Mohan, B., Y. Gao, G. Huxur, C. Kanada, K. Kudo, X. Liang, A. Wu
University of British Columbia
Dr Bernard A. Mohan
Department of Language Education
Faculty of Education
University of British Columbia
2125 Main Mall
Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4
FAX NO:(604) 822-3154 (Work)
PHONE: (604) 822-2353 (Work) (604) 822-5788 (Work -Messages)
E-mail: bmohan@unixg.ubc.ca
STRAND: Educational
Title: Activities: discourse analysis and qualitative research.
The concept of activity or sociocultural practice is central to
language socialisation theory (Ochs 1988). Research studies of
activities and socialisation use discourse analysis methods to
study the discourses of the activity and use qualitative methods
to study the context of the activity. (Similarly, SFL studies of
text use qualitative methods to study context).
In the "research methodology" section of these studies, this
raises the problem: what is the relation between discourse
analysis and qualitative methods? Is discourse analysis one kind
of qualitative method, or are all qualitative methods - because
they use verbal data - some kind of discourse analysis?
Using research examples from a variety of educational activities
such as cooperative learning tasks, school projects,
examinations, this paper will argue that there are some natural
relations between the facets of an activity and discourse
analysis, and between the facets of an activity and qualitative
methods.
The paper will suggest that these natural relations illuminate
the nature of qualitative research, clarify the options open to
the researcher, and pose problems for further investigation.