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Discourse analysis: implications for language teaching, with particular reference to casual conversation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2008

Roderick Gardner
Roderick Gardner
Affiliation:
Pädagogische Hochschule, Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany
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Extract

This paper is a summary of the major findings of discourse analysis, and is concerned in particular with the implications it has for the foreign language teacher. The main focus of the article is on the analysis of conventional discourse, which is less strongly structured by non-linguistic factors than other kinds of discourse. Casual conversation is the most basic language activity, and in an analysis of it one is most likely to find what is inherently characteristic of spoken discourse. Written discourse will be referred to peripherally, though much of what will be said also applies to written discourse.

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Type
State-of-the-Art Article
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 102 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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