Discourse Analysis

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the nature of language use in social interaction
• the nature of coherence and interpretability
• the importance of context to meaning and the nature of the context of situation
• social roles, deixis and power in discourse

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• apply theoretical models to language in use.
• describe how information is structured in normal discourse
• describe how culture and context form understanding of language in use

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• plan and organise your own learning schedule
• analyse the discourse organisation of texts

The module will take you through some of the ways in which language is organised above the level of the

sentence. It will deal with the explicit and implicit linking of sentences to form texts and the ways that texts

are anchored in their contexts of situation. It will examine how we use our knowledge of the world to

understand utterances and will explore the ways in which conversational principles and social roles constrain

our choice of utterance.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

seminars

workshops

Learning activities include

individual study

preparing presentations and discussions in small groups

conducting analyses and small research projects

Innovative or special features of this module

weekly practical tasks feed into sessions

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Jaworski, A. & N. Coupland (1999). The Discourse Reader. London: Routledge.

Johnstone, B. (2008). Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.

Schiffrin, D., D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (2001). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback

guidance on oral presentations

discussion of written assignments (in advance and after completion)

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External