Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-19T13:42:29.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5A - Blustery with an Occasional Downpour

An Analysis of Target Discourse in Media Weather Forecasts

from Part II - Tasks and Needs Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

By
Ryo Maie  and
Bradford Salen
Edited by
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian  and
Michael H. Long
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Michael H. Long
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Get access

Summary

This case study is an analysis of target discourse to collect and analyze discourse samples of radio and television forecasts. We focused on three aspects of an analysis of target discourse: (a) identifying recurrent subtasks to understand the internal structure of weather forecast discourse, (b) analyzing linguistic features that frequently co-occur with the subtasks (i.e., structural ellipsis and technical and sub-technical vocabulary), and (c) developing samples of prototypical discourse that can be put to use in task-based materials. Our intention in this chapter is to be as descriptive and transparent as possible in reporting methods and procedures of analysis, so interested researchers and practitioners can refer to this study when conducting their own analysis of target discourse studies.

Keywords

analysis of target discoursetask-based language teachingweather forecastssub-technical vocabularytarget discourse studiesstructural ellipsis
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Task-Based Language Teaching , pp. 173 - 187
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Chaudron, C. J., Doughty, C. J., Kim, Y., Kong, D.-K, Lee, J., Lee, Y.-G., Long, M. H., Rivers, R., and Urano, K. (2005). A task-based needs analysisof a tertiary Korean as a foreign language program. In Long, M. H., ed. Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 225–61.Google Scholar
Bartlett, N. D. (2005). A double shot 2% mocha latte, please, with whip: Service encounters in two coffee shops and at a coffee cart. In Long, M. H., ed. Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 305–43.Google Scholar
Hillman, K. and Long, M. H. (2020). A task-based needs analysis for US Foreign Service Officers, and the challenge of the Japanese celebration speech. In Lambert, C., and Oliver, R., eds. Using tasks in diverse contexts. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 123–145Google Scholar
Long, M. H. (2005). Methodological issues in learner needs analysis. In Long, M. H., ed. Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–76.Google Scholar
Long, M. H. (2015). Analyzing target discourse. In Long, M. H., ed. Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 169–204.Google Scholar
O’Connell, S. P. (2014). A task-based language teaching approach to the police traffic stop, TESL Canada, 31(8), 116–31.Google Scholar

References

Anthony, L. (2017). AntConc (Version 3.5.2) [Windows]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Retrieved from: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.html.Google Scholar
Baker, M. (1988). Sub-technical vocabulary and the ESP teacher: An analysis of some rhetorical items in medical journal articles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 4, 91–105.Google Scholar
Davies, M. (2008-) The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 600 million words, 1990-present. Retrieved from: https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. and Berenz, N. (1993). Transcribing conversational exchanges. In Edwards, J. A. and Lampert, M. D., eds. Talking data: Transcription and coding in discourse research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 91–121.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. and Tse, P. (2007). Is there an “academic vocabulary”? TESOL Quarterly, 41, 235–54.Google Scholar
Keith, M. C. (1993). AM radio: The status and struggle. Journal of Radio Studies, 2, 1–10.Google Scholar
Long, M. H. (2015). Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Long, M. H. (2019). Optimal input for language learning: Genuine, simplified, elaborated, or modified elaborated? Language Teaching, 53(2) 169–82.Google Scholar
Maie, R. and Salen, B. (2018, March). Task-based analysis of target discourse in media weather forecasts. Paper presented for the TESOL 2018 International Convention & English Language Expo, Chicago: IL.Google Scholar
Murphy, A. H. and Brown, B. G. (1983a). Forecast terminology: Composition and interpretation of public weather forecasts. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 64, 13–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, A. H. and Brown, B. G. (1983b). Interpretation of some terms and phrases in public weather forecasts. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 64, 1283–89.Google Scholar
National Research Council. (2010). When weather matters: Science and services to meet critical societal needs. Washington DC: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center (2018). Audio and podcasting fact sheet. Retrieved from: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2018/07/State-of-the-News-Media_2017-Archive.pdf.Google Scholar
Winn, M. (2005). Collecting target discourse:The case of the US naturalization interview. In Long, M. H., ed. Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 265–304.Google Scholar
Wissler, L., Almashraee, M., Díaz, D. M., and Paschke, A. (2014, June). The gold standard in corpus annotation. Paper presented for the IEEE German Student Conference, University of Passau, Germany.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×