Teaching speaking from a discourse perspective

陈斌梅

(作者单位：南京工程学院)



Teaching speaking from a discourse perspective

陈斌梅

Discourse analysis has been introduced into and practiced in English teaching for years.This article makes an introduction to some ways of analyzing from discourse perspective and makes a try in employing it in teaching speaking.

discourse analytical approaches teaching English speaking

一、Background theories

Speaking,as a way to communicate with the world,is always performing a certain function which influences the choice of lexis and grammars involved in it.For a better understanding of as well as an appropriate use of target language,second language learners should know how social and cultural purposes and how context influences the choice of language,through which learners can know he nature of language and thus develop the abilities to use it appropriately.Such a pedagogical ideology requires teaching language from a discourse perspective.A number of discourse analytical approaches to language teaching has been proposed and practiced,as Burns,A.summarizes,mainly including the following: 1) functional perspectives such as systemic-functional linguistics (Gerot & Wignell 2001,Halliday 1994); 2) exchange structure analysis; 3) conversation analysis;

二、Systemic-functional linguistics

Systemic-functional linguistics is a good way for a teacher to help learners to understand the function that language performs and “the socially and culturally constructed nature of language” (Burns,A.1998: 107).Meanwhile it also explores the interrelationships between the lexicogrammatical choice that speakers make and the social and cultural contexts in which language is used.It is also a good way to identify the types of spoken discourses.

Such a typology of spoken discourse can help learners to classify spoken data and further to examine and study how the cultural,social contexts and registers variables of field,tenor and mode influence the choice of language that speakers make as well as the generic stages in the interactions.

三、Exchange structure analysis

Exchange structure analysis mainly involves the identification of basic patterns of conversational exchange and the roles that interactants play; it also examines the strategies that interactants use to negotiate or renegotiate their positions in interactions.With this type of analysis,teachers can help learners to identify and practice the lexico-grammatical structures needed to produce various discourse strategies for making follow-up,tracking,challenging,or closing moves so as to negotiate or renegotiate their positions when they are in more difficult exchanges (Burns,1998).

四、Conversation analysis

Conversation analysis refers to “the analysis of natural conversation in order to discover what the linguistics characteristics of conversation are and how conversation is used in ordinary life” (Richards,J.C.,Platt,J.& Platt,H.,1998: 106).It involves an analysis of and an approach to a spoken discourse from a micro level,including the study of the following aspects: discourse structure of a conversation,adjacency pairs,turn taking,topic management and repair.Conversation analysis is a good tool to examine the norm and the strategies for getting,keeping or giving up a turn; it is also very useful for noting the different types of turns that are likely to follow one another and observing the strategies that speakers use to make interactions develop smoothly.

All the above approaches could be used to teaching speaking from a discourse perspective,while which one is more suitable and how it is used and whether it should be combined with other teaching approaches are dependent on the needs of learners,their language levels as well as the types of spoken discourse analyzed.

[1]Burns,A.Teaching speaking.In Annual Review of Applied Linguistics[M].USA: Cambridge University Press,1998(18):102～123.

[2]Halliday,M A K.An Introduction to Functional Grammar[M].London: Edward Arnold，1994.

(作者单位：南京工程学院)