语篇分析.docx

语篇分析.docx

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语篇分析

AdaptedfromMcCarthy,M.（1991）DiscourseanalysisforlanguageteacherCUP

Cohesionandcoherence

Cohesionisonlyaguidetocoherence,andcoherenceissomethingcreatedbythereaderintheactofreadingthetext.Coherenceisthefellingthatatexthangstogether,thisitmakessense,andisnotjustajumbleofsentences（seeNeubauer1983:

7）.Thesentences‘Clarelovespotatoes,shewasborninIreland.’arecohesive（Clare/she）,butareonlycoherentifonealreadysharesthestereotypeethnicassociationbetweenbeingIrishandlovingpotatoes,orispreparedtoassumeacause-effectrelationshipbetweenthetwosentences.Socohesionisonlypartofcoherenceinreadingandwriting,andindeedinspokenlanguagetoo,forthesameprocessesoperatethere.

Lookingbackward:

anaphoricreference

Whatcanbe（andoftenisnot）directlytaughtaboutasystemsuchasthatofEnglishisthedifferentwaysofreferringtothediscourseitselfbyuseofitemssuchasit,thisandthat,whichdonotseemtotranslateinaone-to-onewaytootherlanguages,evenwherethesearecloselycognate（cf.German,French,Spanish）.

Surprisingly,conventionalgrammarsdonotgivesatisfactorydescriptionsofsuchusage（it,thisandthat）（e.g.seeQuirketal.1985:

868）.discourseanalystshavetoucheduponthearea（seeThavenius1983:

167-9）,andtheinsightsofdifferentanalystshaveacertainamountincommon.

Itissimplytomakethepointthatmanyunansweredgoodgrammaticalquestionscanberesolvedatthediscourselevel,andthatmuchgooddiscourseanalysisrecognizesthelinksbetweendiscourseorganizationandgrammaticalchoice.Assuch,discourse-levelinvestigationsareofteninvaluablereadingforteacherslookingforanswerstogrammaticalproblems.

Lookingoutward:

exophoricreference

Exophoricreferenceswilloftenbetoaworldsharedbysenderandreceiverofthelinguisticmessage,regardlessofculturalbackground,butequallyoften,referenceswillbeculture-boundandoutsidetheexperiencesofthelanguagelearner（e.g.BritishreferencestheCity,theChancellorandsoon）.Inthesecasesthelearnerwillneedtoconsultsomesourceofencyclopedicinformationoraskaninformant.ThisaspectoflanguagelearningisagradualfamiliarizationwiththeculturalcontextofL2.Languageteachersandmaterialswriterswillneedtomonitorthedegreeofculturalexophoricreferencesittextchosenforteachingtoensurethereferentialburdenisnottoogreat.

Lookingforward:

cataphoricreference

Themostcharacteristicfunctionofcataphoricreference:

toengageandholdthereader’sattentionwitha‘readonandfindour’message.p42

Cataphoricreferenceisthereverseofanaphoricreferenceandisrelativelystraightforward,gutlanguagelearnersmaylackawarenessofconfidencetoputitintouseinconstructingtexts,andmyneedtohavethefeatureexplicitlytaughtorexercised.Thereis,too,thedangerofitsoveruseoritsuseinunnaturalcontexts.Asalways,itisaquestionoftrainingthelearnertoobservefeaturesoflangueabovesentencelevelwherethesemightnotnecessarilybeautomaticallytransferredformL1,especiallysince,inEnglish,referenceofinvolvesthedefinitearticleanddemonstratives,whichdonottranslateeasilyintomanyotherlanguages.p42

Ellipsisandsubstitution

Ellipsisasanotinisprobablyauniversalfeatureoflanguagebutthegrammaticaloptionswhichrealizeitindiscoursemayvarymarkedly.P43

Ellipisisnotonlycreatesdifficultiesinlearningwhatstructuralomissionsarepermissible,butalsodoesnotseemtobereadilyusedevenbyproficientlearnersinsituationwherenativenaturallyresorttoit（seeScarcellaandBrunak1981）.

Conjunction

Differencesinperformancedataofthesekindsareoftenthereasonwhyevenquiteadvanced-learneroutputcanseemunnatural.Oneofthemajorcontributionsofdiscourseanalysishasbeentoemphasistheanalysisofrealdata,andthesignificanceincommunicativetermsofsmallwordssuchascommoneverydaymarkers.Inpreviouslinguisticapproachestheseweretoooftendismissedasunimportantfeaturesof‘performance’whichdistractedformthebusinessodescribingunderlying‘competence’.p50

Themeandrheme

Grammarteachingmayhavetoreorientsomeofitsstructuraldescriptions,whileothersalreadydealtwithinsentence-levelexercisesmaybeadequatelycoveredintraditionalteachingandsimplyadjustedtodiscourse-orientedapproaches.P51

Themeandrheme

Patternsofsequencingofthemeandrhemearetendenciesratherthanabsolutes.Veryfewtexts（exceptperhapshighlyritualizedonessuchreligiouslitanies）repeatthesamethematisingpatternsendlessly.Wehavesuggestedthatlow-levellearnersmightbetrappedinunnaturalpatternsowingtolimitedgrammaticalresourcesorlackofconfidenceonanewL2,butmostadvancedlearnersarelikelytohaveagoodfeelforcreatingtopicframeworksandorientingtheiraudience.Thegrammaticalstructuresthatareunderplayedingrammarbooks（e.g.leftdisplacements,object-fronting）maybeproducedunconsciouslybylearners,butawarenessandmonitoringonthepartofteachersisnecessarytoensurethatnaturalproductionusingthewideresourcesofthgrammarisindeedtakingplace.P58

Lexicalcohesion

Itisimportanttomakelearnersawarethatsynonymsarenotjustwaysofunderstandingnewwordswhentheycropupinclass,noraretheysomeabstractnotionfortheorganizationoflexiconsandthesauri,buttheyaretheretobeused,justasanyotherlinguisticdevice,inthecreationofnaturaldiscourse.P67

Lexisintalk

Wefindthatinterestingobservationscanbemakeconcerninghowspeakersreiteratetheirownandtakeuponeanother’svocabularyselectionsinoneformoranotherfromturntoturnanddevelopandexpandtopicsindoingso.weshallrefertothisphenomenonasrelexicalisation.

Theintimatebondbetweentopicdevelopmentandthemodificationandreworkingoflexicalitemsalreadyusedmakestheconversationdevelopcoherently,seemingtomoveformsub-topictosub-topicasaseamlesswhole,inthisthescopeofthetopicsisworkedoutbetweentheparticipants,withneithersidenecessarilydominating,thisaccordswiththeethnomethodologicalapproachtodiscourseanalysis,whichseesconversationasajointactivitythathastobeworkedat.Topicsunfoldinteractively,ratherthan‘existing’asstaticentities;Wardaugh（1985:

139-40）referstotopicasa‘consensualoutcome’.Thisisquiteclearlysohere.Speakerscanthrowtopicsintothering,butwhethertheyaretakenupordiedependsontheotherspeaker（s）;ifonespeakerinsisteronpursuinghis/hertopics,ignoringthewishesofothers,thisispreciselywhenwerecognizedevianceintomonologueorcomplainlatertoourfriendsthat‘Xwashoggingtheconversation’.Utterancesbyonespeakerareaninvitationtoresponsebyanother（seeGoffman1976）;theinitiatingutteranceputsanobligationontherespondingspeakertomakehis/herturnbothrelevanttopreviousturnandapositivecontributiontotheforwardmovingofthediscourse（seeVuchinich1977）.Relexicalisationofsomeelementsofthepreviousturnprovidesjustsuchacontributiontorelevanceandprovidesotherimportant‘Iamwithyou’signalstotheinitiator.pp69-70

Exchanges

ParticularlynoticeableintheSinclair-Coultharddatawasthepatternofthethree-partexchangeintraditionalclassrooms,wheretheteachermaketheinitiationandthefollow-upmove,whilepupilswererestrictedtorespondingmoves.Inagoodmanylanguageclassesthisisstillthepattern,especiallyinsituationswherelargeclassesofperhaps40to50pupilsisthenorm.wherethishappensitislikelythatpupilswillhavethechancetopractiseonlyaveryimpoverishedrangeofutterancefunctions..insuchlanguageclassrooms,learnersrarelygettheopportunitytotakeotherthantherespondingrole,andeveningcaseswherestudentsareencouragetoinitiatethefollow-upmoveisoftenstillinthehandsoftheteacher,andlearnersgetlittleornopracticeinthisparticulardiscoursefunction.P123

Turn-taking

Thetraditionalclassroom,asobservedbySinclairandCoulthard,hasveryorderedturn-takingunderthecontroloftheteacher,andpupilsrarelyspeakoutofturn.Morerecenttrendsinclassroomorganization,suchaspairandgroupwork,attempttobreakthisrigidturn-takingpattern;butdonotalwayssucceedinrecreatingmorenaturalpatterns.Oftentheproblemlies,asbefore,inactivitydesign.Weareallfamiliarwithroleplayswhereindividualsaresointentonformulatingtheircontributionsandmakingthematthe‘right’momentasdeterminedbytheactivityrubric,thattheypaylittleattentiontothecontributionsofothers,andthenaturalpatternsofback-channel,utterancecompletion,etc.simplydonotoccur.Theloosertherestrictionsonwhatandwhenpeoplemayspeak,themorenaturalturn-takingemerges.P.128

Studyofwritingasaculturalactivity

Connor,U.（1996）ContrastiveRhetoricCambridgeUniversityPressp21-22

InadiscussionofthedevelopmentofliteracyinL1andL2,Carson（1992）examineshowChineseandJapanesespeakerslearntoreadandwriteinL1andhowthatleaningaffectstheirexpectationsandstrategiesinlearningtoreadandwriteinL2.Carsonisconcernedabouttheinfluencesofsocialcontext,particularlytheeducationalsystem,andsheemphasizescognitiveconsiderationssuchasproblemspertainingtoorthographyinlearningtoreadandwriteinL1andlaterL2.ShebeginsbydescribinghowJapanesechildrenlearnoreadandwriteinasocietythatvalues“theimportanceofeducation（andofliteracy）,theneedtoworkhardtosucceed,theinherentvaluesofthegroup,andtheprima