Week 7: Doing Critical Discourse Analysis

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Week 7 Doing Critical Discourse Analysis

• EDUC2029

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Anticipatory set

• Pick the Appraisal language from Courier Mail 7
  September 2009
• Finals Raid Broncos set sights on Titans
  showdown
• It is set to be civil war like southeast
  Queensland has never experienced before.
• Brisbane last night ensured the dream showdown
  most Queenslanders had been hoping for, edging
  past Canberra Raiders 22-10 to put themselves on
  a qualifying final collision course with the Gold
  Coast Titans. It will be the first all-Queensland
  final since the Cowboys and Broncos locked horns
  in 2004 in Townsville.

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Anticipatory set - answer

• Pick the Appraisal language from Courier Mail 7
  September 2009
• Finals Raid Broncos set sights on Titans
  showdown
• It is set to be civil war like southeast
  Queensland has never experienced before.
• Brisbane last night ensured the dream showdown
  most Queenslanders had been hoping for, edging
  past Canberra Raiders 22-10 to put themselves on
  a qualifying final collision course with the Gold
  Coast Titans. It will be the first all-Queensland
  final since the Cowboys and Broncos locked horns
  in 2004 in Townsville.

4
Aims

• To discuss key concepts in CDA
• To review this weeks reading
• To further practise CDA
• To introduce nominalization

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Outline of lecture

• Anticipatory set
• Aims and outline
• Housekeeping syllabus v policy documents
• Key concepts in CDA
• Whats lunch got to do with it?
• Doing CDA (includes nominalization)
• Conclusion

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Housekeeping

• Assignment 2 syllabuses are curriculum
  documents, not policy. However, many syllabuses
  contain policy, e.g. on educational equity see
  the sections after Assessment.
• QSA also has policies on
• P-12 syllabus design principles
• late and non-submission
• Quality assurance
• Special provisions
• Privacy
• For more, see http//www.qsa.qld.edu.au/learning/
  7446.html

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Key Concepts for the CDA
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Key Concepts for the CDA

• Discourse
• ideology
• discourse
• Text
• Genre
• Social and cultural context
• representation
• Binary opposition
• Privilege
• Silence
• Naturalisation
• Reading position
• Frames of reference

• Plus grammar terms, especially
• Semiotic resources
• Systems of choice
• Transitivity Process, Participant, Circumstance
• Noun group
• Mood
• Appraisal (including Modality)
• Theme
• Nominalization
• Cohesion

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Whats lunch got to do with it?

• Reflections on the Week 7 reading

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Whats lunch got to do with it?

• Critical literacy in action
• Different meanings of language
• Social Languages relationship building
• Situated Meanings this time and place
  meanings
• Cultural Models theories and beliefs about the
  world
• Identity building being different kinds of
  people within different Discourses

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Whats lunch got to do with it?

• Multiple perspectives on data Understanding
  the perspectives we choose to take is critical to
  understanding what we can look at and how, so
  that we can shift from one angle of vision to
  another in order to triangulate perspectives,
  data, theory and methods. Because each angle of
  vision makes certain phenomena visible and others
  invisible, they key is to understand what each
  enables us to see, say, and know and what it
  masks. By juxtaposing various perspectives, a
  richer and fuller understanding of classroom life
  is possible. (p116)

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Doing CDA

• A National Action Plan to Build on Social
  Cohesion, Harmony and Security

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Faircloughs dimension of discourse and discourse
analysis
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Faircloughs dimension of discourse and discourse
analysis
Explanation why is it this way? (social analysis)
Interpretation what does it all mean?
(processing analysis)
Description what does it look like? (text
analysis)
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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and Security

• Context
• http//www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/a-diver
  se-australia/national-action-plan/nap.htm

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and Security

• Purpose
• The purpose of this National Action Plan (NAP) is
  to reinforce social cohesion, harmony and support
  the national security imperative in Australia by
  addressing extremism, the promotion of violence
  and intolerance, in response to the increased
  threat of global religious and political
  terrorism. It is an initiative of Australian
  governments to address issues of concern to the
  Australian community and to support Australian
  Muslims to participate effectively in the broader
  community.
•  
• The NAP is part of the Australian governments
  national strategic framework to address
  terrorism, developed since the events of 11
  September 2001. The framework is based on the
  principles of maximum preparedness, comprehensive
  prevention and effective response and recovery.
• Governments are committed to working in
  partnership to ensure the NAP is implemented in a
  co-ordinated and co-operative manner so that
  duplication does not occur, for example via
  exchange of information protocols. However, the
  approach adopted by individual jurisdictions will
  vary due to local demographic, social, cultural,
  religious and economic factors and these will be
  reflected in each jurisdictions implementation
  of the plan.

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and Security

• Genre and purpose
• Subject matter
• Writer/s? Readers? Relationships?
• Mode and medium
• What values, beliefs, assumptions, theories are
  evident?

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Grammatical analysis

• What follows is a brief look at some significant
  features selective!!
• See handout on web for full analysis
• Full analysis may reveal more, may change your
  interpretations

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityStages and Phases

• Purpose
• purpose
• addressing terrorism

• Current situation
• many cultures, one nation
• stress
• risk
• solution
• improving the status quo

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityProcess,
Participant, Circumstance

• Purpose
• purpose lots of work being done by
  Circumstances (How, Why)
• addressing terrorism lots of work being done
  by Circumstances (Where, Why)
• Current situation
• many cultures, one nation focus on
  Participants, especially Australians
• stress Participants focus on the global
  security environment, events, anxiety,
  consequences
• risk Participants focussing on Australian
  security authorities Australians at risk,
  risk acts of violence and terrorism,
  potential for violent and extremist group
  action
• solution Participants are The NAP and the
  underlying causes
• improving the status quo lots of work being
  done by Circumstances (Where, How, Why)

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityCircumstances
How When Why With what
4 4 8 3
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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityThemes (of
paragraphs)

• Purpose
• purpose The purpose of this National Action
  Plan (NAP
• addressing terrorism The NAP
• Current situation
• many cultures, one nation Australia
• stress The current global security
  environment and the treat of international
  terrorism
• risk Australian security authorities
• solution The NAP
• improving the status quo Shared Australian
  values

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityNaming practices
The National Action Plan NAP
Australian governments governments Australian security authorities
Australia Australian community Australian society Australian citizens Multicultural community Terrorist targets Australian Muslims Indigenous Australians Young people
(Terrorists) Violent or extremist group action International terrorism Home grown terrorists
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Developing a metalanguage
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What is nominalization?

• a type of grammatical metaphor i.e. saying
  something in an indirect way
• the use of a nominal form to express a process
  meaning (Thompson, 1996)
• In simple terms turning an event into a thing

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Examples

• Many people have criticised these ideas. ?
• These ideas have been subject to widespread
  criticism.
• Basically, we assume that (learners) retain
  unfamiliar words depending on how much they are
  involved in processing these words. ?
• Our basic assumption is that the retention of
  unfamiliar words is conditional upon the degree
  of involvement in processing these words.

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Nominalization

• Nominalisation turning an event into a thing,
  e.g.
• The timber workers chopped down all the trees.
• The clear-felling was performed by the timber
  workers.
• allows writers to
• move information around while maintaining the
  Mood (e.g. Declarative)
• omit the Actor (doer of the action), possibly for
  ideological reasons, e.g. Clear-felling has
  occurred near Innisfail.

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Student assignment little/no nominalization (Yr
12 EEI)

• However, the Biological Oxygen Demand (B.O.D.)
  levels produced were quite low, showing that the
  lake was healthy in terms of not much bacteria
  was present as usually much of the dissolved
  oxygen is consumed by bacteria and this makes it
  unavailable to other organisms. In my opinion, I
  think that you cannot have high dissolved oxygen
  and low B.O.D. at the same time because, as soon
  as the dissolved oxygen gets high, bacteria from
  all sources will start invading, consuming all
  the oxygen available. So, in terms of dissolved
  oxygen levels the lake is not healthy as there is
  not enough oxygen for aquatic lives to be
  sustained. However, the B.O.D. levels show that
  there is very little oxygen or dead plants and
  animals that are consuming the oxygen, so that in
  a sense Lakewood Lake is not healthy. Yet, these
  results may be inconclusive as the B.O.D. levels
  may be low only because there is not high enough
  dissolved oxygen for bacteria to even live, which
  in a sense says that the lake is not healthy at
  all.(p8)

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Student assignment increased nominalization

• However, the production of low Biological Oxygen
  Demand (B.O.D.) levels reveals good lake health
  in terms of bacterial presence usually
  consumption of much of the dissolved oxygen by
  bacteria results in lack of availability to other
  organisms. In my opinion, con-current levels of
  high dissolved oxygen and low B.O.D. are not
  possible because, high levels of dissolved oxygen
  result in bacterial invaders that consume all the
  available oxygen. So, in terms of dissolved
  oxygen levels, lake health is poor due to a lack
  of oxygen for the sustenance of aquatic life.
  However, the B.O.D. levels show that there is
  little consumption of oxygen by dead plants and
  animals, so that in a sense Lakewood Lake is not
  healthy. Yet, these results may be inconclusive
  as the cause of the low B.O.D. levels may be
  dissolved oxygen levels that are not high enough
  for bacterial life. In this sense, then, the lake
  is not healthy at all.

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Common ways of turning verbs into nouns

• -tion (receive ? reception conceive ?
  conception) also sion, -cion
• -ation (visit ? visitation invite ? invitation
  accommodate ? accommodation)
• -ization (civilize ? civilization realize ?
  realization nominalize ? nominalization)
• -ance (perform ? performance)
• -ment (enhance ? enhancement enchant ?
  enchantment)
• -ing (snorkel ? snorkelling rustle ? rustling)
• -y (discover ? discovery)
• -er (kill ? killer hunt ? hunter eat ? eater)
• But, there are other possibilities

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• Note not every verb group needs to be
  nominalized.

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• 1. Choose a base sentence

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• 2. Nominalize a significant verb group.
• is classified ? classification

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• 3. Turn the adverb into an epithet.
• Scientific classification

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• 4. Turn the remaining words into a noun group
• The carnivore which has the scientific
  classification of Australovenator wintonesis
• Note it in the second sentence refers to
  carnivore, so theres a clear signal that this
  must be take Thing position in the noun group.

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Some easy steps

• The carnivore is classified scientifically as
  Australovenator wintonesis. It has been dubbed
  Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who composed
  Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.
• 5. Insert this into the base sentence. (In this
  case, just replace it.)
• The carnivore which has the scientific
  classification of Australovenator wintonesis has
  been dubbed Banjo after Banjo Patterson, who
  composed Waltzing Matilda in Winton in1885.

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Questions?
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Try this

• People who drink too much alcohol and drive
  often cause motor vehicle accidents.

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Did you have something like

• People who drink too much alcohol and drive
  often cause motor vehicle accidents.
• Excessive consumption of alcohol by drivers is a
  frequent cause of motor vehicle accidents.

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What functions does nominalization serve?

• An important feature of written text.
• Brings different aspects of the message into
  prominence and can change the message, e.g. Does
  major cause mean the same as causes lots of
  accidents? In the nominalised version, who is
  causing the accident?
• Can be used to condense information.
• Converts and event to a thing that can be
  argued about, discussed and evaluated more easily.

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So what?

• Makes the writing formal, sophisticated and
  academic gains credibility?
• A way of turning experience/observation into
  abstract concepts people drink too much
  alcohol (observation) excessive consumption
  of alcohol (abstraction).
• Can be used as a way of eliding (omitting) the
  Actor - ideological.
• Warning Too much nominalization (particularly in
  conjunction with long noun groups) can result in
  dense, difficult to read text.

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityNominalization

• Purpose
• purpose
• cohesion
• harmony
• national security imperative
• extremism, the promotion of violence and
  intolerance
• threat of global religious and political
  terrorism
• an initiative of Australian governments to
  address issues of concern to the Australian
  community
•  
• addressing terrorism
• the principles of maximum preparedness,
  comprehensive prevention and effective response
  and recovery
• a co-ordinated and co-operative manner
• duplication
• exchange of information protocols
• the approach adopted by individual jurisdictions
• local demographic, social, cultural, religious
  and economic factors
• each jurisdictions implementation of the plan.

43
A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityNominalization

• stress
• The current global security environment
• the threat of international terrorism
• Events such as 11 September 2001 and the July
  2005 London bombings
• anxiety about the likelihood of such events
  occurring in Australia.
• the consequences of terrorist action overseas
•  
• risk
• terrorist targets
• acts of violence and terrorism
• the potential for violent
• extremist group action
• involvement in this behaviour
• solution
• the underlying causes of terrorism
• the social and economic factors that encourage
  radicalisation and motivate extremist behaviour
• a contribution to a comprehensive approach to
  counter-terrorism.

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityAppraisal -
examples

• Purpose
• purpose
• The purpose of this National Action Plan (NAP) is
  to reinforce social cohesion, harmony and support
  the national security imperative in Australia by
  addressing extremism, the promotion of violence
  and intolerance, in response to the increased
  threat of global religious and political
  terrorism. It is an initiative of Australian
  governments to address issues of concern to the
  Australian community and to support Australian
  Muslims to participate effectively in the broader
  community.

45
A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityAppraisal- examples

• Current situation
• many cultures, one nation
• Australia is a land of many faiths, many
  languages and many cultures. Today, Australias
  20.3 million residents come from 230 countries,
  speak more than 190 languages and follow more
  than 100 religious faiths. Apart from Indigenous
  Australians, all Australians can trace their
  roots to somewhere else, and Australias heritage
  does not belong to any one individual, group or
  faith. Over the last 150 years many diverse
  groups have worked together to build a
  multicultural community based on the principles
  of democracy, tolerance and equality. All
  Australians, whether they were born here or
  migrated here, have equal rights and
  responsibilities the right to freedom of
  speech, religious practice, freedom of cultural
  expression, and the responsibility to respect the
  rights of others and follow Australias laws and
  democratic principles.

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityAppraisal- examples

• Current situation 
• stress
• The current global security environment and the
  threat of international terrorism places unusual
  stress on Australian society. Events such as 11
  September 2001 and the July 2005 London bombings
  have increased anxiety about the likelihood of
  such events occurring in Australia. Already,
  Australian citizens have suffered the
  consequences of terrorist action overseas, in
  places like New York, Washington, London, Bali
  and Jakarta.

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A National Action Plan to Build on Social
Cohesion, Harmony and SecurityAppraisal- examples

• Note how much the volume is turned up (i.e.
  graduation), e.g.
• Extremism and radicalisation (not strongly held
  beliefs)
• Threat (not some danger)
• Events such as 11 September 2001 and the July
  2005 London bombings (not a couple of
  unfortunate incidents)
• Anxiety (cf. some genuine concern)

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Faircloughs dimension of discourse and discourse
analysis
Explanation why is it this way? (social analysis)
Interpretation what does it all mean?
(processing analysis)
Description what does it look like? (text
analysis)
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Interpretation what does it all mean?
(processing analysis)

• How is the text positioned or positioning?
• Whose interests are served by this positioning?
• Whose interests are negated?
• What are the consequences of this positioning?
• (Janks, 1997 see book of Readings)
• So, why is it written in this way?

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Futures wheel A chain of possible consequences
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Questions?
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Conclusion
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Conclusion

• Show me your texts for the second assignment
• Tutorial
• Questions and clarifications
• Practising CDA

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References

• For the National Action Plan, see
  http//www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/a-diver
  se-australia/national-action-plan/nap.htm