1. Discourse Analysis as a Tool for Research and Teaching a Second Language
Dr. Alia Mitchell, PFHEA
Vice Dean, College of Humanities
Director, Teaching & Learning Center
Prince Sultan University

2. Topics Introduction What is discourse analysis?
How is DA used in research?
Examples of students’ topics
DA connection to classroom instruction
Tools for DA
DA research and teaching link
Conclusion

3. Activity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnwwo9Zol6w

4. Introduction
The current trend in the L2 classroom is to utilize the communicative approach Limitations of time and exposure to authentic opportunities of language production and interaction It is up to teachers to do their utmost to maximize the opportunities for student engagement. Action research in the classroom is a way of obtaining both quantitative as well as qualitative data about language production. Demo (2001) recommended the following four-part process Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze

5. What is discourse analysis?
“is an accessible introduction to an empirical research approach which is widely used in the social sciences and related disciplines” (Taylor, 2013).
“Discourse analysis is the study of language in use” (Gee, 2014, p. 8).

6. What do they have to say about Discourse
Gee
Fairclough
Brown and Yule
Schriffin
Van Dijk
Olsson
Schegloff

7. In a nutshell, DISCOURSE is ….
How language reflects reality
How language creates reality
How language shapes our identities and interactions
How language is used as to tool to control people

8. What does a Discourse Analyst do?
“Discourse analysts work with language data, including talk, documents and broadcast material. Researchers in different traditions study interactions and social practices, meaning-making and larger meaning systems, and contests and conflicts around collective identities, social norms and subjectification. ” (Taylor, 2013)

9. How is it used in research?

10. Critical Discourse Analysis Conversation Pragmatics Genre Multimodal
Ethnography Of
Speaking
Multimodal

11. Summary of approaches to discourse
Approaches to Investigating Discourse
Focus of Research
Research Question
Structural CA
Sequences of talk
Why say what at what moment?
Variationist
Structural categories within texts
Why that form?
Functional
Speech Acts
Communicative acts
How to do things with words?
Ethnography of Communication
Communication as cultural behaviour
How does discourse reflect culture?
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Social and linguistic meanings created during communication
What are they doing?
Pragmatics
Meaning in interaction
What does the speaker mean?

12. Chart explaining actions, theory, and typical data for DA

13. Examples of my students topics
Case Study of an Ambiguous  Emergency Call by Kholod Nasser Al-Shahrani
Why did Robert F. Kennedy use perlocutionary acts  in his Indianapolis’ speech? By Lama AlShanifi

14. Connection to L2 classroom instruction
DA research
Impact on language teaching
Is fun to do
Helps analyze the different patterns of discourse that exist
Build a better understanding of how language operates among the different discourses in order to support learning & teaching
This research methodology can significantly impact the way language teaching is done
Help you improve student centered lessons
Help you improve teaching methods/strategies used in the classroom

15. Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze
"Step One": Videotape a complete lesson. Be sure to capture all of your questions and the students' responses. (Opportunities to speak the target language are often created by teachers' questions.)
"Step Two": Watch the videotape. As you watch it, think about the types of questions you asked. Look for recurring patterns in your questioning style and the impact it has on the students' responses.
"Step Three": Transcribe the lesson. A transcript will make it easier to identify the types of questions in the data and to focus on specific questions and student responses.
This methodology enables L2 teachers to use the techniques applied in discourse analysis “to investigate the interaction patterns in their classrooms and to see how these patterns promote or hinder opportunities for learners to practice the target language” (p. 1). Application of this process enables teachers to investigate the interaction in their classrooms and discover opportunities to better help their students’ L2 development.

16. Record-View-Transcribe-Analyze
"Step Four": Analyze the videotape and transcript. Why did you ask each question? What type of question was it--open (e.g., "What points do you think the author was making in the chapter you read yesterday?") or closed (e.g., "Did you like the chapter?")? Was the question effective in terms of your goals for teaching and learning? What effect did your questions have on the students' opportunities to practice the target language? How did the students respond to different types of questions? Were you satisfied with their responses? Which questions elicited the most discussion from the students? Did the students ask any questions?

17. Demo, 2001 Eric Digest
The above method can be used to improve our teaching practices and learn more about our students language production as Demo (2001) stipulated.

18. Demo, 2001 – second strategy Teacher’s Role Student’s Role
Play a recording that has been transcribed
Have the students identify patterns in the recorded linguistic behavior (choose something that will be easily recognized at first – e.g. backchanneling)
Students can count the number of times backchanneling was used as well as the different types
They can analyze specific discourse features too (e.g. How does the backchanneling impact understanding in the conversation? Etc…)

19. DA – research teaching research
Record
View
Transcribe
Analyze DA
Continuous improvement
Action research to improve teaching
Teaching
Support of learning
Action research leads to publication
Research/
publication

20. Resources & Tools for Transcription
Resources to learn how
Tools for transcription
DOWNLOAD VoiceWalker 2.0 (3.0 MB)
DOWNLOAD SoundWriter 2.0 (3.9 MB)
Transcriber: A Transcription-Audio Alignment Tool
Etc….

21. Video clip

22. Wong & Waring
Book --
Video --

23. Written discourse can be used as well
Students Assignment
Analyze the text from both newspapers
Look for linguistics patterns
Etc…

24. Additional Resources

25. Conclusion
The first duty of a lecturer: to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks, and keep on the mantelpiece forever. Virginia Woolf

26. THANK YOU! CONTACT DETAILS: cmitchel@psu.edu.sa
Q & A
THANK YOU! CONTACT DETAILS:

27. References
ANTAKI, C., Discourse analysis and conversation analysis. IN: Alasuutari. P., Bickman L, and Brannan, J. (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods, London, Sage, pp Retrieved from:
Demo, D. (2001). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. ERIC Digest. ERIC Number: ED Retrieved from: – Chart from slide 12
Mitchell, C. ELAN 335 Discourse Analysis – course materials
--table on approaches to discourses