MEILE Alfonso H.

Discourse Analysis 04/01/15

Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment

Critical Discourse Analysis

First of all it must be understood what discourse is to then move to discourse analysis. Cots (2012)
defines it in two different ways, from a critical view and a non critical view. The first one describes
discourse as any stretch of language that is perceived to have meaning, purpose and to be unified.
This is a descriptive definition that lacks critical view. In a quite contrastive way, in terms of critical
thinking, Cots (2012) defines discourse as “ideologically determined ways of talking about
persons, places, events and phenomena […][Discourse is] structured by society and at the same
time contributes to structuring the same society”. Therefore it can be simply said that discourse is
any representation of meaningful language with a given purpose. Now what discourse analysis
aims at is to explain the “hidden” values inside texts and relate them to the sociocultural practices
of the their producers and consumers. Discourse analysis starts with the assumption that language
is naturally social and that discourse constructs and reflects the social world. It regards discourse
as socially influenced and influential and language as problematic and questionable. Furthermore it
considers that language reflects social and ideological processes. As Paltridge (2012) Discourse
analysis work under 4 main principles which are:

1. Political issues are constructed and reflected in it.

2. Power relations are negotiated and performed through it.
3. Discourse reflects and reproduces social relations.
4. Ideologies are produced and reflected in its use.

Principles
1. Discourse analyses the ways in which political issues are constructed and reflected in the use
of certain discourse choices and strategies. People can address to an specific situation in
different ways, for example, from the cultural or economic point of view.
2. Power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse, for instance, who controls
controversial interaction and who allows whom to speak and in which ways. As Hutchby &
Wooffit (2008 in Paltridge, 2012) states “The person who speaks first in an argument is often in
a weaker position than the person who speaks next”. He or she has just to challenge the other
speaker’s claim. However the rolls can be changed when the 2nd speaker makes a statement.
If not, the 1st speaker will continue taking the control of the talk.
3. Social relations are both established and maintained through the use of discourse. the different
uses of discourse can also influence and build stereotypes and gender inequalities.
4. Discourse produces and reflects ideologies and, thus, society itself. This may include power
and social relations based on gender, class and ethnicity. Fairclough and Wodak (1997 in
Paltridge, 2012) state that any text must be regarded in relation to the texts that preceded them
and the ones that will come after them, in other words their intertextuality. It is also suggested
MEILE Alfonso H.
Discourse Analysis 04/01/15
Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment
to take into account the sociocultural knowledge and the matter at hand more broadly (adapted
from Paltridge, 2012).

CDA aims to make relations between the social and cultural practices, to unpack what people say
and do using discourse in relation to their view of the world. For instance the study of Meadows
(2009 in Paltridge, 2012) shows how language classrooms are not only about developing language
proficiency but are also linked to the outside investment of the students. CDA is the uniting of texts
through the sociocultural practices that the text reflects, produces and reinforces. (Fairclough,
1995, in Partridge, 2012).

Doing a CDA

In order to carry out a CDA the analyst firstly, should categorise the kind of discourse the text
represents and to what extend it sticks to the standard genre in use and if the author went beyond
it to create a certain effect. After that it should be analyse the framing of the text, this is the content
and the perspective used in it. This should be closely studied with the foregrounding and the
backgrounding notion of the text. In other words, the emphasised and the not highlighted aspects.
Moreover, the background knowledge of the text have to be in mind of the analyst, this is the all the
assumptions, points of view and presuppositions of the text. Consequently, at sentence level it
must be considered the topicalization of the text (theme and rheme) as well as the agent-patient
relation.
At the word and phrase level, connotation plays an important role in the analysis. The level of
formality and degree of technicality might also be considered. Equally important at this level is the
aspect of modality, this is the choice of words to express certainty or attitude. All the above
depends on the research situation and questions. However the critical, discourse and analysis
aspects have more weight in the study because it goes beyond the descriptive level to a better and
insight understanding of texts. CDA attempts to explain why a text is the way it is and its relation to
the sociocultural practices and background knowledge as well as to reflect the political, ideological,
sociocultural issues that underlie the text.

Criticisms of CTA

Even though CDA and its methodology are very promising and ensure to provide reliable outcome,
there have been some authors that have attacked this approach. It is because it is related to a
former method to analyse literature. Furthermore some others like Widdowson (1998,2004) whose
argument states that a critical analysis should have interaction with the producers and consumers
of text. This is implied in the other aspect CDA has been criticised for, and it is that CDA is said to
restrict only to the point of the analysts. Thus it has been suggested taking into account the reader
or hearer’s opinion to enrich the analysis and avoid generalisations. Noppen (2004, in Paltridge,
2012) has even declared that analysts have come to mistake themselves for the audience.
MEILE Alfonso H.
Discourse Analysis 04/01/15
Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment
Similarly, Cameron (2001in Paltridge, 2012) has noted that no single interpretation of a text should
be considered as only possible or valid. She again suggests on the utility of the consumers’
interpretation. Additionally there have been some other suggestions to enrich CDA results. For
example systematic functional linguistic analysis is proposed as tool by Fairclough (2003) and
Martin (2000) while others like McKenna (2004) suggest schema theory in the area of language
and cognition. Last but not least, Traunter (2005) puts forward the notion of performativity as a key
aspect in CDA as it provides significant ways of thinking of language, identity, ideology and, all in
all, CDA.

CDA Example
The following example has been extracted from an EFL textbook called Taboos and Issues
(MacAndrew, 2001) which is not merely a lesson book. It contains 40 lesson about controversial
topics such as, gay families, news, sexual education, drugs, abortion, etc. It basically presents a
short text about a topic followed by activities. The textbook provides the student with the necessary
vocabulary to understand the reading passage, pre-reading questions or other activities to discuss
about it. After the text, a variety or reading comprehension activities follows. Afterwards grammar
and/or vocabulary short activities are below. However, what is quite interesting is the discussion
section, which is a speaking activity where different points of view about the text are shown. The
students have to comment on these and it is hoped they develop their own viewpoint or take an
attitude towards one of them. The text used for this analysis is on immigration and racism. It is
about Kosovar immigrants, a nation in the southern border of Serbia, that were housed in Little
Hurling, a village in Kent, USA . It relates the nonconformity of the local people and the events
during a protest meeting.

ASYLUM SEEKERS
There was trouble yesterday in the village of the Little Hurling in Kent as 150 Kosovar refugees
arrived to stay in the Hurling Business Centre just outside the village. Local people, upset that no
one had spoken to them before sending the refugees there, held a protest meeting in the village
hall.
“we are no tolerant group of people in Little Hurling, “said Major Ronald Smythe, who has lived in
the village for 25 years. “we are happy that the government has offered assistance to these people
and provided accommodation for them. But Hurling is not the place they should be. It would be
better if they were in a large town or city”
Amanda Perker White, 52, leader of the village committee , said: “There is no entertainment here,
no cinema, no library, only one small village shop. The point is what are the people going to do?”.
Basil Lloga, a spokesman for the refugees, said: “I am sure the villagers are not discriminating
against these people. Most of them have come here as genuine asylum seekers. They are afraid
that if they return home, they will be killed or persecuted. After the terrible time they have had in
their own country, they need some peace and quiet to help them recover.”
MEILE Alfonso H.
Discourse Analysis 04/01/15
Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment
“Unfortunately, there was no time to talk to the villagers”, said Kim Thompson of the government
Refugee Action Group. “We only found out the refugees were arriving this morning and there was
nowhere else for them to go. We very much hope the villagers will welcome them and accept them
into the community”.

Marks used in the text

Yellow Past tense

Green Future tense

Blue Present tense

Oringe Present perfect tense

Gray Conditional tense

Underlined Passive voice

Red Topical theme of the clause or phrase

Purple Textual theme of the clause or phrase

First of all it must be clarified that it is a common reading for EFL students. The only difference is
that topics of this kind are unusual to appear in regular EFL textbooks, which is the effect the
author wants to make in this book. On of the purposes apart from providing material for a language
course is to present debatable topics to the students. About the genre, there is not a genuine one
because it is a EFL reading but it is intended to be a newspaper article. The level of english has
been adapted to a B1 or B2 level. This means that this is not quite natural language, but a more
carefully selected one. The text uses a pattern of grammatical structures that could be studied in
the classroom, such as, direct speech, present perfect, simple past and simple present. However
non of these features are used in the provided post and pre reading activities. Vocabulary of
immigration is presented to work on instead. The main intended purpose of the reading is to make
students aware of the issues related to immigration and critically think of it.
At the level of sentence, it can be noticed that complex, compound and simple sentences are
used,.There are even relative clauses. It might mean that both, the level of english of the readers is
expected to be high and that relative clauses and complex sentences are information to make the
text more credible and provide context to the situation.

The title of the text provides a grasp of what the text is about, it very clear once immigration has
been established as the topic of the lesson. Furthermore, all of the text is written in active voice,
except for one clause,(underlined) which was used to avoid the extension of the text explaining the
background of the immigrants. The subject of the sentences in the first, second and final paragraph
MEILE Alfonso H.
Discourse Analysis 04/01/15
Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment
are mostly the local people of the village, or any word that makes reference to them. In the third
paragraph the immigrants play the role of the subject in the sentences. It was clearly to emphasise
the importance of the villagers and immigrants in the story as main characters and to focus the
readers’ attention on them. Another noticeable aspect of this is that names of people and charges
are given to make the text more alive and reliable. Even though representatives of each side of the
situation speak in the text, they use the same kind of language, in terms of complexity. However, a
slightly higher level of formality can be perceived when the representative of the government
speaks. This might reflect a stereotype that government workers speak more formal than regular
inhabitants of a village, despite their charge in there.

The story is supposed to take place in the USA, specifically in the northwest part of the country.
Unfortunately there is not any language variation that may portray the culture of the villagers or of
Kozovars. Standard American english is used instead. Additionally, people from all around the
globe may read this text, thus they may have the idea that many people want to emigrate to the
USA, or at least people from Kozovo. Similarly the idea of American people feeling uncomfortable
because of the arrival of immigrant might be conceived. However the text is not clear in this aspect.
The position of the text towards immigration appears to be neutral and open to discussion. For
example the villagers never claimed they do not like people from Kozovo, they only pointed out
their village is not the best place for them, which suggests a feeling of making them leave. When it
comes to the tense and aspect characteristic of the text, a pattern is clearly followed. The text is
narrated in past tense but the reported information is usually in present simple and perfect tense.
Finally The author has been really careful at making this reading passage as it achieves what he
wants, to establish a topic to discuss about, without setting a position towards any side of the
situation. He accurately provides different points of view of the situation below the text to make
students think critically about it but he never presuppose any of them.

CDA in Language Teaching and Conclusion

As it was noticed, analysing a text from a critical approach provides a better understanding of it, its
purpose, it relation to other texts of the same kind, and guess the perception of future receivers of
the text. CDA helps people to understand the way human beings behave and how and why the
may do it. CDA also attempts to explain systematically how people use language to interact, reflect
who they are, their beliefs, culture and construct society. All of the above are enough reasons to
wish all people analysed at least what they say and write. This is what CDA in language teaching is
attempting to do, to make students aware of the importance of critical thinking, to make them
question and understand the world. Activities like the one presented above are a great example of
what language teaching could do alongside the use of CDA in the classroom. Teachers could make
students aware of the out-of-sight values of any text while encouraging their linguistics and meta
linguistic abilities. At the end students that have the concern of understanding more the world might
come to change it.
MEILE Alfonso H.
Discourse Analysis 04/01/15
Teacher: Tito Mata Final Assignment

References
Cots, J. M. (2006). Teaching ‘with an attitude’: Critical Discourse Analysis in EFL
teaching. ELT Journal, 60(4), 336-345.

MacAndrew, R., & Martínez, R. (2001). Taboos and issues. Language Teaching
Publications.

Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London Bloomsbury

Publishing.