15 Mei 2015

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS



Introduction
Discourse Analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and context in which it is used. It grew out of work in different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. Discourse analysts study language in use: written text of all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalized forms of talk.
British discourse analysis was greatly influenced by M.A.K. Halliday’s functional approach to language (e.g. Halliday 1973), which in turn has connections with the Prague school of linguists. Halliday’s framework emphasizes the social functions of language and the thematic and informational structure of speech and writing. Also important in Britain were Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) at the University of Birmingham, who developed a model for the description of teacher-pupil talk, based on a hierarchy of discourse units. The British work has principally followed structural-linguistic criteria, on the basis of the isolation of units, and sets of rules defining well-formed sequences of discourse.
On the other hand, American discourse analysis has been dominated by work within the etnomethodological tradition, which emphasizes the research method close of close observation of groups of people communicating in natural settings. The American work has produced a large number of descriptions of discourse types, as well as insights into the social constraints of politeness and face-preserving phenomena in talk, overlapping with British work in pragmatics.
This paper would elaborate a brief explanation about spoken discourse as well as writing one. While the spoken discourse would concern more on the analysis of form-function, and speech acts-discourse structures, the writing discourse would be analyzed based on the text and its level of interpretation which are cohesive and coherence, and recognizing textual patterns.
Review of Literature
1.        Spoken Discourse
1.1.  Form and Function
The famous British comedy duo, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, started one of their shows in 1973 with the following dialogue:
Ernie    : Tell ‘em about the show
Eric (to the audience)  : Have we got a show for you tonight folks!
Have we got a show for you!
(aside to Ernie) Have we got a show for them?

This short dialogue raises a number of problems for anyone wishing to do a linguistic analysis of it. Most people would agree that it is funny because Eric is playing with grammatical structure that seems to be ambiguous: ‘Have we got a show for you!’ has an inverted verb and subject. Inversion of the verb and its subject happens only under restricted condition in English; the most typical circumstances in which this happens is when questions are being asked, but it also happens in exclamations (‘Wasn’t my face red!).
            Eric’s inverted grammatical form in its first two occurrences clearly has the function of an exclamation, telling the audience something, not asking them anything, until the humorous moment when he begins to doubt whether they do have a show to offer, at which point he uses the same grammatical form to ask Ernie a genuine question. By the same token, in other situations, an inverted declarative form (subject before verb), typically associated with ‘statements’, might be heard as a question requiring an answer:
            A: You’re leaving for London.
            B: Yes, immediately.

            So how we interpret grammatical form depends on a number of factors, some linguistic, some purely situational. One linguistic feature that may affect our interpretation is the intonation.


            Eric (to the audience): Have we got a SHOW for you tonight folks!
                                                Have we got a SHOW for you! (aside to Ernie)
                                                HAVE
                                                            We got a show for them?
Two variables in Eric’s delivery change. Firstly, the tone contour, the direction of his pitch, whether it rises of falls, changes. Secondly, his voice jumps to a higher pitch level.
1.2.  Speech acts and Discourse Structures
In one sense we are talking about ‘functions’: we are concerned as much with what Eric and Ernie are doing with language as with what they are saying. Speech acts defined as a request of an instruction or an exemplification we are concentrating on what that piece of language is doing, or how the listener/reader is supposed to react (Austin, 1962 and Searle, 1969). Here is an example of speech acts happened in casual setting.
A: Well, try this spray, what I got; this is the biggest they come.
B: Oh . . .
A: … little make-up capsule.
B: Oh, right. It’s like these inhalers, isn’t it?
A: And I’ve found that not so bad since I’ve been using it, and it doesn’t
     make you so grumpy.
B: This is up your nose?
A: Mm.
B: Oh, wow! It looks like a bit sort of violent, doesn’t it? It works well,
     does it?
                                                (Birmingham Collection of English Text)

Our immediate reaction is that conversation can often begin with well, but that there is something odd about ‘try this spray…’ Suggesting to someone ‘try X’ usually only occurs in response to some remark or event or perceived state of affairs that warrants intervention, and such information is lacking here.
The dialogue is structured in the sense that it can be coherently interpreted and seems to be progressing somewhere, but we are in the middle of a structure rather than witnessing the complete unfolding of the whole. In is in this respect, the interest in whole discourse structures, that discourse analysis adds something extra to the traditional concern with functions/speech acts.
Here are other examples of spoken discourse happened in the classroom.
(T=Teacher, P=Pupil who speaks)
T: Now then… I’ve got some things here, too. Hands up. What is that,
     what is it?
P: Saw
T: It’s a saw, yes this is a saw. What do we do with a saw?
P: Cut wood
T: Yes. You’re shouting out though. What do we do with a saw?
     Marvelete.
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood. And, erm, what do we do with a hacksaw, this hacksaw?
P: Cut trees.
T: Do we cut trees with this?
P: Cut wood.
T: Do we cut wood with this?
P: No.
T: What do we do with that then?
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood with that. What do we do with that?
P: Sir.
T: Cleveland
P: Metal
T: We cut metal. Yes we cut metal. And, er, I’ve got this here. What’s that
    Trevor?
P: An axe
T: It’s an axe yes. What do I cut with the axe?
P: Wood, wood.
T: Yes, I cut wood with the axe. Right …Now then, I’ve got some more things here…(etc).
The teacher, in this case, gives the pupils a clear signal of the beginning and end of this mini-phase of the lesson by using the words now then and right in a particular way (with falling intonation and a short pause afterwards) that make them into a sort of ‘frame’ on either side of the sequence of questions and answers. Framing move is precisely what Sinclair and Coulthard call the function of such utterances. Then, the two framing moves, together the question and answer sequence that falls between them can be called transaction, which again captures the feeling of what is being done with the language here.
In order to capture the similarity of the pattern in each case, Sinclair and Coulthard (1975: 26-7) called the first move on each exchange an opening move, the second an answering move and the third a follow-up move. Sinclair and Brazil (1982: 49) prefer to talk initiation, response and follow-up.
Move
Exchange 1
Exchange 2
Exchange 3
Initiation
A: What time is it?
A: Tim’s coming tomorrow
A: Here, hold this.
Response
B: Six thirty.
B: Oh yeah.
B: (takes the box)
Follow-up
A: Thanks
A: Yes
A: Thanks

So far we have looked only at one model for the analysis of spoken interaction, the Sinclair-Coulthard ‘Birmingham’ model. We have argued that it is useful for describing talk in and out of the classroom; it captures patterns that reflect the basic functions of interaction and offers s hierarchical model where smaller units can be seen to combine to form larger ones and where the large units can be seen to consist of these smaller ones. The bare bones of the hierarchy) or rank scale) can be expressed as follows:
TRANSACTION

EXCHANGE
 
MOVE

ACT

            Sinclair and Coulthard’s model is very useful for analyzing patterns of interaction where talk is relatively tightly structured, such as between doctors and patients, but all the complications arise when we try to apply the model to talk in more informal, casual and spontaneous contexts.

2.        Written Discourse
In order to have a deep understanding regarding written discourse, take a look at to the passage follows:
The parents of seven-year-old Australian boy woke to find a giant
Python crushing and trying to swallow him.
The incident occurred in Cairns, Queensland and the boy’s mother,
Mrs. Kathy Dryden said: It was like a horror movie. It was a hot
night and Bartholomew was lying under a mosquito net. He suddenly
started screaming.
We rushed to the bedroom to find a huge snake trying to strangle
him. It was coiled around his arms and neck and was going down his
body. Mrs. Dryden and her husband, Peter, tried to stab the creature with
knives but the python bit the body several times before escaping.
                                    (From the Birmingham Post, 12 March 1987, p.10)
The text requires us to activate our knowledge of pythons as dangerous creatures which may threaten human life, which strangle their prey and to whose presence one must react with certain urgency. The ‘creature’ must be taken to be the python rather than the boy (which creature could well refer to in another next), since parents do not normally stab their children in order to save their lives.
On the one hand, it is possible for us analyzing the text based on its cohesive and coherence. The sentence ‘The parents of seven-year-old Australian boy woke to find a giant Python crushing and trying to swallow him’ are cohesive (the parents of seven-year-old Australian/him), but it will be coherent if only this sentence is followed by the next sentence and has a cause-effect relationship.
On the other hand, another level of interpretation which we are involved in as we process text is that recognizing textual patterns. Certain patterns in text reoccur time and time again and become deeply ingrained as part of our cultural knowledge. The patterns manifested in regularly occurring functional relationship between bits of the text. The bits may be phrases, clauses, sentences, or groups of sentences; we shall refer to them as textual segments to avoid confusion with grammatical elements and syntactic relations within clauses and sentences.
An example of segments coinciding with sentences is these two sentences from a report on a photographic exhibition:
The stress is on documentary and rightly so. Arty photography are a bore.
                                                            (the Guardian, 27th October 1988:24)
The interpretation that makes most sense is that the relationship between the second sentence and the first is that the second provides a reason for the first. The two segments are therefore in a phenomenon-reason relationship with one another.
The phenomenon-reason relation which united the two sentences above, along with cause-consequence and instrument-achievement, can be brought under the general heading of logical sequence relations. When segments of a text are compared or contrasted with one another, then we may talk of matching relation, which are also extremely common. Logical sequencing and matching are the two basic categories of the clause-relational approach.

Conclusion
            We have seen in this chapter that discourse analysis is a vast subject area within linguistics, encompassing as it does the analysis of spoken and written language over and above concern concerns such as the structure of the clause or sentence. In this brief introduction we have looked at just some ways of analyzing speech and writing and just some aspects of those particular models we have chosen to highlight. This and further of the approaches outlined here will form the background to reassessment of the basics of language teaching as they are conventionally understood: the levels of language description (grammar, lexis and phonology) and the skills of language use (reading, writing, listening, speaking). There will be also be suggestions concerning teaching materials and procedures whenever it seems that discourse analysis has some direct bearing on these matters.

Reference
McCarthy, M. 1991. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University    Press 

06 Februari 2014

THE ROLE OF ENGLISH IN DEVELOPING TOURISM IN INDONESIA

Azhar Aziz Lubis, S.Pd.
Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia
Tel: +62 81392472763 Email: azharfbs@gmail.com

Dedi Sanjaya, S.Pd
Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia
Tel: +60 173879215 Email: sanjayahasibuan@gmail.com

Abstract
The objective of the paper was to find out solutions of the tourism problems in Indonesia especially in potential rural areas. The problems comprised inhabitants’ disabilities in English, system management of the places and language usage in promoting the sites. It was found that most of people at rural areas in Indonesia are not really care about the way in increasing the tourism. Even though our excursionists increased 8,8 percent from January to September 2013, it does not mean that the increasing implied in rural areas too (http://antaranews.com). The increasing number applied only in several famous cities such as Bali and Lombok. The main problem in fostering tourism in Indonesia is inhabitants’ disabilities in English. The method that applied in writing the paper started from the foreword which gave a brief explanation about problems of tourism in rural areas in Indonesia then its’ solutions and benefits in applying writer’s thought. Moreover, the writer also elaborates a tourism current situation in some places. Based on the review of the literature, it was suggested that tourism problems can be solved by strengthening the curriculum for students (KTSP) which based on its’ culture and creating cultural council in every province.   
Keywords: tourism, English, cultural council.      

Foreword
Indonesia is an archipelago country which has 17.504 islands. Those beautiful islands consist of 9.634 unnamed and 7.870 named-islands (http://id.wikipedia.org). The 17.504 islands exist in the thirty three provinces all over Indonesia. Each island has its beauty and uniqueness to be enjoyed. In other words, Indonesia is one of the diamonds in the world. This paper will compare, contrast and analyze the inhabitants’ disabilities in English, system management of the places and language usage in promoting the sites. Afterwards, the writer would pose an applicable solution in developing tourism in Indonesia.
Based on the data of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), Indonesian Human Development Index (IHDI) improved 1,3 percent per year. It was stated that the Human Development Index in year 2011 was at 0,624 and slightly improved to 0,629 in 2012 (http://tempo.com). Furthermore, the director of UNDP for Indonesia, Beate Trankman, stated that Indonesia still far from the average point of Human Development Index in developing countries. Trankman stated that mostly the Human Development Index in developing countries reached 0,640. While Indonesia gained only 0,629, the Asia pacific countries gained 0,683 for human development index. In other words, the human development index in Indonesia needs much more government attention. From the UNDP data about Human Development Index, we can infer that our education especially in reading interest is very weak. In 2012, Indonesia occupied in the 124th of 187 countries in the world for Human Development Index which focused on inhabitants’ basic needs, education, health and literacy (http://metro.kompasiana.com).
Even though the government of Indonesia has implemented the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), which is created based on Indonesian culture; it has not run well yet. It is because the curriculum needs much more revision especially in tourism and culture. This problem adversely affected to the inhabitants disabilities in English. Surprisingly, most students in primary and secondary school do not know well about their traditional dances, songs, foods and tourism areas. They love much more about other culture rather than theirs which considerably impact in their daily life. This situation impacts so much to their disabilities in exploring their culture which English is used as tool of communication.
On the other hand, Indonesia as an archipelago country faces a crucial problem in management the tourism sites and lack of facilities. In Lake Toba, North Sumatera for instance, the management of tourism sites and its’ facilities are quite miserable. Water pollution, illegal lodging and transportation are the most solicitous problem until now. Otherwise, the head of Tourism Promotion Department of North Sumatera, Arthur Batubara, stated that actually we already made a forum consisted of eleven district-officers to discuss deeply about a good management for Lake Toba (http://travel.kompas.com). Whereas, the constitution number 32 in 2004 allows the local governments to plan, implement and evaluate the utilization of natural and human resources in their areas in order to improve public welfare. Moreover, based on the government regulation number 50 in 2011 about the master plan of national tourism from 2010 to 2025, stated that national tourism comprised tourism destination, marketing, tourism industry and tourism board which is involved local government. We already have good regulations in maintaining our national tourism but unfortunately our human resources are not ready to implement it yet. It is because the government does not really concern more on how to revitalizes human resources by empowering the education, in this case empowering the curriculum.     
Yet, in 2003 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) declared that the development of tourism needed three aspects; 1) a coherent partnership among stakeholders, 2) delivery of profitable tourism product commercially but still gives benefits to the stakeholders, and 3) focused on tourists, society, environment, social and culture. Theoretically, tourism divided into three; 1) Natural resources such as waterfall, lake, forest etc, 2) Man-made resources such as ancient buildings, masjid, museum, monument, etc, and 3) Human resources such as art performances, rituals, festival etc (Anoviar, 2012). From the theory above, it can be infer that Indonesia is a country which is rich in natural resources but not human resources. We have all the three parts of tourism which classified by the experts previously.
Unfortunately, there is a difference between Indonesia and five countries in Southeast Asian with respect to foreign exchange earnings. While five countries in Southeast Asia occupy a high number in foreign exchange earnings, Indonesia exists in the lowest rate. Thailand for instance, occupied the highest income from its’ international tourism in 2005. It is because the government of Thailand intensively gives more attention to their tourism.
The main crucial problem is about English language usage in promoting the tourism sites. It seems a simple problem but it has a great impact to the tourists. In 2007 the government of Indonesia, in this case the ministry of culture and tourism, launched official website of Indonesia at http://www.indonesia.travel. It was a government effort to promote Indonesia tourism sites massively to the world. Unfortunately, it was not ran optimally because 1) there is no interaction among visitors so that the communication runs passively, 2) there is no integration of information to the local government so that the potency of local tourism does not explored well and 3) there is no a dynamic information about tourism (Anoviar, 2012). From the data, it can be concluded that government efforts in fostering the tourism needs much more attention for human development particularly in English achievement.

Discussion
Based on the review of literature, it can be stimulated that our national tourism need much more attention in order to improve public welfare. Indonesia with its’ islands, considerably has much more chance to take the opportunity than other countries in South East Asia. However, if the government focused only on natural resources and ignored its’ attention to human resources especially in education, the next generation of the country will lose its’ ability to maintaining the country. Students in primary and secondary school should be noticed much more than others. Developing national tourism means actualizing and synchronizing the potency of natural and human resources which can be applied by revitalization the curriculum (KTSP) and creating a controlling tourism board and culture.
Revitalization of curriculum (KTSP) by revising some aspects in it especially on culture and tourism sites is a smart solution. Perhaps, it will not impact directly to the public welfare nationally but it can be trusted that this planning will give positive feedback in the future. The government should concern more on how to make the inhabitants are able to communicate in English. We need to train and familiarize our society especially those who lived in tourism sites by English. Hopefully in the future, English is not only restricted as a subject in the class but also it is a tool of communication among people. Nowadays, the usage of English as a tool of communication spreads only in cities. Most of inhabitants in rural areas cannot communicate well in English even only to describe their house living. Therefore, empowering the curriculum (KTSP) by adding some aspects of tourism in it, is an applicable solution to solve the problem.
Surprisingly, based on writer’s observation on the internet, there is no more website that promotes Lake Toba which uses English except at http://www.indonesia.travel. It happened to the other tourism sites too such as Bali and Lombok. The details of the tourism websites will elaborate as follow:

No
Name of Tourism Place
Official Website / Information
Language Use
1
Lake Toba
Bilingual
2
Bali
Bilingual
3
Lombok
Bilingual

If we pay attention to the website, we would find that English language is not optimally used. The official website seems has no attraction to grab the tourists. It appears from its English language usage which is very normative. Even it shows photos and description about tourism sites such as Lake Toba, it has no sense of language that simplifies people to remember about Lake Toba.       
Furthermore, the government should empower stakeholders and the society especially those who lived in the tourism rural areas to work together in order to foster our tourism and increase the foreign exchange earnings.
The last but not least, we can learn from other tourism areas in Indonesia which had created cultural council such as Bali. We already know that Bali is the most favorite tourism site to visit. It is not only caused of government supports but also a good human and natural resources. Learning from Bali in maintaining their tourism sites is a good experience. On the one hand, Bali as a tourism site had a reputable name which recognized internationally so that we do not have to think too much on how to foster its’ tourism anymore. On the other hand, we should think deeply on how to create other potential tourism sites in Indonesia to be similar as Bali. The writer believes by creating cultural council in every state especially those tourism sites, would impact positively to the culture and tourism of its area.
 However, our national tourism and culture need much more attention, not only from the government but also its society. Cultural council, in writer’s opinion, will impact positively especially in 1) protecting tourism sites, 2) to train inhabitants’ ability in speaking English, 3) promoting tourism sites, 4) empowering the society to make a better handicraft of its area and 5) loving the motherland. Hopefully, these recommendations would be able to familiarize significantly English as a tool of communication among people in Indonesia especially in rural areas. Because the writer believes that a good communication is an authorized capital to develop our national tourism in our beloved country Indonesia.
In conclusion, mastering English as a tool of communication is very important. In order to foster our national tourism sites overseas, our inhabitants should have a fair enough skill to communicate in English and should be familiar in our society. English should be familiarized in order to improve our national tourism sites.  

References
Anoviar, Alia Noor (2012), Implokasi Otonomi Daerah Terhadap Eksistensi Kepariwisataan Nasional Melalui Revitalisasi Produk Pariwisata Lokal Guna Mengoptimalkan Potensi SDM di Indonesia, Depok: Management Department of Universitas Indonesia. 
http://id.wikipedia.org. Accessed on December 4, 2013
Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia No. 50 Tahun 2011 tentang Rencana Induk Pembangunan Kepariwisataan Nasional Tahun 2010-2025.