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Discourse is a continuous text with sentences working together as a unit in spoken or written language. Signed language is also a form of discourse (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 237).
Discourse Analysis is the "...study of connected text, or units of language about the level of the sentence, and the utterances of which they are composed" (Curzan & Adams, 2012 , p. 237).
Critical Discourse Analysis - is more concerned with "...'institutional discourse' - the media, the language of courtrooms, and political language..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 237).
Spoken discourse is considered by linguistics as the primary form because of two reasons:
"(1) Speakers acquire the spoken language naturally as children, without explicit instruction, whereas writing is a consciously acquired skill.
(2) Many spoken languages exist without written forms (many Native American languages, for
instance)" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 43). In spoken discourse we know who the audience is, we can clarify what we are saying, clear up any misunderstandings and understand shared knowledge. In written discourse communication is less immediate, there is more difficulty to clarify a misunderstanding and to always know who the audience is (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p.43).
Spoken Discourse
Spoken Discourse is spoken language: The utterance is "...the basic unit of spoken discourse..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 237).
The Speech Act Theory says that when we speak, our language actually performs or does things; that we are not just talking (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 238). Jin Sook Lee (2005) says that, "Speech Act Theory is basically concerned with what what people do with language, the communicative intentions of speakers, and the process by which they achieve the communicative goal" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 23).
The Speech Act Theory was the result of the work of two philosophers, J. L. Austin and John Searle. "Speech act theory examines how language is related to action - how utterances accomplish things..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 238). Austin described the following basic speech acts: (1) the locutionary act which is the "utterance and its referential meaning", (2) the illocutionary act which is the utterance's intended meaning, and (3) the perlocutionary act which is the utterance's effect on the hearer (Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 238-239).
John Searle further divided illocutionary speech acts into the following additional categories:
(1) Representatives (state, claim, describe, tell, etc), (2) Directives (order, command, ask, dare, challenge, etc), (3) Commissives (promise, threaten, vow, etc), (4) Expressives (thank, congratulate, welcome, apologize, etc), and (5) Declarations (bless, fire, baptize, pass sentence, etc) (Curzan & Adams, p. 240).
Speech Acts can also be direct or indirect. Jin Sook Lee (2005) said that with direct speech acts "...the speaker means what he or she literally says"...."and indirect speech acts refer to performative acts where the speaker means more or something other than what is uttered..."(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 25). We use indirect speech frequently when we are attempting to be polite in making a request of someone. Indirect speech can also be used in sarcasm (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 241). "We as speakers often go to significant conversational lengths to be polite because we understand the needs and wants of those with whom we speak, as well as the power dynamics of the situation " (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 249).
Positive Politeness - uses terms to address others such as friendliness, kindnesses, and thanking to make others feel appreciated or liked (Curzan & Adams, pp. 250-251). Example: Thank you for lending me the book and may I borrow it again?
Negative Politeness - uses terms that apologize or show deference in order to make others feel respected and not taken advantage of (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 251). Example: I'm sorry to ask you, but could I borrow that book again?
Pragmatics - "Study of how we communicate in language, with emphasis on [speech act theory]..." (Curzan & Adams 2012, p. 505). "Pragmatics is 'the study of language from the point of view of users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in the act of communication' " (Crystal, 1985, p. 240) (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). In the article, “Embracing Diversity Through the Understanding of Pragmatics”, Jin Sook Lee as sited in Denham & Lobeck (2005) expressed what a hard job teachers of students from many cultural backgrounds have. They need to understand what is normal discourse in the students’ cultures in order to help them gain confidence in speaking English. Because other cultures can have different rules of speaking, ELL students can easily be misunderstood. Lee wrote, “As agents of socialization, teachers must facilitate the process of socialization for children from culturally and linguistically diverse families in ways that respect the children’s home language and culture” (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). Lee also wrote that teachers need to be “…ethnographers of language use in the various speech communities…” they work with (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 26).
An understanding about pragmatics, and how other cultures may have very different rules as to "...what should be said to whom, when, where, why and how ", is very important for teachers of English language learners (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). For example, in Korea, if you accidentally bumped into someone while walking, you would not have to say, "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me", and you would not have to thank a server in a restaurant after he brings your food. It is very different in American culture and "...teachers are likely to expect their own norms of language behavior from students of different backgrounds and make misinformed judgments of students' language abilities. Only after teachers recognize what communicative resources students bring with them, can they begin to successfully help them acquire language rules of the classroom" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, pp. 19).
Discourse Markers - help to organize what is said in discourse, giving hints to those listening about what will be said next and how it will relate to what was said before (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p.p. 253-254). Many parts of speech can be used as discourse markers. Example: now, so, then, however Lexical clauses may also be used as discourse markers. Example: I mean, and You know (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 254). Many young people in America use the discourse marker "like" throughout their speech (and it can be used as several different parts of speech) as a noun, verb, preposition or conjunction (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 255).
Conversation is a type of discourse in which there is usually more than one speaker and is "...created from sequences of turns" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 256). Conversations begin with openings, such as "Hi", or "How are you?" Responses form the second speaker are typical, such as "Fine", and "And you?" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 256). ELL students from China might be used to greeting someone with "Are you well?" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 257).
Conversation Analysis has shown that as a conversation begins to end pauses are longer and reasons to close the conversation are typical such as, "Nice talking to you", and "See you later" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 257). Cues such as eye contact, gestures and intonation can indicate a turn in the conversation. Sometimes a speaker will unintentionally overlap another speaker but interruption is considered a violation of turn-taking (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). Interruptions may be more common and accepted in some cultures. Others may think interruption is wrong (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). It is common for English speakers to use minimal response or back-channeling to show that they are listening to what is being said such as, "yeah", and "uh huh", (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). Moving from informal to more formal language is called style-shift due to social situations (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 261).
Conversational Implicature - the way in conversation speakers imply or suggest meaning to what is being said that is different from what the utterance actually says. The hearer makes inferences based on shared knowledge (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 246).
Example: "[phone rings]
John: 'Can you get that, Susan?'
Susan: 'I'm in the shower.' "
(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 20).
Regarding conversational implicature and teaching English language learners, Jin Sook Lee (2005) said, that "Due to the differences in how contexts are interpreted across cultures, teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse students cannot automatically assume that the student will be able to make the intended inferences. Until students have been enculturated into the pragmatic norms used by the academic mainstream culture, more direct and explicit speech is needed to minimize the risks of miscommunication" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 20).
English Language Variations
People in the United States often speak with accents based upon the languages of the countries they immigrated from or the region of the country in which they live. Their manner of speech is also influenced by things like a person's age, gender or ethnic background (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347).
Dialect is defined as "...a variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is systematically different from other varieties of the language in terms of structural (e.g., phonological, morphological, syntactic) or lexical features" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347). When speakers cannot understand each other at all, they are speaking different languages. If they are speaking the same language, even very differently, but can understand each other, they are speaking dialects of the same language (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 349). An accent involves phonological differences affecting pronunciation (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347). People who speak with a language variation are often judged by the way they speak and not by what they are saying (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 368). Teachers of English language learners need to be sensitive to the school environment as to how children coming from other cultures are treated by mainstream students.
Code-switching is when a speaker is able to switch from one language to another during a conversation (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 371). Bilingual speakers often code-switch with other bilingual speakers (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 374). African-American students are often able to code-switch between African American English (AAE) and Standard American English (SAE) when they are encouraged in the classroom to do so. This can help these students to learn Standard English. "...[S]tudents can become bidialectal as bilingual, and most students understand the political, social and economic reasons to master Standard English" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 411).
Discourse Analysis is the "...study of connected text, or units of language about the level of the sentence, and the utterances of which they are composed" (Curzan & Adams, 2012 , p. 237).
Critical Discourse Analysis - is more concerned with "...'institutional discourse' - the media, the language of courtrooms, and political language..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 237).
Spoken discourse is considered by linguistics as the primary form because of two reasons:
"(1) Speakers acquire the spoken language naturally as children, without explicit instruction, whereas writing is a consciously acquired skill.
(2) Many spoken languages exist without written forms (many Native American languages, for
instance)" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 43). In spoken discourse we know who the audience is, we can clarify what we are saying, clear up any misunderstandings and understand shared knowledge. In written discourse communication is less immediate, there is more difficulty to clarify a misunderstanding and to always know who the audience is (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p.43).
Spoken Discourse
Spoken Discourse is spoken language: The utterance is "...the basic unit of spoken discourse..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 237).
The Speech Act Theory says that when we speak, our language actually performs or does things; that we are not just talking (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 238). Jin Sook Lee (2005) says that, "Speech Act Theory is basically concerned with what what people do with language, the communicative intentions of speakers, and the process by which they achieve the communicative goal" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 23).
The Speech Act Theory was the result of the work of two philosophers, J. L. Austin and John Searle. "Speech act theory examines how language is related to action - how utterances accomplish things..." (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 238). Austin described the following basic speech acts: (1) the locutionary act which is the "utterance and its referential meaning", (2) the illocutionary act which is the utterance's intended meaning, and (3) the perlocutionary act which is the utterance's effect on the hearer (Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 238-239).
John Searle further divided illocutionary speech acts into the following additional categories:
(1) Representatives (state, claim, describe, tell, etc), (2) Directives (order, command, ask, dare, challenge, etc), (3) Commissives (promise, threaten, vow, etc), (4) Expressives (thank, congratulate, welcome, apologize, etc), and (5) Declarations (bless, fire, baptize, pass sentence, etc) (Curzan & Adams, p. 240).
Speech Acts can also be direct or indirect. Jin Sook Lee (2005) said that with direct speech acts "...the speaker means what he or she literally says"...."and indirect speech acts refer to performative acts where the speaker means more or something other than what is uttered..."(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 25). We use indirect speech frequently when we are attempting to be polite in making a request of someone. Indirect speech can also be used in sarcasm (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 241). "We as speakers often go to significant conversational lengths to be polite because we understand the needs and wants of those with whom we speak, as well as the power dynamics of the situation " (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 249).
Positive Politeness - uses terms to address others such as friendliness, kindnesses, and thanking to make others feel appreciated or liked (Curzan & Adams, pp. 250-251). Example: Thank you for lending me the book and may I borrow it again?
Negative Politeness - uses terms that apologize or show deference in order to make others feel respected and not taken advantage of (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 251). Example: I'm sorry to ask you, but could I borrow that book again?
Pragmatics - "Study of how we communicate in language, with emphasis on [speech act theory]..." (Curzan & Adams 2012, p. 505). "Pragmatics is 'the study of language from the point of view of users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in the act of communication' " (Crystal, 1985, p. 240) (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). In the article, “Embracing Diversity Through the Understanding of Pragmatics”, Jin Sook Lee as sited in Denham & Lobeck (2005) expressed what a hard job teachers of students from many cultural backgrounds have. They need to understand what is normal discourse in the students’ cultures in order to help them gain confidence in speaking English. Because other cultures can have different rules of speaking, ELL students can easily be misunderstood. Lee wrote, “As agents of socialization, teachers must facilitate the process of socialization for children from culturally and linguistically diverse families in ways that respect the children’s home language and culture” (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). Lee also wrote that teachers need to be “…ethnographers of language use in the various speech communities…” they work with (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 26).
An understanding about pragmatics, and how other cultures may have very different rules as to "...what should be said to whom, when, where, why and how ", is very important for teachers of English language learners (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 18). For example, in Korea, if you accidentally bumped into someone while walking, you would not have to say, "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me", and you would not have to thank a server in a restaurant after he brings your food. It is very different in American culture and "...teachers are likely to expect their own norms of language behavior from students of different backgrounds and make misinformed judgments of students' language abilities. Only after teachers recognize what communicative resources students bring with them, can they begin to successfully help them acquire language rules of the classroom" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, pp. 19).
Discourse Markers - help to organize what is said in discourse, giving hints to those listening about what will be said next and how it will relate to what was said before (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p.p. 253-254). Many parts of speech can be used as discourse markers. Example: now, so, then, however Lexical clauses may also be used as discourse markers. Example: I mean, and You know (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 254). Many young people in America use the discourse marker "like" throughout their speech (and it can be used as several different parts of speech) as a noun, verb, preposition or conjunction (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 255).
Conversation is a type of discourse in which there is usually more than one speaker and is "...created from sequences of turns" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 256). Conversations begin with openings, such as "Hi", or "How are you?" Responses form the second speaker are typical, such as "Fine", and "And you?" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 256). ELL students from China might be used to greeting someone with "Are you well?" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 257).
Conversation Analysis has shown that as a conversation begins to end pauses are longer and reasons to close the conversation are typical such as, "Nice talking to you", and "See you later" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 257). Cues such as eye contact, gestures and intonation can indicate a turn in the conversation. Sometimes a speaker will unintentionally overlap another speaker but interruption is considered a violation of turn-taking (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). Interruptions may be more common and accepted in some cultures. Others may think interruption is wrong (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). It is common for English speakers to use minimal response or back-channeling to show that they are listening to what is being said such as, "yeah", and "uh huh", (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 259). Moving from informal to more formal language is called style-shift due to social situations (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 261).
Conversational Implicature - the way in conversation speakers imply or suggest meaning to what is being said that is different from what the utterance actually says. The hearer makes inferences based on shared knowledge (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 246).
Example: "[phone rings]
John: 'Can you get that, Susan?'
Susan: 'I'm in the shower.' "
(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 20).
Regarding conversational implicature and teaching English language learners, Jin Sook Lee (2005) said, that "Due to the differences in how contexts are interpreted across cultures, teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse students cannot automatically assume that the student will be able to make the intended inferences. Until students have been enculturated into the pragmatic norms used by the academic mainstream culture, more direct and explicit speech is needed to minimize the risks of miscommunication" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 20).
English Language Variations
People in the United States often speak with accents based upon the languages of the countries they immigrated from or the region of the country in which they live. Their manner of speech is also influenced by things like a person's age, gender or ethnic background (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347).
Dialect is defined as "...a variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is systematically different from other varieties of the language in terms of structural (e.g., phonological, morphological, syntactic) or lexical features" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347). When speakers cannot understand each other at all, they are speaking different languages. If they are speaking the same language, even very differently, but can understand each other, they are speaking dialects of the same language (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 349). An accent involves phonological differences affecting pronunciation (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 347). People who speak with a language variation are often judged by the way they speak and not by what they are saying (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 368). Teachers of English language learners need to be sensitive to the school environment as to how children coming from other cultures are treated by mainstream students.
Code-switching is when a speaker is able to switch from one language to another during a conversation (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 371). Bilingual speakers often code-switch with other bilingual speakers (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 374). African-American students are often able to code-switch between African American English (AAE) and Standard American English (SAE) when they are encouraged in the classroom to do so. This can help these students to learn Standard English. "...[S]tudents can become bidialectal as bilingual, and most students understand the political, social and economic reasons to master Standard English" (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 411).
Contrastive Analysis - In the article, How and Why to Use the Verncular to Teach Standard English by Rebecca Wheeler (2005), she defines Constrastive Analysis as "...critical thinking to contrast the grammatical patterns of the child's language variety (home speech) to the grammatical patterns of school speech, thus making the language contrasts explicit to the child and available to their conscious awareness. As we add another linguistic code, Standard English, to the child's linguistic toolbox, the child learns to codeswitch between the language of the home and the language of the school..."(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 171). Students with dialects are often corrected and told that their grammar is bad, but they are simply using the language that they have grown up with. Instead of so much correcting, using Contrastive Analysis and codeswitching instead is much more effective in helping such students acquire Standard English (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, pp. 171-172). Teachers can encourage codeswitching in their classroom by using some of the suggestions as found in Wheeler's article such as when the teacher collects writings from students in class, the teacher can create a Contrastive Analysis chart in order to "...help the student choose the language code that is appropriate to the time, place, audience and communicative purpose"(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 177). Students can use highlighters to indicate what is Standard English. Wheeler adds that the students will be "...enthusiastic about noting their grammar successes"(Denham & Lobeck, 2005, p. 177). The following two books were mentioned in Wheeler's article: Flossie and the Fox by Patricia C. McKissack and Nappy Hair by Ayana Hardin. Using books such as these in the classroom can help students learn respect for other varieties of language and cultures, and "...allows students to discover how language variety is necessary to create authentic voice and literary character" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, 177).
Written Discourse
Narratives or Telling Stories - A narrative is a way for speakers or writers to tell of their experiences or things they have imagined. In a narrative something needs to happen or change (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 284).
There are six parts to a narrative:
(1) Abstract - introduction and summary
(2) Orientation - information about background and character
(3) Complicating action - what happened
(4) Evaluation - can be throughout the narrative, why it is interesting, author's attitude, and anticipated reaction
(5) Resolution - what finally happened
(6) Coda- final conclusion
(Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 284-285)
Not all narratives have each of these parts, but the complicating action is necessary, so that the reader will want to know what happens next. Children learn this concept early even in fairy tales and stories (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 286). "...[N]arratives are the earliest written form that children are expected to master at school. Moreover, narratives are a primary means by which human beings make sense of their experience (Hymes, 1982)" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, pp. 122- 123).
A "Writers' Workshop" for ELL students is a good way to teach writing a narrative. The writing is based on a subject or story that the students have been learning about in class. The teacher uses a chart with vocabulary already written on it and asks the students what facts they have been learning about in the subject or story. If the teacher has not provided a chart, the teacher can prompt the children to brainstorm as the teacher writes vocabulary words on the board. A blank four-square sheet with lines and a rectangular box in the middle of the page is passed out to the class, then the teacher draws an enlarged four-square on the board. The teacher writes a title within the rectangular box for the students to copy. In the first box, the teacher and the student collaborate on sentences to write about the subject and then fill out the other boxes. The students copy the sentences from the board onto their four-square sheets. After they have filled out their boxes, lined paper is passed out for the students to write a rough draft. The students are also prompted how to indent at the beginning of their paragraphs. All sentences are modeled, but higher level students can create their own sentences to add to the paragraph. The following week, the students complete their rough drafts while the teacher walks around the room to check spelling and grammar. When everything looks correct, they are able to copy their completed sentences on paper on their final draft, draw and color pictures and then glue them onto construction paper to be presented on a bulletin board.
Written Discourse
Narratives or Telling Stories - A narrative is a way for speakers or writers to tell of their experiences or things they have imagined. In a narrative something needs to happen or change (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 284).
There are six parts to a narrative:
(1) Abstract - introduction and summary
(2) Orientation - information about background and character
(3) Complicating action - what happened
(4) Evaluation - can be throughout the narrative, why it is interesting, author's attitude, and anticipated reaction
(5) Resolution - what finally happened
(6) Coda- final conclusion
(Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 284-285)
Not all narratives have each of these parts, but the complicating action is necessary, so that the reader will want to know what happens next. Children learn this concept early even in fairy tales and stories (Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 286). "...[N]arratives are the earliest written form that children are expected to master at school. Moreover, narratives are a primary means by which human beings make sense of their experience (Hymes, 1982)" (Denham & Lobeck, 2005, pp. 122- 123).
A "Writers' Workshop" for ELL students is a good way to teach writing a narrative. The writing is based on a subject or story that the students have been learning about in class. The teacher uses a chart with vocabulary already written on it and asks the students what facts they have been learning about in the subject or story. If the teacher has not provided a chart, the teacher can prompt the children to brainstorm as the teacher writes vocabulary words on the board. A blank four-square sheet with lines and a rectangular box in the middle of the page is passed out to the class, then the teacher draws an enlarged four-square on the board. The teacher writes a title within the rectangular box for the students to copy. In the first box, the teacher and the student collaborate on sentences to write about the subject and then fill out the other boxes. The students copy the sentences from the board onto their four-square sheets. After they have filled out their boxes, lined paper is passed out for the students to write a rough draft. The students are also prompted how to indent at the beginning of their paragraphs. All sentences are modeled, but higher level students can create their own sentences to add to the paragraph. The following week, the students complete their rough drafts while the teacher walks around the room to check spelling and grammar. When everything looks correct, they are able to copy their completed sentences on paper on their final draft, draw and color pictures and then glue them onto construction paper to be presented on a bulletin board.