DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

ANSELMUS SAHAN

To understand discourse analysis, I start with some leading questions. Through those questions, I can get a gateway to go in detail description about discourse analysis, its significance in learning and its programs to help readers or students, including all of us, know more it. In the first part, I raise three questions related the concept of discourse analysis, its unit of analysis, its tools keeping its data base, and the way discourse analysts regard the issue of objectivity-subjectivity and the quantitative-qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis.
The first question I should raise is “What is discourse analysis? Allwright (1991: 61) defines discourse analysis as variety of procedures for examining chunks of language, whether spoken or written. In the case of classroom research, it usually involves the analysis of spoken language as it is used in classrooms among teachers and learners. While Van Lier (1988: 22) describes it as an analysis of the process of interaction by means of a close examination of audiovisual records of interaction. However, in fact, it deals with many analytical processes, from coding and quantification to more qualitative interpretations.



What do discourse analysts typically examine as units of analysis, and what do they use as their data base? Discourse analysts typically use transcripts and audiotaped or video-taped interactions as their data base.
What is meant by “transcript”, and how important is it in discourse analysis? Transcript is written record of interaction in which researcher copies down, verbatim, the utterances of the participants. In fact, transcripts vary widely in their level of technical complexity. They may use standard orthography or detailed phonetic representations of speech, depending on the research goal. They are important in discourse analysis because, they show us, in ways that coded data and frequent count often mask, how classroom interaction develops, as a dynamic phenomenon. Therefore, many classroom researchers prefer to conduct discourse analyses with detailed transcripts, rather than using other data collection procedures which may be easier to do, but which also run the risk of obscuring important information.
And the last question is “How do discourse analysts regard the issue of objectivity-subjectivity and the quantitative-qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis?” Discourse analysts regard the issues of objectivity-subjectivity in term of collecting and recording classroom data. For example: In constructing such instruments, researchers distinguish between ‘low inference’ and ‘high inference’ categories of analysis. Low inference categories include things that can be counted or coded without the observer having to infer very much, while high inference demand that the observer make a judgment that goes well beyond what is immediately visible. In addition, discourse analysts regard the issues of quantitative-qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis as ways to analyze data that have been gathered or collected. The data can be quantified, as when an observer counts the frequency of certain behaviors (hand raising, for instance) or when researcher uses learners’ test scores as an outcome measure in a process-product study. After quantifying the qualitative data, researchers can easily count, analyze and interpret the data.

In the second part, I expose five questions related to five ranks of classroom discourse according to Sinclair and Coulthard, two analytical levels and its contain, types of move identified by Bellack (1966) and Fanselow (1977), kinds of acts constitute each move, and specific areas of L2 discourse analysis suggested by Chaudron (1977) and Tsui (1985).
The five ranks of classroom discourse according to Sinclair and Coulthard are lesson, transaction, exchange (boundary and teaching), move (opening, answering, follows-up, framing, and focusing), and act.
What are the two analytical levels, and what does each level contain? The two analytical levels of discourse are the linguistic level of sentential analysis and social/ pedagogical level of programs and courses. The discourse level is comprised of five ranks (lesson, transaction, exchange, move and act), each of which constitutes the elements of the rank, according to rank-specific structural rules. While social/pedagogical level consists of various structures, which are realized by “acts,” each having a specific discourse function.
How many types of move are identified by Bellack (1966) and Fanselow (1977), and what are they called? There are five types of move: opening move, answering move, follows-up move, framing move, and focusing move.
What kinds of acts constitute each move, and how are they further classified? Head act and adjunct act constitute each element of move and are further classified into three kinds: head, pre-head and post-head acts.
What are the specific areas of L2 discourse analysis suggested by Chaudron (1977) and Tsui (1985)? Briefly explain five of them! They are structural units (consisting of utterance, turn, turn-unit, communication unit, and fragment) and functional units (covering repetition, expansion, clarification request, comprehension check, confirmation check, repair, and model). Utterance is a string of speech by one speaker under a single intonation contour, and preceded and followed by another speaker’s speech, or a pause of more than x seconds. Turn is any speaker’s sequence of utterances bounded by another speaker’s speech. Turn-unit is any syntactic main clause and its associated subordinate clauses. Communication unit is an independent grammatical prediction; the same as a Turn-unit, except that in oral language, elliptical answers to questions also constitute complete predications. Fragment is any utterance which does not constitute a completed proposition (i.e., which explicit subject and verb).
In the last part, I address ten questions covering three reasons why a study of turn taking is significant in L2 research, four basic principles of turn taking and its principle, the ways turns can be classified on the basis of their functional distinction, some terms related turn taking, concept of topic as used in discourse analysis, topic regarded as a unit of analysis and as part of a discourse process, topic and activity, the importance of repair in learner’s language development, and kinds of actions or ideas covered by the broadly-defined repair.
Give three reasons why a study of turn taking is significant in L2 research! First, classroom activities are determined by the forces (usually the teacher, but also tacit norms of classroom conduct) that govern allocation of turns elaborating control over proceeding, including topics and types of activities, that co-occurs and coincides with control over turn taking. Second, under a rigid control situation of teacher, learners will not able to explore the ways in which speaker change is effected through turn taking in the target language. Consequently, they can not practice vital skills involved in interacting in the target language. And third, the conversational turn-taking organization provides ‘an intrinsic motivation for listening’. In its turn-allocational techniques, the turn-taking system for conversation builds in an intrinsic motivation for listening to all utterances in a conversation, independent of other possible motivations, such as interest and politeness.
Based on the three situations above, I can say that observation in L2 classroom activities contains three reasons. Firstly, the chances of learning language are greatly improved if the learners pay close attention and comprehension to the language they hear around them. Secondly, it is also a great chance for less attention and competent learners to learn form their friends or mates and/or follow he ways their teacher motivates them to pay attention and involve seriously in turn-taking activities that finally may improve their ability. And thirdly, conversational turn-taking forces participants to be actively involved, and to plan and structure their contribution in contextually appropriate and acceptable ways.
What are the four basic principles of turn taking and what is each principle particularly about? The four basic principles of turn taking are transition, distribution, prominence, and initiative. Transition particularly covers turn progression and turn size; distribution particularly deals with speaker selection and allocation; prominence is about the status of a turn as attended-to-action; and initiative correlates with voluntary (i.e. actor-originated) participation in the goings on. In practical level, initiative is used by the would-be-next speaker, or else the next speaker has been selected through turn allocation. Prominence is obtained, either by virtue of initiative, or through loudness, or non –verbal behaviour, or other attention-getting factors. The turn is proceeding now, initiative and prominence having been achieved. Its rough length is staked out, if necessary by projecting the various chunks, turn claims are countered by turn-claim suppression signals; the focus is on orderly progression, working towards orderly transition. And turn is coming to an end and, if appropriate, content and/or speaker of next turn are indicated.
How can turns be classified on the basis of their functional distinction? By the dynamics of speaker change in an interaction. The turns can be classified into four ways:
Prospective is the way the turn is linked (through turn-taking devices) to (the) subsequent turn(s). The turn influences the subsequent turn(s) by constraining content, or by delimiting next speakership.
Retrospective is the way the turn is linked (through turn-taking devices) to (the) proceeding turn(s).
Concurrent is a turn that is taken during a current turn which is related to that turn in a servicing sense.
Neutral is a turn which indeterminate as prospective, retrospective, and concurrent, and which is not implicative of prospective or retrospective relations to its surrounding turns.
Explain each of the following terms: nominating, giving way, floor seeking, intra-turn repair, and rehearsal!
Nominating is a subpart of allocating prospective which verbally selects a next speaker by giving a name description or pronoun (“you here’).
Giving way is subpart of allocating prospective which occurs when a speaker stops short before the projected completion of his/her turn in order to give way to competition, i.e. when another speaker has ‘interrupted’ or as a result of simultaneous starts.
Floor seeking or self-selecting is subpart of allocating prospective which occurs when a participant begins a turn during another speaker’s turn.
Intra-turn repair/repair-initiation is a subpart of allocating prospective which, together with listening responses, occurs during a turn and is related to the current turn in a subservient capacity. Intra-turn repair/repair-initiation includes brief requests for clarification, replacements of errors, and also instances of prompting and helping.
Rehearsal together with private turns may comment on other (concurrent or preceding) turns or use items in them for personal trial purposes. Comments may also be addressed to another (usually neighbouring) learner or a small subset of learner, relating to the main business of the moment or to other business, usually delivered in a soft voice.
What is your understanding of the term “topic” as is used in discourse analysis? Topic is a unit of analysis of discourse which covers what is involving doing and what it is about. In daily interaction, it can be found that every interaction can be characterized into two basic ways: what kind of activity it is, i.e. what it involves doing, and what it is about, i.e. topic.
Topic can be regarded as a unit of analysis and as part of a discourse process. Explain the difference! In second language classroom research, topic is viewed from two ways: as a unit of analysis and as part of discourse process. In the first sense, a lesson can divided into topics in the same way that a conversation can be divided into topics. For example, the topics of a lesson might be the homework, a dialogue about asking the way, a presentation of Wh-questions, pair work using a map of the city, a role play at the airport, etc. While a unit of analysis is a subpart of a discourse process which deals with the subdivision parts of a discourse process. In other words, topic consists of some units of analysis and the units of analysis as parts of discourse constitute the existence of discourse process.
Do you think topic and activity are dependent or independent on one another? Give your reason! Both are dependent on one another. First, topic is the realization of the question what it is about, while activity answers the question of what involves in doing something. Seen form this relationship, it seems that activity is the application of topic. And second, in a conversation, the activity of ‘small talk’ limits severely the range of issues that can be used for topics, and this will vary considerably across cultures and social groups.
How is “repair” important in the learner’s language development? By identifying and repairing the learner’s errors in learning the target language. The learner’s errors are data that show to the teacher and/or researcher about the learner’s discrepancies in learning a foreign language and that they have to repair the errors so that the learner may experience progress in her/his foreign or target language learning.
What kinds of actions or ideas may be covered by the broadly-defined “repair”? The broadly-defined “repair” at least covers three ideas: error correction, treatment of trouble occurring in interactive language use, and problems of speaking, hearing, and understanding the talk.
Repair can be medium-oriented, message-oriented, or activity-oriented. Give an example of each!
Medium-oriented is a kind of repair activities in L2 classroom which focuses on the forms and/or functions of the target language, for example, learners tend to ‘while you have a bath’ instead of “while you were having (taking) a bath’, and ‘and you and you was having a bath’ instead of ‘and you were having a bath’.
Message-oriented is a kind of repair activities in L2 classroom which focuses on the transmission of thoughts, information, feelings, for example: ‘what do you think is the main problem in the future” and the answer is “in the future . . . ‘. It should be answered completely “I’m thinking about a job that can earn much money’. This may be stimulated by his/her teacher and/or friends.
activity-oriented is a kind of repair activities in L2 classroom which focuses on the organization and structure of the classroom environment, rules for the conduct of activities. For example, when a teacher asks student “Ok Joko, how many books am I holding?” The student might be able to count and say ‘four’, for instance, but he is not sure to his own answer. To lead Joko to the right answer, the teacher should mention ‘four’ while asking him whether he agrees with his teacher or not.

REFERENCES
Allwright, D. and K. M. Bailey. 1991. Focus on the language classroom. Cambirdge: Cambirdge University Press.
Chaudron, C. 1988. Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambirdge: Cambridge University Press.
Nunan, D. 1992. Research methods in language learning. Cambirdge: Cambirdge University Press.
Runcie, J. F. 1980. Experiencing social research. Ontario: The Dorcey Press.
Sinclair, J. M. and M. Coulthard. 1975. Towards an analysis of discourse. London: Oxford University Press.
van Lier, L. 1988. The classroom and language learner. London: Longman.
Saleh, M. 2008. Enam tradisi besar penelitian pendidikan bahasa. Semarang: Unnes Press.