An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

particular learners’ needs.
• When modelling different types of writing (for example, academic paper, 
business letter), discourse analysis can help teachers to explain the underlying 
features of the text types associated with those types of writing.
• In both teacher training programmes and for the teacher already in the 
classroom, models of analysis, such as the IRF, may serve to raise awareness 
of the nature of teacher–learner interaction. For example, traditional teacher-
fronted classrooms may offer an impoverished context for learners to engage in 
the genuine interaction which seems to facilitate language acquisition. Insights 
from the analysis of discourse can help teachers consider their own interaction 
practices in a more systematic manner.
• Teachers can use insights from discourse analysis to better evaluate their own 
learners’ performance in classroom tasks, such as pair work and group work, in 
terms of its proximity to or distance from real-world discourse. The results of 
such evaluation may also lead to better classroom task design.
• Conversation analysis shows that everyday talk is not as disorganized as it may 
seem, and this offers the possibility of systematic teaching of features, such 
as the language of openings and closings, discourse markers and
common 
adjacency pairs.
• Discourse analysis provides the descriptive information which pedagogical 
grammarians and lexicographers require to produce more true-to-life 
descriptions and guidelines for the use of language. The products of these 
descriptions (especially corpus-based ones) come in the form of pedagogical 
grammars and learners dictionaries which are more sensitive to context and the 
different demands that speech and writing place on the learner.

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68 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
Further Reading
Cook, G. (1989) Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A good first introduction to 
the field, which gives a helpful and accessible summary of the IRF model.
Hughes, R. (1996) English in Speech and Writing. London: Routledge. An activity-
based book, which provides the most comprehensive account of the differences between 
spoken and written discourse.
McCarthy, M.J. (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. In addition to giving a more detailed treatment of the 
various approaches to spoken and written discourse analysis covered in the present 
chapter, this book also has chapters on grammar and lexis at the discourse level. 
Eggins, S. and Slade, D. (1997) Analysing Casual Conversation. London: Cassell. 
Based on a large body of authentic conversational data, this book develops a functionally 
oriented model for the systematic analysis and critical
interpretation of casual 
conversation in English. 
McCarthy, M.J. (1998) Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. This book contains a detailed treatment of spoken genres 
and integrates discourse analysis with corpus-based analyses of spoken language.
Schiffrin, D. (1994) Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell. An 
advanced exposition of all of the issues in discourse analysis which are of interest to 
language teachers and applied linguists.
Hands-on Activity
Read the two texts below and consider their similarities and differences. In