,F & Patalino ) XVI - Discourse analysis and language teaching ( Importante&Genotiva ) XVII Cohesion, Theme, Given( Decosto ) XVIII- Register and genre( Herodias and Matuan )    

5. Discourse I n its simplest form, discourse is  verbal or written communication  between people that  goes beyond a single sentence . Importantly, discourse is more than just language. The term “language” can include all forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings of words. Discourse goes beyond this and looks at the  overall meanings conveyed by language in context .  

6. “ Context” here refers to the  social, cultural, political, and historical background  of the discourse, and it is important to take this into account to understand underlying meanings expressed through language.

7. Discourse Analysis The Oxford English Dictionary defines discourse analysis as: "Linguistics,  a method of analyzing the structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence, taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context ; analysis performed using this method."

8. Source: Jenna Crosley (PhD). Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

9. Discourse analysis is one of the  most popular  qualitative analysis techniques  we encounter at Grad Coach.

10. Discourse analysis uses the language presented in a corpus or body of data to draw meaning. This body of data could include a set of interviews or focus group discussion transcripts. While some forms of discourse analysis center in on the specifics of language (such as sounds or grammar), other forms focus on how this language is used to achieve its aims.

11. As Wodak and Krzyżanowski (2008) put it: “discourse analysis provides a general framework to problem-oriented social research”. Basically, discourse analysis is used to conduct research on the use of language in context in a wide variety of social problems (i.e., issues in society that affect individuals negatively). For example, discourse analysis could be used to assess how language is used to express differing viewpoints on financial inequality and would look at how the topic should or shouldn’t be addressed or resolved, and whether this so-called inequality is perceived as such by participants.

12. What makes discourse analysis unique is that it posits that social reality is socially constructed, or that our experience of the world is understood from a subjective standpoint. Discourse analysis goes beyond the literal meaning of words and languages For example, people in countries that make use of a lot of censorship will likely have their knowledge, and thus views, limited by this, and will thus have a different subjective reality to those within countries with more lax laws on censorship.

13. The purpose of discourse analysis is to investigate the functions of language (i.e., what language is used for) and how meaning is constructed in different contexts, which, to recap, include the social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds of the discourse . For example, if you were to study a politician’s speeches, you would need to situate these speeches in their context, which would involve looking at the politician’s background and views, the reasons for presenting the speech, the history or context of the audience, and the country’s social and political history (just to name a few – there are always multiple contextual factors).

14. Discourse analysis can also tell you a lot about power and power imbalances, including how this is developed and maintained, how this plays out in real life (for example, inequalities because of this power), and how language can be used to maintain it. For example, you could look at the way that someone with more power (for example, a CEO) speaks to someone with less power (for example, a lower-level employee).

15. You may consider discourse analysis if you are researching: a.)Some form of power or inequality (for example, how affluent individuals interact with those who are less wealthy b)How people communicate in a specific context (such as in a social situation with colleagues versus a board meeting) c.)Ideology and how ideas (such as values and beliefs) are shared using language (like in political speeches) d.)How communication is used to achieve social goals (such as maintaining a friendship or navigating conflict)

16. Discourse analysis can be a powerful tool for assessing social issues, as well as power and power imbalances. So, if your research aims and objectives are oriented around these types of issues, discourse analysis could be a good fit for you.

17. Discourse Analysis: The main approaches There are two main approaches to discourse analysis. These are the language-in-use (also referred to as socially situated text and talk) approaches and the socio-political approaches (most commonly Critical Discourse Analysis). Let’s take a look at each of these.

18. Approach #1: Language-in-use Language-in-use approaches focus on the finer details of language used within discourse, such as sentence structures (grammar) and phonology (sounds). This approach is very descriptive and is seldom seen outside of studies focusing on literature and/or linguistics. Because of its formalist roots, language-in-use pays attention to different rules of communication, such as grammaticality (i.e., when something “sounds okay” to a native speaker of a language). Analyzing discourse through a language-in-use framework involves identifying key technicalities of language used in discourse and investigating how the features are used within a particular social context.

19. For example, English makes use of affixes (for example, “un” in “unbelievable”) and suffixes (“able” in “unbelievable”) but doesn’t typically make use of infixes (units that can be placed within other words to alter their meaning). However, an English speaker may say something along the lines of, “that’s un-flipping-believable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be investigated by assessing how rare the phenomenon is in English, and then answering questions such as, “What role does the infix play?” or “What is the goal of using such an infix?”

20. Approach #2: Socio-political Socio-political approaches to discourse analysis look beyond the technicalities of language and instead focus on the influence that language has in social context, and vice versa. One of the main socio-political approaches is Critical Discourse Analysis, which focuses on power structures (for example, the power dynamic between a teacher and a student) and how discourse is influenced by society and culture. Critical Discourse Analysis is born out of Michel Foucault’s early work on power, which focuses on power structures through the analysis of normalized power. Normalized power is ingrained and relatively allusive. It’s what makes us exist within society (and within the underlying norms of society, as accepted in a specific social context) and do the things that we need to do. Contrasted to this, a more obvious form of power is repressive power , which is power that is actively asserted.

21. Example Consider a situation where a teacher threatens a student with detention if they don’t stop speaking in class. This would be an example of repressive power (i.e. it was actively asserted).

22. Normalized powe r, on the other hand, is what makes us not want to talk in class. It’s the subtle clues we’re given from our environment that tell us how to behave, and this form of power is so normal to us that we don’t even realize that our beliefs, desires, and decisions are being shaped by it.

23. In the view of Critical Discourse Analysis , language is power and, if we want to understand power dynamics and structures in society, we must look to language for answers. In other words, analyzing the use of language can help us understand the social context, especially the power dynamics.

24. ethnography-based discourse analysis and multimodal analysis. Ethnography-based discourse analysis aims to gain an insider understanding of culture, customs, and habits through participant observation (i.e. directly observing participants, rather than focusing on pre-existing texts). multimodal analysis focuses on a variety of texts that are both verbal and nonverbal (such as a combination of political speeches and written press releases). So, if you’re considering using discourse analysis, familiarize yourself with the various approaches available so that you can make a well-informed decision.

25. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 1: Decide on your discourse analysis approach   The first step of the process is to decide on which approach you will take in terms. For example, the language in use approach or a socio-political approach such as critical discourse analysis. To do this, you need to consider your research aims, objectives and research questions. Of course, this means that you need to have these components clearly defined.

26. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 1  While discourse analysis can be exploratory (as in, used to find out about a topic that hasn’t really been touched on yet), it is still vital to have a set of clearly defined research questions to guide your analysis. Without these, you may find that you lack direction when you get to your analysis. Since discourse analysis places such a focus on context, it is also vital that your research questions are linked to studying language within context.  

27. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 1    Based on your research aims, objectives and research questions, you need to assess which discourse analysis would best suit your needs. Meaning, you need to adopt an approach that aligns with your study’s purpose.

28. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 1    T hink carefully about what you are investigating and what you want to achieve, and then consider the various options available within discourse analysis.  It’s vital to determine your discourse analysis approach from the get-go, so that you don’t waste time randomly analyzing your data without any specific plan.  

29. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 2: Design your collection method and gather your data start looking at how to collect your data. Data in discourse analysis is drawn from different forms of “talk” and “text”, which means that it can consist of interviews, ethnographies, discussions, case studies, blog posts.  

30. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 2:   The type of data you collect will largely depend on your research questions (and broader research aims and objectives). So, when you’re gathering your data, make sure that you keep in mind the “what”, “who” and “why” of your study, so that you don’t end up with a corpus full of irrelevant data. Discourse analysis can be very time-consuming, so you want to ensure that you’re not wasting time on information that doesn’t directly pertain to your research questions.  

31. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 2:     When considering potential collection methods, you should also consider the practicalities. What type of data can you access in reality? How many participants do you have access to and how much time do you have available to collect data and make sense of it? These are important factors, as you’ll run into problems if your chosen methods are impractical in light of your constraints. Once you’ve determined your data collection method, you can get to work with the collection.

32. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 3: Investigate the context A key part of discourse analysis is context and understanding meaning in context. For this reason, it is vital that you thoroughly and systematically investigate the context of your discourse. Make sure that you can answer (at least the majority) of the following questions: What is the discourse? Why does the discourse exist? What is the purpose and what are the aims of the discourse? When did the discourse take place? Where did it happen? Who participated in the discourse? Who created it and who consumed it? What does the discourse say about society in general? How is meaning being conveyed in the context of the discourse?

33. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 3: Investigate the context Make sure that you include all aspects of the discourse context in your analysis to eliminate any confounding factors. For example, are there any social, political, or historical reasons as to why the discourse would exist as it does? What other factors could contribute to the existence of the discourse? Discourse can be influenced by many factors, so it is vital that you take as many of them into account as possible.  

34. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 4 Analyze your data When performing a discourse analysis, you’ll need to look for themes and patterns. To do this, you’ll start by looking at codes, which are specific topics within your data. You can find more information about the qualitative data coding process here. Next, you’ll take these codes and identify t hemes . Themes are patterns of language (such as specific words or sentences) that pop up repeatedly in your data, and that can tell you something about the discourse. For example, if you’re wanting to know about women’s perspectives of living in a certain area, potential themes may be “safety” or “convenience”. In discourse analysis, it is important to reach what is called data saturation . This refers to when you’ve investigated your topic and analyzed your data to the point where no new information can be found. To achieve this, you need to work your way through your data set multiple times, developing greater depth and insight each time. This can be quite time consuming and even a bit boring at times, but it’s essential. Once you’ve reached the point of saturation, you should have an almost-complete analysis and you’re ready to move onto the next step – final review.    

35. How to “do” discourse analysis Step 5: Review your work This final step requires you to return to your research questions and compile your answers to them, based on the analysis. Make sure that you can answer your research questions thoroughly, and also substantiate your responses with evidence from your data Usually, discourse analysis studies make use of appendices, which are referenced within your thesis or dissertation. This makes it easier for reviewers or markers to jump between your analysis (and findings) and your corpus (your evidence) so that it’s easier for them to assess your work. When answering your research questions, make sure you should also revisit your research aims and objectives, and assess your answers against these. This process will help you zoom out a little and give you a bigger picture view. With your newfound insights from the analysis, you may find, for example, that it makes sense to expand the research question set a little to achieve a more comprehensive view of the topic.