In the last week, a few things happened in my hometown, so I was not concentrated on my studies a lot. However, I am back on track and ready to go!

This week we are talking about Discourses Analysis. It is a broad term for the study of how language is used between people, both in written texts and spoken contexts. Often a particular professor or particular location or social structure have their own way of using the language. Different researches take different approaches, but whichever approach is taken, it has to be read sceptically. So, what should be analysed?

  • vocabulary – what words and phrases are chosen to be used;
  • grammar – the way that sentences are constructed;
  • structure – how it creates emphasis or builds a narrative;
  • genre – how certain ideas are put across in different genres to understand the aims of a certain genre;
  • non-verbal communication – the tone of voice, pauses, gestures can reveal aspects of underlying meaning;
  • conversational codes – how a person interacts with others, such as turn-taking, interruptions, listening reveals power dynamics, engagement or social roles.

Talking about the ways in whiches discourse analyse can be used, it can be applied to any instance of written or oral languages, such as books, newspapers, marketing material, social media posts and comments, interviews, conversations. So, discourse analyse helps us to underline the meaning of the text, it allows us to look at a broad number of texts and by that, we can make some conclusions.

If you want to read more about Discourse analysis and to learn how to do it, here is a link for you:

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/

22.10.2020