CDA: Teo (2000)/Halmari and Ostman (2001)/ESL

[杉森 典子]

Hi everyone,

In the following, I would like to write my thoughts on Teo
(2000) and Halmari and Ostman (2001). I also would like to
introduce a book on ESL and politics.

On Teo (2000)
Teo (2000) wrote, “. . . how the active choices made n
the way newspaper headlines, leads and captions are
couched can have a very powerful ideological effect on
readers
’ perception and interpretation of people and events.”
Linnea pointed out that Teo had written so without
reporting any actual perceptions of any readers.
Investigating readers
’ own perception and linguists’ language ideology is a
promising next step because linguists are neutral.

I have also encountered discrepancies between headlines
and the contents of newspaper articles. I have found an
articles,
“On newspaper headlines as relevance optimizers” in
Journal of Pragmatics 35 (2003). I hope that reading this
article is helpful in understanding this issue. Although I
have not read it, I will let you know if I find something
interesting.

On Halmari and Ostman (2001)
Our new reading “The soft-spoken, angelic pick ax killer:
The notion of discourse pattern in controversial news
reporting
” by Helena Halmari and Jan-Ola Ostman (Journal of
Pragmatics 33:805-823) was an interesting read. Karla Faye
Tucker, who had killed two people in the 1980s, was
executed in Texas in 1998. The authors examined the local
newspaper (The Huntsville Item) before and after the
execution. In Huntsville, the prison was the main
employer. Because Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman
executed in the 20th century and she was a born-again
Christian, this case was widely reported. At the surface
level this local newspaper appeared to be neutral by
printing both pro- and anti- opinions about the execution.
But these authors uncovered that The Huntsville Item
supported the pro-execution view. The authors
’ focus was the relationship among discourse pattern,
genre, and text types, etc.

However, I was more intrigued by surrounding social
issues. Why did this pro-execution discourse come into
being and persists in the town in Texas? Why does the
newspaper support execution over life imprisonment?  It is
known that execution actually costs more than life
imprisonment. Spending more can be interpreted as more
economic gain for the town because more government
spending benefits the local economy. Nowadays many
researchers try to explain the change in the direction of
discourse in terms of economy. Some researchers criticize
this trend by arguing that the emphasis on economy has
always been the case.  I wonder if it is interesting to
examine the newspaper reports on this topic
longitudinally, paying more attention to the changing
economic influence of the prison on the town.

A book on ESL and politics
Some member mentioned that she was interested in political
aspects of ESL. I have just read an extremely interesting
book on this topic. Christine Pearson Casanave & Stephanie
Vandrick (eds.) Writing for Scholarly Publication: Behind
the Scenes in Language Education. Lawrence Erlbaum. 2003

Regards,

Noriko



Noriko Sugimori
20 Chestnut Street #204, Cambridge, MA 02139
tel & fax 617-494-6497
杉森典子
〒939-8051 富山市大泉中部１２３　秋本方
tel & fax 076-421-1337