Choose an authentic text which you feel would be useful to examine from a critical perspective. Analyze it from the point of view of genre framing, foregrounding, backgrounding, agency and presupposition. Link your analysis to a discussion of how you feel the text aims to ‘position’ its readers. How could you use this analysis in your language teaching? Read Huckin (1997) on critical discourse analysis to help with this as well as Paltridge (2000, 2012) and Lin (2014).
References
Huckin, T.N. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. Miller (Ed.), Functional approaches to written text: Classroom applications (pp. 78-92). Washington, DC: United States Information Agency. (in electronic reserve)
Lin, A. (2014). Critical discourse analysis in applied linguistics: A methodological review. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 34, 213-232. (in electronic reserve)
Mahboob, A. & Paltridge, B. (2012). Critical discourse analysis and critical applied linguistics. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Wiley- Blackwell. (in electronic reserve)
Paltridge, B. (2000). Making sense of discourse analysis. Gold Coast, Queensland: Antipodean Educational Enterprises. Chapter 8.
Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis. London: Bloomsbury. Chapter 9. Critical Discourse Analysis
Sample Solution
ase study will address the concept of inflation – the rise in average level of prices sustained over time that corresponds to a fall in the internal (domestic) purchasing power of money – with regards to Venezuela. The goal here is to explore several trains of enquiry in order to critically evaluate the impact inflation has had – and may potentially have – on the national income and economic growth of Venezuela. As it stands, Venezuela’s inflation rate – 282972.8% – significantly exceeds that which holds 2nd position – Zimbabwe -175.66% (WorldEconomicForum 2019). In order to better decipher the notable disparity in inflation rates between Venezuela and the rest of the world, several areas will be analysed. This macroeconomic issue will be addressed with regards to challenges surrounding it alongside any potential benefits, it’s impact on the labour market, it’s fiscal impact in terms of taxes and government spending and potential policies that could be implemented in hope of combating it. Venezuela holds the highest recorded oil reserves in the world – possessing approximately 300 billion barrels – even surpassing Saudi Arabia. Evidently, oil is one of Venezuela’s most valuable commodities accounting for 95% of Venezuela’s exports and 25% of its gross domestic product (Independent 2018). However, during a period of time in which the global price of oil dropped, foreign demand to buy Venezuelan oil dipped simultaneously. A key factor that lead to Venezuela’s current crisis, is evidently their sole dependence on a single commodity – oil. As University of Florida’s Gamarra explains, this means “you are bound to the ups and downs of the oil price,”. Without a range of high value added assets, an economy lacks diversity and is vulnerable to ‘moments of downturns in your principal commodities (CNBC 2019).’ On an individual basis, hyperinflation renders any savings worthless due to its eroding impact on money. Consequently, people may hoard goods for instance, food due to the soaring prices. Situations such as these may lead to shortages of food supply, contributing to the issue further.