Topics in Studio Classroom

Hsiu-Hsiu Yang

This paper is concerned with analyzing topics in Studio Classroom, a radio English language teaching program in Taiwan. The literature on discourse topics shows the importance of multiple facets of topic. Among the different approaches to discourse topic identification, subject matter of the discourse domain will be considered first. Following the framework drawn from literature, a corpus has been compiled and coded in order to help discover the topic organization in Studio Classroom. Problems in identifying discourse topics in Studio Classroom bring out the issues of embedded discourses and subtopic discourses. The whole discourse, like any media discourse, involves choice relations and chain relations in the media discourse production. It is found that the dominant discourse domain is the language classroom. However, without direct responses from the listener, Studio Classroom has its limits and cannot be the same genre as a classroom discourse. Topic organization in Studio Classroom is determined by the accompanying magazine, discourse participants and the format of radio program. Topic organization is linear and repetitive. The strategy of topic repetition on radio is made use of to teach students vocabulary. The features of the radio discourse can be found in the boundary exchanges and the embedded discourses. The study also shows that in order to see whether a topic belongs to an embedded discourse or to a subtopic discourse, constructs of the discourse context should be taken into consideration. For future study, functions and interactions in the discourse will also be addressed in order to better understand topic orgranization in Studio Classroom.