Teaching Conversation Analysis through the Selected Short Stories of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

ABSTRACT

Language and literature are inseparably related to each other. Literature is a practical tool for teaching language and a literary text is a storehouse of linguistic resources that provides the right context to explore and experiment with language samples. Linguistics is that branch of English Studies which attempts to study language in a scientific manner. In this domain, pragmatics harps on the use of language in a social context whereas, sociolinguistics emphasizes on studying the socio-cultural effects of language. However, while teaching linguistics, there are concepts like content, discourse and critical discourse analysis that can be better explained with the help of excerpts from novels or extracts from short stories and drama. The semiotic events as depicted in literary texts are rich in local flavour and have a greater scope for providing the perfect platform to examine the communication patterns. To blend theory with practice, it is mandatory for the instructor to develop resources that can give the target group a first-hand experience of using techniques in conversation analysis. These can be self-created dialogues or chunks from literary texts produced by authors across the globe. This paper therefore, is sought to analyse the method in which conversation analysis can be taught to Indian students through the selected short stories from the collection Arranged Marriage (1996) written by a famous Indian diasporic author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.