LN370     
Discourse and Communication

This information is for the 2023/24 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Alison Standring PEL6.01E

Availability

This course will only be open to General Course students hosted by the Language Centre. 

Course content

The course will cover key theories and concepts involved in communication with a contrast between written and spoken discourse, and a focus on genre and identity. Students will be English majors and so will apply the theories and concepts to the appropriate and effective usage of English in real-life cases and will analyse how linguistic and communication strategies can be used effectively in English-medium social, professional and academic contexts.

Some important themes and areas include:

• The features of written and spoken discourse

• Methods of analysing discourse

• Genre

• Identity

Teaching

20 hours of seminars in the AT. 20 hours of seminars in the WT.

Two hours per week integrating: (a) lecture input on a range of concepts and themes; (b) class discussion building on pre-set reading; (c) student presentations and tasks; (d) tutorials.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Formative coursework

The 2-hour weekly sessions will be task-based and these tasks will help prepare students for their summative assessment. Students will also have 1-2-1 sessions in office hours in order to discuss progress on summatively assessed coursework tasks. This is normal LSE practice for courses using continuous assessment. 

Indicative reading

  • Fiske, J. (2010). Introduction to Communication Studies (3rd ed.). Routledge.
  • Flowerdew, J., & Wang, S. H. (2015). Identity in academic discourse. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 81-99.
  • Gee, J. (2014). What is Discourse Analysis. In An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
  • Have, P.T. (2007). Doing Conversation Analysis (2nd ed.). SAGE.
  • Hyland, K (2012) Identity: Interaction and community. In Disciplinary Identities: Individuality and community in academic discourse (pp. 1-20). Cambridge
  • Nesi, H. (2016). Corpus studies in EAP. In The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes (pp. 230-241). Routledge.
  • Shaw, P. (2016). Genre analysis. In The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes ( 267-279). Routledge.

Additional reading list

  • Blommaert, J. (2005). Introduction. In Discourse: A Critical Introduction (Key Topics in Sociolinguistics, pp. 1-20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Devitt, A. J. (2015). Genre performances: John Swales' Genre Analysis and rhetorical-linguistic genre studies. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 19, 44-51.
  • Dressen-Hammouda, D. (2008). From novice to disciplinary expert: Disciplinary identity and genre mastery. English for Specific purposes, 27(2), 233-252.
  • Fairclough, N. (2001). Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific research. In Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 121-138). SAGE Publications, Ltd
  • Flowerdew, L. (2005). An integration of corpus-based and genre-based approaches to text analysis in EAP/ESP: Countering criticisms against corpus-based methodologies. English for specific purposes, 24(3), 321-332.
  • Gee, J. (2014). Sample of Discourse Analysis 1. In An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (pp. 174-189). Routledge.
  • Hyland, K (2012) Investigating Identity. In Disciplinary Identities: Individuality and community in academic discourse (pp. 45-69). Cambridge
  • Hyon, S. (1996). Genre in three traditions: Implications for ESL. TESOL quarterly, 30(4), 693-722.
  • Le Ha, P. (2009). Strategic, passionate, but academic: Am I allowed in my writing?. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8(2), 134-146.
  • Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press.
  • Tribble, C. (2014). Corpora and corpus analysis: New windows on academic writing. In Academic discourse (pp. 141-159). Routledge.
  • Wodak, R. (2011) Critical Discourse Analysis. In Continuum companion to discourse analysis (pp. 38-53) Continuum International Publishing Group.

 

Assessment

Essay (25%, 1500 words) in the AT Week 6.
Coursework (25%, 1500 words) in the AT Week 11.
Project (25%, 2000 words) in the WT Week 6.
Presentation (25%) in the WT Week 11.

Key facts

Department: Language Centre

Total students 2022/23: Unavailable

Average class size 2022/23: Unavailable

Capped 2022/23: No

Value: One Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.

Personal development skills

  • Leadership
  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Commercial awareness
  • Specialist skills