Textual and Discourse Analysis in English Teaching: Bridging the Gap between Language and Culture

'Textual analysis' involves two aspects: linguistic description, which analyzes the internal organizational mechanisms of a specific discourse from the perspectives of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse structure to answer the question of 'What does the text mean?', and analysis of the appropriateness of the selected language components in a specific discourse to answer the question of 'How (or by what means) does the text mean what it means?', thereby achieving the goal of appreciating the discourse. The former is the analytical basis of the latter, which is the deep exploration of the specific semantic meaning of the discourse. However, textual analysis mainly focuses on the internal structure of the discourse itself, often ignoring the specific social and cultural background that leads to the formation of a specific discourse, that is, the context of situation. Obviously, only textual analysis is not enough, and 'discourse analysis' must also be conducted to explore the relationship between language form and situational context from the perspectives of 'field of discourse', 'mode of discourse', and 'tenor of discourse'. 'Discourse analysis' can not only help us understand the background of a specific discourse and facilitate reasonable, rather than subjective, reasoning of its deep meaning, but also help us analyze the appropriateness of discourse construction from the perspective of social context.

It should be said that 'textual analysis' and 'discourse analysis' have been increasingly used in English teaching in China and have achieved good teaching results. However, we still often find it difficult to answer the following questions: we can easily notice that different genres of English discourse require different writing styles and guide students to imitate them intentionally, but why do different genres need different writing styles? Why are English and Chinese discourses so far apart when promoting the same product? Two abstracts written in English or two job application letters written in English with equally appropriate wording and sentences, why can insiders immediately distinguish which one is written by a Chinese and which one is written by a foreigner? Even people with high English proficiency find it difficult to be 'straightforward' and 'systematic' when dealing with affairs in a foreign country (such as opening a bank account or seeking medical treatment). If we want to comprehensively answer similar questions, we should consider language proficiency, thinking mode, and cultural customs. However, we cannot deny that our understanding of the genre patterns of English discourse is not deep enough, which is an important reason why we find it difficult to answer the above questions.

Although foreign scholars' research on 'genre analysis' of discourse is still in a state of 'divergent opinions', they have provided us with important insights, that is, discourse teaching cannot ignore 'genre analysis'. China is not only a country with a strong tradition of writing, but also has a long history of research on 'genre' in Chinese discourse, and is not unfamiliar with the usefulness of 'genre analysis'. However, social and cultural differences often restrict our recognition and analysis of the genres of English discourse. In the process of English teaching, we often focus too much on the teaching of phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar, and neglect the analysis of the macro structure of the discourse. In fact, analyzing any type of text is a process of discourse analysis. I believe that the principle of combining 'textual analysis', 'discourse analysis', and 'genre analysis' should be implemented in teaching any type of English discourse. In the future, I dream of becoming a glorious teacher and contributing to the education of our country. Genre analysis is also an important part of English teaching, and I hope to truly implement it in my teaching practice.