Critical Discourse Analysis
2.1. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA):
2.1.1. What is CDA?
2.1.1.1. Critical, discourse and analysis
Before beginning to address what CDA is, it is important to be clear about what is meant by the concepts of critical, discourse, and analysis:
The notion of ‘critical’ is primarily associated with the critical theory of the Frankfurt School where social theory should be oriented towards critiquing and changing society.
In CDA, the concept of ‘critical’ is applied to the engagement with power relations. In this sense the role of CDA is to uncloak the hidden power relations, largely constructed through language, and to demonstrate and challenge social inequities reinforced and reproduced.
The term ‘discourse’ is used to talk about language in use, or the way language is used in a social context to ‘enact’ activities and identities (James Gee 1990).
In terms of analysis, the critical discourse analyst’s job is not to simply read political and social ideologies onto a text but to consider the various ways in which a text could have been written and what these alternatives imply for ways of representing and understanding the world and to consider the social actions that are determined by these ways of thinking (Rogers 2004: 3-8).
2.1.1.2. Definitions of CDA
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_discourse_analysis)
CDA regards `language as social practice' and takes consideration of the context of language use to be crucial (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; Wodak, 2000c; Benke, 2000).
Huckin (1997) defines CDA as “a relatively new approach to analyzing language or texts available to the second language teacher and
2.1.1. What is CDA?
2.1.1.1. Critical, discourse and analysis
Before beginning to address what CDA is, it is important to be clear about what is meant by the concepts of critical, discourse, and analysis:
The notion of ‘critical’ is primarily associated with the critical theory of the Frankfurt School where social theory should be oriented towards critiquing and changing society.
In CDA, the concept of ‘critical’ is applied to the engagement with power relations. In this sense the role of CDA is to uncloak the hidden power relations, largely constructed through language, and to demonstrate and challenge social inequities reinforced and reproduced.
The term ‘discourse’ is used to talk about language in use, or the way language is used in a social context to ‘enact’ activities and identities (James Gee 1990).
In terms of analysis, the critical discourse analyst’s job is not to simply read political and social ideologies onto a text but to consider the various ways in which a text could have been written and what these alternatives imply for ways of representing and understanding the world and to consider the social actions that are determined by these ways of thinking (Rogers 2004: 3-8).
2.1.1.2. Definitions of CDA
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_discourse_analysis)
CDA regards `language as social practice' and takes consideration of the context of language use to be crucial (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; Wodak, 2000c; Benke, 2000).
Huckin (1997) defines CDA as “a relatively new approach to analyzing language or texts available to the second language teacher and