An Analysis of Legitimization Strategies from the Perspective of the Discourse-Historical Approach and Its Enlightenment to Teaching of the Reading Course for English Majors

Abstract

The cultivation of critical thinking ability of English majors is a focus in English teaching. Legitimization is regarded as one of the most effective ways to make things accepted and generally recognized in society, mainly through discourse construction, and it is an important topic in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis. In the process of representing society, discourse realizes its legitimization function through selection, distortion and neglect. Legitimization strategy plays a key role in this process. An analysis of legitimization strategies in discourse is helpful to cultivate English majors’ critical thinking ability. This paper gives a brief introduction to the legitimization strategies in discourse and discusses the enlightenment of an analysis of legitimization strategies in the frame of the discourse-historical approach to teaching of the reading course for English majors in combination with the characteristics of the course.