Natuan

Vol. 1, No. 3

International Education Studies

Discourse Analysis and Cultivation of Conversational Competence in English Class

Zheng Zhang School of Foreign Studies, Xuzhou Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China Tel: 86-516-8210-3206 Abstract The essay is to discuss in perspective of teaching how to apply the results of Discourse Analysis study to English class to train students for successful communication through taking turns, controlling turns, teaching exchange, organizing transaction, spreading topic and taking into account contextual factors as well in order to cultivate students’ conversational competence. Keywords: Discourse analysis, Conversation, Conversational competence, Cultivation The purpose of conversation is to exchange information, establish and maintain the relationship between people. The participants in a conversation always follow certain principles to develop towards some general directions. The goal of practical conversation in English class is to train students’ language skills according with context to control conversational activities and develop their all-round conversational competence from short-turn to long turn and from transactional turns to intersectional turns, that is, the competence to apply their acquired language knowledge fluently and creatively to the communication with contextual consciousness. The essay is to discuss in perspective of teaching how to apply the results of Discourse Analysis study to English class to train students for successful communication through taking turns, controlling turns, teaching exchange, organizing transaction , spreading topic and taking into account contextual factors as well. 1. Taking Turns Over these years, some linguists began to pay attention to analysis of language snippets larger than sentences, that is, to study how sentences build the larger and more meaningful units such as paragraphs and conversations. Thus the theory of Discourse Analysis has been created. J. Mch....