Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 210-223. / General introduction -- A multimodal analysis of the 2006 Mexican presidential campaign billboards -- Study 2: Discourses of obligation and prohibition within an institutional setting -- Study 3: Gatekeeping practices at the LEMO: a multimodal analysis -- General conculsions. / This is a thesis composed of three studies linked by a common critical multimodal approach to the analysis of the data. Fairclough's (1992, 1995) three-dimensional framework was drawn on in order to explore the social practice, discursive practice and text dimensions of the discourses in question. The first two studies focus on printed texts in Mexican Spanish, whereas the third study addresses spoken interaction in English with occasional code switching to Spanish. -- Study 1: A Multimodal Analysis of the 2006 Mexican Presidential Campaign Billboards - This is a joint study (with my colleague Michael Witten and approved by my supervisor and the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie) which analyzes the political discourse of the multimodal and multisemiotic texts that the three major political parties involved in the 2006 Mexican presidential elections produced and extensively distributed through the medium of public billboards. We investigate how these parties express their particular ideologies, construct and convey social identities and relationships, and construct relations of power between themselves and the readers/viewers of these texts, through the medium of billboards. As indicated in the preamble, the methodological framework addresses these issues drawing on Fairclough's (1992, 1995) three-dimensional model of analysis while employing a variety of qualitative techniques, tools, and approaches. -- Study 2: Discourses of obligation and prohibition within an institutional setting - Following the theme of multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study examines the institutionalized discourses of obligation and prohibition at the Library of the Language Faculty (LEMO)*of a public university in Mexico. Six different texts pertaining to various genres ranging from a protocol to notices were examined. Multiple qualitative methodologies and tools such as those drawn from ethnography, critical discourse analysis, and systemic functional linguistics are utilized in the analysis of the data. Power relations between the institution and the library users are examined as well as the conditions of text production and reception, the latter through an ethnographic component. An emphasis is placed on the linguistic text. -- Study 3: Gatekeeping practices at the LEMO - This study investigates one of the gatekeeping practices at the Language Faculty of a public university in Mexico (see above). The particular practice concerned consists of the professional examinations (vivas) that students have to take in order to obtain their degrees of 'Licenciatura en Lenguas Modernas' (BEd in Modern Languages) in the English Teaching section of the university. This study focuses on the professional discourse(s) utilized by both candidates and examiners by means of analyzing the texts of four recorded professional examinations. This study chiefly draws on Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical concepts of 'frontstage' and 'backstage', where the analysis of the frontstage work addresses the Question-and-Answer section of the examinations, and the analysis of the backstage work addresses the subsequent deliberations among the examiners concerning the performance of the candidates. Multiple qualitative methodologies and tools are again drawn upon, such as ethnographic analysis, interactional sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis. (* Facultad de Lenguas) / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xii, 233 p. : ill. (some col.)

Thesis (MA (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study investigates the ways in which former South African Police (SAP) perpetrators of human rights violations justify their criminal actions in testifying before the Amnesty Committee (AC) of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In particular, attention goes to the testimonies of former Commissioner of Police Johan van der Merwe, and former member of the Security Branch section of the SAP, Jeffrey Benzien. A key assumption in the study is that the justification of human rights violations is a discursive practice that is largely language dependent (Reisigl & Wodak 200: xi). The research draws on the theoretical aims and methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It refers largely to Benke and Wodak’s (2003) discourse–historical study on the justificatory discourse of ex-Wehrmacht officers of the Austrian army. This study therefore takes a discourse-historical approach to discourse and the data, an approach which takes into consideration the surrounding political and historical context of the selected texts, which are, in this case, the testimonies of perpetrators at the AC hearings. Besides an analysis of the justificatory discourses produced by two former police officers, the study reflects on how the discursive strategies of the apartheid perpetrators compare with one another and with the ex- Wehrmacht officers. CDA and the discourse-historical approach provide interdisciplinary angles on linguistic analysis of a text. For this reason, a review is given of literature which relates the study to political, historical and philosophical insights. The analysis particularly makes use of Foster et al.’s (2005) socio-political study of apartheid perpetrator narratives. The study reveals that perpetrators used a fixed set of justificatory discursive strategies to talk about human rights violations, and their role in such violations. These linguistic strategies are used for a number of different reasons, including reducing personal responsibility, avoiding talking about past atrocities, saving face where personal malicious and degenerate behaviour is made public and diverting feelings of personal guilt. On a discourse theoretical level the study eventually convinces that there are generic strategies typically used in justificatory discourse, whether it be in response to Wehrmacht atrocities of the Second World War or to security force excesses in repressing aspirations of disenfranchised citizens during the last thirty years of the Nationalist government in South Africa. Some stories don’t want to be told. They walk away, carrying their suitcases held together with grey string. Look at their disappearing curved spines. Hunch-backs. Harmed ones. Hold alls. Some stories refuse to be danced or mimed, drop their scuffed canes and clattering tap-shoes, erase their traces in nursery rhymes or ancient games like blind man’s bluff. Excerpt from “Parts of Speech” by Ingrid de Kok

The purpose of this study was to better understand student learning in asynchronous computer-conference discourse (ASD) for non-native speakers of English in India through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework. The study looked at ASD from an online course taught in the fall of 2015 to 25 students in a seminary in South India. All but one of the students were non-native speakers of English. The class consisted of 22 men and 3 women. Eight students spoke languages from the Dravidian family of languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada). Eight students were from the Northeastern states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, where most languages are from the Sino-Tibetan family. Three students were native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages (Odiya and Assamese). Five students were from Myanmar representing several Sino-Tibetan languages. The COI is a framework used to understand learning in ASD, often used in online learning. To study the ASD of this group, critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used with the COI to capture the unique socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of this group. The study revealed that non-native speakers of English often reach the Exploration phase of learning but rarely show evidence of reaching the Resolution phase. This phenomenon was also observed in native English speakers as reported in the literature. Also, the structure of ASD showed that students took an examination approach to discussion shaped in part by their epistemology. This examination approach shaped how knowledge was constructed. CDA also showed that the discourse acquired an instructor-centered structure in which Resolution and Repair were initiated and finalized by the instructor. The study advances the COI framework by undergirding it with a theory of asynchronous discourse using critical discourse analysis and capturing cognitive, social and teaching presence phenomena for non-native speakers that were not observed through the traditional COI framework. These phenomena were driven by cultural, epistemological, and linguistic forces and require a rethinking of the COI for contexts outside of North America. The study also demonstrates that learning for non-native speakers in ASD is challenged by these very same forces. Therefore, design for online learning should account for these phenomena.

No description available.

Text in TshiVenḓa with abstracts in TshiVenḓa and English / The purpose of this study was to contextually describe and analyse how male authors of Tshivenḓa drama books have in their dialogue portrayed female characters in the manner that it may tend to educate or encourage the public to criticize and abuse them in communities and society. In Tshivenḓa literature therefore, some male authors of drama books have tended to misrepresent the characterisation of women. It is presumed that the ways in which women are portrayed in some Tshivenḓa dramas by male authors, tend to normatively educate, socially reproduce and sustain the abuse of women within communities and society in which they live. In most of these drams, male authors have written their bias, contextually depicted women unfairly shown and criticised them in different sorts of ways. The researcher applied the Ethnography of communication, Social constructionism, Feminism and Critical discourse analysis theories. These theories enabled her to understand that language in the hands of authors can be used to reproduce power, dominance, control and power abuse. This led her to focus on related literature which proved that indeed the problem exists. Methodically this is a qualitative descriptive study in which the documentation ‘Document Analysis’ dialogue of seven purposefully selected drama books were considered and data collected. It used Neuman’s (1996) Analytic Comparison which applies the method of agreement and method of difference. When the data was analysed, there emerged themes which carry findings. In brief, the results of this study inter alia show that some male authors of selected Tshivenḓa drama books, described women as weak, poor decision-makers and powerless in communities and society at large. On the other, in the characterisation of men, they show them as social architectures of how women should be seen as depicted, thereby dominated and mistreated objects. It also found that Tshivenḓa culture was misrepresented and incorrectly applied to criticise, dominate, discriminate and justify the abuse of women by husbands and relatives, mainly in-laws. The results also suggest that within the context, male authors socially subject our children (both boys and girls as reader of such books), to indoctrination and social education as unequal partners in society in which they live. / Tshipikwa tshihulwane tsha ino ngudo ho vha u ṱalutshedza na u saukanya nḓila dzine vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ḓirama dza Tshivenḓa vha shumisa ngadzo nyambedzano u bveledza vhaanewa vha vhafumakadzi uri hu ṱuṱuwedzwe vhadzulapo u vha sasaladza na u vha sathula hune vha ḓiwana vhe hone zwitshavhani. Kha maṅwalwa a Tshivenḓa, vhaṅwe vhaṅwali vha bugu dza ḓirama vha anzela u sa bveledza vhaanewa vha vhafumakadzi nga nḓila i si yone. Zwi dzhiiwa uri nḓila dzine vhafumakadzi vha bveledzwa ngadzo kha ḓirama dza Tshivenḓa dze dza ṅwalwa nga vhanna dzi na u funḓedza, u bveledza na u engedza tshengedzo ya vhafumakadzi hune vha dzula hone na vhukati ha zwitshavha. Kha ḓirama nnzhi, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ṅwala vho sendamisa kubveledzele, vha bveledza vhafumakadzi nga nḓila ine vha sathulea lwo kalulaho. Muṱoḓisisi o shumisa thyiori dzo fhambanaho sa ya Nyambedzano ‘Ethnography of communication, ya Vhufhaṱavhuvha ‘Social constructionism, ya Vhulwelambofholowo ha vhafumakadzi ‘Feminism’, na ya Tsaukanyo yo dzhenelelaho ya mafhungo ‘Critical discourse analysis.’ Thyiori hedzi, dzo thusa muṱoḓisisi u pfesesa uri luambo zwanḓani zwa uṅwali lu a kona u shumiswa u bveledza maanḓda, u tsikeledza, u vhusa na u shumisa maanḓa nga nḓila i si yone. Hezwi zwo mu thusa u lumbama kha maṅwalwa o teaho ane khao hei thaidzo ya vha khagala. Ri tshi ya kha Ngona ya ṱhoḓisiso, muṱoḓisisi o shumisa nḓila ya Khwalithethivi he a wana mafhungo nga nḓila ya u sengulusa zwo ṅnwalwaho zwa nyamedzano kha bugu dza sumbe dze a nanguludza zwo bva kha ene muṋe. Ho shumiswa nḓila ya Neuman (1996) ya Tsenguluso yo ṱanḓavhuwaho ‘Analytic comparison’ ine ya shumisa nḓila ya thendelano ‘method of agreement’ na ya phambano ‘method of difference’. Musi mafhungo o no saukanywa, ho bvelela thero dzo hwalaho mawanwa a ṱhoḓisiso. Nga u pfufhifhadza, mawanwa a hei ngudo, o sumba uri vhaṅwe vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ḓirama dzo nangiwaho vha bveledza vhafumakadzi vhe vhathu vha si na vhuimo, vha sa koni u dzhia tsheo nga vhone vhaṋe nahone vha si na maanḓa hune vha wanala hone na kha zwitshavha. Kha ḽiṅwe sia, musi vha tshi ḓibveledza, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha tou ḓitakula sa vhomasithesela vhane vha tea u vha na vhukoni ha u bveledza vhafumakadzi, u ralo vha kona-ha u vha ṱana vhe vhane vha tsikeledzwa na u shengedzwa. Zwo ḓo wanala uri na musi zwi tshi ḓa kha mvelele, hunzhi yo shumiswa nga nḓila i si yone saizwi i tshi vho shumiswa u sathula, u tsikeledza, u ṱalula na u khwaṱhisa u shengedzwa ha vhafumakadzi nga vhanna vhavho na mashaka, nga maanḓa vha vhuhadzi sa vhomazwale. Mawanwa a dovha a sumbedza uri zwo ralo, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha fhaṱa muya kha vhana vhashu (vhatukana na vhasidzana sa vhavhali vha idzi bugu) wa u tou dzivhela na u funza avho vhana uri vhutshiloni hu na vhadzulapo vha vhuimo vhu sa lingani zwitshavhani ngeno zwi si zwone. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Denna kandidatuppsats har syftat till att undersöka hur media i form av nyhetstidningar använder språket och bilder för att skapa förståelse för fenomenet unga vuxna förövare. Utifrån teorier om genus och diskurs fokuserar studien på hur diskursen om unga vuxna förövare skapas och reproduceras i relation till genus. Studien belyser på så sätt medias makt i förståelsen av diskursen och därmed allmänhetens vetande. Med en kritisk diskursanalys analyseras nyhetsartiklar om två brottsfall, där förövarna är av olika kön. Analyserna jämförs sedan i syfte att identifiera eventuella skillnader i medias framställning av de två unga vuxna förövarna utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Studien visar att det finns skillnader utifrån kön i både bild och språk, och att skillnaderna överensstämmer med vad som framkommit i tidigare forskning om ungdomar och vuxna som förövare / The aim of this bachelor thesis has been to analyze how media, in the form of newspapers, use language and pictures to create an understanding of the phenomenon of young adult offenders. Based on theories about gender and discourse, the study focuses on how the discourse about young adult offenders is created and reproduced in relation to gender. The study shows how the power of the media effects the discourse and thereby also the knowledge of the public. With a critical discourse analysis, news reports from two cases, where the offenders were of different genders, are analyzed. The analyses were also compared to each other to identify possible differences in the media's portrayal of the two young adult offenders, from a gender perspective. The study shows that there are differences based on gender, in both language and pictures, and that the differences are consistent with what’s been shown in previous studies of youth and adult offenders

In the early 2010s, competitive market logic was introduced into healthcare systems so as to achieve rapid improvements. This took place as improvement policies began to emphasize the notion of collaboration as a method of ensuring patient safety across organizational boundaries. This thesis addresses how staff, in their practical improvement work, balance economic values, on the one hand, against meaningful solutions for the patient, on the other. The research interest focuses on the particular interpretations about improvements that emerge in negotiations about change. These interpretations are foundational to the learning that simultaneously takes place. The aim of the thesis is to analyse and explain the pedagogical conditions that take place in improvement practices in a healthcare system in the 2010s. The thesis takes its theoretical point of departure in a pedagogical theory that describes how contextual conditions influence learning processes in a specific practice where communication is foundational for learning. The thesis uses critical discourse analysis as a methodological point of departure and builds on a model of improvement work, namely, the clinical microsystem. The first study consists of a literature review of the microsystem framework. Subsequently, three case studies were conducted at Jönköping county council, Sweden. Discussions of improvements at clinical meetings and improvement coaches’ reflections over their pedagogical approaches provide the empirical data for the case studies. The findings show that market logic gives rise to a number of displacement effects with respect to learning processes. Short-term profits are shown to supersede goals of a more profound development of knowledge. The composition of an improvement practice is of critical importance to the nature of the negotiation that takes place, and thus how the practice comes to successfully challenge things that are taken for granted and the power structures that exist within the practice. Improvement coaches themselves become pedagogical prerequisites under the influence of the prevailing conditions, as they promote different learning organizations. This thesis develops the conceptual framework that is instantiated by the clinical microsystem, and it also contributes to the social constructionist field of improvement science by establishing pedagogical and discursive perspectives on improvement and change. / Bridging the Gaps

Published Article / This research study explores how black male student teachers in their final fourth year programme at the University of Technology conceptualise the 'in loco parentis' aspect of their professional moulding. Male student teachers in their final fourth year studies are placed for a period of six months at various schools, as part of their professional preparation. Based on this phenomenon it has become important to explore how they perceive their position as male teachers in preparation against the delegated position invested in them by common law, as well as legal positive law. The researcher used the Critical Emancipatory Research (CER) approach as a transformative and liberatory mechanism to move away from the problems that are associated with being a male teacher and the abuse of power directed at learners in their care. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to analyse the narratives of ten black male student teachers through in-depth interviews that were audio-taped. The ten male student teachers were based in different secondary schools in the Lejweleputswa district.

Published Article / Why do African learners continue to be underrepresented in the top 20 positions of the Grade 12 examination results, and what can be done to remedy the situation? Yosso's notion of community cultural wealth shows that it is because our education continues to exclude the African learners' ways of knowing and being that the situation remains as it is. Analysing discourses of top performing white former Grade 12 learners, their teachers, their parents and their former African classmates, indicate that including modes of knowing of all learners in the curriculum irrespective of their race, class, disability or gender may help to create more socially just schooling, which is reflective of sustainable learning environments.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet portrayed a man who was a suspect of preparation of terrorist crimes, in articles published between 19th of November 2015 and the 23rd of Januari 2016. The aim was to get a deeper understanding of the portraiture of the person in question, and to point out existing discourses in the analysed material with the help of critical discourse analysis as explained by Norman Fairclough and his theories about identities, social representation and relations. Theories about social representation and postcolonialism were used as a springboard for the analysis. In the study we found two distinct discourses. The discourse for the period prior the man’s release was clearly influenced by denuniation and alienation, and the one found for the period after the man’s release were welcoming. Conclusions drawn from the study are that Aftonbladet portrays the man in a stereotypical manner, as well as legitimizes their own power of influence.