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##  Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. ERIC Digest.                       

WHAT IS DISCOURSE ANALYSIS?
Discourse analysis is the examination              of language use by members of a speech community. It involves                   looking at both language form and language function and includes the            study of both spoken interaction and written texts. It identifies               linguistic features that characterize different genres as well as               social and cultural factors that aid in our interpretation and                  understanding of different texts and types of talk. A discourse                 analysis of written texts might include a study of topic development            and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken                  language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices,               opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative                structure. 
The study of discourse has developed in a variety of               disciplines-sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, and social               psychology. Thus discourse analysis takes different theoretical                 perspectives and analytic approaches: speech act theory,                        interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication,                   pragmatics, conversation analysis, and variation                                analysis (Schiffrin, 1994). Although each approach emphasizes                   different aspects of language use, they all view language as social             interaction. 
This digest focuses on the application of discourse              analysis to second language teaching and learning. It provides                  examples of how teachers can improve their teaching practices by                investigating actual language use both in and out of the classroom,             and how students can learn language through exposure to different               types of discourse. Detailed introductions to discourse analysis,               with special attention to the needs and experiences of language                 teachers, can be found in Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000),                     Hatch (1992), McCarthy (1992), McCarthy and Carter (1994), and                  Riggenbach (1999). DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND SECOND LANGUAGE                     TEACHINGEven with the most communicative approaches, the second             language classroom is limited in its ability to develop learners'               communicative competence in the target language. This is due to the             restricted number of contact hours with the language; minimal                   opportunities for interacting with native speakers; and limited                 exposure to the variety of functions, genres, speech events, and                discourse types that occur outside the classroom. Given the limited             time available for students to practice the target language,                    teachers should maximize opportunities for student participation.               Classroom research is one way for teachers to monitor both the                  quantity and quality of students' output. By following a four-part              process of Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze, second language teachers             can use discourse analytic techniques to investigate the interaction            patterns in their classrooms and to see how these patterns promote              or hinder opportunities for learners to practice the target                     language. This process allows language teachers to study their own              teaching behavior--specifically, the frequency, distribution, and               types of questions they use and their effect on students'                       responses. 
"Step One": Videotape a complete lesson. Be sure to                capture all of your questions and the students'                                 responses. (Opportunities to speak the target language are often                created by teachers' questions.) 
"Step Two": Watch the videotape.             As you watch it, think about the types of questions you asked. Look             for recurring patterns in your questioning style and the impact it              has on the students' responses. 
"Step Three": Transcribe the                  lesson. A transcript will make it easier to identify the types of               questions in the data and to focus on specific questions and student            responses. "Step Four": Analyze the videotape and transcript. Why               did you ask each question? What type of question was                            it--open (e.g., "What points do you think the author was making in              the chapter you read yesterday?") or closed (e.g., "Did you like the            chapter?")? Was the question effective in terms of your goals for               teaching and learning? What effect did your questions have on the               students' opportunities to practice the target language? How did the            students respond to different types of questions? Were you satisfied            with their responses? Which questions elicited the most discussion              from the students? Did the students ask any questions? Focusing on              actual classroom interaction, teachers can investigate how one                  aspect of their teaching style affects students' opportunities for              speaking the target language. They can then make changes that will              allow students more practice with a wider variety of discourse                  types. 
Teachers can also use this process of                                  Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze to study communication patterns in               different classroom activities, such as student-to-student                      interactions during a paired role-play task and during a small-group            cooperative learning activity. Communicative activities are expected            to promote interaction and to provide opportunities for students to             engage in talk. Teachers are likely to discover that students                   produce different speech patterns in response to different tasks.               For example, a map activity is likely to elicit a series of                     questions and answers among participants, whereas a picture                     narration task requires a monologue developed around a narrative                format. Given that teachers use communicative tasks to evaluate                 learners' proficiency, a better understanding of the influence of               specific activities on learner discourse will likely lead teachers              to use a greater variety of tasks in order to gain a more                       comprehensive picture of students' abilities. By recording,                     transcribing, and analyzing students' discourse, teachers can gain              insight into the effect of specific tasks on students' language                 production and, over time, on their language development. 
A                   discourse analysis of classroom interactions can also shed light on             cross-cultural linguistic patterns that may be leading to                       communication difficulties. For example, some speakers may engage in            overlap, speaking while someone else is taking a turn-at-talk. For              some linguistic groups, this discourse behavior can be interpreted              as a signal of engagement and involvement; however, other speakers              may view it as an interruption and imposition on their speaking                 rights. Teachers can use the Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze                     technique to study cross-cultural interactions in their classrooms,             helping students identify different communication strategies and                their potential for miscommunication. 
Although some variables of              language learning are beyond the control of second language                     teachers, discourse analysis can be a useful analytic tool for                  making informed changes in instructional practices. Mainstream                  teachers, especially those with second language learners, can also              use this technique to study classroom interactions in order to focus            on the learning opportunities available to students with limited                English proficiency. In fact, discourse analysis can be an integral             part of a program of professional development for all teachers that             includes classroom-based research, with the overall aim of improving            teaching (Johnson, 1995). DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND SECOND LANGUAGE              LEARNINGLanguage learners face the monumental task of acquiring             not only new vocabulary, syntactic patterns, and phonology, but also            discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic                     competence, and interactional competence. They need opportunities to            investigate the systematicity of language at all linguistic levels,             especially at the highest level (Riggenbach, 1999; Young and He,                1998). Without knowledge of and experience with the discourse and               sociocultural patterns of the target language, second language                  learners are likely to rely on the strategies and expectations                  acquired as part of their first language development, which may be              inappropriate for the second language setting and may lead to                   communication difficulties and misunderstandings. 
One problem for             second language learners is limited experience with a variety of                interactive practices in the target language. Therefore, one of the             goals of second language teaching is to expose learners to different            discourse patterns in different texts and interactions. One way that            teachers can include the study of discourse in the second language              classroom is to allow the students themselves to study language,                that is, to make them discourse analysts (see Celce-Murcia &                    Olshtain, 2000; McCarthy & Carter, 1994; Riggenbach, 1999). By                  exploring natural language use in authentic environments, learners              gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the discourse                  patterns associated with a given genre or speech event as well as               the sociolinguistic factors that contribute to linguistic variation             across settings and contexts. For example, students can study speech            acts in a service encounter, turn-taking patterns in a conversation             between friends, opening and closings of answering machine messages,            or other aspects of speech events. Riggenbach (1999) suggests a wide            variety of activities that can easily be adapted to suit a range of             second language learning contexts. 
One discourse feature that is              easy to study is listener response behavior, also known as                      backchannels. Backchannels are the brief verbal responses that a                listener uses while another individual is talking, such as mm-hmm,              ok, yeah, and oh wow. Listener response can also be non-verbal, for             instance head nods. Research has identified variation among                     languages in the use of backchannels, which makes it an interesting             feature to study. Variation has been found not only in the frequency            of backchannels, but also in the type of backchannels, their                    placement in the ongoing talk, and their interpretation by the                  participants (Clancy, Thompson, Suzuki, & Tao, 1996). Students can              participate in the Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze technique to study            the linguistic form and function of backchannels in                             conversation. 
"Step One": Ask to video- or audiotape a pair of                native speakers engaging in conversation, perhaps over coffee or                lunch. 
"Step Two": Play the tape for students. Have them identify             patterns in the recorded linguistic behavior. In this case, pay                 attention to the backchanneling behavior of the participants. Is the            same backchannel token used repeatedly, or is there                             variation? 
"Step Three": Transcribe the conversation so that                  students can count the number and types of backchannel tokens and               examine their placement within the discourse. "Step 4": Have                    students analyze specific discourse features individually, in pairs             or in small groups. These are some questions to consider: How often             do the participants use a backchannel token? How does backchanneling            contribute to the participants' understanding of and involvement in             the conversation? How can differences in backchannel frequency be               explained? How does backchanneling work in the students' native                 language? 
Students can collect and analyze data themselves. Once              collected, this set of authentic language data can be repeatedly                examined for other conversational features, then later compared to              discourse features found in other speech events. This discourse                 approach to language learning removes language from the confines of             textbooks and makes it tangible, so that students can explore                   language as interaction rather than as grammatical units. Teachers              can also use these activities to raise students' awareness of                   language variation, dialect differences, and cultural                           diversity. CONCLUSIONIn sum, teachers can use discourse                   analysis not only as a research method for investigating their own              teaching practices but also as a tool for studying interactions                 among language learners. Learners can benefit from using discourse              analysis to explore what language is and how it is used to achieve              communicative goals in different contexts. Thus discourse analysis              can help to create a second language learning environment that more             accurately reflects how language is used and encourages learners                toward their goal of proficiency in another                                     language. 
<REFS>REFERENCES

Celce-Murcia, M,. & Olshtain,                   E. (2000). "Discourse and context in language teaching." New York:              Cambridge University Press. 
Clancy, P., Thompson, S., Suzuki,                 R., & Tao, H. (1996). The conversational use of reactive tokens in              English, Japanese, and Mandarin. "Journal of Pragmatics, 26,"                   355-387. 
Hatch, E. (1992). "Discourse and language education." New            York: Cambridge University Press. 
Johnson,                                    K. (1995). "Understanding communication in second language                      classrooms." New York: Cambridge University Press. 
McCarthy,                  M. (1992). "Discourse analysis for language teachers." New York:                Cambridge University Press. 
McCarthy, M., & Carter,                           R. (1994). "Language as discourse: Perspectives for language                    teachers." New York: Longman. 
Riggenbach, H. (1999). "Discourse               analysis in the language classroom: Volume 1. The spoken language."             Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. 
Schiffrin,                       D. (1994). "Approaches to discourse." Oxford: Blackwell. 
Young,               R., & He, A. (1998). "Talking and testing: Discourse approaches to              the assessment of oral proficiency." Philadelphia: John                         Benjamins. -----This digest was prepared with funding from the            U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and                     Improvement, National Library of Education, under contract no.                  ED-99-CO-0008. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the            positions or policies of ED, OERI, or NLE.                                   **Title:** Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. ERIC Digest.                       **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, 4646 40th Street,              NW, Washington, DC 20016. Tel: 202-362-0700; For full text:                     http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest.                                           **Descriptors:**  Classroom Communication,  Discourse Analysis,  Language Teachers,              Language Usage,  Second Language Instruction, Second Language                   Learning                                                                     **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
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