Messages In Discourse Research Articles

‘Learning German is like … ’: how learner representations, motivational beliefs, and perceptions of public views relate to motivation for continuing German study

ABSTRACT In England, motivation for language learning is low, especially for learning German at high school, with potentially negative educational and societal implications. Previous research has tended to overlook the relevance for low motivation of social factors such as negative messages in public discourse (Krüsemann, H. 2018. Language learning motivation and the discursive representations of German, the Germans, and Germany in UK school settings and the press. PhD diss., University of Reading.). This study therefore aimed to provide deeper insights through an investigation of 391 adolescent learners. They completed a questionnaire exploring not only their representations of German and the Germans (German*), their motivational beliefs about learning German, and whether they intended to continue studying it, but also how they perceived public views about German*. Whether all these factors, together with gender and socio-economic status (SES), predicted future German study intentions was also investigated. Findings showed that the negative public views highlighted by previous research were only partly mirrored in learner representations. Learners were more likely to continue German study if they believed others viewed German positively, if they had higher expectations for success, saw German as personally meaningful, and were female and of higher SES. The study thus presents new insights into motivation for learning German, providing empirical evidence for previously unsubstantiated claims of links between public discourse messages and learner motivation for German study.

Correct Information Unit Analysis in Different Discourse Tasks Among Persons With Anomic Aphasia Based on Mandarin AphasiaBank.

This study aimed to explore how well persons with anomic aphasia communicate information during discourse regarding quantity, quality, and efficiency compared to neurotypical controls, to investigate the influence of discourse tasks on informativeness and efficiency and to examine impact factors like aphasia severity and cognitive ability. Language samples of four discourse tasks from 31 persons with anomic aphasia and 31 neurotypical controls were collected from Mandarin AphasiaBank. Correct information unit (CIU) analysis measures including the total number of CIUs, percentage of CIUs, CIUs per minute, and words per minute were calculated. Group differences and the effects of discourse tasks on informativeness and efficiency were investigated. Correlations of CIU analysis measures with aphasia severity and cognitive ability were examined. Persons with anomic aphasia showed lower efficiency in conveying information than controls. They underperformed controls on all CIU analysis measures when executing story narrative tasks. Discourse tasks influenced the informativeness and efficiency of both groups. Neurotypical controls delivered the greatest quantity of information most efficiently when narrating stories. Persons with anomic aphasia exhibited reduced quantity of information during procedural discourse and displayed superior information quality in sequential-picture descriptions. Discourse information may be impacted by aphasia severity and cognitive ability, with varying effects depending on the task. Persons with anomic aphasia are inefficient in communicating discourse messages and perform poorly on all measures in story narratives. When measuring discourse information, the effects of discourse tasks and factors like aphasia severity and cognitive ability should be considered.

CONSTRUCTION OF TOKOPEDIA SQUAD AD PUBLICITY DISCOURSE: A STUDY OF CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NORMAN FAIRCLOUGH

Abstract
 The Tokopedia squad is a group of influencers formed by the Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia in one of its advertisements. The Tokopedia Squad advertisement was uploaded with the headline “Inspirational, update current products & tell you anti-stale promos!”. Having the concept of a Squad or a team consisting of eleven well-known Indonesian influencers, Tokopedia Squad narrates the life of young people who have contemporary needs and can be accessed easily, practically, and instantly through the Tokopedia platform. Advertising publicity intends to promote a product to the intended target market. Advertising publicity that is carried out massively and carried out on a large scale certainly conveys discourse messages that contain ideology in them. The purpose of this study is to dissect the construction of discourse contained in the advertising publicity of Tokopedia Squad with the study of critical discourse analysis by Norman Faircligh, by looking at a textual discourse seen not only as text but as social practice. The method used is to look at three discursive dimensions starting from the text, text production, and sociocultural practices that build the discourse of the text. The results of the analysis found that the birth of text as a social practice was based on the socio-cultural conditions of Indonesia, especially millennial youth who are passionate about updates and technological matters. The ideology of convenience and consumerism aligns millennial youth which can be realized with the Tokopedia platform.
 Keywords: Discourse Construction, Tokopedia Squad, Publicity

Pedagogical Communication in Nigerian Children Literature: A Pragma-Semiotic Study of Akintayo Oluyinka’s The Greatest Mistake

This study is a cross-disciplinary investigation of the pedagogical significance of children literature in Nigeria—a linguistic study of selected samples from Akintayo Oluyinka’s The Greatest Mistake. Visual illustrations are typical of children literature because of the age-range of the readers. Hamilton (2000) notes that “children who encounter excellent picture books learn how to read not just the moods but also the pictures. They pay close attention to what they see often discovering things in illustrations.” Like in the literary text we examine in this study, pictorial illustrations in Nigerian children literature have varied contextual underpinnings which make them have meanings to children-readers. This establishes their pragmatic relevance. Objects and gestures convey messages in discourse. Therefore, semiotics is a crucial concern of this study. Hinging on the Pragma-crafting theory, this study concludes that the effectiveness of children literature in the transmission of knowledge to the target readers (children) depends on the skillful use of textual and extra-textual elements of communication.

Role of Translator as a Gap Filler in Communication with Reference to Françoise Balogun

Translation of messages between two languages has been very challenging among translators. Translations have led to the filling of gaps in communication barriers so that equivalence and accuracy are achieved in the process of transfer of messages from one language to another. This paper aims to examine the role of a translator in filling the communication gap between the Source Language (SL) and the Target Language (TL). These gaps are known as translation problems or difficulties as a means of solving them. We apply the interpretative and comparative approaches of translation. This is achieved through the extract of texts from the English and French versions of our corpus. The main objectives of the paper are i) to examine some concepts in translation ii) to identify some gaps in translation, and iii) to determine the approach that fits better in translating discourse messages with varied contexts. Among the findings of the study are instances of gap filling in communication as no two languages see a concept in the same way that includes i) set and series, ii) cultural words, and iii) neologism. The study concludes that equivalent is the key to achieving successful translation across cultures.

A Functional Analysis of Theme and Thematic Progression of Private Hospital Websites

Medical tourism has been seriously affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has become a huge threat to global economy. In mitigating this issue, attention needs to be given to the online promotional message strategy to boost medical tourism. However, there is a scarcity of work on medical tourism promotional discourse from the textual function perspective despite the considerable number of studies in other types of discourse. This study, therefore, aims to examine and compare the promotional discourse message strategies in Malaysia and Thailand’s private hospital websites. The analysis was based on Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective, using Halliday & Matthiessen’s model of textual analysis (2004) and Danes’ classification of thematic patterns (1974). A total of six webpages with three webpages of one Malaysian website and one Thai website were analysed in relation to theme type and thematic progression. The findings show that texts derived from the hospital websites in Malaysia and Thailand display similarities and differences pertaining to how the texts are organised in relation to their theme types and thematic patterns. Both websites from Malaysia and Thailand combined objectivity with subjectivity in choosing their themes and thematic progression since they have a preference for unmarked themes in combination with marked theme to inform and persuade readers. However, the Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC, Malaysia) website was direct and cohesive with its short texts and use of textual themes, while the message in Samitivej Hospital (SH, Thailand) website was more indirect, less compact, and less cohesive as the texts were rather lengthy and interspersed with interpersonal themes. The findings can be a guide for copywriters, website designers or medical tourism stakeholders to be aware of meaning-making strategies in promoting medical websites for medical tourism purpose. Keywords: Textual Analysis; Theme and Thematic Progression; Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL); online promotional discourse; Medical Tourism

Notas para el conocimiento de la "comunicación" en las ONG en Portugal

Investigación con carácter exploratorio que permite un primer diagnóstico acerca de la importancia que las organizaciones no gubernamentales para el desarrollo (ONGd) dan a la "comunicación". Si al principio, y por el número y diversidad de soportes de comunicación listados parece que la importancia atribuida a la comunicación, entendida aquí como constitutiva de las prácticas organizacionales, era una realidad, se constató sin embargo, que tal no es el caso en absoluto. La Comunicación es, en la mayor parte de estas organizaciones, entendida como claramente instrumental y solamente pensada en su aspecto meramente discursivo.

Decolonial Multicultural Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Dichotomy of Pluriversality in Curricula Craft Context

This article explores decolonial epistemic priorities in Open and distance learning (ODL) multicultural teacher education and training praxis, raises questions about the andragogical approach, and challenges the primary educational goal for students, opining that multicultural teacher education and training has become fixated on a simplistic decoloniality of Western knowledges and practices. Using the internet based asynchronous OBB system; I adopted a qualitative discursive analysis to identify linguistic conventions within the academic discourse message board community of practice as regards the dominate views and values that can be embedded in curriculum craft in post-colonial states. I put forward a case to prioritise the development of learning dispositions in multicultural students that encourage openness to further inquiry and productive ways of thinking in and through complex and contested knowledge terrains with the hope of engendering the concept pluriversality. I argue that this andragogical approach adds a critical dimension to the decolonial task in imbedding first nation’s indigenous knowledges, views and/or perspectives rather than mimicking fixated Western priorities.

Discourse-based intervention for modifying supervisory communication as leverage for safety climate and performance improvement: A randomized field study.

The article presents a randomized field study designed to improve safety climate and resultant safety performance by modifying daily messages in supervisor-member communications. Supervisors in the experimental group received 2 individualized feedback sessions regarding the extent to which they integrated safety and productivity-related issues in daily verbal exchanges with their members; those in the control group received no feedback. Feedback data originated from 7-9 workers for each supervisor, reporting about received supervisory messages during the most recent verbal exchange. Questionnaire data collected 8 weeks before and after the 12-week intervention phase revealed significant changes for safety climate, safety behavior, subjective workload, teamwork, and (independently measured) safety audit scores for the experimental group. Data for the control group (except for safety behavior) remained unchanged. These results are explained by corresponding changes (or lack thereof in the control group) in perceived discourse messages during the 6-week period between the 1st and 2nd feedback sessions. Theoretical and practical implications for climate improvement and organizational discourse research are discussed.

Decolonial Multicultural Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This article explores decolonial epistemic priorities in Open and distance learning (ODL) multicultural teacher education and training praxis, raises questions about the andragogical approach, and challenges the primary educational goal for students, opining that multicultural teacher education and training has become fixated on a simplistic decoloniality of Western knowledges and practices. Using the internet based asynchronous OBB system; I adopted a qualitative discursive analysis to identify linguistic conventions within the academic discourse message board community of practice as regards the dominate views and values that can be embedded in curriculum craft in post-colonial states. I put forward a case to prioritise the development of learning dispositions in multicultural students that encourage openness to further inquiry and productive ways of thinking in and through complex and contested knowledge terrains with the hope of engendering the concept pluriversality. I argue that this andragogical approach adds a critical dimension to the decolonial task in imbedding first nation’s indigenous knowledges, views and/or perspectives rather than mimicking fixated Western priorities.

Genre and Postemergency Contexts: The Nexus of Strategic Communications

This article explores why organizations choose to enact public relations discourse genres after an emergency situation —organizational crises, disasters, and issues—has been resolved. In the aftermath of emergency situations, we argue that organizational communicators employ discourse messages according to five governing “commitments,” which corporate officials use to shape postemergency messages the way they do. This essay, then, is not so much a retrospective analysis of what happened in selected emergency situations but, rather, is more a prospective explanation about how to use these five governing commitments when anticipating emergencies that could happen. Organizational learning and organizational renewal are addressed accordingly. In this argument we draw upon literature in linguistics, rhetorical theory, and organization studies. Examples of postemergency situations are used to bridge theory and practice to show how what was done retrospectively can be done prospectively to prepare for communication during postemergency contexts.

Utterance production and interpretation: A discourse-pragmatic study on pragmatic markers in English public speeches

Despite the studies of the past three decades on pragmatic markers in conversational interaction, markers in monologues have been relatively neglected as a research topic. This study carries out an investigation into pragmatic markers in monologues, a corpus of 30 public speeches, with an attempt to explore their features in distribution and functions in utterance production and interpretation. The result reveals pragmatic markers are extensively used in public speeches, with an average frequency of at least 3 markers in 100 words. Among the nine different categories of pragmatic markers in the present study, elaborative markers are found to have the highest frequency, while conversational management markers the lowest. Interestingly, assessment markers and deference markers are found with an equal frequency. As to individual markers, and is found to be the highest in frequency. The findings also suggest that pragmatic markers in public speeches function mostly to illustrate a statement or to explain or reason a message, to indicate a contrast between two messages in discourse, to show the sequence of a series of events, and to make an inference or draw a conclusion, etc. For the hearers, they give clues to the interpretation of speech discourse at both local and global level, signaling where the speech is, and what is the relationship between the preceding and upcoming discourse.

What makes a discourse constraining? Comparing the effects of discourse message and scenario fit on the discourse-dependent N400 effect

A discourse context provides a reader with a great deal of information that can provide constraints for further language processing, at several different levels. In this experiment we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore whether discourse-generated contextual constraints are based on the precise message of the discourse or, more ‘loosely’, on the scenario suggested by one or more content words in the text. Participants read constraining stories whose precise message rendered a particular word highly predictable (“The manager thought that the board of directors should assemble to discuss the issue. He planned a…[meeting]”) as well as non-constraining control stories that were only biasing in virtue of the scenario suggested by some of the words (“The manager thought that the board of directors need not assemble to discuss the issue. He planned a…”). Coherent words that were inconsistent with the message-level expectation raised in a constraining discourse (e.g., “session” instead of “meeting”) elicited a classic centroparietal N400 effect. However, when the same words were only inconsistent with the scenario loosely suggested by earlier words in the text, they elicited a different negativity around 400 ms, with a more anterior, left-lateralized maximum. The fact that the discourse-dependent N400 effect cannot be reduced to scenario-mediated priming reveals that it reflects the rapid use of precise message-level constraints in comprehension. At the same time, the left-lateralized negativity in non-constraining stories suggests that, at least in the absence of strong message-level constraints, scenario-mediated priming does also rapidly affect comprehension.