You are here

Working with Spoken Discourse
Share

Working with Spoken Discourse

First Edition


March 2001 | 216 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

"An exemplary textbook. Making even the most complex ideas fully accessible, it is grounded in an extensive literature, filled with engaging examples, and offers ample suggestions for independent research. It’s been a key text in my classes for over a decade and, as fresh and relevant as ever, will continue to buttress my graduate seminars and undergraduate courses alike.”

- Professor Crispin Thurlow, University of Washington

 

Comprehensive, practical, lively and accessible, Working with Spoken Discourse is the much-loved benchmark for learning to do discourse analysis. It combines theory and practice to give students the grounding they need in practical techniques of analyzing talk and how to apply them to real data.

  • Begins with the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of doing discourse analysis
  • Packs examples into every chapter to help explain complex concepts
  • Uses exercises and activities to reinforce what you’ve learned
  • Leads you through the practicalities of designing your own project

Exceptionally clear, and perfect for undergraduates starting a project, this is the essential guide to spoken discourse.

 
PART ONE: PRELIMINARIES
 
What Is Discourse and Why Analyze It?
 
Collecting Data
Practical and Ethical Issues

 
 
Transcribing Spoken Data
 
PART TWO: APPROACHES
 
Approaches to Discourse Analysis
An Initial Orientation

 
 
Situations and Events
The Ethnography of Speaking

 
 
Doing Things with Words
Pragmatics

 
 
Structure and Sequence
Conversation Analysis

 
 
Small Differences, Big Difference
International Sociolinguistics

 
 
Hidden Agenda?
Critical Discourse Analysis

 
 
PART THREE: APPLICATIONS
 
Working with Talk in Social Research
 
Identity, Difference and Power
Locating Social Relations in Talk

 
 
Designing Your Own Projects

Working with Spoken Discourse is an exemplary textbook. Making even the most complex ideas fully accessible, it is grounded in an extensive literature, filled with engaging examples, and offers ample suggestions for independent research. It’s been a key text in my classes for over a decade and, as fresh and relevant as ever, will continue to buttress my graduate seminars and undergraduate courses alike.

Professor Crispin Thurlow
University of Washington

Studets are informed about the book via a reading list. Some of them may actually acquire it.

Personally it is a book I will recommend widely if asked for literature on the topic. Cameron has won me over: I will in future follow her name when conducting searches or looking for new publications.

Mr Stephan Meyer
Language Centre, University of Basel
May 7, 2015

Discourse is something that all should cover. This book is very good at dealing with things such as working around the subject

Mr Matthew Hirst
Arts, Business and Social Science, University Campus Suffolk
January 19, 2015

This book offers comprehensive and clear guidance that will give those new to discursive appraoches to reserach a flavour of how to go about conducting such research. Particularly helpful is the detailed explanations of how to collect, transcribe and analyse different forms of discourse. I will be recomending to my PG students who re interested in this approach because it is easy to read and had useful examples.

Dr Clare Woolhouse
Faculty of Education, Edge Hill Univ.
June 27, 2014

Ostensibly I acquired this text with the intention of adopting it for the Health and Social care Practice that I teach on. However I actually introduced it most effectively to the students of our Counselling Foundation degree. Working with spoken discourse is of course very logical for anyone who is involved in research of the subject of counselling, and this text seems to be a particularly user friendly introduction that takes the student beyond the basics to gently encourage quite complex use of some analytical concepts. In my opinion this will be an essential text for the FD Counselling from induction onwards, for some time to come.

Mr Andrew Thorne
Bristol Centre For Care, Health & Educ, City of Bristol College
August 27, 2015

This is an excellent resource which I recommend to my students on both my Research Methods and Analysing Spoken English course.

Dr Julia Snell
Dept of Education & Prof Studies, King's College London
December 19, 2011

An excellent resource book. Easy to read, good explanations and examples provided.
Wide range of approaches to discourse presented.

Dr Christiana Themistocleous
Department of Applied Linguistics, Reading University
November 26, 2010

Good for graduates as sublementary materials to enhance understanding on discourse.
It is also a lead-in book for graduates to come in the field.
Building up solid connection between oral and CDA practice.

Mr Yu Zhang
Foreign Languages School, Jilin Normal University
November 7, 2010

An excellent overview of a complex subject area, filled with a variety of appropriate exercises and activities. The section on CDA could have been expanded somewhat, particularly a discussion of transitivity would have been appreciated.

Dr Robert Lawson
School of English, Birmingham City University
November 13, 2009

Sample Materials & Chapters

PDF file of Chapter 1


For instructors

Purchasing options

Please select a format:

ISBN: 9780761957737
£39.99
ISBN: 9780761957720
£134.00