Extended readings

Chapter 9 Critical discourse analysis

Blommaert, J. (2005), Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Chapter 2, Critical discourse analysis.
This chapter of Blommaert’s book outlines the origins and theoretical background to criti-
cal discourse analysis. It discusses pros and cons of critical discourse analysis as well as its
potential and its limitations. The remainder of his book offers suggestions for countering
the problems presented in this chapter.

Bloor, M. and Bloor, T. (2007), The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Hodder
Arnold.
Bloor and Bloor’s book contains exercises and activities that are very useful for students.
Sample texts are drawn from history, advertising, literature, newspapers and television.
Specialized terminology is explained and there is a glossary and grammar appendix which
outlines systemic functional terms such as metafunction, processes, clause complex and
grammatical metaphor.

Cameron, D. (2001), Working with Spoken Discourse. London: Sage. Chapter 9, Hidden
agendas? Critical discourse analysis.
Cameron’s chapter discusses central themes in the area of critical discourse analysis. These
include discourse and the construction of reality, the relationship between discourse and
social change, as well as the issue of interpretation of analyses carried out from a critical
perspective.

Flowerdew, J. (2008), ‘Critical discourse analysis and strategies for resistance’, in

V. K. Bhatia, J. Flowerdew and R. Jones (eds), Advances in Discourse Analysis. London:
Routledge, pp. 195–210.
This chapter gives details of linguistic features that critical discourse analysis might examine as
part of its overall project. Future directions of critical discourse analysis are also discussed.

linguistics.paltridge2e.continuumbooks.com
© Brian Paltridge (2012) Discourse Analysis
London: Bloomsbury
Extended Readings

Mahboob, A. and Paltridge, B. (2012), ‘Critical discourse analysis and critical applied
linguistics’ in C. Chapelle (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford, UK:
Wiley-Blackwell.
This chapter makes connections between critical discourse analysis and the broader field of
critical applied linguistics. Topic covered include critical perspectives on language policy,
critical language teaching, critical language learning and critical language testing.

McKenna, B. (2004), ‘Critical discourse studies: Where to from here?’ Critical Discourse
Studies, 1(1): 9–39.
In this article, McKenna gives an overview of the theory and methodology of critical
discourse analysis. He then surveys some of the major issues in critical discourse studies.
The article presents suggestions for interdisciplinary research as a way of moving critical
discourse studies forward.

Rogers, R. (ed.) (2011), An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education (Second

edition). London: Routledge.
This second edition of Rogers’ books has many chapters that are useful for understanding
what critical discourse analysis is and how to do it. The book explains key concepts and
issues in critical discourse analysis and provides many examples of critically oriented dis-
course studies.

van Leeuwen, T. (2008), Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book brings together van Leeuwen’s work in the area of critical discourse analysis over
the past 15 years. van Leeuwen draws from the work of Foucault, Bernstein and Halliday in
this book. There are examples and sample analyses in each of the chapters.

Wodak, R. (2011), ‘Critical discourse analysis’, in K. Hyland and B. Paltridge (eds),

Continuum Companion to Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum, pp. 38–53.
Wodak’s chapter reviews current approaches and developments in critical discourse analysis.
She then provides a sample study as an example of how to do critical discourse analysis.

Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (2009), ‘Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and
methodology’, In R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis
(Second edition). London: Sage, pp. 1–33.
Wodak and Meyer’s chapter provides a history of critical discourse analysis and a sum-
mary of key concepts in the area. Research agendas are discussed as well as methodological
approaches employed in critical discourse analysis.
linguistics.paltridge2e.continuumbooks.com
© Brian Paltridge (2012) Discourse Analysis
London: Bloomsbury