Benjamin L. Stewart

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DA Week 1 Lecture Outline: Entering the World of Discourse

Duration: 20 minutes
Unit I: Foundations: Text, Context, and History
Essential Question: What changes when language is studied as discourse rather than as isolated sentences, and how has the field broadened its focus over time?

I. Opening: From Sentence to Discourse — 0:00–2:00

A. Opening example

  • “That window is still open.”

  • Reinterpret the sentence in different contexts:

    • cold classroom;

    • security inspection;

    • mystery story.

B. Central observation

  • Same linguistic form can produce different meanings.

  • Interpretation depends on:

    • participants;

    • relationship;

    • situation;

    • purpose;

    • surrounding language;

    • tone and expectations.

C. Transition to discourse analysis

  • Grammar describes linguistic form.

  • Discourse analysis examines what language is doing in context.

  • Discourse analysis expands grammatical analysis rather than replacing it.

II. Core Concepts — 2:00–5:00

A. Text

  • Observable communicative product.

  • May include:

    • written texts;

    • spoken transcripts;

    • classroom exchanges;

    • emails;

    • digital and multimodal texts.

B. Discourse

  • Language as situated meaning-making.

  • Language used to:

    • request;

    • persuade;

    • explain;

    • evaluate;

    • interact;

    • construct relationships and identities.

C. Context

  • Conditions shaping interpretation.

  • Dimensions:

    • situational;

    • interpersonal;

    • institutional;

    • social;

    • cultural;

    • historical.

D. Co-text

  • Language surrounding an expression.

  • Example: “That’s fine.”

  • Interpretation depends partly on what comes before and after.

E. ELT connection

  • Celce-Murcia and Olshtain:

    • communicative competence exceeds grammatical accuracy;

    • learners need discourse and pragmatic competence.

Key transition

“Is this sentence correct?” → “How does this language function in this communicative event?”

III. Historical Development: The Expanding Lens — 5:00–10:00

  • Historical Development (time table)

    PeriodExpanding focus in discourse analysisRepresentative traditions / emphasesMain analytical shift
    1950sLanguage beyond the isolated sentenceEarly discourse analysis; connected text; recurring patterns across stretches of languageSentence → extended text
    1960s–1970sLanguage as action, interaction, and situated meaningPragmatics; speech-act theory; sociolinguistics; Conversation Analysis; systemic-functional approachesExtended text → language in use
    1980s–1990sDiscourse as socially organized practiceGenre; discourse communities; institutions; identity; ideology; powerLanguage in use → social practice
    2000sDiscourse competence applied to language teaching and learningCommunicative competence; discourse and pragmatic competence; sociocultural appropriateness; teaching and assessment; Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000)Language description → pedagogical application
    2010sMultiple complementary approaches to different discourse questionsSystemic Functional Linguistics; pragmatics; Conversation Analysis; Genre Analysis; Critical Discourse Analysis; corpus approaches; Flowerdew (2013)One preferred lens → methodological pluralism
    2020sMultimodal, digital, corpus-informed, and multilingual meaning-makingSocial media; multimodality; linguistic landscapes; translanguaging; digital discourse; platform conventions; Paltridge (2022)Spoken/written language → multimodal and digital communication

    Overall trajectory: Sentence → connected text → language in use → interaction and context → social practice → pedagogical application and methodological pluralism → multimodal, digital, and multilingual discourse.

    Teaching point: Each stage broadens the analytical lens rather than replacing earlier approaches. Contemporary discourse analysis can still examine grammar and textual organization, but it also asks how meaning emerges through context, interaction, social relationships, institutions, identities, technologies, and multiple modes of communication.

A. 1950s: Beyond the Sentence

Primary focus: connected language.

  • Linguistic patterns across larger stretches of text.

  • Cohesion, organization, recurring patterns.

Shift:
Sentence → extended text

B. 1960s–1970s: Language as Action and Interaction

Primary focus: what people accomplish through language.

Relevant traditions:

  • pragmatics;

  • speech-act theory;

  • sociolinguistics;

  • Conversation Analysis;

  • systemic-functional approaches.

Questions:

  • What action is being performed?

  • How is meaning inferred?

  • How are turns organized?

  • How are politeness and repair managed?

Shift:
Extended text → language in use

C. 1980s–1990s: Discourse as Social Practice

Primary focus: relationships between discourse and society.

Areas of interest:

  • genre;

  • discourse communities;

  • institutions;

  • identity;

  • ideology;

  • power.

Questions:

  • Whose perspectives are privileged?

  • How are identities constructed?

  • What assumptions appear normal?

  • How does discourse reproduce or challenge power?

Shift:
Language in use → social practice

D. 2000s: Discourse and Language Teaching

Celce-Murcia & Olshtain

Focus:

  • communicative competence;

  • discourse and pragmatics;

  • language skills in context;

  • sociocultural appropriateness;

  • teaching and assessment.

Example:

  • “Give me your notes.”

  • Grammatically correct but not necessarily pragmatically appropriate.

Shift:
Language description → pedagogical application

E. 2010s: Multiple Analytical Approaches

Flowerdew

Major approaches include:

  • Systemic Functional Linguistics;

  • pragmatics;

  • Conversation Analysis;

  • Genre Analysis;

  • Critical Discourse Analysis;

  • corpus approaches.

Central principle:

  • Different discourse questions require different analytical tools.

Examples:

  • turn-taking → Conversation Analysis;

  • academic text structure → Genre Analysis;

  • representation and power → Critical Discourse Analysis.

Shift:
One preferred lens → methodological pluralism

F. 2020s: Multimodal, Digital, and Multilingual Discourse

Paltridge

Expanded areas:

  • multimodality;

  • digital discourse;

  • social media;

  • linguistic landscapes;

  • translanguaging;

  • corpus approaches.

Meaning may involve:

  • words;

  • images;

  • gesture;

  • sound;

  • typography;

  • layout;

  • hyperlinks;

  • platform conventions.

Shift:
Spoken/written language → multimodal and digital meaning-making

G. Historical synthesis

Sentence
→ Connected text
→ Language in use
→ Interaction and context
→ Social practice
→ Multimodal and digital communication

Key principle: newer perspectives expand the field rather than erase earlier approaches.

IV. Structural vs. Functional Analysis — 10:00–13:00

Example

“You might want to reconsider that argument.”

A. Structural perspective

Examine:

  • modal verb might;

  • verb phrase;

  • lexical choices;

  • sentence structure.

B. Functional/contextual perspective

Ask:

  • Is this really a suggestion?

  • Could it function as criticism or instruction?

  • Why use might instead of must?

  • How does the teacher–student relationship influence meaning?

  • Does spoken vs. written feedback change interpretation?

C. Analytical principle

Effective discourse analysis connects:

  • linguistic evidence
    with

  • contextual interpretation.

Avoid:

  • describing forms without discussing function;

  • making contextual claims without textual evidence.

V. Why Discourse Analysis Matters for ELT — 13:00–16:30

A. Materials

Evaluate:

  • authenticity;

  • conversational realism;

  • genre conventions;

  • cohesion;

  • communicative purpose.

B. Instruction

Teach language as forms-in-use:

  • cohesion;

  • argument organization;

  • disagreement;

  • stance;

  • requests;

  • genre expectations.

C. Classroom interaction

Analyze:

  • participation;

  • teacher questioning;

  • wait time;

  • feedback;

  • turn allocation;

  • learner opportunities to speak.

D. Assessment

Move beyond sentence accuracy to include:

  • coherence;

  • register;

  • audience awareness;

  • stance;

  • pragmatic appropriateness;

  • interactional competence.

Main takeaway

Discourse analysis helps teachers examine communication as communication, not merely as correct grammar.

VI. Guided Mini-Analysis — 16:30–18:30

Exchange

  • Teacher: “You finished already?”

  • Student: “Kind of.”

  • Teacher: “Right. Take another look at the conclusion.”

A. Form

Identify:

  • interrogative;

  • already;

  • vague expression kind of;

  • discourse marker right;

  • imperative.

B. Function

Interpret:

  • surprise or doubt;

  • uncertainty;

  • indirect criticism;

  • instruction to revise.

C. Social relationship

Consider:

  • teacher authority;

  • indirect evaluation;

  • institutional roles.

D. Debrief

The language did not change; the analytical questions changed.

Connect this directly to the historical development of discourse analysis.

VII. GenAI and Week 1 — 18:30–19:30

A. Level 2: Planning Support

Permitted uses:

  • brainstorming;

  • generating search terms;

  • identifying possible theories;

  • locating possible authentic examples.

B. Human responsibility

Students must:

  • verify sources;

  • read evidence;

  • evaluate AI suggestions;

  • make their own analytical conclusions.

C. AI Planning Appendix

Document:

  • prompt;

  • useful suggestions;

  • verified sources;

  • accepted ideas;

  • rejected ideas;

  • reasoning;

  • independent conclusion.

Key principle

AI-assisted discovery ≠ academic evidence.

VIII. Closing Synthesis — 19:30–20:00

A. Working definition

Discourse analysis is the systematic study of language in use and of how linguistic choices interact with text, context, communicative purpose, social relationships, and wider cultural and institutional conditions to create meaning.

Contemporary discourse analysis may also examine meaning across:

  • image;

  • sound;

  • gesture;

  • layout;

  • technology;

  • multilingual resources.

B. Final takeaway

Discourse analysis asks how language becomes meaningful in use.

C. Exit question

Choose an everyday communicative example and consider:

What could discourse analysis reveal that sentence-level grammatical analysis alone would probably miss?

Historical Development (time table)

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