discourse analysis and reading

7/30/2019 discourse analysis and reading

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Discourse Analysis and

Reading

Trainee: Rahhal Ajbilou Trainer : Mr. A. Oulbouch


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Objectives

By the end of this presentation, participantswill be able to:

See the link between discourse and reading

Identify the opportunities discourse analysisoffers in teaching EFL reading.

Determine what areas of discourse analysis

are relevant to teaching EFL reading Analyze a text using different features of

discourse


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Outline

Introduction The importance of Discourse Structure

Types of Texts

Textual Patterns

Structural Hierarchy in Texts

Teaching Text Structure

Graphic exploration of a text : Examples

Approaches to text processing

Features of Discourse Analysis

How to do a Discourse Analysis


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Introduction

One of the biggest challenges facing teachers is

how to teach reading comprehension skills and

not just assess comprehension.

Another challenge is to promote Strategy Trainingamong students: Helping students to engage in

predicting, clarifying, summarizing, questioning,

goal setting, reviewing, and noting textorganizationall done while discussing the

meaning of the text information


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The importance of Discourse Structure

Cook (1992) defines discourse as text and

context together, interacting in a way which is

perceived as meaningful and unified by the

participants (p. 1).

understanding discourse means understanding

real English, which is used in society. With this

knowledge, it can be expected that this tacitknowledge may enable [students] to

communicate successfully (Cook 1989: 49).


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Discourse analysis tells us how different texts

are organized and how the process of creating

written text is realised at various levels, from

small units to larger ones.

It enables teachers to choose and create

authentic materials and activities for the

classroom.

Discourse Analysis provides evidence for major

discourse structure mechanisms that contribute

to text comprehension.


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Types of text All texts have a certain feature in common, namely they

are indented to convey some meaning. This function mightbe fulfilled in a number of different ways: a road sign'stop', and a six hundred pages long novel are both textswhich might serve that purpose

In addition to the mainstream text types, there is a wholehidden world of memos, forms, notices, telexes, tickets,letters, hoardings ,labels , junk mail, etc.,

It is very difficult to guess just what people's daily reading

and writing is.

So, the language teacher is left with a typology based onintuition, or with an imposed syllabus of mainstream texts,as the raw material of teaching


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Task 1Look at this list of everyday written texts and decide how often you read

and write such texts, on an Often /Sometimes/ Rarely /Never scale. Tick the

appropriate box and compare your results with another person.

Read write

O S R N O S R N

Email

Instruction leafletLetter to/ from friend

Public notice

Product label

Newspaper

PoemNovel

News report

Academic article

Small ads

Postcard to / from friend

Business letter


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Implications

It is certain that most people will read more of the text types listed

in the reader activity than actually write them

It is still difficult to gauge precisely what types of written text are

most useful in language teaching and to find the right balance

between reading and writing in most general language courses


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Textual Patterns

Discourse, or text, structures can be understoodas basic rhetorical patterns in texts.

Discourse structures have functional purposes

and these purposes are recognized by good

readers and writers


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Textual Patterns ( cont )

Patterning in texts contributes to their coherence, asit is thanks to patterns that writing is structured in a

way that enables readers to easily confront the

received message with prior knowledge.

Salkie (1995) indicates that the majority of readers

unconsciously make use of tendencies of arranging

texts to approach information.

Making readers aware of patterning might providethem with clues which enable proper understanding

of written communicative products (McCarthy

1991:161).


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Most frequently occurring patterns in written

discourse

claim-counterclaim, problem-solution,

question-answer

general-specific

comparison and contrast

cause and effect

description

sequence / procedure definition,

classification,

analysis


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Uses of textual patterns: Examples

problem solution pattern: frequent in advertising

texts (one way to sell a product is to convince people

they have a problem they may not be aware of) and in

texts reporting technological advances (which are

often seen as solving problems or removingobstacles).

Claim- counterclaim : frequent in political

journalism, as well as in the letters-to-the-editor

pages of newspapers and magazines General-specific patterns : in encyclopedias and

other reference texts.


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Task 2:

read the texts and find the textual pattern used.

Text 1

It was already dark. I found myself driving in

an area I didnt know. I was lost! I asked an old

lady about my destination. I was just near the

hotel.


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Text 2

THOUSANDS of acres of our countryside are buried for

ever under ribbons of concrete and tarmac every year.

Every few months a Government study or statement from

an authoritative body daims that our motorway network is

inadequate and must be extended.

Week by week the amount ofcar traffic on our roads

grows, 13 percent in the last year alone .

Each day as I walk to work, I see the ludicrous spectacle

of hundreds of commuters sitting alone in four or five-seater

cars and barely moving as fast as I can walk.


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Text 3

Men can mend stereos, drive cars and budget theirpay packets efficiently; women are helpless whenfaced with anything mechanical and are extravagantspenders. Chaps, of course, are cool and rational, while

women are swayed by their emotions and are slaves tothe lunar cycle. Men are polygamous, womenmonogamous.

Ridiculous stereotypes? Absolutely. So why do quite

a lot of men and rather a large number of women stillhalf believe them?

(Options, October 1985: 201)


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Text 4

There are four things a young child ought to learnabout fishing his first time out. First, hooks aresharp. Demonstrate this by lightly pressing thepoint against the fleshy part of his thumb. Second,

a pole is held in a certain way (usually at the end intwo hands, one above the other). Third, noisefrightens the fish away. Fourth, the fisherman mustbe patient. Perhaps the best way to teach patience

is to be patient yourself, since his attitude willdepend to a considerable extent on how youbehave.

(Schwartz, How to Fly a Kite, Catch a Fish, Grow aFlower1).


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Structural Hierarchy in Texts

Texts are hierarchically organized and thatreaders tend to focus on and remember

information at higher levels in the text hierarchy

Research on discourse analysis and languagecomprehension has demonstrated that levels of

text structure have a strong impact on reading

comprehension. Thus, main ideas, organizingideas, and informational details tend to be

remembered differently, with main ideas

remembered better.


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Implications

The following aspects of discourse need to be

considered when dealing with a text:

1.Titles these prepare reader expectations

2. First sentences /

3. Headings and sub-headings

4. The first / last paragraphs

5.Sequencing (how the topic is presented and developed)


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Teaching Text Structure

There are three major lines of research on

the effect of text structure instruction


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First Line:

Emphasizes the use of transition words,

topic sentences, sentence-initial phrases,

anaphoric linkages and the role ofvarious grammatical structures to build

coherence in texts.


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Second Line:

Emphasizes instructional training in

reading strategies which includes

summarizing, semantic mapping,predicting, forming questions from

headings and sub-headings,

and using adjunct questions


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Third Line:

develops student awareness of text

structure and promote effective

comprehension through graphicorganizers, semantic maps, outline grids,

tree diagrams, and hierarchical

summaries


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Graphic exploration of a text :

Examples

A simple analysis of how graphic

representations can be applied to

understanding the discourse structure of a

text


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Definition


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Comparison and Contrast


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Cause and Effect


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Sequencing


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Problem - Solution


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Description and classification


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Argument


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For - against (comparison-contrast)


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Timeline


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Approaches to text processing


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Figure: Top-down processing

Source: Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language (Nuttall.Ch.1996)


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top-down processing starts with general featuresof a text, gradually moving to the narrower. Thisapproach considers all levels of communicativeproducts as a total unit whose elements workcollectively, in other words, it is more holistic. Notonly does the information in a text enablereaders to understand it, but it also has to be

confronted with recipient's former knowledgeand expectations which facilitate comprehension.(Cook 1990, McCarthy 1991).


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Figure : Bottom-up processing

Source: Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language (Nuttall. Ch. 1996)


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Bottom-up processes are those which areinvolved in assimilating input from thesmallest chunks of discourse: sounds in

speech and letters in texts, afterwards movingto more and more general features. Thistechnique is frequently applied by lower-levellearners who turn much attention to decoding

particular words, thus losing the more generalidea, that is the meaning of a given piece ofwriting.


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Guy Cook (1989, p. 81) argues that doingdiscourse analysis helps students adopt top-down approach in reading, which he assumes

being natural for L1 speakers. It is supposedthat an L2 student who is able to set adiscourse in its textual and social context maypostpone or neglect dealing with an unknown

word if he/she gets the general idea of thetext.


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Features of discourse analysis

Seven criteria which have to be fulfilled to qualifyeither a written or a spoken text as a discoursehave been suggested by Beaugrande (1981). Theseinclude:

Cohesion Coherence Text - internal

Discourse markers

Intentionality

Acceptability Informativeness Text - external

Situationality

Intertextuality


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Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the grammatical and/orlexical relationships between the differentelements of a discourse. This may be therelationship between different sentences orbetween different parts of a sentence.

Cohesionactually concerns the question ofhow sentences are explicitly linked togetherin a discourse by different kinds of overtdevices. Such cohesive devices include.reference,substitution, ellipsis,conjunction,andlexical cohesion


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Coherence

Cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of

what we read or hear. Example: My father bought aLincoln convertible. The car

driven by the police wasred. That colordoesnt suither. Sheconsists of three letters. However,a letterisnt as fast as atelephone call.

The key to the concept of coherence is not something which exists in thelanguage, but something which exists in people. It is people who make senseof what they read and hear. They try to arrive at an interpretation which isin line with their experience of the way the world is.

In other words,coherencerefers to the relationships which link the

meanings of utterances in a discourse. Example: A: Could you give me a lift home?

B: Sorry, Im visiting my sister.

There is no grammatical or lexical link between As question and Bs replybut the exchange has coherence because both A and B make sense of what is

said. So, the link is based on As and Bs shared knowledge.


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Example

The parents of a seven-year-old Australian boy woke m find agiant python crushing and trying to swallow him .The incidentoccurred in Cairns, Queengland and the boy's mother, Mrs KathyDryden said:

'It was like a horror movie. It was a hot night and Bartholomew

was lying under a mosquito net. He suddenly started screaming.'We rushed to the bedroom to find a huge snake trying to stranglehim. It was coiled around his arms and neck and was going down

his body.'

Mrs Dryden and bet husband, Peter, tried to stab the creaturewith knives but the python bit the boy several times beforeescaping.

(from The Birmingham Post, 12 March 1987, p. 10)


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Discourse markers

Discourse markers are words and phrases used in speaking and

writing to 'signpost' discourse. Discourse markers do this byshowing turns, joining ideas together, showing attitude, and

generally controlling communication. Some people regard

discourse markers as a feature of spoken language only.

ExampleWords like 'actually', 'so', 'OK', 'right?' and 'anyway' all function

as discourse markers as they help the speaker to manage the

conversation and mark when it changes.

In the classroom

Discourse markers are an important feature of both formal and

informal native speaker language. The skilful use of discourse

markers often indicates a higher level of fluency and an ability

to produce and understand authentic language.


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Intentionality The message has to be conveyed deliberately

and consciously Relates to the attitude and purpose of text

producers and what they want and intend withthe text

Accordingly, talking in ones sleep would notcount as text, whereas a telephone directorywould

Intentionality may be implicit or diffusedthroughout the structure of the text rather thanexplicitly expressed in every single segment

Implications : writers attitude / purpose


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Acceptability

Indicates that the communicative productneeds to be satisfactory in that the audience

approves it

Concerns the degree to which readers areprepared to expect a text that is useful or

relevant


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Informativeness

Refers to the quantity of new or expected

information in a text

It also refers to the quality of what is offered:

how is the new material structured


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Situationality

circumstances in which the text is made are

important

Refers to situational and cultural

appropriateness of text types


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Intertextuality

Refers to the world outside the text or theinterpreters' schemata

scholars dealing with text analysis redefined

the concept of schemata dividing it into two:content and formal schemata. Content, as itrefers to shared knowledge of the subjectmatter, and formal, because it denotes the

knowledge of the structure and organizationof a text (McCarthy 1991:168).


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How to Do a Discourse

Analysis

It is important to emphasize that clear


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p punderstanding of writing is reliant on not only whatthe author put in it, but also on what a readerbrings to this process.

McCarthy (1991) points out that reading is anexacting action which involves recipient'sknowledge of the world, experience, ability to infer

possible aims of discourse and evaluate thereception of the text.

A large volume of work indicates that we caneffectively help students to enhance their reading

ability by the application of discourse analysis. Thefollowing approaches to comprehension aredependent on the discourse analysis :


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1) Macro-level: Lead-in In the teaching of reading with discourse-based approach, the

"macro-level" phase is the elementary phase.

This phase intends to let students grasp the main contents andrhetorical organization of the discourse before real reading

It should focus on background knowledge and textual knowledge. Background knowledge or prior knowledge: includes knowledge

of content as well as what the individual knows about the outerworld at any given points.

Textual knowledge: refers to the genre, frame and structure of a

discourse. Implication: The English teacher should try to select strategies

which activate and utilize the students' prior knowledge and textualknowledge.


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2) Micro-level: Analysis and Interpretation

It focuses on the teaching and training of

words, sentences, cohesive device and

thematic structure, so as to teach the students

about the connectivity and coherence, and

help them understand the main content of the

text in detail.


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3) Overall Comprehension of Discourse :

This phase deals with cohesion and coherence

between paragraphs and the theme of a

discourse for an overall comprehension.

Understanding the Main Idea

Making Inferences

Making Evaluation and Appreciation

L b d Hilf (1978 53 55) i h


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Lezberg and Hilferty (1978, pp. 53-55) come up with some

valuable recommendations to teachers on how to carry out

practical work with reading as discourse in the class :

Skimming tasks include skimming for summary and key wordsas well as skimming the whole book.

Scanning tasks are aimed at the information about the context,

the writing style, and cohesive aids.

Brainstorming, generating questions about the text, wordassociation activities, discussing and defining vocabulary,

anticipation activities belong to before-reading activities.

Among after reading activities : summarising ,discussion,

distinguishing between an authors statement and opinionsand readers opinions, paraphrasing, distinguishing between

general topic and facts, noticing language features and forms,

discussing authors intentions, possible bias and propaganda.

A. Things to Look For


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A. Things to Look ForWhat to notice when doing a discourse analysis

1. Hidden relations of power present in the text

2. How are the events presented?

3. How are people in the text characterised?

4. Who is the ideal subject or audience for the text.

5. What is left unspecified or unsaid.

6. The use of cohesive devices, markers, tenses ,etc.

7. The use of colourful, descriptive language.

8. What message does the author intend to convey in the text?

9. Why was this picture chosen to accompany the text (if applicable)?

10. What repetition exists (a) within the text and (b) between

different texts on the same topic?.


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References Paltridge. B ( 2006 ) . Discourse Analysis : An Introduction. Continuum Discourse

series. University of London McCarthy.M (1991 ). Discourse Analysis For Language Teachers. Cambridge University

Press

Laura Alba-Juez ( 2009 ). Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice,

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Dolores Fernndez Martnez ( 2011 ).Introducing Discourse Analysis in Class.

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Wang Wenquan (2009) Application of Discourse Analysis In College Reading Courses

University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Bill Grabe (2002) Using Discourse Patterns to Improve ReadingComprehension

Northern Arizona University

Xiangying Jiang and William Grabe(2007).Graphic organizers in reading instruction:

Research findings and issues.Reading in a Foreign Language April 2007, Volume 19, No. 1

Alexandra Georgakopolou,Dionysis Goutsos(2004).Discourse Analysis: An Introduction.

Edinburgh University Press .

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