Understanding the structure of paragraphs: the role of discourse knowledge

Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, spoken, signed language use or any significant semiotic event. A topic or a theme is what discourse, a discourse fragment or a sentence is about. It is the shortest summary of a discourse. This article reports on a part of a large- scale study on discourse focusing on how students identify a topic for a passage through familiarity with its discourse. To conduct the research a series of paragraphs were given to 15 female students, and they were asked to complete the paragraphs with choosing an English topic from among the given options. The students described the process of completing the task by expressing their reasons in their mother language. At the end their reasons were analyzed and the most important reasons were described. The findings of the study emphasize the importance of discourse knowledge in understanding a text.

کلیدواژه ها:

Discourse Analysis (DA) ، Topic Assignment ، Paragraphs ، Reading Comprehension