Discourse

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Discourse analysis - the study of spoken and written language in its social and psychological context - can provide important insights for the language teacher. Discourse explains the relevant theory and applies it to classroom activities designed to improve students' discourse skills. The teacher is then shown how these activities may be further developed in specific teaching situations.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Section 1 Explanation - Theories of discourse
• 1 What is discourse?
• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Sentence study in language teaching and linguistics
• 1.3 Discourse and the sentence
• 1.4 Grammar within and beyond the sentence
• 1.5 Language in and out of context
• 1.6 The origins of discourse analysis
• 2 Formal links
• 2.1 Formal and contextual links
• 2.2 Verb form
• 2.3 Parallelism
• 2.4 Referring expressions
• 2.5 Repetition and lexical chains
• 2.6 Substitution
• 2.7 Ellipsis
• 2.8 Conjunction
• 2.9 Conclusion
• 3 Why formal links are not enough
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Language functions
• 3.3 The classification of macro-functions
• 3.4 Functional development
• 3.5 Micro-functions and functional language teaching
• 3.6 Functional analysis and coherence
• 3.7 Conversational principles: co-operation
• 3.8 Flouting the co-! operative principle
• 3.9 Conversational principles: politeness
• 3.10 The social basis of conversational priciples
• 3.11 Speech acts
• 3.12 Declarations and performatives
• 3.13 Speech act theory and coherence
• 3.14 Underlying force
• 3.15 Pragmatics, discourse analysis, and language teaching
• 4 Two views of discourse structure: as product and as process
• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Rank structure
• 4.3 The Birmingham School of Discourse Analysis
• 4.4 Discourse typology: spoken and written; formal and informal
• 4.5 Conversation as a discourse type
• 4.6 Conversation analysis
• 4.7 Turn-taking
• 4.8 Turn types
• 4.9 Discourse as process
• 4.10 Conclusion
• 5 Discourse as dialogue
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 Dialogue in communicative development
• 5.3 Discourse typology: reciprocity
• 5.4 Reciprocity, dialogue, and word order
• 5.5 Information structure in discourse
• 6 Knowledge in discourse
• 6.1 Introduction
• 6.2 Knowledge structures: schemata
• 6.3 Evidence for schemata
• 6.4 Complex schemata
• 6.5 Relevance
• 6.6 Discourse deviation
• 6.7 Conclusion
• Section 2 Demonstration - Discourse in language learning and teaching
• 7 Two approaches to developing discourse skills
• 7.1 Introduction
• 7.2 A top-down approach to discourse processing
• 7.3 Atomistic and holistic activities
• 7.4 Arguments for and against an atomistic approach
• 7.5 Conclusion
• 8 Focusing on senders and receivers
• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 Office, status, role, and identity
• 8.3 Shared knowledge
• 8.4 Information quantity and ordering
• 8.5 Adding and removing information
• 8.6 Developing article choice in discourse
• 8.7 Adjusting information structure
• 8.8 Changing dialogue and monologue
• 9 Discourse type and discourse part
• 9.1 Introduction
• 9.2 Culture specificity and discourse type
• 9.3 Discourse type recognition
• 9.4 Orientation within a discourse type
• 9.5 Orientation within a discourse part
• 9.6 Rec! ombination, approximation, transfer
• 10 Managing conversation
• 10.1 Introduction
• 10.2 Spoken and written discourse
• 10.3 'Teaching conversation'
• 10.4 Conversation activities
• 10.5 An approach to conversation development
• 10.6 Conversation and cultural appropriateness
• 11 Focusing on cohesion
• 11.1 Introduction
• 11.2 Activities developing cohesion
• 11.3 Conclusion
• 12 General discourse activities
• 12.1 Introduction
• 12.2 General activities: an example
• 12.3 Conclusion
• Section 3 Exploration
• 13 Developing discourse in the classroom
• Glossary
• Further reading
• Bibliography
• Index