Faculty of Law and Business Studies English Language Pragmatics

Discourse Analysis and Language Teaching

Student Bozidar Ciric 48/08

Mentor Ivana Maric

24.10.2010 Novi Sad

Introduction Communicative approach is based on an idea that essential feature of language is communication. Being able to communicate is the main goal of language teaching. The most effective way to teach or learn language is by practicing it through communication. Linguistic and communicative competence is equally important since the form of language is not relevant unless we do not know how to use it in communication. Emphasis on grammar results in poor speaking skills, therefore, teachers need to develop learning environments through various situations in order to develop language. Sentence has been used as a basic unit of analysis for many years in the past century. Language learners were educated to produce and recognize linguistically adequate sentences. This means that rules and exercises were all directed to sentences as individual units. However, sentences lack the real meaning when taken out from the context. Nowadays, learning and teaching language take discourse as a basic unit of analysis. Texts are essential for practicing and understanding language use within larger contexts. Learners may never accomplish complete linguistic competence and yet various situations will involve target language for communication. Learners that are good communicators in the first language are likely to become successful communicators in their second. Communication strategies such as paraphrasing and gesticulation are useful in second language learning.

Shared knowledge is refered to as learners general knowledge of the world. This reliance on knowledge of the world is not always councious but it affects the communication by either making it easy or blocking it. The degree of such knowledge will determain to which level the communication will expand. In order not to create miscommunication, shared knowledge must include knowledge of the world and sociocultural knowledge of the community whose language the learner is trying to acquire. In formal language teaching there is a distinction between adult learners and adolescents in school. Cultural background is a part of adults knowledge of the world. Cross-cultural differences may interfere with succesful communication in the target language, so they must be considered. Adolescent or students in school, on the other hand, might not have adequate world knowledge. Problems might occur when a text in the target language is brought to class and the student is not familiar with the subject matter. Therefore, the language learner needs to have a broad world knowledge that interacts with the language communication. Language classroom is a unique discourse community because it shares common goals, common language, and a suitable code of behaviour. Another feature of language class is that the communication takes place in the target language although it could be more succesful in the first language. According to Swales, there are six characteristics that define a group of people as a discourse community: 1. A discourse community has a set of common public goals. The goal of the language classroom is to support the students acquisiiton of the target language.

2.

discourse

community

has

mechanisms

for

intercommunication. Teacher communicates with students through instructions and assisstance. Students communicate with teacher through homework and group actions. 3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. 4. The instruction and guidance that teachers direct at their students take on a genre that the students recognize. Any particular classroom may develop its own unique genre, which fits the common goals and preferences of that particular teacher and that particular group of students. 5. A discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. Any teacher, but particularly a language teacher, may have his or her own preferred stock of words and phrases, which then become the lexis of the classroom. 6 A discourse community has members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. In the discourse community there is a specific environment within which the students can improve their language competence and performance.

Within the teaching context, discourse analysis has significant applications in the language areas of phonology, grammar and vocabulary. Phonology provides the series of possible rhythm and intonation combinations. Appropriate control of rhythm and intonation are an important part of oral communicative competence. Students need to be alerted to similarities and differences in rhythm and intonation between their native language and the target language.

A discourse-oriented approach to grammar places importance both on the texts within which grammatical points are presented and different grammatical forms. It is important to know not only how grammatical forms function but also what are their characteristics within the context. It is the pragmatic rules of grammar that play an important part in a discourse approach to grammar. Vocabulary cannot be taught or learned out of context. Every word has one or more fundamental dictionary definitions. However, complete meaning of the word can only be derived from the combination of contextual and dictionary meaning. Furthermore, the equivalent words in two different languages can have diverse meaning used in discourse. Words can be figurative, concerning metaphorical use, and literal. Those with discourse function are much more dependant on context for their meaning.

Communication involves two major processes: transmitting our thoughts and understanding the text or message. First process includes production and the second one reception. A combination of speaking strategies and discourse knowledge is a discourse. On the other hand, discourse interpretation is a combination of discourse knowledge and listening or reading strategies. A distinction can be made between productive and listening skills. For productive skills, learners need to develop helpful communication strategies based on either oral or written production. For receptive skills, learners need to develop interpretation skills related to either reading a text or listening.

Language teachers should provide learners with different listening activities that can improve their listening skills. During such activities it is important that learners have the opportunity to combine recognition of phonological signals, such as stress, pause, and intonation, and recognition of lexicogrammatical signals, such as discourse markers and lexical phrases. A successful and effective listener combines all of the above in an attempt to understand the spoken message. In order to understand a written text, the reader needs to decode and interpret the message and understand the authors intention. Proficiency level of the learner is very important. Lack of proficiency may lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the target text. Coherence and cohesion are two major features of a well-written text. Coherence is the result of readers proper response to the writers plan and relates to the discourse world of written text. Cohesion refers to those features of a text that provides evidence for its connectedness and unity. Speaking skill is very different from the writing because speaking happens here and now. In oral communication misunderstanding is quite common. This happens when, for example, the speaker does not have the control of the target language, which results in production of false forms, or the speaker and the hearer do not share the same background knowledge.

Gaining experience through listening and writing exercises as well as improving background knowledge is essential for language learner. Communicative interaction is vital for obtaining speech production strategies. These strategies are very important in overcoming linguistic deficiencies that most nonnative speakers have.