The Revelation of Discourse Analysis in the Teaching of College English Reading
By
Guo Mengcheng
Superviser Wu Beifeng
May 2015
Acknowledgments
First of all I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor a respectable responsible and resourceful scholar who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this thesis Without hisher enlightening instruction impressive kindness and patience I could not have completed my thesis The keen and vigorous academic observation enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study I shall also extend my thanks to my parents for all their kindness and help I would also like to thank all my teachers who have helped me to develop the fundamental and essential academic competence My sincere appreciation also goes to the teachers and students from my university who participate in this study with great cooperation At last I’d like to thank all my friends especially my lovely roommates for their encouragement and support
Abstract
In China’s College English teaching the traditional English reading teaching method still has a profound impact This teaching method overemphasizes the form of language and can＇t effectively cultivate students＇ reading ability Discourse analysis is a method of discourse analysis It shows the relationship between sentences and sentences through linguistic analysis especially the relationship between sentences and paragraphs aiming at highlighting the coherence hidden in language The reading teaching is always the focus in our English teaching improve students＇ reading ability is one of the main goals of College English teaching so English reading teaching has been paid more attention and both teachers and students have made great efforts the result is still not satisfactory the timeconsuming and low income results greatly troubled we There are many reasons why English reading teaching is not ideal at present of which the teaching method is the main cause of the phenomenon In the traditional teaching process teachers mainly use grammar translation and word sentence interpretation which makes students difficult to grasp the content from the overall structure of the article This paper gives a comprehensive introduction to the theory of reading and discourse analysis and focuses on how to make use of cohesion and coherence theme and rheme theory to help students understand and master the structure and meaning of articles
Key words Discourse analysis reading teaching methods College English
摘
国学英语教学中传统英语阅读教学法然着深远影响种教学方法分强调语言形式效培养学生阅读力语篇分析种语篇分析方法通语言分析展示句子句子关系尤句子段落间关系目突显出潜藏语言中连贯阅读教学直国英语教学重点提高学生阅读力学英语教学目标英语阅读教学直重视教师学生做出努力结果意种费时较收益较低结果极困扰着造成目前英语阅读教学理想原然中教学方法引起该现象原传统教学程中教师语法翻译词句解释种方法导致学生难文章整体结构握容文阅读语篇分析理进行较全面介绍着重探讨英语阅读教学中利衔接连贯位述位相关理帮助学生理解掌握文章结构意
关键词：语篇分析阅读教学方法学英语
Contents
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
Contents iv
Chapter1 Introduction 1
11 Background of the Research 1
12 Purpose of the Study 1
13 Structure of the Paper 2
Chapter 2 Literature Review 2
21 Discourse Analysis Theory 3
211 The Nature of Discourse and Discourse Analysis 3
212 Cohesion and Coherence in Discourse 4
213 Theme and Rheme in Discourse 5
22 Research on Discourse Analysis Abroad and in China and Its Application in College English teaching 6
Chapter 3 The theory of discourse analysis in College English Reading Teaching 8
31 Strengthening the cultural background 8
32 Establishing a correct reading concept and cultivating good reading habits on discourse 8
33 Interspersed with question teaching practice in discourse to stimulate interest 9
34 Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Medical English Reading Teaching 9
Chapter 4 Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12
Chapter1 Introduction
This chapter is a prelude to the present study In this chapter the theory of language learning strategies the significance and purpose as well as the layout of the present study will be introduced
11 Background of the Research
The traditional college English reading teaching mainly focuses on the explanation of words grammar and translation rather than the full text According to the traditional theories of foreign language teaching language learners should first master the formal aspect of the language (grammar wordformation and so on) then the content and finally the presentation of ideas Under the influence of these theories many teachers in reading class will lay stress on the form of language teaching but the teaching effect is unsatisfactory
The discourse analysis theory doesn＇t treat the words and grammar as the foundation of the reading teaching but considers the full text as the basic unit of reading The text is supposed to be thoroughly understood analyzed and evaluated as a whole This method enables the students to learn to grasp the theme of the text wholly overcome the problems such as obsolete boring and low efficiency of traditional reading and vocabulary teaching method Another advantage of this theory is it helps fully mobilize students＇ enthusiasm of learning English This apart from satisfying the college English curriculum requirements provides a new teaching method to achieve the teaching goal Text comprehension is a complex cognitive psychological process Therefore discourse analysis not only focuses on the language representation analysis but more on the function of language the related country’s history and culture background
12 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to explore the effect of application of discourse analysis theory in college English reading teaching This model contributes to improve students＇ reading ability at discourse level to reinforce students＇ awareness of discourse knowledge to get students not to neglect the language points and simultaneously grasp the global structure of the discourse to teach students to identify reference discourse markers schema theory themerheme context etc to provide students with background knowledge and to develop students＇ ability of inferring and predicting from context
13 Structure of the Paper
The paper is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 discusses the background of the research the purpose of the study and the structure of the paper Chapter 2 reviews English argumentative writing and Appraisal Theory Chapter 3 analyzes the detailed structure of Appraisal System Chapter 4 analyzes the appraisal resources in English major’ and British university students’ argumentative writings Chapter 5 is the result and discussion By analyzing the similarities and differences of appraisal resources we can find something to improve teaching and learning Chapter 6 is the conclusion and major findings and implications are revealed Moreover some limitations and further suggestions are presented in the paper
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Discourse analysis is the basic concept of systematical linguistics So it has been studied from different points of view and in different kinds Based on Halliday’s idea it can be drawn that the word discourse is a consistent and coherent unit in forms of structure and the meaning it expresses of a text is that it must be a whole one In the 1960s and early 1970s discourse analysis grew out of work in different disciplines for example linguistics psychology anthropology and sociology Discourse analysis also involves form of language and language functions It also includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts The research results have formed specialization in the research of language communication but as social practice for example here as a way of teaching college English reading
21 Discourse Analysis Theory
In this part it mainly introduces the discourse analysis method Which includes two parts the first is coherence and genre analysis the second is the cohesion They are the two major features in discourse analysis
211 The Nature of Discourse and Discourse Analysis
Discourse is a unit of language in the actual use which consists of a series of continuous words or sentences in a communicative process It has features of coherence and cohesion Any discourse contains certain social intentions and cultural characteristics because it is the product of socialization So every discourse relates with the specific social and cultural significance
Text comprehension is a complicated cognitive psychological process Discourse information will continue to expand with discourse’s diversification and deepening and part of the information processing is the process of students’ background knowledge Since the advent of discourse analysis or text linguistics it has been of great interest to the field of linguistics and applied linguistics This is because the study of the nature of language can’t leave out the discourse as the research object
Firstly language form depends on the functions of language People select the certain language form to achieve their intention Secondly it’s by the discourse people express themselves in the complicated social activities Therefore discourse analysis is of great theoretical value to linguistics research also has application value to the other subjects (Hu Zhuanglin 2001) English teaching being one
As one of the main objects the recent research focuses on two kinds of theories namely the traditional bottomup and the new top down theory
The theory of bottomup (bottomup approach) pay attention to the structure of the language itself that the reading process is a process of decoding (decoding written symbols) namely the words and sentences the sentences and paragraphs to chapter to understand This reading is dominated by the data (datadriven) The school emphasizes the use of the language the background knowledge of the reader according to the clues of the reading materials to predict Today＇s cognitive theory is more emphasized
The topdown the process of reading comprehension as a process of information processing at A major contribution to the school＇s reading theory it is suggested that the schema (schemata) plays an important role in the process of reading
212 Cohesion and Coherence in Discourse
Cohesion theory is an important part of text feature which is the structure of the sentence or clause In the sixty s of last century with the rapid development of discourse research discourse cohesion theory emerges as the times require In 1962 Halliday first put forward the the concept of cohesion 1976 and his wife Hasan cooperation the book cohesion in English the convergence term officially became the linguistic terms and is widely used Since the advent of the word cohesion by different scholars gave various definitions of language Although they disagree with each other but from a different angle proved cohesion is an important means of constructing discourse it as a discourse in the sentences in semantic and surface structure of connection mode can help us to study the discourse in different semantic units and them with the text as a whole between connections and relationships Halliday (1976) argues that text is a discourse the Discourse (texture) Texture is an abstract concept combined with various cohesive devices each connection point is a convergence knot (cohesive tie) So he put the cohesion is defined as exists in the text inside can make the text become various semantic relations of discourse cohesion theory (1976) Halliday in the field of discourse analysis in the groundbreaking
From this century six since the 1970s people began to study the problem of discourse coherence such as Jacobson (1960) Harweg (1968) Van Dijk (1972 1977) Kintsch’s (1974) Halliday&Hasan (1976) Coulthard (1977) Widdowson (1978 1979) enkvist (1978) etc Which really cause people＇s attention to textual coherence research is Halliday&Hasan＇s in (English Cohesion) a Book published In the eight and ninety years the study of textual coherence is further deepened and developed Coherence is mainly from the semantic and functional point of view the coherence of the text is not necessarily cohesive cohesion is the text of the physical network is the surface the surface convergence of the discourse is not necessarily coherent Coherence is an important term in the field of discourse research its definition has not been unified its connotation extension and so on has not been fully demonstrated Halliday believes that coherence is a semantic concept it is discourse in different components between in the sense of touch specifically manifested in two aspects 1) discourse in different parts of the proposition are related to each other 2) discourse in different part of the expression of implication are related to each other Words as long as they meet any of the above criteria can be seen as a coherent
213 Theme and Rheme in Discourse
Van Dyke that discourse coherence by the concept of two levels of composition linear or sequence of local coherence and macro structure The former mainly includes three aspects 1) the sequential nature of the facts or statements 2) significant information and hidden information 3) discourse sentence information structure People＇s cognitive habits are always known to lead to unknown unknown adhesion to the known From the whole point of view the subject of the sentence has semantic and pragmatic nature which is carried by the information that has been expressed or implied in the previous text which is used for the link between sentences The latter refers to the macro structure of the discourse which is a semantic proposition that can be expressed by means of a sentence
One of the founders of the Prague School Mathesius first put forward the concept of theme and rheme in 1930s (Zhang Lianxiu 2008) He named the element came in the first position of the utterance as theme which was the point of departure of the message the rest of the utterance was called rheme The founder of Systemic Functional Linguistics Halliday (1985) accepted these terms he perceived that in general the theme was the starting point of the information which was given information whereas rheme was new information
In the discourse sentences are not isolated The two parts of the sentence the themes of the sentences the rhemes of the sentences as well as theme and rheme are in constant change along with the convertion of old and new information the contact and the change was called Thematic Progression (Danes F 1986 12) There are many scholars at home and abroad have explored modes of Thematic Progression Hu Zhuanglin (1994) argued that the basic modes of Thematic Progression were the following three types
(1) Repeat the theme of the former sentence ie the theme of the first sentence continues to be the second sentence’s theme and it can be expressed as T1→T2
(2) An element of the former rheme turns to be a new theme expressed as R1→T2
(3) The theme and rheme of the former sentence go together as a new theme expressed as T1+Rl→T2
22 Research on Discourse Analysis Abroad and in China and Its Application in College English teaching
Text also known as chapters generally considered to be more than a single sentenceBit Halliday and Hasan (1976) believes that the best discourse is seen into semantic units discourse is a set of languages it is not a sentence like language Law Unit nor is it in the form of units but units of meaning Therefore decidedGiven discourse than the form but more of a meaning Hatim(1990) The discourse is defined as In some way connected together to achieve some overall rhetorical intent to a series of related communicative function Domestic linguists Hu Zhuanglin (1994) The discourse is defined as Any entirely by sentence grammar constraints at a certain context represents the full semantics natural language Huang Guofeng (1988) said usually refers to a discourse continuous series of words or sentences language section composed of whole regardless of discourse spoken or written must be convergence reasonable and consistent with logic series semantic coherence Summary of the above can be seen that discourse is a logical structure in line with the rules of language communication can reach the destination whole language and has a certain clarity and coherence
In recent years some scholars and teachers to discourse analysis into the field of language teaching published a textbook of discourse analysis such as M McCarthy of discourse analysis for language teachers discourse analysis teaching reference book (1991) EHatch of discourse and language education discourse and language teaching (1992) and RCarter MMeehy language as Discourse IEPP for languageteaching the language as discourse language teaching view (1994) and so on And some teaching books with discourse analysis is very close such as the natural language communication (C Brumfit） W rivers the context of teaching JRchards English Teaching (brown g G Yule) and so on
The traditional reading teaching under the guidance of the theory of grammar translation method dependency syntax analysis to semantic understanding whether translated into precise language as a measure of understanding standard Students focus on between vocabulary and grammar in a passive position and the lack of deep understanding ability and association ability reading speed not to communication skills can not keep up From the point of view of teachers due to the traditional theories emphasize from phoneme letters corresponding to that phrase on interpreting relationship started Language points explanation often not closely related to the context that is closely linked to the discourse context for comprehensive analysis Since the proposed psychologist nuttal (1982) reading is an interactive process of (Communication) and the foreign language reading described as active IRLS of a text (active interrogation of a discourse) people gradually realize that reading is the writer and the reader should actively communicate twoway activities is an interactive process The author of the information encoding through text and the reader through the decoding to obtain the textual meaning in this process the reader that students should give full play to the initiative
Chapter 3 The theory of discourse analysis in College English Reading Teaching
31 Strengthening the cultural background
Psychologists are very stressed that people have stored background knowledge to understand the role of language input They believe that understanding the words and reasoning can not be separated from the existing knowledge In fact the socalled understanding is that people will have the knowledge of the same text with the information overlap so that the information is consistent with common sense In a word the above understanding of coherence can be divided into two categories the first category is that coherence is the entity in the form of text while the second one is that coherence is a communicative process or a discourse processing rule The first category will be regarded as a finished product the consistency of the study is the characteristics of the article written Second types of discourse as a dynamic communicative process the generation and interpretation of discourse study However no matter they of coherent view and research methods differ they are the coherence is defined as text in the message exchange
32 Establishing a correct reading concept and cultivating good reading habits on discourse
In the process of teaching reading students＇ interest in reading and good reading habits is very important Traditional reading lessons focus on analysis of words not only the meaning of the article separated and so many students to develop the habit of thinking in Chinese Students need to read the sentence when translated into Chinese to Chinese if you do not you can not seem to really understand the article Over time the students＇ reading easy to misunderstand not only reading is slow and can not understand the chapter structure as a whole Therefore to improve students＇ reading comprehension level you first need to change the erroneous notion of reading the reading process to avoid excessive entanglement phenomenon of grammar and vocabulary from the text as a whole understand the article Secondly the need to change the course of students＇ reading bad reading habits to establish a correct concept of reading efficiency and gradually improve logical reasoning ability and habit of thinking in English Again in the teaching process pay attention to cultivate students＇ interest in reading Teachers can select the interest of some students financial knowledge and interest as one of the background reading materials for students to read so that students feel when reading a pleasure so that can improve reading ability but also to expand their knowledge but also to cultivate students＇ interest in reading
33 Interspersed with question teaching practice in discourse to stimulate interest
In reading in the reading process of teaching teachers should be interspersed with some questions and exercises for the whole discourse in order to stimulate interest in reading materials for students First about the title let the students discuss the content of the article to the effect that teachers may ask some questions to the students to enable students to carry out the purpose and exploratory reading which is the key to improve the comprehensive ability of discourse On this basis allow students to answer some of the more enlightening people＇s questions and make the right judgments and reasoning based on the content of discourse to understand thrust of the article the author＇s intention of writing analysis to seize the main points For example a discussion paper several questions should help students grasp the central argument of the problem so that students can quickly understand the article to show that question the position in order to understand the entire text Of course the design should be easy to difficult step by step and to take full account of the students＇ practical abilities First some students ask questions through the browser can quickly find articles to help them understand the article training students＇ overall understanding of the article Some questions then infer problems for students through intensive reading texts grasp the details students summarize analytical skills Finally let students answer some general questions to open up their horizons In the actual teaching of reading teachers may take the form of group discussions create a free atmosphere for the students while increasing their opportunity to exercise spoken stimulate interest in learning
34 Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Medical English Reading Teaching
Text Teaching teachers can remind students to pay attention to sentence level from two aspects of cohesion and coherence Cohesion is the text within sentences connections in the surface structure and semantics Halliday and Hasan (1976) in Cohesion in English the book systematically Cohesive text is divided into five categories alleged omissions connection substitution and lexical cohesion Teachers should students made it clear how to identify these cohesive devices Different genres of discourse which Cohesive is not the same allegations are used for describing the text replace and omission used for dialogue Connections commonly used in argumentative expository the lexical cohesion is more common in the scientific literature
Coherence is the theory of discourse analysis is the most important part of the main research each individual sentences and paragraphs how Cohesive constitute discourse Discourse coherence is the relationship between the formation of cohesion is the ideal result obtained using Cohesive Text theme through Cohesion and coherence to achieve To achieve coherence of the text in addition to the use of cohesive devices but also needs to use context rhetoric and even the imagination of students and other means to grasp the idea of the article so that students have the thinking and understanding in order to better understand the text At the same time teachers and students to discuss the article writing skills style rhetoric and style students higher level of discourse analysis capabilities to help students infer deep topic of discourse
Reference refers to the use of pronouns and other grammatical means to express semantic relations Hallidy and Hassan (1976) take care of Endophora and exophora Internal reference refers to the relationship between the linguistic items in a discourse external reference means that the meaning of a language project is directly dependent on a certain object of the external objective environment The internal reference can be divided into anaphora and cataphora Refers to the former refers to the object is located in the above after the reference object refers to the object is located in the following
1) The functional unit considering of a motor neuron and the muscle fibers it controls is called a motor unit
In front of the functional unit the refers to the object in the objective environment an external reference and behind the it refers to the object functional unit the in the above which is an internal reference but also the former reference
2) Because it is inhaled nicotine takes only seven to ten seconds to reach the brain
In this example the front of the it refers to the back of the nicotine so it here is the post reference
Because there is no such word in medical English reading materials this article will not introduce the personal reference Only reference and comparison of the instructions to take care of
3) Vitamin A itself is fatsoluble and can be stored in the body This vitamin is necessary for the maintenance of the epithelial cells of the skineye digestive and respiratory tracts
In this example vitamin this refers to the object as the first sentence of the vitamin A is the former reference
The whole text usually refers to a series of words or sentences in a row of language No matter in what form of discourse must be grammatical and semantic coherence including with the outside world in the semantic and pragmatic coherence of discourse including internal coherence in language Is the important content of discourse cohesion and coherence Medical English sentences are generally complete change is less complete sentence ellipsis sentences sentences less and less For example
AIDS is an acquired immune deficiency characterized by a defect in natural immunity against disease It cannot be transmitted through hugging kissing shaking hands sharing eating utensils In addition there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted by insects
Medical literature in English reading is a professional medical students to obtain an important channel for the latest progress of Western medicine is not unattainable as long as have a public foundation in English understand the characteristics of medical English apply discourse knowledge master certain reading skills to improve the reading of medical literature in the English reading ability of medical students and get information through reading will become easy and pleasant
Chapter 4 Conclusion
Discourse analysis plays a vital role in the process of reading teaching largely improving the efficiency and quality of reading comprehension
Firstly discourse analysis method largely cultivates the students’ interests in reading A wellknown fact in college English education is that students’ low performance is closely related to the lack of interest on the part of students in English The difficulty of language learning follows the indifference in English This fact is further evidenced in the questionnaire To be honest we have to say that traditional grammar teaching always plays a key role in the learning process It is boring that we just remember the principle of grammar and words without situation and background As we know interest is the best teacher in learning Taking the discourse analysis method students become the host of the class teacher is the guider organizer Only are the students involved in the activities which teacher positively creates close to students’ real life experience that can stimulate their interests Students can master the skills and techniques such as generalizing summarizing and scanning for the specific information logical thinking guessing the new words through answering questions or finishing activities
Secondly the discourse analysis will develop students’ positive habit of reading They will acquire much more useful words in the real discourse and try to use them similarly in the place where they have learned At the same time they will acknowledge the western culture background and the thinking pattern This model trains the students’ ability of selflearning The final goal of second language education is to teach students how to acquire language independently In the traditional teaching model the students depend heavily on the teacher’s explanation But in the new model the teacher teaches the students how to fish The teacher teaches study skills encourages the students to take charge of their own study fosters the students’ attitudes such as the independence of mind thus helping the students to learn how to learn and study on their own only by encouraging the students to take charge of their own study can the teacher encourage the students to read more after class and read better Lastly it provides teachers with a new consciousness of discourse analysis changing the outdated teaching method into a new point of view which tremendously facilitates the reading effect Discourse analysis based reading teaching reflects the interaction between the teacher and the students between the discourse and the readers In the process the teacher guides students to understand the discourse in its context as a whole he is supposed to activates the relative schema of the discourse and help the students to practice the ability to infer analyze and generalize thus grasping the idea and attitude of the author
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The Revelation of Discourse Analysis in the Teaching of College English Reading
By
Guo Mengcheng
Superviser Wu Beifeng
May 2015
Acknowledgments
First of all I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor a respectable responsible and resourceful scholar who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this thesis Without hisher enlightening instruction impressive kindness and patience I could not have completed my thesis The keen and vigorous academic observation enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study I shall also extend my thanks to my parents for all their kindness and help I would also like to thank all my teachers who have helped me to develop the fundamental and essential academic competence My sincere appreciation also goes to the teachers and students from my university who participate in this study with great cooperation At last I’d like to thank all my friends especially my lovely roommates for their encouragement and support
Abstract
In China’s College English teaching the traditional English reading teaching method still has a profound impact This teaching method overemphasizes the form of language and can＇t effectively cultivate students＇ reading ability Discourse analysis is a method of discourse analysis It shows the relationship between sentences and sentences through linguistic analysis especially the relationship between sentences and paragraphs aiming at highlighting the coherence hidden in language The reading teaching is always the focus in our English teaching improve students＇ reading ability is one of the main goals of College English teaching so English reading teaching has been paid more attention and both teachers and students have made great efforts the result is still not satisfactory the timeconsuming and low income results greatly troubled we There are many reasons why English reading teaching is not ideal at present of which the teaching method is the main cause of the phenomenon In the traditional teaching process teachers mainly use grammar translation and word sentence interpretation which makes students difficult to grasp the content from the overall structure of the article This paper gives a comprehensive introduction to the theory of reading and discourse analysis and focuses on how to make use of cohesion and coherence theme and rheme theory to help students understand and master the structure and meaning of articles
Key words Discourse analysis reading teaching methods College English
摘
国学英语教学中传统英语阅读教学法然着深远影响种教学方法分强调语言形式效培养学生阅读力语篇分析种语篇分析方法通语言分析展示句子句子关系尤句子段落间关系目突显出潜藏语言中连贯阅读教学直国英语教学重点提高学生阅读力学英语教学目标英语阅读教学直重视教师学生做出努力结果意种费时较收益较低结果极困扰着造成目前英语阅读教学理想原然中教学方法引起该现象原传统教学程中教师语法翻译词句解释种方法导致学生难文章整体结构握容文阅读语篇分析理进行较全面介绍着重探讨英语阅读教学中利衔接连贯位述位相关理帮助学生理解掌握文章结构意
关键词：语篇分析阅读教学方法学英语
Contents
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
Contents iv
Chapter1 Introduction 1
11 Background of the Research 1
12 Purpose of the Study 1
13 Structure of the Paper 2
Chapter 2 Literature Review 2
21 Discourse Analysis Theory 3
211 The Nature of Discourse and Discourse Analysis 3
212 Cohesion and Coherence in Discourse 4
213 Theme and Rheme in Discourse 5
22 Research on Discourse Analysis Abroad and in China and Its Application in College English teaching 6
Chapter 3 The theory of discourse analysis in College English Reading Teaching 8
31 Strengthening the cultural background 8
32 Establishing a correct reading concept and cultivating good reading habits on discourse 8
33 Interspersed with question teaching practice in discourse to stimulate interest 9
34 Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Medical English Reading Teaching 9
Chapter 4 Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12
Chapter1 Introduction
This chapter is a prelude to the present study In this chapter the theory of language learning strategies the significance and purpose as well as the layout of the present study will be introduced
11 Background of the Research
The traditional college English reading teaching mainly focuses on the explanation of words grammar and translation rather than the full text According to the traditional theories of foreign language teaching language learners should first master the formal aspect of the language (grammar wordformation and so on) then the content and finally the presentation of ideas Under the influence of these theories many teachers in reading class will lay stress on the form of language teaching but the teaching effect is unsatisfactory
The discourse analysis theory doesn＇t treat the words and grammar as the foundation of the reading teaching but considers the full text as the basic unit of reading The text is supposed to be thoroughly understood analyzed and evaluated as a whole This method enables the students to learn to grasp the theme of the text wholly overcome the problems such as obsolete boring and low efficiency of traditional reading and vocabulary teaching method Another advantage of this theory is it helps fully mobilize students＇ enthusiasm of learning English This apart from satisfying the college English curriculum requirements provides a new teaching method to achieve the teaching goal Text comprehension is a complex cognitive psychological process Therefore discourse analysis not only focuses on the language representation analysis but more on the function of language the related country’s history and culture background
12 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to explore the effect of application of discourse analysis theory in college English reading teaching This model contributes to improve students＇ reading ability at discourse level to reinforce students＇ awareness of discourse knowledge to get students not to neglect the language points and simultaneously grasp the global structure of the discourse to teach students to identify reference discourse markers schema theory themerheme context etc to provide students with background knowledge and to develop students＇ ability of inferring and predicting from context
13 Structure of the Paper
The paper is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 discusses the background of the research the purpose of the study and the structure of the paper Chapter 2 reviews English argumentative writing and Appraisal Theory Chapter 3 analyzes the detailed structure of Appraisal System Chapter 4 analyzes the appraisal resources in English major’ and British university students’ argumentative writings Chapter 5 is the result and discussion By analyzing the similarities and differences of appraisal resources we can find something to improve teaching and learning Chapter 6 is the conclusion and major findings and implications are revealed Moreover some limitations and further suggestions are presented in the paper
Chapter 2 Literature Review
Discourse analysis is the basic concept of systematical linguistics So it has been studied from different points of view and in different kinds Based on Halliday’s idea it can be drawn that the word discourse is a consistent and coherent unit in forms of structure and the meaning it expresses of a text is that it must be a whole one In the 1960s and early 1970s discourse analysis grew out of work in different disciplines for example linguistics psychology anthropology and sociology Discourse analysis also involves form of language and language functions It also includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts The research results have formed specialization in the research of language communication but as social practice for example here as a way of teaching college English reading
21 Discourse Analysis Theory
In this part it mainly introduces the discourse analysis method Which includes two parts the first is coherence and genre analysis the second is the cohesion They are the two major features in discourse analysis
211 The Nature of Discourse and Discourse Analysis
Discourse is a unit of language in the actual use which consists of a series of continuous words or sentences in a communicative process It has features of coherence and cohesion Any discourse contains certain social intentions and cultural characteristics because it is the product of socialization So every discourse relates with the specific social and cultural significance
Text comprehension is a complicated cognitive psychological process Discourse information will continue to expand with discourse’s diversification and deepening and part of the information processing is the process of students’ background knowledge Since the advent of discourse analysis or text linguistics it has been of great interest to the field of linguistics and applied linguistics This is because the study of the nature of language can’t leave out the discourse as the research object
Firstly language form depends on the functions of language People select the certain language form to achieve their intention Secondly it’s by the discourse people express themselves in the complicated social activities Therefore discourse analysis is of great theoretical value to linguistics research also has application value to the other subjects (Hu Zhuanglin 2001) English teaching being one
As one of the main objects the recent research focuses on two kinds of theories namely the traditional bottomup and the new top down theory
The theory of bottomup (bottomup approach) pay attention to the structure of the language itself that the reading process is a process of decoding (decoding written symbols) namely the words and sentences the sentences and paragraphs to chapter to understand This reading is dominated by the data (datadriven) The school emphasizes the use of the language the background knowledge of the reader according to the clues of the reading materials to predict Today＇s cognitive theory is more emphasized
The topdown the process of reading comprehension as a process of information processing at A major contribution to the school＇s reading theory it is suggested that the schema (schemata) plays an important role in the process of reading
212 Cohesion and Coherence in Discourse
Cohesion theory is an important part of text feature which is the structure of the sentence or clause In the sixty s of last century with the rapid development of discourse research discourse cohesion theory emerges as the times require In 1962 Halliday first put forward the the concept of cohesion 1976 and his wife Hasan cooperation the book cohesion in English the convergence term officially became the linguistic terms and is widely used Since the advent of the word cohesion by different scholars gave various definitions of language Although they disagree with each other but from a different angle proved cohesion is an important means of constructing discourse it as a discourse in the sentences in semantic and surface structure of connection mode can help us to study the discourse in different semantic units and them with the text as a whole between connections and relationships Halliday (1976) argues that text is a discourse the Discourse (texture) Texture is an abstract concept combined with various cohesive devices each connection point is a convergence knot (cohesive tie) So he put the cohesion is defined as exists in the text inside can make the text become various semantic relations of discourse cohesion theory (1976) Halliday in the field of discourse analysis in the groundbreaking
From this century six since the 1970s people began to study the problem of discourse coherence such as Jacobson (1960) Harweg (1968) Van Dijk (1972 1977) Kintsch’s (1974) Halliday&Hasan (1976) Coulthard (1977) Widdowson (1978 1979) enkvist (1978) etc Which really cause people＇s attention to textual coherence research is Halliday&Hasan＇s in (English Cohesion) a Book published In the eight and ninety years the study of textual coherence is further deepened and developed Coherence is mainly from the semantic and functional point of view the coherence of the text is not necessarily cohesive cohesion is the text of the physical network is the surface the surface convergence of the discourse is not necessarily coherent Coherence is an important term in the field of discourse research its definition has not been unified its connotation extension and so on has not been fully demonstrated Halliday believes that coherence is a semantic concept it is discourse in different components between in the sense of touch specifically manifested in two aspects 1) discourse in different parts of the proposition are related to each other 2) discourse in different part of the expression of implication are related to each other Words as long as they meet any of the above criteria can be seen as a coherent
213 Theme and Rheme in Discourse
Van Dyke that discourse coherence by the concept of two levels of composition linear or sequence of local coherence and macro structure The former mainly includes three aspects 1) the sequential nature of the facts or statements 2) significant information and hidden information 3) discourse sentence information structure People＇s cognitive habits are always known to lead to unknown unknown adhesion to the known From the whole point of view the subject of the sentence has semantic and pragmatic nature which is carried by the information that has been expressed or implied in the previous text which is used for the link between sentences The latter refers to the macro structure of the discourse which is a semantic proposition that can be expressed by means of a sentence
One of the founders of the Prague School Mathesius first put forward the concept of theme and rheme in 1930s (Zhang Lianxiu 2008) He named the element came in the first position of the utterance as theme which was the point of departure of the message the rest of the utterance was called rheme The founder of Systemic Functional Linguistics Halliday (1985) accepted these terms he perceived that in general the theme was the starting point of the information which was given information whereas rheme was new information
In the discourse sentences are not isolated The two parts of the sentence the themes of the sentences the rhemes of the sentences as well as theme and rheme are in constant change along with the convertion of old and new information the contact and the change was called Thematic Progression (Danes F 1986 12) There are many scholars at home and abroad have explored modes of Thematic Progression Hu Zhuanglin (1994) argued that the basic modes of Thematic Progression were the following three types
(1) Repeat the theme of the former sentence ie the theme of the first sentence continues to be the second sentence’s theme and it can be expressed as T1→T2
(2) An element of the former rheme turns to be a new theme expressed as R1→T2
(3) The theme and rheme of the former sentence go together as a new theme expressed as T1+Rl→T2
22 Research on Discourse Analysis Abroad and in China and Its Application in College English teaching
Text also known as chapters generally considered to be more than a single sentenceBit Halliday and Hasan (1976) believes that the best discourse is seen into semantic units discourse is a set of languages it is not a sentence like language Law Unit nor is it in the form of units but units of meaning Therefore decidedGiven discourse than the form but more of a meaning Hatim(1990) The discourse is defined as In some way connected together to achieve some overall rhetorical intent to a series of related communicative function Domestic linguists Hu Zhuanglin (1994) The discourse is defined as Any entirely by sentence grammar constraints at a certain context represents the full semantics natural language Huang Guofeng (1988) said usually refers to a discourse continuous series of words or sentences language section composed of whole regardless of discourse spoken or written must be convergence reasonable and consistent with logic series semantic coherence Summary of the above can be seen that discourse is a logical structure in line with the rules of language communication can reach the destination whole language and has a certain clarity and coherence
In recent years some scholars and teachers to discourse analysis into the field of language teaching published a textbook of discourse analysis such as M McCarthy of discourse analysis for language teachers discourse analysis teaching reference book (1991) EHatch of discourse and language education discourse and language teaching (1992) and RCarter MMeehy language as Discourse IEPP for languageteaching the language as discourse language teaching view (1994) and so on And some teaching books with discourse analysis is very close such as the natural language communication (C Brumfit） W rivers the context of teaching JRchards English Teaching (brown g G Yule) and so on
The traditional reading teaching under the guidance of the theory of grammar translation method dependency syntax analysis to semantic understanding whether translated into precise language as a measure of understanding standard Students focus on between vocabulary and grammar in a passive position and the lack of deep understanding ability and association ability reading speed not to communication skills can not keep up From the point of view of teachers due to the traditional theories emphasize from phoneme letters corresponding to that phrase on interpreting relationship started Language points explanation often not closely related to the context that is closely linked to the discourse context for comprehensive analysis Since the proposed psychologist nuttal (1982) reading is an interactive process of (Communication) and the foreign language reading described as active IRLS of a text (active interrogation of a discourse) people gradually realize that reading is the writer and the reader should actively communicate twoway activities is an interactive process The author of the information encoding through text and the reader through the decoding to obtain the textual meaning in this process the reader that students should give full play to the initiative
Chapter 3 The theory of discourse analysis in College English Reading Teaching
31 Strengthening the cultural background
Psychologists are very stressed that people have stored background knowledge to understand the role of language input They believe that understanding the words and reasoning can not be separated from the existing knowledge In fact the socalled understanding is that people will have the knowledge of the same text with the information overlap so that the information is consistent with common sense In a word the above understanding of coherence can be divided into two categories the first category is that coherence is the entity in the form of text while the second one is that coherence is a communicative process or a discourse processing rule The first category will be regarded as a finished product the consistency of the study is the characteristics of the article written Second types of discourse as a dynamic communicative process the generation and interpretation of discourse study However no matter they of coherent view and research methods differ they are the coherence is defined as text in the message exchange
32 Establishing a correct reading concept and cultivating good reading habits on discourse
In the process of teaching reading students＇ interest in reading and good reading habits is very important Traditional reading lessons focus on analysis of words not only the meaning of the article separated and so many students to develop the habit of thinking in Chinese Students need to read the sentence when translated into Chinese to Chinese if you do not you can not seem to really understand the article Over time the students＇ reading easy to misunderstand not only reading is slow and can not understand the chapter structure as a whole Therefore to improve students＇ reading comprehension level you first need to change the erroneous notion of reading the reading process to avoid excessive entanglement phenomenon of grammar and vocabulary from the text as a whole understand the article Secondly the need to change the course of students＇ reading bad reading habits to establish a correct concept of reading efficiency and gradually improve logical reasoning ability and habit of thinking in English Again in the teaching process pay attention to cultivate students＇ interest in reading Teachers can select the interest of some students financial knowledge and interest as one of the background reading materials for students to read so that students feel when reading a pleasure so that can improve reading ability but also to expand their knowledge but also to cultivate students＇ interest in reading
33 Interspersed with question teaching practice in discourse to stimulate interest
In reading in the reading process of teaching teachers should be interspersed with some questions and exercises for the whole discourse in order to stimulate interest in reading materials for students First about the title let the students discuss the content of the article to the effect that teachers may ask some questions to the students to enable students to carry out the purpose and exploratory reading which is the key to improve the comprehensive ability of discourse On this basis allow students to answer some of the more enlightening people＇s questions and make the right judgments and reasoning based on the content of discourse to understand thrust of the article the author＇s intention of writing analysis to seize the main points For example a discussion paper several questions should help students grasp the central argument of the problem so that students can quickly understand the article to show that question the position in order to understand the entire text Of course the design should be easy to difficult step by step and to take full account of the students＇ practical abilities First some students ask questions through the browser can quickly find articles to help them understand the article training students＇ overall understanding of the article Some questions then infer problems for students through intensive reading texts grasp the details students summarize analytical skills Finally let students answer some general questions to open up their horizons In the actual teaching of reading teachers may take the form of group discussions create a free atmosphere for the students while increasing their opportunity to exercise spoken stimulate interest in learning
34 Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Medical English Reading Teaching
Text Teaching teachers can remind students to pay attention to sentence level from two aspects of cohesion and coherence Cohesion is the text within sentences connections in the surface structure and semantics Halliday and Hasan (1976) in Cohesion in English the book systematically Cohesive text is divided into five categories alleged omissions connection substitution and lexical cohesion Teachers should students made it clear how to identify these cohesive devices Different genres of discourse which Cohesive is not the same allegations are used for describing the text replace and omission used for dialogue Connections commonly used in argumentative expository the lexical cohesion is more common in the scientific literature
Coherence is the theory of discourse analysis is the most important part of the main research each individual sentences and paragraphs how Cohesive constitute discourse Discourse coherence is the relationship between the formation of cohesion is the ideal result obtained using Cohesive Text theme through Cohesion and coherence to achieve To achieve coherence of the text in addition to the use of cohesive devices but also needs to use context rhetoric and even the imagination of students and other means to grasp the idea of the article so that students have the thinking and understanding in order to better understand the text At the same time teachers and students to discuss the article writing skills style rhetoric and style students higher level of discourse analysis capabilities to help students infer deep topic of discourse
Reference refers to the use of pronouns and other grammatical means to express semantic relations Hallidy and Hassan (1976) take care of Endophora and exophora Internal reference refers to the relationship between the linguistic items in a discourse external reference means that the meaning of a language project is directly dependent on a certain object of the external objective environment The internal reference can be divided into anaphora and cataphora Refers to the former refers to the object is located in the above after the reference object refers to the object is located in the following
1) The functional unit considering of a motor neuron and the muscle fibers it controls is called a motor unit
In front of the functional unit the refers to the object in the objective environment an external reference and behind the it refers to the object functional unit the in the above which is an internal reference but also the former reference
2) Because it is inhaled nicotine takes only seven to ten seconds to reach the brain
In this example the front of the it refers to the back of the nicotine so it here is the post reference
Because there is no such word in medical English reading materials this article will not introduce the personal reference Only reference and comparison of the instructions to take care of
3) Vitamin A itself is fatsoluble and can be stored in the body This vitamin is necessary for the maintenance of the epithelial cells of the skineye digestive and respiratory tracts
In this example vitamin this refers to the object as the first sentence of the vitamin A is the former reference
The whole text usually refers to a series of words or sentences in a row of language No matter in what form of discourse must be grammatical and semantic coherence including with the outside world in the semantic and pragmatic coherence of discourse including internal coherence in language Is the important content of discourse cohesion and coherence Medical English sentences are generally complete change is less complete sentence ellipsis sentences sentences less and less For example
AIDS is an acquired immune deficiency characterized by a defect in natural immunity against disease It cannot be transmitted through hugging kissing shaking hands sharing eating utensils In addition there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted by insects
Medical literature in English reading is a professional medical students to obtain an important channel for the latest progress of Western medicine is not unattainable as long as have a public foundation in English understand the characteristics of medical English apply discourse knowledge master certain reading skills to improve the reading of medical literature in the English reading ability of medical students and get information through reading will become easy and pleasant
Chapter 4 Conclusion
Discourse analysis plays a vital role in the process of reading teaching largely improving the efficiency and quality of reading comprehension
Firstly discourse analysis method largely cultivates the students’ interests in reading A wellknown fact in college English education is that students’ low performance is closely related to the lack of interest on the part of students in English The difficulty of language learning follows the indifference in English This fact is further evidenced in the questionnaire To be honest we have to say that traditional grammar teaching always plays a key role in the learning process It is boring that we just remember the principle of grammar and words without situation and background As we know interest is the best teacher in learning Taking the discourse analysis method students become the host of the class teacher is the guider organizer Only are the students involved in the activities which teacher positively creates close to students’ real life experience that can stimulate their interests Students can master the skills and techniques such as generalizing summarizing and scanning for the specific information logical thinking guessing the new words through answering questions or finishing activities
Secondly the discourse analysis will develop students’ positive habit of reading They will acquire much more useful words in the real discourse and try to use them similarly in the place where they have learned At the same time they will acknowledge the western culture background and the thinking pattern This model trains the students’ ability of selflearning The final goal of second language education is to teach students how to acquire language independently In the traditional teaching model the students depend heavily on the teacher’s explanation But in the new model the teacher teaches the students how to fish The teacher teaches study skills encourages the students to take charge of their own study fosters the students’ attitudes such as the independence of mind thus helping the students to learn how to learn and study on their own only by encouraging the students to take charge of their own study can the teacher encourage the students to read more after class and read better Lastly it provides teachers with a new consciousness of discourse analysis changing the outdated teaching method into a new point of view which tremendously facilitates the reading effect Discourse analysis based reading teaching reflects the interaction between the teacher and the students between the discourse and the readers In the process the teacher guides students to understand the discourse in its context as a whole he is supposed to activates the relative schema of the discourse and help the students to practice the ability to infer analyze and generalize thus grasping the idea and attitude of the author
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