Discourse and Pragmatics Mediated Discourse Analysis

Review Discourse Language beyond the level of the sentence/clause Language ‘in use’ Discourse as a matter of action We ‘do things’ with discourse Discourse as a kind of social practice What’s a ‘social practice’

Traditional Approach Look for a text (or conversation) and analyze it Take into account the social context (including the actions it is being used to take) Problems Why choose this text? What’s the text, what’s the context? Example: Computerized Classrooms

Mediated Discourse Analysis ‘Actions speak louder than words’

WHICH DISCOURSE SHOULD I ANALYZE? City University is my site of investigation

Meidatied Discourse Analysis STARTS WITH ACTION Rather than looking at the discourse and trying to figure out its relationship to action Looks at the actions and asks (if and) how discourse is being to take them. First question: What’s going on here? Identify the key actions Don’t waste your time studying discourse that is not linked to key actions

Actions Our lives are made up of actions When we take actions we show Who we think we are Who we think other people are All actions are mediated through cultural tools So the actions we take (and the identities that go along with them) depend on what kinds of cultural tools are available to us

Mediated Discourse Analysis ACTION Actor Other

Mediation

Cultural Tools ‘Technical Tools’ Texts Both verbal and visual Machines Objects Bodies/People Semiotic (symbolic) Tools Languages Counting systems Genres, social languages and other ways of speaking Time Rules Systems Social Identity Labels ‘Communities’ Memories

Affordances and Constraints Cultural tools make some kinds of actions more possible and other kinds less possible A microphone Therefore, they make some kinds of identities more possible and others less possible Medical charts Tools accumulate the histories of their previous use

Buying a cup of Coffee List all of the actions involved in buying a cup of coffee at PC or Starbucks List the cultural tools (technical and semiotic) that are used to take these actions Consider how these tools make some actions more possible and other actions less possible

Actions and Social Practices Actions follow other actions and precede other actions ‘Chains of action’ Action

Higher Order and Lower Order actions Smaller actions go into making larger actions Action Higher Order Action

Actions and Social Practices Certain sequences are performed over and over again by the same people ‘Habitus’ (Bourdieu) ‘Community of Practice’ (Lave and Wenger) Action Social Practice

Claiming Identity Imputing Identity ACTION Actor Other Cultural Tools AffordancesConstraints Action

Claiming and Imputing Identity Condoms Giving condoms to children? ‘If he really loves me and I trust him, then he doesn’t have to use it.’

Agency Who is responsible for actions ‘Distributed Agency’ Social actor Cultural Tool Social Practice Married? What’s going on? Are you filling out the form Or is the form filling out you

How we are controlled by mediated actions What tools are available to us Affordances and constraints The pressure of practices The funnel of commitment

Availability, Affordances and Constraints Different tools available to different people in the interaction Different tools make different kinds of action possible

The Pressure of Practice Claiming Identity Imputing Identity Actor Other

Action The Funnel of Commitment ‘One thing leads to the other’ With each successive action, the ‘practice’ becomes more complete With each successive action, the chain of actions becomes more difficult to reverse

Claiming Identity Imputing Identity ACTION Actor Other Cultural Tools AffordancesConstraints Action Agency

Tension ‘tension between the mediational means as provided in the sociocultural setting and the unique contextualized use of these means in carrying out particular concrete actions’ (Wertsch 1994: 205).

How to Do it Consider your site of investigation What are the actions being taken by people at this site? What are the tools available to different actors to take these actions? What kinds of actions do these tools make easier/more difficult? What kinds of identities are claimed and imputed by these actions? How do actions go together to make ‘practices’? How do practices support interaction orders (relationships between people)?