Objectives and competences
The goal of the subject is to teach students the use of discourse analysis in the study of English texts and to make students aware of text typology and differences among text types, and to teach them how to recognize register and text-structural characteristics of basic text types in English. They also become competent in mutlimodal analysis of discourse.
Content (Syllabus outline)
• What is discourse.
• A brief historical overview of approaches to discourse analysis.
• Discourse analysis and grammar (grammatical cohesion).
• Discourse analysis and vocabulary (lexical cohesion).
• Discourse analysis as the analysis of meaning beyond clause structure.
• The concept of text types/genres
• Discourse analysis and the teaching of English as a foreign language.
• Discourse analysis and the learning of English as a foreign language.
• Basic concepts of genre, text type and text traditions and conventions
• Text type and genre and register variables of option, mode and tenor
• Text types in English in terms of lexical, grammatical and text -structural features
• The main characteristics of elementary text types of story, report, explanation and procedure in English
• Multimodality in discourse analysis
Learning and teaching methods
• Lectures
• Guided discussion
• Guided analysis and interpretation of texts
• Independent construction and interpretation of texts
Intended learning outcomes - knowledge and understanding
On completion of this course students will be able to:
understand discourse as a relationship between language and contexts of language use,
recognize grammatical devices for the construction of discourse in English
recognize lexical devices for the construction of discourse in English,
recognize the structure and text types of written language in English,
recognize the structure and text types of spoken language in English
apply discourse analysis in the teaching of English,
apply discourse analysis in the understanding of communication in the classroom,
apply discourse analysis as a research method for investigating their own teaching
recognize the main characteristics of the basic text types in English,
to determine text types of unfamiliar texts on the basis of their knowledge about text typology,
to distinguish among text types on the basis of text-type conventions, linguistic characteristics and text-structural features
Intended learning outcomes - transferable/key skills and other attributes
• Ability to use discourse analysis in the understanding of communication..
• Ability to construct well-structured and appropriate texts.
Readings
Martin, JR. in Rose, D. 2008. Genre Relations. Mapping Culture. Equinox Publishing.
Martin, JR. in Rose, D. 2004. Working with Discourse. Meaning beyond the Clause. London, New York: Continuum.
Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Biber, D. and Conrad, S. (2009). Register, Genre, and Style. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Hamilton, H., Schiffrin D., Tannen, D., eds. (2014), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Blackwell.
Prerequisits
English C1 /CEFR
Additional information on implementation and assessment Type (examination, oral, coursework, project):
Written examination - 50 %
Coursework - 50 %
