Research Scholar, Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
Online published on 20 March, 2014.
Discourse analysis (D.A) is a discipline which concerns the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used. In other words, discourse analysis is a branch of applied linguistics which investigates the study of language in use.As McCarty explains (1991, p. 5) “This field of study grew out of work in different disciplines in 1960s and 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology”. One of the most fascinating fields of study which has been affected by discourse analysis is English language teaching (ELT). McCarthy (1991, p. 2) states that “discourse analysis is not a method for teaching languages; it is a way of describing and understanding how language is used”. In this paper the researcher aims at investigating the contributions of discourse analysis to ELT from four perspectives: a. application of discourse analysis to teaching Grammar, b. application of discourse analysis to teaching vocabulary, c. application of discourse analysis in second language writing, and d. application of discourse analysis to teaching text interpretation.
Discourse analysis, English language teaching, Context
