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Discourse Analysis I Feb.- 2012

Description of course

We will begin by describing what discourse analysis is as well as

recognizing texts and identifying the cohesive devices and thegrammatical regularities observable in well-formed written texts. That is

to say, what it is that makes a text have sense and how the structuringof sentences has implications for units such as paragraphs, and for the

progression of whole texts. It is said, as stated by M. McCarthy,that discourse analysis is a vast subject area within linguistics,

encompassing as it does the analysis ofspoken and writtenlanguage over and above concerns such as the structure of the clause or

sentence. In this course, fortunately, we will be concerned with the

study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it

is used in written texts.

Contents of the course

Contents for Unit 1

Lesson 1 What is discourse?

What are the fields of study that relate to Discourse Analysis? How is discourse analysis important for language teachers? What is Discourse Analysis?

Lesson 2 What are texts? What are the criteria to categorize language as texts? Why should we study texts?

What makes a text make sense? What is cohesion? What are cohesive devices?

Lesson 3

What makes a text make sense? What is coherence?

What is Micro-level coherence? What is Macro-level coherence?

Contents for Unit 2

Reviewing Cohesion What is Reference?

Endophoric & Exophoric Reference

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What is Substitution? What is Ellipsis? What is Conjunction?

Contents for Unit 3

hat is Lexical Cohesion?petition

nonymsperordinates

neral Words

Objectives of the course

By the end of this Discourse Analysis course you will:

be able to explain the meaning of Discourse.

be able to describe the meaning of Discourse Analysis. be able to recognize texts and identify its cohesive devices. be more aware of the importance of context in the interpretation of

texts. carry out a simple analysis of a text. recognize the importance of discourse analysis in language teaching.

Course Structure and Content

Course Structure and Content

The Discourse Analysis I Course has a 16 week time frame.

There are 3 Units in the course and each unit will take 4-5 weeks to complete.There should be, in total, about 64 hours of study (not including out-of-class activities like reading and

assignments.)

There are 2 F2F sessions. Each session will be 2-4 hours.

1st F2F at beginning of course ( Saturday February 4th)2nd F2F at the end of the course

There will be 3 conferences/Forums one for each unit.

We have calculated 3 to 4 hours a week of work for this course, (so that you should plan on atleast 48-64 hours over 16 weeks).

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Assessment and Expectations

Assessment and Expectations

Your course tutor will let you know what is expected and how exactly you will be assessed for units,but there are more general expectations about what you'll put into the course, as well as what you'llneed to do in order to pass the course.

AssessmentAssessment is based on three main components:

1. The 3 Conferences/Forums. They will make up 30% of the grade (10% for each conference). Thecriteria for the conferences will be completion of all steps and relevancy of your comments and/or

questions. Each Forum will be accompanied by assignments related

to the subject matter. These assignments form part of theforum assessment.

2. End of Module Assignment. This will make up 50% of the grade. This will be an opportunity for you togo into the classroom and apply, adapt, practice something from one of the units which you found

interesting. Based on self-observation you will write a reflection about your experience. You will finddetailed instructions in theAssessment Section of the package after the units.

3. Face-to-face participation will make up 20% of the grade.

This means not only attending the sessions, but also actively participating in the tasks pertaining tothat session and in the spirit of group cooperation and constructivism.

Expectations

As said before, hopefully you'll enjoy the course, but you WILL need to commit time to it and to

PARTICIPATE, especially as regards the distance side of things, where you are studying independentlyand away from the group.I can help you to plan your time, and interaction with colleagues; tutor(s) will also help, but there will

always be unexpected problems or difficulties. These are part of the context when learning at adistance. Because the conferences will be such an important part of the course and will also beassessed, I feel that the most important expectation is that you ATTEND CLASS! In other words,participate in the conferences, do the activities in the package, come to the F2F sessions, and of

course, explore.

I am looking forward to working with you during this course!

Amanda

Bibliography

McCarthty,M.J.1994. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press