Education 645: Methods of Discourse Analysis

Fall 2007, Wednesdays 2:00-4:00

Stanton Wortham

GSE 429, 898-6307

stantonw@gse.upenn.edu

http://www.gse.upenn.edu/~stantonw

 

Discourse analysis is a broad and complex interdisciplinary field.  It includes somewhat diverse theoretical and methodological approaches from linguistics, anthropology, and sociology.  All approaches to discourse share a commitment to studying language in context.  But “context” is notoriously indeterminate, and different approaches to discourse analysis emphasize different aspects of context as potentially relevant to understanding language use.

 

This course focuses on several important methodological approaches that have been developed to do discourse analysis.  Methods are motivated by and intertwined with theories, so the course inevitably addresses some theoretical issues.  But the course intends primarily to provide students with methodological tools for studying naturally-occurring speech.

 

Because of its methodological goals, the course involves both reading and data analysis exercises.  The course introduces a few approaches to understanding the relations between linguistic categories and social life, spending more time on conceptual issues earlier in the semester.  Then it alternates between further reading and opportunities to analyze data.  Some classes are set aside as data analysis sessions, in which data provided by the instructor or the students is analyzed in detail.

 

Students are expected to: (1) do the reading and come to class; (2) prepare the sample analyses for data analysis sessions—both preparing analyses for each session and taking responsibility for one session, including handing in a sample analysis for evaluation; (3) complete a larger piece of discourse analysis by the end of the term.  This final paper should be primarily empirical, using techniques from one or more of the approaches to analyze a transcript of naturally occurring conversation or a piece of written discourse found in the social world.  The paper should also include a brief discussion of why you chose the approach(es) you did—citing the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches for particular purposes.  Deadlines for the project are: by October 3, a one page description of the data you plan to use; by November 7, a brief two page excerpt from the data analysis you are working on; by December 12, the final project.  Grades will be determined using the following rule-of-thumb: 70% final paper; 30% completion of weekly analyses and class discussion.

 

When preparing your discourse analyses, you might try the coding program (“Coder”) available at www.wagsoft.com.  Or you can use a qualitative data analysis program like NVivo (www.qsrinternational.com).  You will have to tailor any software to your specific form of discourse analysis and use judgment in analyzing the data—there is no automated way to do complex discourse analyses of the sort we will discuss.

 

Books (available at the Penn Bookstore)

 

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse. NY: Cambridge.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse. NY: Routledge.

Gee, J. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis. NY: Routledge.

Schegloff, E. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction. NY: Cambridge.

 

Readings

 

September 5    Introduction

 

Consult  the following books for an overview of the field, whenever it is helpful.  These books are on reserve, but you do not have to read them if you do not find them useful.

Cameron, D. (2001). Working with spoken discourse. Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.

Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.

Titscher, S. et al. (2000). Methods of text and discourse analysis.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

                       

September 12  Text and Context I

 

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse. NY: Cambridge. (Chs. 1-5)

 

September 19  Text and Context II

 

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse. NY: Cambridge. (Chs. 6-8)

He, A. (2000). Discourse analysis. In M. Aronoff & J. Rees-Miller

(Eds.), The handbook of linguistics (pp. 428-445).  Oxford: Blackwell.

Rampton, B. (2006). Language in late modernity. NY: Cambridge.

(Ch. 10, pp. 385-409))

 

September 26  Conversation Analysis I

 

First, do the transcription tutorial at

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/schegloff/TranscriptionProject/index.html

Schegloff, E. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction. NY: Cambridge. (Chs. 1-9)

 

October 3        Conversation Analysis II

 

Schegloff, E. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction. NY: Cambridge. (Chs. 10-14)

Pomerantz, A. & Fehr, B.J. (1997). Conversation analysis. In T. van

Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction. London: Sage.

See also the resources on CA available at http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/emca/resource.htm

                        Workshop #1: bring text analyses

 

October 10      Linguistic Anthropology I

 

Silverstein, M. (1985). On the pragmatic "poetry" of prose. In D.

Schiffrin, ed., Meaning, form and use in context. Washington: Georgetown University Press.

                        Wortham, S. (2001). Narratives in action (Ch. 2-4). NY: Teachers

College.

                        Wortham, S. (1996). Deictic mapping. Journal of Pragmatics, 25, 331-

348.

                       

October 17      Linguistic Anthropology II

                                               

Wortham, S. (2003). Linguistic anthropology of education. In S. Wortham

& B. Rymes (Eds.), Linguistic anthropology of education. Westport, CT: Praeger.

                        Modan, G. (2007). Turf wars. London: Blackwell. (Ch. 5)

                        Workshop #2: bring text analyses

 

October 24      Critical Literacy I

 

                        Gee, James. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis. NY: Routledge.

 

October 31      Critical Literacy II

 

Gee, J. (1991). A linguistic approach to narrative. Journal of Narrative

and Life History, 1, 15-39.

Hymes, D. 1996. Ethnopoetics and sociolinguistics. In D. Hymes,

Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis.

                        Workshop #3: bring text analyses

 

November 7    Critical Discourse Analysis I

 

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse.  NY: Routledge.

 

November 14  Critical Discourse Analysis II

 

Fairclough, N. (2000). Discourse, social theory, and social research: the

discourse of welfare reform. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4: 163-195.

McKenna, B. & Graham, P. (2000). Technocratic discourse: A primer.

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 30: 219-247.

If you are interested, also browse http://www.languageandcapitalism.info/

                        Workshop #4: bring text analyses

 

November 21  Workshop #5 & #6

 

Bring text analyses

 

November 28  No Class (AAA)

 

Continue to work on your own text analyses

 

December 5     Social Semiotics

 

Stillar, G. (1998). Analyzing everyday texts. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

(Ch. 2, pp.14-57)

Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd Ed.). London: Edward Arnold. (Appendix 1, pp. 368-391)

Baldry, A. & Thibault, P. (2006). Multimodal transcription and text analysis. London: Equinox. (Ch. 1, pp. 1-56)

See also the “appraisal” website for more detail on how systemic functional linguistics analyzes evaluative positioning:

http://www.grammatics.com/appraisal/

 

December 12   Final projects due