Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an approach that explores social interaction, from the social actions of individuals and groups to the functioning [Page 520]of social institutions to the broadest conceptions of social formation. Norman Fairclough, a longtime researcher in the field of CDA, described how these levels of society influence each other bidirectionally; for example, political and economic systems influence schools at the institutional level, and schools shape the actions and events that occur within and around them, from the classroom to the playground to the home and community and vice versa.

Language plays a central role across society because it is the substance of these interactions in that each social layer generates its own discourses and also reflects the nature of the interrelationships. CDA provides ...