Discourse and Society

Code

ENGL2032

School

English

Level

2

Credits

20

Semesters

Autumn Malaysia

Summary

This exciting new module explores the relationship between discourse and society. It considers the vital role that discourse plays in various communicative domains including healthcare, businesses, politics, law, the media, advertising and education. You will be introduced to frameworks for examining various types of discourse and communication strategies, including multi-modal approaches that examine the visual aspects of texts, as well as a range of contemporary approaches to discourse analysis.

The domains of law, politics, healthcare, advertising, the media, business and education offer a rich resource for discourse-based studies of society and enable you to discover the uses of communicative strategies in specific social settings. For example, you will have the opportunity to analyse a range of socially-situated texts, including:
 

• political speeches, interviews and debates
• medical communication (doctor-patient encounters, the discourse of graphic medicine, online communication, the discourse of bibliotherapy)
• business communication (communicating in meetings, leadership talk)
• classroom and seminar discourse (teacher-student interaction)
• police interrogation, court cross-examinations and witness testimonies

The module offers the opportunity to analyse and reflect upon the crucial role played by discourse in these important domains of social and professional life.

Target Students

Compulsory for Year 2 students on the BA English Language and Literature. Optional for second-year BA English with Creative Writing, SMLC with English Language and Literature.

Classes

• One 3-hour seminar each week for 12 weeks

Activities may take place every teaching week of the Semester or only in specified weeks. It is usually specified above if an activity only takes place in some weeks of a Semester.

Assessment

• 75% Coursework: One 3500-words essay
• 25% Presentation: One 15-minutes group presentation

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

• of methodological design and application in data collection
• of theoretical discourse frameworks and approaches and their application to social life
• of a wide range of discourse analytic (including multimodal) analytical techniques

Intellectual skills

• The ability to seek out, assimilate and critically evaluate published research relating to the discourse and the domains of social life
• The ability to understand, compare and contrast different approaches, methodologies and theoretical frameworks
• The ability to undertake discourse analysis independently and relate this to existing research and theory
• The ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own work and draw appropriate conclusions

  Professional practical skills

• The ability to produce a project report to a professional disciplinary standard
• The ability to design and execute discourse-based studies
• The ability to communicate analyses and conclusions effectively using and applying the technical concepts of the field
• The ability to apply analysis of data to practical settings and understand the implications for social change

  Transferable (key) skills

• The ability to produce systematic and rigorous descriptive and discursive writing
• The ability to undertake independent investigations of discourse analytic research
• The use of information technology to aid the research and data analysis process
• Oral communication skills

   

Conveners

• Dr Melissa Yoong