1. Schneider: Discourse1 CHAPTER 12: DISCOURSE READ 656 Dr. Schneider

2. Schneider: Discourse2 What is “discourse”? Part of socio-linguistics and within that pragma- linguistics, the field that studies the impact of different contexts on speech patterns used to succeed in getting out of an oral or written dialogue what participants want Is culture-dependent Oral and written patterns used to communicate successfully

3. Schneider: Discourse3 What is “discourse”? Researchers analyze oral dialogs and written communication patterns between different individuals. Oral communication: turn taking, topic switching, voice, intonation, pitch- when it changes and what it means and how it impacts the dialog content and continuation of participants; Written communication: division according to purpose: persuade, describe, explain, narrate

4. Schneider: Discourse4 Terms I need to know Discourse Conversational Patterns: Turn-taking Conventional repair Topic selection & relevance Speech register Cross-cultural similarities and differences in oral discourse Cross-cultural similarities and differences in written discourse

5. Schneider: Discourse5 Conversational patterns TURN-TAKING When and how long a person speaks and how to politely intersperse own comments How many can speak simultaneously TOPIC SELECTION/RELEVANCE How to select and keep a topic that is of relevance to audience (Grice Maxime: relevance) Issue: taboo topics, meaning of abstract words (freedom, love, hate, fairness, politeness), idioms

6. Schneider: Discourse6 Conversational patterns CONVERSATION REPAIR How to help a person who is stuck or how to help clarify a misunderstanding EX: Did you mean to say…? Oh, you mean…, Say more about it… Can you give me an example? I am confused, what do you mean by saying…., Could you say that again, I could not hear you….

7. Schneider: Discourse7 Conversational patterns APPROPRIATENESS Loudness/volume Word/phrase choices Speech register Personal or impersonal pronoun use (you or YOU/”your Honor”) Casual (slang, dialect) vs. formal (standard)

8. Schneider: Discourse8 Conversational patterns What does it mean for teachers that these conversational patterns are culture-specific? Do not assume ELLs pick up specific conventions in this culture automatically by watching: DISCUSS, MODEL THEM EXPLICITLY Allow ELLs to share conventions in their L1 culture => helps native speakers become better global citizens

9. Schneider: Discourse9 Written discourse Culture affects writing discourse Knowing about the oral traditions of a culture helps understand representation in writing See graph, next slide: ASSUME a difference in writing discourse in L1 if ELL struggles with English model

10. Schneider: Discourse10 Written discourse in different cultures

11. Schneider: Discourse11 Written discourse differences In Semitic, Oriental, Romance and Russian languages: How a topic is introduced (indrectly-indirectly) How a topic is supported (indirectly vs. directly related arguments) How conclusion is phrased EX: Chinese-based structures intro-loose development of topic Statement of main idea Content indirectly related to argument Conclusion of main idea

12. Schneider: Discourse12 Written discourse differences Style: even for facts often more informal, oral writing style (Arabic) Use of transitions (English vs. Arabic) Degree of use of repetition, parallelism (Arabic, German) Sentence length (Spanish? German vs. English) Active voice vs. passive voice (German vs. English) Use of figurative language in factual texts (Thai)