This module aims to lead students to consider discourse production and reception as they are conditioned by their interactional, social, historical, political and cultural contexts and, in doing so, develop their awareness of what is involved in ‘situated’ discourse. Grounded in a view that culture is to a significant extent discursive – that is, based upon and realised by the ways in which we talk to each other about ‘ourselves’ and about ‘others’ – we take a critical linguistic and intercultural approach to our subject matter, hoping to draw upon the variety of students’ own cultural backgrounds as a basis for discussion and contrastive analysis. The module will provide a critical overview of major theories in Discourse Studies and Intercultural Communication, but also aims to develop more practical, analytic skills – training students to identify patterns of organisation and discursive strategies in authentic written and oral texts, drawn from various sources (e.g. media, advertising, political speeches / interviews, casual conversation, etc.). We thus hope to enable students to develop a critical understanding of key concepts in, and approaches to, Discourse Analysis and of how language reflects, mediates or – arguably – creates our (various) everyday realities. Further, we aim to develop awareness of the increasing need for – and the problems involved in –communication across cultural boundaries of language(s), style(s) and value(s) in the context of ‘globalisation’.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
demonstrate an advanced understanding of major theories of discourse and of intercultural communication;
critically discuss a range of texts in terms of their relation to cultural and social issues, including cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparisons;
critically evaluate the models of analysis used, both in their own terms and in terms of the student's own background (‘culture’, profession, etc.);
demonstrate development of the skills necessary for the critical consideration of ‘culture’ – both as a general concept and as specific representations thereof (‘British culture’, ‘Asian culture’, ‘America’s culture wars’, etc.).
