The analysis of discourse - frequently defined as “language use above the level of the sentence” (Stubbs, 1983) - provides students with the opportunity to study the meaningful production and interpretation of texts and talk.  In undergraduate programmes in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Sussex, courses in discourse analysis are taught at level 3. Students therefore come to discourse studies after completing courses in syntax, semantics and pragmatics and the analysis of discourse encourages students to reconsider and re-evaluate the ‘rules’ of language with which they are already familiar.