EL4252 Interactional Discourse

Semester 1, 2015/16

Lecturer

Dr Peter K W Tan (phone 6516 6038; email PeterTan <at> nus.edu.sg; office AS5/0604)

Prerequisites and conditions for enrolment

This module is available to students who have accumulated at least 28 modular credits (7 modules) in English Language, and have achieved a CAP of at least 3.2 (for students entering NUS in August 2012 onwards). Although the module might pick up themes discussed in various other modules (Semantics and Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis and Language Development), we will not assume that students have read these modules. This module is worth 5 modular credits.

Aims

This module will focus on how we might analyse discourse as an interactional phenomenon – ie how discourse might be used to underline or negotiate social relations. Special emphasis will be given to spoken discourse; its representation and transcription; and the way it can be analysed. Although a variety of theoretical models, including ‘classical’ ones, will be discussed, we will mainly be concerned about their applicability to discourse.

Lecture time

Monday 2.00 to 5.00 pm (AS5/0202)

Examination

Wednesday, 25th November 2015, 5.00 to 7.00 pm (venue to be announced)

Contents

Among the topics considered in the module will be the following:

spoken v written English
genre and register
Gricean pragmatics (especially face and politeness)
exchange structure (Previously, speech-act theory and conversation analysis were also included.) You can go to the week-by-week schedule where you will find links to weekly notes.

Assessment

50 per cent of the marks has been assigned as the continuous assessment component (CA) of this module. The CA component might include

a class test (15 marks); and
a 1,500-word individually written project/essay based on a group project which will involve data collection and analysis (25 marks)
oral presentation and class participation (10 marks)

The final examination will be an open-book, two-hour paper, and will make up 50 per cent of the marks for this module.

Module website

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/honours/

Recommended texts

Some of the following might be useful general texts (arranged alphabetically). Cheepen, Christine and James Monaghan (1990), Spoken English: A Practical Guide (London: Pinter)

Culpeper, Jonathan (2011), Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Coulthard, Malcolm (ed.) (1992), Advances in spoken discourse analysis (London: Routledge)
Eggins , Suzanne (2004), An introduction to systemic functional linguistics, 2nd edn (London: Continuum)
—— and Diana Slade (1997), Analysing casual conversation (London: Cassell)
Johnstone, Barbara (2002), Discourse analysis (Oxford: Blackwell)
Martin, J R and David Rose (2007), Working with discourse: meaning beyond the clause (London: Continuum)
Schiffrin, Deborah (1994), Approaches to discourse (Oxford: Blackwell)
Stenström, Anna-Brita (1994), An introduction to spoken interaction (London: Longman)
Thomas, Jenny (1995), Meaning in interaction (London: Longman)
Thornbury, Scott and Diana Slade (2006), Conversation: from description to pedagogy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

· Watts, Richard J (2003), Politeness (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Journals

Students can also scan some journals that will contain articles relevant to this module: Journal of Pragmatics and Discourse and Society. The Central Library subscribes to them and articles can now be downloaded from the web in pdf format.