R. Klamn & A. KoutropoulosEDDE 802: Advanced Research MethodsAssignment 2: 2/24/2015Handout on Discourse Analysis

Language Saying things using language never goes without doing things, or being things. Language allows us to be things. It allows us to take on different socially significant identities In language there are important connection among saying (informing), doing (action), and being (identity) To understand anything fully you need to know who is saying it and what the person saying it is trying to do Language has meaning only through social practices Direct speech act saying something makes it so if the circumstances are right (example You are the weakest link! Goodbye!) Heteroglossia weaving two different who-doing-whats together What comes first? Context or language? There is a reciprocity (also known as reflexivity) between context and language: language simultaneously reflects context and constructs it to be a certain way. Building language is a mutual process. In the Yu-Gi-Oh example in the book: People fight over the rules of Yi-Gi-Oh! in terms of what they really mean and how exactly they should be applied. People try sometimes to change the rules or agree to play by somewhat different rules. So, too, with practices in society. People fight over what the rules for being a good student ought to be. They sometimes seek to change them or to agree to a new set of rules. They fight over these things because important social goods are at stake. negotiability of language

Discourse Analysis Some of them look only at the content of the language being used, the themes or issues being discussed in a conversation or a newspaper article, for example. Other approaches pay more attention to the structure of language (grammar) and how this structure functions to make meaning in specific contexts Critical discourse analysis the goal is not just to describe how language works or even to offer deep explanations, though they do want to do this. They also want to speak to and intervene in social or political issues, problems, and controversies in the world. Meaning is not simply a matter of decoding grammar. It is also, more importantly, a matter of knowing which of the many inferences that one can draw from an utterance are relevant. Relevance is a matter deeply tied to context, point of view, and culture. Situated meanings deal with the highly specific meanings words and phrases take on in actual contexts of use cat in a home setting is a small animal cat in a zoo setting may signify a much larger animal The Frame problem: This is both a problem and a tool. Problem because our discourse analytic interpretations may change as we widen our context within which we interpret language Tool because we can use a widening context to see what information and values are being left unsaid in a piece of language A Figured World is a picture of a simplified world that captures what is taken to be typical or normal. What is normal varies by context and by social and cultural groups. Espoused Worlds: theories, stories, ways of looking at the world which we consciously espouse (say and often think we believe) Evaluative Worlds: theories, stories, ways of looking at the world which we use, consciously or unconsciously to judge ourselves and others Worlds-in-(inter)action: theories, stories, ways of looking at the world that consciously or unconsciously guide our actual actions and interactions with the world. Figured Worlds are deeply connected with Politics Meaning is situated in specific social and Discourse practices. It is continually transformed in those practices, thus dictionary definitions do not suffice. Situated meanings dont just reside in ready-made constructs in individuals minds. They are often negotiated between people in and through communicative social interaction. Context is important in understanding language-in-use and for understanding the nature of discourse analysis. Things are unsaid, but inferred from the context. Context includes the physical setting in which communication takes place and everything in it; the bodies, eyes gaze, gestures, and movements of those present; what has previously been said and done by those involved in the communication; any shared knowledge those involved have, including share cultural knowledge. However, when interpreting language we really do not use all of the context. Figured Worlds are theories or stories that often help guide us in the process of constructing situated meaning Figured worlds are usually not completely stored in any one persons head. They are distributed across the different sorts of expertise and viewpoints doing in the group much like a plot to a story that different people have different bits of and which they can potentially share in order to develop a mutual big picture. Discourses are ways of enacting socially significant identities and associated practice in society through language and ways of acting, interacting, valuing, knowing, believing, and using things, tools, and technologies at appropriate times and places. Discourse Analysis involves asking questions about how language, at a given time and place, is used to engage in the 7 tasks. There are 42 questions in total (7 tasks x 6 tools see notes further down for each tool and task) How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to build relevant or significant things in the context? How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to enact a practice in context? How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to enact or depict identities? How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to build and sustain (or change or destroy) social relationships? How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to create, distribute, or withhold social goods or construe particular distributions of social foods as good or acceptable or not? How are situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations being used to make things and people connected or relevant to each other or irrelevant to or disconnected from one another?

7 Tasks of LanguageWhenever we speak or write we always construct (or build) seven things or seven areas of reality Significance How is this piece of language being used to make certain things significant or not and in what ways? Practices (activities): Language and practices bootstrap each other into existence in reciprocal process through time. We cannot have one without the other. What practice or practices is this piece of language being used to enact (i.e. get others to recognize as going on)? Identities: What identity or identities is this piece of language being used to enact? What identity of identities is this piece of language attributing to others? How does this help the speaker or writer enact his own identity? Relationships: What sort of relationship or relationships is this piece of language seeking to enact with others (present or not)? Politics: Social goods are potentially at stake any time we speak or write so as to state or imply something or someone is adequate, normal or good (or the opposite) in some fashion important to some group as a society as a whole What perspective on social goods is this piece of language communicating? Connections: How does this piece of language connect or disconnect things? How does it make one thing relevant or irrelevant to another? Sign Systems and Knowledge: How does this piece of language privilege or dispriviledge specific sign systems? How does this piece of language privilege or dispriviledge specific ways of knowing and believing or claims to knowledge and belief?

Tools of inquiry into language Relevant to know people build identities and practices and recognize identities and practice that others are building around them. Social Languages People use different styles or varieties of language for different purposes. These are social languages. Investigating how different social languages are used and mixed is one tool of inquiry for engaging in DA Discourses People build identities and activities not just through language but by using language together with other stuff that isnt language. Analogy cant just talk the talk, gotta walk the walk Discourse with a capital D denotes ways of combining and integrating language, actions, interactions, ways of thinking, believing, valuing, and using various symbols, tools, and objects to enact particular sort of socially recognizable identity. In other words Discourses = Language + other stuff Discourses are embedded in a medley of social instructions and often involve various props like books and magazines, labs, classrooms, buildings, technologies, etc. Discourses can split into sub-discourses Two or more Discourses can combine Discourses change Discourses are defined in relationships Discourses need not be grand or large scale There are limitless Discourses they are not countable Discourses are material realities Conversations Conversation with capital C all the talking and writing that has occurred on a specific social group or in a society at large around a major theme, debate, or a motif. To know these Conversations is to know about the various sides one can take in debates about these issues and what sorts of people are usually on each side. Intertextuality When we speak or write our words often allude to or relate to other texts. Here texts mean words other people have said or written. Example: using u got a problem wit dat? in a newspaper article mixing Newspaper discourse with film tough guy discourse

Validity The burden falls on the critic of the analysis to show that important details that are left out are relevant by adding them in and changing the analysis. Discourse analysts must always be willing to share their data. Validity is construed by arguing that discourse analysis reflects reality in a simple way. Human interpret the world around them they dont have access to it just as is and DA is itself an interpretation of an interpretation done in specific contexts. Validity is never once and for all. Analyses are open to further discussion and dispute, and their status can go up or down with time as work goes on in the field. Validity for any DA is made up of 4 elements: Convergence DA is more valid the more answers to the 42 questions converge in the way that they support the analysis. The answers are compatible or convincing to many or all of the questions. Agreement Answers to the 42 questions are move convincing if native speakers of the social languages agree that the analysis reflects how those social languages are used. Coverage analysis is move valid the more it can be applied to related sorts of data. This includes being able to make sense of what has come before, and what comes after. Linguistic Details Analysis is mover valid the more it is tightly tied to details of linguistic structure. It is highly improbable that a good of the 4 elements above converge unless there is good reason to trust the analysis It is important for researchers to openly acknowledge if any answers to these 42 questions or linguistics details support opposing conclusions.

System of Analysis for Discourse AnalysisGee and Green describe two sets of elements that help understand discourse, social practices, and learning relationships and how they can be used to analyze written artifacts (1998, p.134-5). The two elements are a) the MASS system (material, activity, semiotic, and sociocultural aspects of discourse), and b) building tasks (world, activity, identity, and connections).

Table 2 An Example of the MASS Framework and Related Questions (Gee and Green, 1998, p. 140-141)

Building Task MASS AspectRepresentative Questions

World BuildingUsing situated meanings to create reality;Semiotic Aspectsigns; language, gestures, images

(five questions in total)What are the sign systems being used in the situation (e.g. speech, writing, images, and gestures?What situated meanings of the words and phrases (and gestures and images) do members construct and/or signal to each other in the situation?What cultural models do members signal are being used to connect and integrate these situated meanings to each other?

Material AspectActors, place (space), time and objects present in the interaction(four questions in total)When, where, with whom, and under what conditions are members interacting?What means and values seem to be attached to places, times, bodies, objects, artifacts and institutions relevant in this situation?

Activity BuildingCreating situated meanings about the activity or interactionActivity Aspect Specific or interconnected social activity or event(s) where the participants are engaging(three questions in total)On what is time being spent in this situation/event (i.e., what is the larger activity to which members are orienting in this situation?What sub-activities and sequences of these compose this activity?

Identity BuildingCreating situated meanings about what identities are important in the interaction Sociocultural AspectPersonal, social, and cultural knowledge, feelings, and identities that are inherent in and relevant in the interaction. (four questions in total)What norms and expectations, roles and relationships, and rights and obligations are constructed by, and/or signaled by, relevant members (the group) to guide participant and activity among participants in the event?What personal, social, and cultural knowledge and beliefs (cognition), feelings (affect), and identities (roles and relationships, positions) seem to be relevant to the situation?

Connection BuildingCreating assumptions about how the past and future of an interaction is connected to the present momentSemiotic Aspectsigns; language, gestures, images

(four questions in total)What sorts of connections (intertextual ties) looking backward and/or forward are made within utterances?What sorts of connections (intertextual ties) looking backward and/or forward are made across utterances and large stretches of the interaction?

Sociocultural AspectPersonal, social, and cultural knowledge, feelings, and identities that are inherent in and relevant in the interaction.

(three questions in total)What sorts of connections (intercontextual ties) are made to previous or future interactions, to other people, ideas, things, institutions, and discourses outside the current interaction?What sorts of connections (intercontextual ties) are made to previous processes and practices (cultural patterns) and proposed, recognized, and acknowledged as socially significant outside the current interaction?

Source: created from Table 2: An Example of the MASS Framework and Related Questions and notes from article (p.139-141)

Narrative Analysis, Conversational Analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis: Whats the Difference?

Discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis and conversational analysis are all analysis methods that have been used in the Interpretevist, Critical and Pluralist paradigms. What sets these forms of analysis apart from each other?

Narrative Analysis Narrative analysis focuses on stories of individuals, groups, societies and cultures connected to how they are written or told, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience(s) Four types of narrative analysis: Thematic analysis, categorizing accounts or aspects of accounts Structural analysis looks at how narratives are structured and what the language in the stories does in the textual and cultural level Dialogic/performance analysis focuses on the difficulty in analyzing accounts that are co-constructed or performed Visual analysis is about analyzing all visual media including art, video, and digital media. Can be captured by video, interview and participant observation

Conversation Analysis The study of the social interactions of everyday life Data is collected in the form of video or audio naturally occurring conversations between individuals Researchers examine data for patterns of interaction using inductive analysis and develop rules or models to explain the patterns Focuses on the processes involved in social interaction and does not include written text or other sociocultural phenomena

Critical Discourse Analysis Critical discourse analysis treats social practices in terms of their societal implication such as stats, solidarity, the distribution of social goods and power There are aspects of social language that establish solidarity (lack of deference) or set people apart (formal/informal grammar) Examine the sociopolitical and critical theories of society, power relationships, and status to improve social practices

ReferencesGee, J., P., & Green, J. (1998). Discourse analysis, learning, and social practice: A methodological study. Review of Research in Education, 23 (119-169).

Gee, J. P. (2009). Discourse analysis: What makes it critical?

Koro-Ljungberg, M., Yendol-Hoppey, D., Smith, J., & Hayes, S. (2009). (E)pistemological awareness, instantiation of methods, and uninformed methodological ambiguity in qualitative research projects. Educational Researcher, 38(9), 687-699.http://edr.sagepub.com/content/38/9/687.full.pdf+html

Narrative Analysis: Foundations of QR in Educationhttp://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.co?keyword=qualitatiave&pageid=icb.page340896http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=qualitative&pageid=icb.page340896

Ten Have, P. (1990) Methodological Issues in Conversation Analysis. http://www.paultenhave.nl/mica.htm

Additional Resources Here are also some notes from someone else who read the book and took notes: http://kooleady.ca/thoughts/?p=518 Gee, J. P. (2011). How to do Discourse Analysis: A Toolkit. New York: Routledge

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