1. There are many sub-gods like the different parts of our bodies but there is only one main god who watches over everything.
2. His philosophy points towards doing good, seeing good and thinking good
3. According to him you can do whatever you want but it should not harm others

After that Gyanendra presented on Socio-cultural psychology. Then it was Bikash’s turn to present. He showed us 25 wallpapers of different kinds which were very interesting to evaluate. We took out many conclusions from them. One of my conclusions was that during advertisement the companies use different strategies which involve following points:

1. Being unique
2. Being in winner’s circle
3. Personal connection
4. Social welfare

Then bikash gave another presntation on Conversation analysis.

After presenting the first presentation for discourse analysis of the Taxi drivers, folowing questions were asked to us by Dhanapati sir to discuss among us:

1. What is the main lesson learnt from taxi driver discourse?
2. What is their desire?
3. What is their perception on accident, road of Kathmandu and Government?
4. How is the relation beween driver and traffic?
5. Write at least two striking emerging discourse and essence of conversation?

Then he went on to teach us about pragmatics for some minutes.

Exchange means simply the exchange of conversation and more specifically the exchange of topics from one to another. Exchange also is divided into different sub-category, e.g. Boundary or teaching at boundary exchange signals the beginning and the ending what a teacher thinks to be a stage in the lesson. Usually, it consists two moves framing and focusing.

Usually transactions begin with a preliminary exchange and they complete with a final exchange. It has structure in terms of exchanges. It often begins and ends with boundary exchange which consists of a frame and or a focus followed.

Then he gave us some examples showing that discourse can be both process and product. According to Richard (1985:229l,” Two views of discourse: as product and as process is a distinction between a completed act of communication (product) and the underlying abilities and skills used in producing it (process).

The first half of today’s class was very practical as we solved different kinds of problems by either top to bottom process and bottom to top process.

According to Cook’s Model for bottom up process first there is sounds and structure then grammar and lexis, cohesion, conversational practice, discourse function, discourse structure, discourse type, shared knowledge and social relationship at the end. Meanwhile Nunan’s Top down processing Model has Past experiences and language intuitions at first, followed by selective aspects of print, meaning and sound or pronunciation at the end if necessary. We also looked at the 3000 most commonly used words in English language.

But then I had to go home at the middle of the class as my wife was alone at home and she could need my help at home. But I did read the remaining slides given by Djanapati sir, in which he discussed about how to do a discourse analysis of written article. The following question should be asked in given case:-

1. Hidden realtions of power present in the articles
2. Whose discourses are being presented
3. Who are consulted for the article
4. Who is the audience for the article
5. What is left unsaid
6. The use of passive voice
7. The use of adjectives to indicate a strong discourse

• Verdictives (e.g. estimating, assessing, describing);
• Exercitives (ordering, appointing, advising);
• Commissives (promising, betting);
• Behabitives (apologizing, congratulating, thanking);
• Expositives (arguing, insisting).

`     We also learnt that During the 1970s, some language specialists began to argue that teaching learners the formal elements of second and foreign language was insufficient, and that following the work of people such as Austin and Searle, teachers should also teach language functions. Accordingly, teaching materials and procedures began to reflect this change of emphasis.

We also learnt about discourse markers. Discourse markers can be specified, in terms of their functions, as follows: Focusing and Linking, contrasts, concession, contradicting, balancing, dismissal, similarity, change of subject structuring, adding, generalizing, exemplification, logical consequence, correcting, gaining time, showing attitude, persuading and summing up.

Today the class was much more fun due to the fact that we were doing exercises from the internet. We used following sites for

1.  Coordinating conjunction from

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/coordinatingconjunction.htm.

1. Substitution and ellipsis from

https://www.llas.ac.uk//materialsbank/mb061/8.11/index.htm

1. Reference in text from

http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/refer/refer.htm

We also learnt about different types of conjuctions, which are as followed

1. Adversative:-However, On the other hand
2. Temporal:- First, Then, before, after
3. Additive:- And, Besides, or
4. Causal:-Because, since, therefore

But the thing to consider is that the same conjunction can be of different type according to its use.

In case of the class, Dhanapati sir reiterated that we have not really begun the course on discourse analysis and that we are just laying the foundation for the main classes so that we won’t have any confusion in classes later on in the semester. From the class I learnt that in discourse there are text forming devices which keep the sentences in a text related to each other. And that is what establishes cohesion and coherence in the text. And it is due to the cohesive ties that we are able to make sense out of any kind of discourse.

From the class I also learnt that discourse can be defined as a stretch of language consisting of several sentences which are perceived to be related in some way. We can understand people through it. Like if a person sleeps a lot, he is sad and if a person speaks less but fast then he keeps secrets and if someone becomes angry over silly or petty things then it means s/he needs love.

As it was an introductory class, Dhanapati sir started with some questionnaire about the classes he had taken up until now. He also asked us about what we thought about his class that he took last year. He especially asked some criticizing points if there were any. When my turn came I answered that he was a little fast in few of the subject matters. For e.g. the time he taught about generative grammar in which he had gone like a bullet. And at that point I added that another teacher had taught the same subject matter and by having continuous exposure to the same subject matter by different teachers and different perspectives it was easier to understand the subject matter. So I suggested that he invite some guest lecturers to give the students some different flavors in the class. To which he seemed optimistic enough.

Towards the end of the class, we saw the speech given by President Barrack Obama of America. And there was our assignment. Obama’s speech was going from power to emotion or emotion to power. Actually for now I am a bit confused but I am sure that I will understand it later on. I hope of even better things from Dhanapati sir.