Showing papers on "Discourse analysis published in 2009"

The Discursive Construction of National Identity

Abstract: How do we construct national identities in discourse? Which topics, which discursive strategies and which linguistic devices are employed to construct national sameness and uniqueness on the one hand, and differences to other national collectives on the other hand? The Discursive Construction of National Identity analyses discourses of national identity in Europe with particular attention to Austria. In the tradition of critical discourse analysis, the authors analyse current and on-going transformations in the self-and other definition of national identities using an innovative interdisciplinary approach which combines discourse-historical theory and methodology and political science perspectives. Thus, the rhetorical promotion of national identification and the discursive construction and reproduction of national difference on public, semi-public and semi-private levels within a nation state are analysed in much detail and illustrated with a huge amount of examples taken from many genres (speeches, focus-groups, interviews, media, and so forth). In addition to the critical discourse analysis of multiple genres accompanying various commemorative and celebratory events in 1995, this extended and revised edition is able to draw comparisons with similar events in 2005. The impact of socio-political changes in Austria and in the European Union is also made transparent in the attempts of constructing hegemonic national identities. Key Features: *Discourse-historical approach. *Interdisciplinarity (cultural studies, discourse analysis, history, political science). *Multi-method, multi-genre. *Qualitative case studies.

Online Groups and Political Discourse: Do Online Discussion Spaces Facilitate Exposure to Political Disagreement?

Abstract: To what extent do online discussion spaces expose participants to political talk and to cross-cutting political views in particular? Drawing on a representative national sample of over 1000 Americans reporting participation in chat rooms or message boards, we examine the types of online discussion spaces that create opportunities for cross-cutting political exchanges. Our findings suggest that the potential for deliberation occurs primarily in online groups where politics comes up only incidentally, but is not the central purpose of the discussion space. We discuss the implications of our findings for the contributions of the Internet to cross-cutting political discourse.

Words not actions! the ideological role of sustainable development reporting

Abstract: Purpose – Through an analysis of corporate sustainable development reporting, this paper seeks to examine critically language use and other visual (re)presentations of sustainable development within the business context. It aims to provide a framework to interpret and tease out business representations of sustainable development. Such representations are argued to be constitutive of the way that business has come to “know” and “do” sustainable development and, therefore, to constrain and enable particular actions and developments.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a mix of synthesis, interpretive and discourse analysis to locate, interpret and critically analyse a corpus of written and presentational texts produced by a New Zealand business association and eight of its founding members' early triple bottom line reports.Findings – The business association and its members' reports are shown to present a pragmatic and middle‐way discourse on business and the environment. Through the use of rhetoric...

Scientific discourse in three urban classrooms: The role of the teacher in engaging high school students in argumentation

Abstract: Argumentation is a core practice of science and has recently been advocated as an essential goal of science education. Our research focuses on the discourse in urban high school science classrooms in which the teachers used the same global climate change curriculum. We analyzed transcripts from three teachers' classrooms examining both the argument structure as well the dialogic interactions between students. Between 19% and 35% of the discourse focused on scientific argumentation in that students were using evidence and reasoning to justify their claims. Yet in terms of dialogic interactions, only one teacher's classroom was characterized by student-to-student interactions and students explicitly supporting or refuting the ideas presented by their peers. This teacher's use of open questions appeared to encourage students to construct and justify their claims using both their scientific and everyday knowledge. Furthermore, her explicit connections to previous students' comments appeared to encourage students to consider multiple views, reflect on their thinking and reflect on the thinking of their classmates. This study suggests that a teacher's use of open-ended questions may play a key role in supporting students in argumentation in terms of both providing evidence and reasoning for students' claims and encouraging dialogic interactions between students. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed94:203–229, 2010

Social disclosure, legitimacy theory and the role of the state

Abstract: Purpose – The principal objective of this paper is to expand the scope of legitimacy theory (LT) through a detailed analysis of the links that exist between the legitimising strategies of firms and the characteristics of the political environment in which they are developed. Designs/methodology/approach – A discourse analysis was performed on the social and environmental disclosure (SED) of a multinational in the automotive sector with an established presence in Spain, in the context of the relational dynamics between the firm/society/state. Different channels of information were compared to capture both the official discourse as represented in the annual reports of the multinational and the discourse of employees and the State as represented in the media. Findings – The results of the research show that the firm under study used SED strategically to legitimise a new production process through the manipulation of social perceptions, and that this strategy was supported implicitly and explicitly through ideological alignment with the State. Research limitations/implications – Despite a widely‐held assumption of a pluralist political context, the State is presented here as aligning itself with corporate management as opposed to the welfare concerns of employees. Thus, future research calling for regulation of SED should preface such calls with consideration of the orientation of the State. Originality/value – In contrast with the dominant approach to LT that considers the relationship of the firm with its stakeholders, the present study widens the scope of LT to consider the interplay between firm legitimating strategies and state support for such strategies.

Distinguishing knowledge-sharing, knowledge-construction, and knowledge-creation discourses

Abstract: The study reported here sought to obtain the clear articulation of asynchronous computer-mediated discourse needed for Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia’s knowledge-creation model. Distinctions were set up between three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge creation. These were applied to the asynchronous online discourses of four groups of secondary school students (40 students in total) who studied aspects of an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and related topics. The participants completed a pretest of relevant knowledge and a collaborative summary note in Knowledge Forum, in which they self-assessed their collective knowledge advances. A coding scheme was then developed and applied to the group discourses to obtain a possible explanation of the between-group differences in the performance of the summary notes and examine the discourses as examples of the three modes. The findings indicate that the group with the best summary note was involved in a threshold knowledge-creation discourse. Of the other groups, one engaged in a knowledge-sharing discourse and the discourses of other two groups were hybrids of all three modes. Several strategies for cultivating knowledge-creation discourse are proposed.

Toward A Pragmatic Discourse of Constructivism: Reflections on Lessons from Practice

Abstract: In the past few decades, a constructivist discourse has emerged as a very powerful model for explaining how knowledge is produced in the world, as well as how students learn. 1 For constructivists ...

Academic Discourse: English In A Global Context

Abstract: Academic discourse is a rapidly growing area of study, attracting researchers and students from a diverse range of fields. This is partly due to the growing awareness that knowledge is socially constructed through language and partly because of the emerging dominance of English as the language of scholarship worldwide. Large numbers of students and researchers must now gain fluency in the conventions of English language academic discourses to understand their disciplines, establish their careers and to successfully navigate their learning. This accessible and readable book shows the nature and importance of academic discourses in the modern world, offering a clear description of the conventions of spoken and written academic discourse and the ways these construct both knowledge and disciplinary communities. This unique genre-based introduction to academic discourse will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying TESOL, applied linguistics, and English for Academic Purposes.

The Discourse Dynamics Approach to Metaphor and Metaphor-Led Discourse Analysis

Abstract: The use of metaphor as a tool to uncover people's ideas, attitudes, and values through analysis of discourse is demonstrated and illustrated with data collected in a social science research project. A “discourse dynamics” approach to metaphor situated within a complexity/dynamic systems perspective is developed. This approach is turned into a method of “metaphor-led discourse analysis” which is described in detail, using a focus group discussion to illustrate the procedure: transcription, metaphor identification, coding metaphors and using software, and finding patterns of metaphor use from coded data. The reasoning that justifies decisions at each stage of the procedure is made explicit so that the trustworthiness of the method can be maximized. The method of metaphor-led discourse analysis has been developed through a series of empirical projects to be accessible and relevant to social science researchers as well as to metaphor scholars.

Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination

Abstract: Based on longitudinal data from a three year ethnographic study, this article uses discourse analytic methods to explore the literacy and social practices of three adolescent English language learners writing in an online fan fiction community. Theoretical constructs within globalization and literacy studies are used to describe the influences of new media and technologies on modern configurations of imagination, identity, communication, and writing. Findings suggest that

Teachers' Work and Pedagogy in an Era of Accountability.

Abstract: A great deal of educational policy proceeds as though teachers are malleable and ever-responsive to change. Some argue they are positioned as technicians who simply implement policy. However, how teachers go about their work and respond to reform agendas may be contingent upon many factors that are both biographical in nature and workplace related. In this paper we discuss the work of middle school teachers in low-socioeconomic communities from their perspectives. Referring to reflective interviews, meeting transcripts and an electronic reporting template, we examine how teacher participants in a school reform project describe their work – what they emphasise and what they down-play or omit. Using Foucaultian approaches to critical discourse analysis and insights from Dorothy Smith's (2005) Institutional Ethnography, we consider the ‘discursive economy’ (Carlson, 2005) in teachers’ reported experiences of their everyday practices in northern suburbs schools in South Australia in which a democratic progres...

Sociological Discourse Analysis: Methods and Logic

Abstract: Sociological discourse analysis shares many of the procedures of other social sciences. Yet sociologists differ greatly in terms of how they approach discourse analysis, thus leading to confusion and doubts regarding the scientific status of sociological discourse analysis. In this article I attempt to clarify the methodological basis of sociological discourse analysis by differentiating it from other discourse analysis practices. To do so, I examine what sociologists actually do when they analyze discourse, while focusing on the common elements and principles shared by the different approaches to sociological discourse analysis. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902263

Resisting resistance: Counter-resistance, consent and compliance in a consultancy firm

Abstract: Consent, obedience and resistance can be seen as key concerns in management and organization. Why people comply is a crucial issue in the field. We address the theme within a specific area: management consultants in a big firm that places quite a lot of pressure on its personnel to be hardworking and predictable and to subordinate themselves to hierarchy, standards and tight production schedules. By studying how the discourses of Ambition and Autonomy clash and interact in a consultancy firm, we add and develop the concept of counter-resistance to expand our understanding of the dynamics of resistance. The idea is to show how the impulse to resist becomes countered and neutralized. The study offers insights into the deeper mechanisms and dynamics behind consent and shows the multidimensional character of resistance.

Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool For Critical Reflection, Second Edition

Abstract: This second edition of Classroom Discourse Analysis continues to make techniques widely used in the field of discourse analysis accessible to a broad audience and illustrates their practical application in the study of classroom talk, ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in discourse analysis, applied linguistics, and anthropology and education. Grounded in a unique tripartite "dimensional approach," individual chapters investigate interactional resources that model forms of discourse analysis teachers may practice in their own classrooms while other chapters provide students with a thorough understanding of how to actually collect and analyse data. The presence of a number of pedagogical features, including activities and exercises and a comprehensive glossary help to enhance students‘ understanding of these key tools in classroom discourse analysis research. Features new to this edition reflect current developments in the field, including: increased coverage of peer interaction in the classroom greater connecting analysis to curricular and policy mandates and standards-based reform movements sample excerpts from actual student classroom discourse analysis assignments a new chapter on the repertoire approach, an increasingly popular method of analysis of particular relevance to today’s multilingual classrooms

Discourse Tracing as Qualitative Practice

Abstract: This article introduces a qualitative research method called discourse tracing. Discourse tracing draws from contributions made by ethnographers, discourse critics, case study scholars, and process tracers. The approach offers new insights and an attendant language about how we engage in research designed specifically for the critical-interpretive and applied analysis of discourse. More specifically, discourse tracing analyzes the formation, interpretation, and appropriation of discursive practices across micro, meso, and macro levels. In doing so, the method provides a language for studying social processes, including the facilitation of change and the institution of new routines. The article describes the current theoretical and political landscape of qualitative methods and how discourse tracing can provide a particularly helpful methodological tool at this time. Then, drawing from a qualitative study on of school lunch policy, the authors explain how to practice discourse tracing in a step-by-step manner.

Reconstructing Eastern paradigms of discourse studies

Abstract: Current scholarship on language and communication has largely been culturally monological rather than dialogical and diversified. In this paper, I respond to this sorry state by arguing for the reconstruction of Eastern paradigms in favour of multiculturalism in discourse research. To that end, I first critique the ethnocentrism of Discourse Analysis, then point to the cultural realities of the Eastern discourses, i.e. the discourses of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and finally demonstrate the unique cultural legacies and intellectual accomplishments of the Eastern world useful for the study of their discourses. In conclusion, I outline the basic principles of the new paradigms and the corresponding action strategies for their reconstruction.

The relationship between the discourse knowledge and the writing performance of elementary-grade students.

Abstract: This study examined whether discourse knowledge about various forms of writing predicted young developing writers' (Grade 2 and Grade 4 students) story writing performance once 4 writing (handwriting fluency, spelling, attitude toward writing, advanced planning) and 3 non writing (grade, gender, basic reading skills) variables were controlled. It also examined whether Grade 4 students (18 boys, 14 girls) possessed more discourse knowledge than Grade 2 students (18 boys, 14 girls). Students wrote a story and responded to a series of questions designed to elicit their declarative and procedural knowledge about the characteristics of good writing in general and stories in particular as well as their knowledge about how to write. Five aspects of this discourse knowledge (substantive, production, motivation, story elements, and irrelevant) together made a unique and significant contribution to the prediction of story quality, length, and vocabulary diversity beyond the 7 control variables. In addition, older students possessed greater knowledge about the role of substantive processes, motivation, and abilities in writing. Findings support the theoretical propositions that discourse knowledge is an important element in early writing development and that such knowledge is an integral part of the knowledge-telling approach to writing.

Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Critical Reflection

Abstract: * Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis * Chapter 2: Dimensions of Discourse and Identity * Chapter 3: Getting to the Talk I: Recording and Viewing in Three Dimensions * Chapter 4: Getting to the Talk II: Transcribing and Analyzing in Three Dimensions * Chapter 5: Analyzing Turntaking Resources * Chapter 6: Analyzing Contextualization Resources * Chapter 7: Analyzing Narrative Resources * Chapter 8: Analyzing Framing Resources * Chapter 9: Analyzing Multi-Modality and Mass Media in Classroom Discourse * Chapter 10: Putting It All Together: A Repertoire Approach

Style, indexicality, and the social meaning of tag questions

Abstract: This article illustrates how the notions of style and indexicality can illuminate understanding of the social meaning of a specific linguistic variable, the tag question. Drawing on conversational speech and ethnographic data from a community of high school girls in northwest England, it quantitatively and qualitatively examines the discourse, grammatical, and phonological design of tag questions in this community. Members of four social groups are shown to use tag questions to similar effect, as a means of conducing particular points of view. However, these groups also exhibit striking differences in the stylistic composition of tags, distinctions that indexically construct stances and personas, which may in turn come to represent group identity. These data suggest that the social meaning of tag questions can be best ascertained by examining their internal composition and by situating them in their broader discursive and social stylistic contexts. (Adolescents, ethnography, indexicality, interactional context, quantitative discourse analysis, social meaning, style, tag questions)

Metaphor and discourse

Abstract: The contributors to Metaphor and Discourse present a collection of work on the functioning of metaphor in public discourse and related discourse areas from a broadly cognitive-linguistic background. Discourse scholars have for a long time been concerned with the methodological difficulties of identifying, annotating, and analysing metaphors, as well as with the complex relations between the embodiment of metaphorical thought on the one hand and the socio-cultural grounding of metaphorical communication on the other. A substantial body of work has grown out of these concerns over the last two decades. The present book provides a state-of-the-art overview of this lively research field, and furthermore contributes to debates in Cognitive Linguistics (and beyond) regarding tensions between conceptualist idealizations and empirically observable variation. A state-of-the-art overview of research on the discursive grounding of metaphor from a cognitive-linguistic perspective

Images of the Other: Selling Study Abroad in a Postcolonial World

Abstract: Representation of cultural Others in tourism texts is an important concern. Thus far, analyses of mass-mediated tourism representations have focused on promotional materials produced by for-profit agencies or by governments charged with encouraging development through tourism. Lacking have been assessments of materials produced by non-profit brokers with humanitarian missions. This study interrogates the promotional literature of one such agency, Semester at Sea (SAS), to determine whether its representational practices differ from the mainstream. Grounded in postcolonial theory and employing content, semiotic, and discourse analysis, it argues that although SAS embraces a mission of promoting cross-cultural interaction and global citizenship, the program nevertheless continues to (re)produce hegemonic depictions of non-Westerners, asserting a Western superiority ideology by polarizing the West and the Rest into binaries of modern-traditional, technologically advanced-backward, and master -servant and dec...

Young People's Translocal New Media Uses: A Multiperspective Analysis Of Language Choice And Heteroglossia

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to shed light on the particularities of the linguistic, social and cultural action of young Finns in translocal new media spaces, and the ways in which they themselves make sense of and account for their actions. We present findings from 4 case studies, each of which illustrates aspects of translocality in young Finns' new media uses. Theoretically and methodologically the case studies draw on sociolinguistics, discourse studies, and ethnography, making use of the concepts of language choice and linguistic and stylistic heteroglossia. Through the 4 cases in focus, the paper shows how young people's linguistically and textually sophisticated new media uses are geared by and express translocal affective, social, and cultural alignments and affinities.

An Approach to Corpus-based Discourse Analysis: The Move Analysis as Example

Abstract: This article presents a seven-step corpus-based approach to discourse analysis that starts with a detailed analysis of each individual text in a corpus that can then be generalized across all texts of a corpus, providing a description of typical patterns of discourse organization that hold for the entire corpus. This approach is applied specifically to a methodology that is used to analyze texts in terms of the functional/communicative structures that typically make up texts in a genre: move analysis. The resulting corpus-based approach for conducting a move analysis significantly enhances the value of this often used (and misused) methodology, while at the same time providing badly needed guidelines for a methodology that lacks them. A corpus of ‘birthmother letters’ is used to illustrate the approach.

Doing actions with identity categories: complaints and denials in neighbor disputes

Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the way making complaints about the neighbors and denying responsibility for disputes systematically bring into play categorizations of those involved. It draws on a corpus of British conversational materials including telephone calls to neighbor mediation centers and police interrogations of suspects. The analytic approach was conversation analytic: sequences of talk in which membership categories (e.g., “old man,” “kids”) and category-implicative descriptions (e.g., “she's eighty three,” “Mum's elderly”) appeared were analyzed for their sequential placement, design, and action orientation. Two sections of analysis examine the use of categories in (i) formulating and affiliating with complaints, and (ii) denying alleged complainables. The paper presents a challenge to those who argue that “identity” topics are not systematically “capturable” outside of research interviews or as regularly occurring phenomena of talk-in-interaction, by showing how the same categories and categorial descriptions crop up in the same conversational turns, accomplishing the same social action.

Discourse and Politics

Abstract: Drawing on political discourse from a wide rage of settings and perspectives, this book is set to provide a descriptive and analytical tool for examining political discourse and will be welcomed by anyone interested in discourse analysis in general, and in political discourse in particular. Topics covered in this book include the study of political discourse styles, the use of rhetorical strategies (vocabulary, metaphors, quotations, parentheticals, etc.), the relation between political discourse and society (legitimization, the private-public interface, identities), role of gestures in relation to speech, methods for analysing political discourse, and how to build and exploit a political language corpus.

Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice

Abstract: Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice provides the student/reader with the basic theoretical knowledge and the empirical tools of some of the most relevant approaches to the analysis of discourse. It has been mainly conceived of as a general (university) course on Discourse Analysis, but it can also be useful for any person or group whose main concern is to acquire the basic necessary knowledge and skills for analyzing any type of discourse. The subject matter of the book could not only be of use for linguists or prospective linguists: given its interdisciplinary character, its findings can be (and in fact are) used and applied by practitioners and scholars from different fields, such as sociology, psychology, medical science, computer science, and so on. Thus the book can be used by any person who, having certain linguistic knowledge, is interested in exploring the fascinating world of discourse. All the chapters contain both a theoretical and an empirical section, the latter containing examples of analysis, as well as exercises (Practice) and self-evaluation questions, whose answers can be found at the end of the book (in the Practice key and Key to self-evaluation questions sections). The book is divided into 12 chapters. The first two introduce basic information about discourse analysis and text linguistics, as well as the necessary techniques for gathering data, including a very brief introduction to corpus linguistics. Chapters 3-11 present and discuss some of the most prominent and well-known approaches to discourse analysis, namely Pragmatics, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis, The Ethnography of Communication, Variation Analysis and Narrative Analysis, Functional Sentence Perspective, Post-Structuralist Theory and Social Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis and Positive Discourse Analysis, and Mediated Discourse Analysis. Finally, Chapter 12 deals with crucial and further issues, such as the type of discourse chosen for the analysis, the strategies and functions of discourse, or the problem of choosing an appropriate unit of analysis which will suit the aims of research. Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice may prove of value to all those who are professionally involved in the area of discourse and pragmatic studies, or simply to those who wish to acquire the necessary basic knowledge and techniques for analyzing any type of discourse, from medical, journalistic or political discourse to computer-mediated, humoristic, or hegemonic discourse (where the use and abuse of power is an important issue), just to name a few of the innumerable possibilities. A desirable and intended effect of this book is also the development of an open and tolerant mind, which will eventually lead to a better understanding of the different and varied manifestations of language, culture and communication in human society.

Discourse analysis: what is it and why is it relevant to family practice?

Abstract: This paper aims to illustrate what discourse analysis is and how it can contribute to our understanding of family practice. Firstly, we describe what ‘discourse analysis’ is, mapping the discourse analysis terrain by discussing four studies relevant to primary care to illustrate different methodological approaches and key concepts. We then address the practicalities of how to actually do discourse analysis, providing readers with a worked example using one particular approach. Thirdly, we touch on some common debates about discursive research. We conclude by advocating that researchers and practitioners take up the challenge of understanding, utilizing and extending the field of discourse studies within family practice.