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| Textbook 1. |
Discourse
Analysis is a powerful research approach as well as a decoding tool for
classroom practice. In this course we went through various types of analyses
(their conventions and their purposes), such as conversation analysis (CA),
interview analysis, gesture analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Apart
from reading case studies, we had three mini-projects which allowed us to
collect, transcribe, and analyze the data. In addition, the final project required
students to incorporate these skills developed in these mini projects to analyze
a series of texts. Personally, I like qualitative studies more than quantitative
studies, but what I like about this course was that it not only provided me tools
to design a qualitative study, but it also gave another perspective to approach
teaching as a type of discourse.
In
the first project, I used the CA convention to transcribe a short video clip (please
refer to a series attached files start with first project-CA workshop). I then noticed that although there are many conventions for
analyzers to follow, it does not suggest that every one will come to the same transcription
even when they use the same convention. While doing the whole class
transcription comparison, I also noticed that choosing conventions according to
the different research purposes could be a big issue. Conventions can make some
features stand out but also can hide them, which may affect the direction of
the research.
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| My demonstration PowerPoint of "participation |
organization" based on (Goodwin, 2007)
The second project required students to record a sound clip or a video
clip including a narration (please refer to the attachment— second project-narration
analysis). While doing this project, I gradually understood the reason why
discourse analysis has frequently been used as an approach to investigate identity
building process. Within this short six minute conversation, I saw how the speaker
went back and forth framing the incident she saw, and this presented her
identity shifting as a study abroad student for five years. She tried to synthesize
two different value systems (Taiwanese vs. American) in this small narration to
negotiate the conflict between the two. This project led me to reflect on how
language works as an identity construction foundation.
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| The poster that inspired my topic choosing of the final project |
The third project was a text analysis which I chose a
promoting text from a local Tea Party Movement group and analyzed how it
situated itself in this political movement (please refer to the attachment— third
project- text analysis). To dig in deeper, I stayed in the same topic but used CDA
and “narrative template” as the main approaches to analyze how local level and
national level Tea Party groups constructed their identities differently as my
final project (please refer to the attachment— final project).
This course related tightly to another course
I took, Meaning in Second Language Learning,
and the ideas of discourse analysis and CDA were also used in my teaching of
ESL 015 while teaching critical reading. 
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