Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers

2. Cultural factors
• The author emphasized that the main point is that macropatterns themselves do not seem to be lacking once reasonable general competence has been achieved, and that, where the macro-patterns are absent, there seem to be basic clause- and sentence-level problems that demand higher priority in teaching. The lower-order skills can be taught, the higher-order features can be practised through pair and group activities such as chaining and text-jigsaw activities,where the macro-level decisions can be discussed in the learners’ L1, or if in L2, then at least divorced from the immediate stresses of encoding the individual clauses and sentences.
Chapter 6 Written Language
Main Discuin learner writings • 2. Cultural factors • 3. Reading skills
1. Problems in learner writings
1.1e.g. P161(6.7) -General-specific pattern -Problem: digression 1.2e.g. P162(6.8) -clause-relational chaining activity -problem-solution pattern -topic sentence and segment starters were given -discussion on sequencing of segments and changes of text in L1 1.3e.g. P163 (6.9) -problem: misuse of signaling vocabulary disorients the reader
Thank you!
3. Reading skills
We cannot explain discourse patterning at the macro-level without paying due attention to the role of grammar and lexis; by the same token, we cannot foster good reading without considering global and local reading skills simultaneously. 1. Bottom-up vs. Top-down 2. Schema theory: content and formal 3. good listener and reader
2. Cultural factors
• The sorts of discourse features that direct intervention are likely to be discourse-signaling vocabulary, appropriate use of conjunctions and other linking words, and also a closer look at reference and ellipsis/substitution. There does seem to be some evidence that learners do not handle anaphoric reference at the text level, but again it is not always clear whether this is because some languages tolerate more repetition of the noun head rather than pronominalization, or that they use ellipsis for subsequent occurrences of the same entity after first mention, or whether local encoding stresses are once more to blame rather than cross-linguistic interference. e.g.(6.11)
2. Cultural factors
Questions: Are the writing of learners from cultures quite different from Western ones? Are there established norms of writing in other literate cultures that are different and might therefore be expected to interfere with the macro-level decision-making of the learner writing in English? Answer: what we find frequently in examining middle eastern, oriental and other learner data in English are the same problems noted in European data: that bad discourse organization often accompanies poor lexico-grammatical competence.