Showing papers on "Discourse analysis published in 2010"

Arguing to Learn in Science: The Role of Collaborative, Critical Discourse

Abstract: Argument and debate are common in science, yet they are virtually absent from science education. Recent research shows, however, that opportunities for students to engage in collaborative discourse and argumentation offer a means of enhancing student conceptual understanding and students' skills and capabilities with scientific reasoning. As one of the hallmarks of the scientist is critical, rational skepticism, the lack of opportunities to develop the ability to reason and argue scientifically would appear to be a significant weakness in contemporary educational practice. In short, knowing what is wrong matters as much as knowing what is right. This paper presents a summary of the main features of this body of research and discusses its implications for the teaching and learning of science.

Discourse analysis: a new methodology for understanding the ideologies of health and illness

Abstract: Discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry which has been little employed by public health practitioners. The methodology involves a focus upon the sociocultural and political context in which text and talk occur. Discourse analysis is, above all, concerned with a critical analysis of the use of language and the reproduction of dominant ideologies (belief systems) in discourse (defined here as a group of ideas or patterned way of thinking which can both be identified in textual and verbal communications and located in wider social structures). Discourse analysis adds a linguistic approach to an understanding of the relationship between language and ideology, exploring the way in which theories of reality and relations of power are encoded in such aspects as the syntax, style and rhetorical devices used in texts. This paper argues that discourse analysis is pertinent to the concerns of public health, for it has the potential to lay bare the ideological dimension of such phenomena as lay health beliefs, the doctor-patient relationship, and the dissemination of health information in the entertainment mass media. This dimension is often neglected by public health research. The method of discourse analysis is explained, and examples of its use in the area of public health given.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Political Discourse

Abstract: From the angle of critical discourse analysis,based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics,taking transitivity,modal verbs,and transformation as analytical tools,the author analyzes the function of political discourse in order to grasp the methods of critical discourse analysis.

Semiotic Structure and the Legitimation of Consumption Practices: The Case of Casino Gambling

Abstract: How do changes in public discourse and regulatory structure affect the acceptance of a consumption practice? Previous research on legitimacy in consumer behavior has focused on the consumer reception of legitimizing discourse rather than on the historical process of legitimation itself. This study examines the influence of changes in the institutional environment over time on the meaning structures that influence consumer perception and practice. To study legitimation as a historical process, a discourse analysis of newspaper articles about casino gambling from 1980–2007 was conducted. Results show that the regulatory approval of gambling is accompanied by a shift in the semantic categories used to discuss casinos and that journalists play a role in shaping these categories. Further, journalists shape the meaning of a consumption practice in three ways: through selection, validation, and realization. Interpreted through the lens of institutional theory, these findings suggest that studies of legitimation ...

Coh-Metrix: Capturing Linguistic Features of Cohesion

Abstract: This study addresses the need in discourse psychology for computational techniques that analyze text on multiple levels of cohesion and text difficulty. Discourse psychologists often investigate phenomena related to discourse processing using lengthy texts containing multiple paragraphs, as opposed to single word and sentence stimuli. Characterizing such texts in terms of cohesion and coherence is challenging. Some computational tools are available, but they are either fragmented over different databases or they assess single, specific features of text. Coh-Metrix is a computational linguistic tool that measures text cohesion and text difficulty on a range of word, sentence, paragraph, and discourse dimensions. This study investigated the validity of Coh-Metrix as a measure of cohesion in text using stimuli from published discourse psychology studies as a benchmark. Results showed that Coh-Metrix indexes of cohesion (individually and combined) significantly distinguished the high- versus low-cohesion vers...

Students' questions and discursive interaction: Their impact on argumentation during collaborative group discussions in science

Abstract: This study investigated the potential of students' written and oral questions both as an epistemic probe and heuristic for initiating collaborative argumentation in science. Four classes of students, aged 12–14 years from two countries, were asked to discuss which of two graphs best represented the change in temperature as ice was heated to steam. The discussion was initiated by asking questions about the phenomenon. Working in groups (with members who had differing viewpoints) and guided by a set of question prompts, an argument sheet, and an argument diagram, students discussed contrasting arguments. One group of students from each class was audiotaped. The number of questions written, the concepts addressed, and the quality of written arguments were then scored. A positive correlation between these factors was found. Discourse analysis showed that the initial focus on questions prompted students to articulate their puzzlement; make explicit their claims and (mis)conceptions; identify and relate relevant key concepts; construct explanations; and consider alternative propositions when their ideas were challenged. Productive argumentation was characterized by students' questions which focused on key ideas of inquiry, a variety of scientific concepts, and which made explicit reference to the structural components of an argument. These findings suggest that supporting students in productive discourse is aided by scaffolding student questioning, teaching the criteria for a good argument, and providing a structure that helps them to organize and verbalize their arguments. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:883–908, 2010

Handbook of discourse processes

Abstract: Contents: Preface. A.C. Graesser, M.A. Gernsbacher, S.R. Goldman, Introduction to the Handbook of Discourse Processes. A.D. Grimshaw, Genre, Registers, and Contexts of Discourse. R.A. Zwaan, M. Singer, Text Comprehension. M.F. Schober, S.E. Brennan, Processes of Interactive Spoken Discourse: The Role of the Partner. C.B. Cazden, S.W. Beck, Classroom Discourse. P.A. Alexander, T.L. Jetton, Learning From Traditional and Alternative Texts: New Conceptualizations for the Information Age. S. Whittaker, Theories and Methods in Mediated Communication. D. Bloome, Narrative Discourse. D.S. Miall, Literary Discourse. R.W. Gibbs, Jr., Nonliteral Speech Acts in Text and Discourse. M. Bamberg, L. Moissinac, Discourse Development. J.D. Moore, P. Wiemer-Hastings, Discourse in Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence. P.W. Foltz, Quantitative Cognitive Models of Text and Discourse Processing.

Discourse of Blogs and Wikis

Abstract: This is an insightful analysis of the new discourse produced by blogs and wikis Blogs and Wikis have not been with us for long, but have made a huge impact on society Wikipedia is the best known exemplar of the wiki, a collaborative site that leads to a single text claimed by no-one; blogs, or web-logs, have exploded into the mainstream through novelisations, film adaptations and have gathered huge followings Blogs and wikis also serve to provide a coherent basis for a discourse analysis of specific web language What makes these forms distinctive as genres, and what ramifications does the technology have on the language? Myers looks at how blogs and wikis: allow for easier than ever publication; can claim to challenge institutional hierarchies; provide alternate perspectives on events; exemplify globalization; challenge demarcations between the personal and the public; construct new communities; and, more Drawing on a wide range of popular blogs and wikis, the book works alongside an author blog that contains regularly updated links, references and a glossary An essential textbook for upper level undergraduates on linguistics and language studies courses, it elucidates, informs and offers insights into a major new type of discourse Discourse is one of the most significant concepts of contemporary thinking in the humanities and social sciences as it concerns the ways language mediates and shapes our interactions with each other and with the social, political and cultural formations of our society The "Continuum Discourse Series" aims to capture the fast-developing interest in discourse to provide students, new and experienced teachers and researchers in applied linguistics, ELT and English language with an essential bookshelf Each book deals with a core topic in discourse studies to give an in-depth, structured and readable introduction to an aspect of the way language is used in real life

Improving teacher questioning in science inquiry discussions through professional development

Abstract: This study explores questioning practices adopted by elementary teachers while facilitating science inquiry discussions prior and subsequent to their participation in a summer institute in which they were provided with scholarly descriptions of inquiry-based teacher questioning (i.e., typologies of questions used by discourse analysts to categorize and understand teacher questioning) and conducted video-based discourse analysis. Teachers' questioning is examined in light of their social understandings (i.e., how teachers understand social aspects of oral questioning in inquiry-based science classrooms). The reported findings show that, as a result of developing an increased awareness of social aspects of teacher questioning during the institute, teachers' referential questions (oral queries aimed at encouraging students to articulate their own ideas, understandings, experiences and personal opinions) were twice as frequent after the institute as they were before, hence suggesting an increased degree of student-centeredness. Furthermore, their student-centered questions prompted longer and more articulated student responses, promoted higher-level student thinking, positioned students as complementary experts, prompted students to provide tentative responses, and encouraged students to conduct authentic investigations. Based on these findings, it is argued that educators who set out to prepare teachers to become effective questioners in the context of science inquiry discussions ought to go beyond cognitive issues and the simple provision of static and ill-defined labels such as “guide” and “active inquirer.” © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 422–453, 2010

Analysis of language policy discourses across the scales of space and time

Abstract: The ecology of language has been put forward as a useful orientation to the holistic investigation of multilingual language policies because it draws attention to relationships among speakers, languages, policies, and social contexts at varying dimensions of social organization. As such, it is an orientation that stands to facilitate the integration of micro- and macro-sociolinguistic inquiry in language policy and planning (LPP); however, it is not a method. An ecological orientation requires the application of specific methods in order to achieve a holistic picture of an LPP situation. To this end, the present article explores how recent discourse analytic theories and methods that focus on ways in which discursive processes operate within and across space and time are especially well suited to the ecological objective of understanding relationships between language policies and the social actions of individuals.

Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Science: New Perspectives on Immigration Discourse

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements Figures and Tables PART I: THE SCOPE OF CDA Introduction Critical Discourse Analysis PART II: EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY Communication, Cooperation and Manipulation Referential Strategies Predication and Proximisation Strategies Legitimising Strategies PART III: COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS Conceptualisation Metaphor Force-dynamics and Epistemic Modality Concluding References Index

Modes of Discourse: The Local Structure of Texts

Abstract: Preface Introduction Part I. Discourse Structure: 1. Introduction to the discourse modes 2. Discourse modes 3. Text representation and understanding Part II. Linguistic Analysis of the Discourse Modes: 4. Aspectual information: the entities introduced in discourse 5. Temporal and spatial progression 6. Referring expressions in discourse Part III. Surface Presentational Factors: Introduction to Part III 7. Subjectivity in texts 8. The contribution of surface presentation 9. Non-canonical structures and presentation Part IV. Discourse Modes and their Context: 10. Information in text passages 11. Discourse structure and discourse modes Appendix A. The texts Appendix B. Glossary.

‘Coming out’ on the spectrum: autism, identity and disclosure

Abstract: Much has been written by queer theorists about the personal and political ramifications of being out of the closet, and connections with experiences of disclosure for those with ‘hidden’ health conditions have been made by researchers studying critical geographies of disabilities and chronic illness. To date, however, the impact of such issues for those on the autism spectrum (AS) has received comparatively little attention. Popular re-presentations of AS suggest disclosure is irrelevant for those assumed so obviously different and unlikely to pass as ‘normal.’ However, AS authors reveal a broad spectrum of experience indicating that concealment and disclosure are complex and selective strategies of information and identity management. Applying discourse analysis to AS autobiographies and personal narratives, this paper explores four sense-making discourse clusters, or repertoires, that emerge from the texts under study: a ‘keeping safe’ repertoire, which addresses protective strategies in disclosure and ...

Modern Diachronic Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (MD-CADS) on UK newspapers: an overview of the project

Abstract: This edition of Corpora contains one of the first ever collections of papers pertaining to the nascent discipline of Modern Diachronic Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (MD-CADS). This discipline is characterised by the novelty both of its methodology and the topics it is, consequently, in a position to treat. It employs relatively large corpora of a parallel structure and content from different moments of contemporary time (in this case the SiBol corpora, see below) in order to track changes in modern language usage but also social, cultural and political changes as reflected in language. In this overview, I will attempt to give an idea of what both corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) and MD-CADS involve, to provide some information about the newspaper corpora we employ, and to outline methodologies commonly followed in this area, including those employed by the other contributors to this issue. I will also present two sets of practical analyses. The first is inductive and bottom-up, derived from a ...

Family sense‐making practices in science center conversations

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the interactional ways that families make meaning from biological exhibits during a visit to an interactive science center. To understand the museum visits from the perspectives of the families, we use ethnographic and discourse analytic methods, including pre- and postvisit interviews, videotaped observations of the museum visits, and coding and analysis of utterances from naturally occurring conversations. We employ an Everyday Expertise framework to understand how families use ideas and materials to make meaning from the scientific content presented in exhibits. We argue that individual and cognitive aspects of learning are fundamentally connected to the social and cultural aspects of learning; therefore, we analyze the intertwining role of individual cognitive resources, situated activities, and cultural toolkit resources that support learning interactions and processes. Findings indicate how families use a variety of knowledge types (epistemic resources) to make sense of exhibit content, how they make sense of biological content by transferring cultural epistemic resources from prior experiences, and how families use two types of scientific epistemic resources—biological facts and perceptual descriptions—as the primary means to make sense of biological exhibits. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed94:478–505, 2010

Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility

Abstract: Inhoudsopgave : -- Introduction: mediating global mobility: language, tourism, globalization -- Elite mobility and global lifestyles: inflight magazines -- Borrowed genres and the language market: trade signs and business cards -- Transient identities, new mobilities: holiday postcards -- Linguascaping the exotic: newspaper travelogues -- Language crossing and identity play: TV holiday shows -- The commodification of local linguacultures: guidebook glossaries -- Conclusion: tourism discourse and banal globalization

Farmer responses to climate change and sustainable agriculture. A review

Abstract: Climate change is a major issue for agricultural sustainability, and changes in farming practices will be necessary both to reduce emissions and to adapt to a changing climate and to new social expectations. A complicating factor is that the processes of behaviour change are complex and can be slow to occur. Discourse analysis is useful in understanding how the discourses farmers are embedded in contribute to resistance to change. Discourses are particular ways of using language in particular situations. They have wide ranging effects on beliefs, values and behaviours. Interviews were conducted in 2008 with 63 respondents, including 22 apple growers, 29 dairy farmers and 12 agricultural consultants in Tasmania, Australia. In undertaking a discourse analysis of the transcripts of these interviews utilising N-Vivo, four specific discourses were identified as being important in shaping farmers’ perspectives of climate change and sustainability: Money, Earth, Human responsibility and Questioning. Each discourse contributes to resistance to changing behaviour in particular ways. An understanding of these discourses offers a new approach to facilitating behaviour change.

Constructing Inequality in Multilingual Classrooms

Abstract: In this book, the reader is taken on a fascinating journey through some of Madrid's multilingual and multicultural schools, revealing the role of linguistic practices in constructing inequality and educational failure. The exciting discussion of these issues is particularly important in a globalized world where, on a daily basis,children enter multilingual and multicultural schoolsin whichthey face unknown educational practices and languages.

Teachers in the news: a critical analysis of one US newspaper's discourse on education, 2006–2007

Abstract: Public education discourse in the USA has been characterized by messages of crisis shaping education policies across national contexts. Education policy solutions target a lack of qualified teachers and insufficient oversight of teacher practice as central factors in the crisis, placing teacher identity as knowledgeable, authoritative professionals at the center of educational reform debates. Mainstream news media is a key site for education policy debate. I employ critical discourse analysis of education news published in a major US newspaper, uncovering how grammar patterns in news discourse situate teacher identity in relation to knowledge and authority. I demonstrate how the paper's discourse frames teacher identity in terms of Accountability and Caring and discuss how, in the context of larger economic and social policy debates, Accountability gains authority over caring to shape education policy. I call for teachers to integrate critical participation in public education debates as key element of pr...

Researching and applying metaphor in the real world

Abstract: It has become increasingly clear that metaphor needs to be explored in terms of the social and discourse context in which it is used, especially where the aim is to address real-world problems. The notion of 'real world' metaphor research has been developed to describe this important area of investigation. This book starts by describing the nature and scope of real world metaphor research and then illustrates, through 17 detailed, mainly empirically-based studies, the different areas it can apply to, and different methodologies that can be employed. Research problems are explored in areas such as artificial intelligence, language teaching and learning, reconciliation dialogue, university lecture discourse, poetry and wine description. Methods include corpus analysis, experimentation, discourse analysis, cross-cultural analysis and genre analysis. In each case the empirical studies refer back to Gibbs's opening overview of real-world research. The result is an invaluable and cross-referenced collection of papers addressing real-world problems.

Implementational and ideological spaces in bilingual education language policy

Abstract: This paper presents results from an ethnography of language policy which examined language policy appropriation for bilingual learners in a large urban US school district. The purpose of this article is to explore the space left by current US language policy for developmental bilingual education and, specifically, the focus is on how a group of educators appropriate top-down language policies while engaging in their own local language policy creation. The process of creating the policy illustrates how spaces for bilingual education are pried open by a community of educators who fostered an ideological space which supported multilingualism as a resource for all students. A strong characteristic of this ideological space is the empowerment of bilingual teachers to take ownership of language policy processes and appropriate language policy in a way that benefits bilingual learners.

Teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research

Abstract: This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.

Actor descriptions, action attributions, and argumentation: towards a systematization of CDA analytical categories in the representation of social groups 1

Abstract: CDA studies on out-groups, i.e. immigrants, within Wodak's Discourse-Historical and van Dijk's Socio-cognitive approaches along other approaches, have suggested methods and analytical categories through which discursive representations of social groups are investigated. Consequently, several listings of relevant analytical categories have been proposed and applied to many subsequent studies. However, the variety of the proposed methods in representation of social groups by various scholars and the often unclear accounts for the links among various levels of discourse analysis seem to have created a multitude of discursive strategies that can be overwhelming if not confusing. This paper is an attempt to make explicit various levels of discourse analysis on representation of social groups from detailed textual analysis to discourse topics and tries to show how micro-level analytical categories are related to macro-structure within various levels of contexts. Specifically, a three-level analytical framework is suggested for textual analysis of the representation of social groups which divides the text analysis into three domains of social actors, social actions and argumentation. It is suggested that the analysis should look at what is (not) in the text in terms of the three domains mentioned, and investigate how these domains are linguistically realized through a set of linguistic processes/mechanisms.

Representing Family: Community Funds of Knowledge, Bilingualism, and Multimodality.

Abstract: In this article, Elizabeth Marshall and Kelleen Toohey use critical discourse analysis to examine educators' efforts to incorporate funds of knowledge from the communities and families of Punjabi Sikh students in a Canadian elementary school. Using MP3 players, students first recorded and then translated their grandparents' stories of life in India into picture books to serve as cultural resources in their school community. In retelling their grandparents' stories, students drew on a multiplicity of ancestral, globalized, and Western discourses in their textual and pictorial illustrations. The authors examine what happens when the funds of knowledge that students bring to school contradict normative, Western understandings of what is appropriate for children and how school might appropriately respond to varying community perceptions of good and evil.

The legitimization of social entrepreneurship

Abstract: Purpose – The paper aims to answer how important institutional actors, such as academic researchers, consulting firms, and foundations, are tracing the boundaries of social entrepreneurship (SE) and how they justify SE as a legitimate form of social purpose organization.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a discourse analysis methodology.Findings – The paper finds traces of the legitimacy issues in the literature on non‐profits and, based on this, argue that a new institutional domain is being constructed. The paper concludes that in this new domain not only is the use of market‐based initiatives seen as a legitimate means of funding a social mission, but also it has now become the normative way and one that is promoted by consultants and foundations concerned with social entrepreneurs and their initiatives.Originality/value – This paper highlights the developing norms of SE.

Education and nationalism: the discourse of education policy in Scotland

Abstract: The paper draws on critical discourse analysis to examine and discuss some of the key developments in the governing of education in Scotland since the election of the Scottish National Party (SNP) government in May 2007. It analyses these developments, drawing on a study of key policy texts and suggests that discourse analysis has much to contribute to the understanding of the governing strategy of the minority SNP administration as reflected in its education policy. We suggest that there is a self-conscious strategy of ‘crafting the narrative’ of government that seeks to discursively re-position ‘smarter Scotland’ alongside small, social democratic states within the wider context of transnational pressures for conformity with global policy agendas. Thus the paper connects to current debates on the relationship between an emergent global education policy ‘field’ and the capacity of ‘local’ contexts to develop and sustain particular, embedded assumptions and practices.