Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Inspiration for Language Teaching

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.Language study can be focused on the description of the relationships between different constituents in terms of its structure,and the interpretations between the structure and function.Critical discourse analysis(CDA) regards language as social practice.It tries to reveal how discourse constitutes ideology and power,how discourse functions ideologically in the construction of social meaning.Fairclough asserts that discourse has three dimensions: text(written or spoken);discursive practice;and social practice.The paper tries to use the terms and methods such as transitivity,modality,etc.developed by Halliday to substantiate the feasibility and necessity of CDA.We hope it would help to understand the social nature of language and provide a theoretical and practical support for language teaching and research.