ABSTRACT
In this chapter we begin with a short discussion about meaning, introduce five major concepts of discourse analysis, and consider how these are connected to meaning by briefly reviewing discourse studies done on signed languages. We continue with a discussion of activities, for example discourse mapping (Winston & Monokowski, 2000; 2005), that infuse the practice of discourse analysis throughout the curriculum and connect those activities to critical thinking activities. The discourse of Others, multimodal discourse analysis, perspectives from sociology, and cognitive linguistics are important emerging issues, and we conclude with our argument that discourse analysis is the essential foundation for any curriculum for both interpreter and interpreter educator preparation.
