DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN THE ESL CLASSROOM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GRAMMAR AND CONVERSATION CLASSES

J. R. Firth, noted linguist, once urged all linguists ' to study conversation for, '! •• • it is here that we shall find the key to a better understanding of what language is and how it works. " (Coulthard 1977). Many linguists and those concerned with language teaching have recently began to study conversation and oral discourse (Sinclair et e