What Teachers Say When they Write or Talk about Discourse Analysis
The post-graduate Diploma course for EFL teachers at the Rio de Janeiro State University has been designed for practicing EFL teachers working at secondary schools, both public and private, as well as for private language schools teachers. The course syllabus includes topics such as Applied Linguistics, Phonology, Lexicology, English Grammar, English for Specific Purposes, all of which from a practical perspective. Two semi-theoretical modules on Written and Spoken Discourse Analysis (henceforth DA) have also been recently included, which was motivated by our belief, as course planners, that an awareness of discourse ought to have a certain impact on the student-teachers’ (henceforth STs) knowledge of English itself and, in turn, on their ability as teachers and materials developers.
The Written discourse module has thus been structured to enable STs to recognize those features which contribute to the “unity of texture” (cohesive items), those which contribute to the “unity of structure” (schematic structure) and those which give a text its “contextual unity” (register variables). The Spoken module is a survey of existing frameworks for the analysis of spoken interaction, specially spoken materials in EFL coursebooks adopted in Brazil, which are evaluated during the course.
However, we first needed to investigate to what extent the inclusion of these Discourse modules might cater for the STs’ needs vis-à-vis the realities of EFL classes in Brazil. Informal course evaluations have shown that although STs claim to perceive changes in their knowledge of the English language, their classroom practices were rarely influenced by their newly-acquired awareness of DA. A systematic evaluation of the potential usefulness of the modules on Discourse was therefore needed.
