Discourse analysis

Interaction, dynamic process
Language for communication, language in use
Relationship across utterance, language above the sentence
Language in its social and cultural context
The meshing of talk
Discuss the meaning of these terminologies as whole class

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  When we use the term discourse, we have in mind a dynamic, language- mediated process of interaction between people in specific social, cultural and situational contexts: a casual conversation between friends round the dinner table, a consultation between doctor and patient, a newspaper editorial, a political speech, a letter of condolence, an urgent telephone message. Any language-mediated interaction is constrained by purposes and circumstances, and if we have acquired 'discourse competence' (see below) in the language in question and are familiar with the circumstances of the interaction, then it is likely to be meaningful for us. At even further levels of complexity, we recognize that discourses can be 'embedded' within each other. For example, what is ostensibly a political speech can - for effect - become conversational.
  
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  Discourse competence
  

As competent users of our first language, whatever that may be, we are experts in its discourse, though, because of our specific personal circumstances and experience, our expertise will always be restricted. That is to say, without sufficient exposure to specific 'worlds' - the legal world, the medical world, the factory shop-floor world or the train driver's world - we are unlikely to be experts in the discourses of those worlds.
Our ability to recognize, respond to and produce appropriate choices and arrangements of language items results partly from formal education. This exposes us to a range of spoken and written genres and text-types ( we will discuss broadly in future lessons) , making us consciously aware of the conventions associated with them, and enabling us to operate within - and when necessary to flout or manipulate - these conventions. But this ability also results from our having been born and brought up in a particular socio-cultural environment, where, as we acquire our first language, we spontaneously acquire with it knowledge about the attitudes, expectations and preconceptions our society and culture has towards the world and how it is represented by our language. We construct mental representations of existence, as we experience it through our particular social, cultural and linguistic environment. These mental representations are in turn reflected in the way we use our language - or, in some cases, languages.
We have, in short, acquired what has been termed discourse competence (Canale and Swain 1980). We have learned to distinguish between coherent and garbled messages; we are sensitive to contexts and purposes in communication; we take part in conversation, understanding when to speak, when to let others speak, how to respond appropriately, and how to recognize an inappropriate response; we make sense of what we read and hear, often at levels which are not made explicit by the language. Most of us are probably quite unaware of the enormous communicational complexity of our language use in all the various circumstances of our daily lives, and it is only when we try to explain it that we start to appreciate its sophistication.


Home task: If you already form an idea why do need “discourse” and “discourse competence” write a short reflection based on your observations of learning English how it help to learn the new language. You may have a good comparison with your native language L1