Discourse Communities

Requirements of a Discourse Community

       Swales (1990) presents a list of basic criteria which comprises six main concepts that should be met by any discourse community. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence in order to support Swales’ characterization.

      Kelly-Kleese (2001) identifies the common goals a discourse community may have; she states that it is essential to maintain a strong presence in higher education, therefore, communicative competence increases and professionals move to positions of legitimate power. Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles, Lopez-Torres (2003) state that this community focused on the individual and their quest for emancipation has reflection as a vital tool to achieve that emancipation.

       As cited in Wenzlaff & Wieseman (2004), “a discourse community cannot exist in the absence of a collaborative culture and an environment that supports risk-taking (McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993) and reflection” (p. 9). For that reason, participatory mechanisms are vital in discourse communities apart from being intrinsically related to the information exchange requirement. Much evidence can be found in the four articles analyzed to support these two crucial requirements. For instance, according to Wenzlaff & Wieseman (2004), “group work may be a key to meaningful, effective, sustained professional development and a necessary component of adult learning” (p. 2). Kelly-Kleese (2004) also contributes by stating that “opportunities to share knowledge, to create policy, and to redefine the language and reality of higher education abound in the university--engaging in scholarship is a well-developed aspect of the culture of this discourse community” (p. 3).

       As regards community-specific genre, highly specialized terminology, and high level of expertise, the following quotation synthesizes what Swales meant by these three last characteristics:

           “All human activities are culturally mediated and entail the use and transformation of artifacts. From this perspective, culture itself mediates human actions in the sense that it is a system of shared meanings or social inheritances embodied in the artifacts of a given social structure (Cole, 1999). Teachers also mediate their labor through cognitive mechanisms as they learn scientific concepts (i.e., systems of interconnected constructs that explain a domain of study) (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996), such as theories of learning, pedagogical models, and theories of racial minorities' underachievement…This way, learning as praxis that involves reflection and action can be based on a "double-move" (Hedegaard, 1998) between (a) personal experience (e.g., in classrooms) and (b) theoretical sense-making (through journal writing or in teacher study group discussions). In such a view, the movement between experience (action) and reflection (theoretical sense-making) remains in dialectical tension, thus, building cycles of critical praxis. Key to the life of these tertiary artifacts is the development of a collective identity in which teachers strive to acquire and continually transform a social language. A social language is "a discourse peculiar to a specific [societal group--e.g., professional or ethnic group] at a given time" (Holquist & Emerson, as cited in Wertsch, 1991, p. 57). As teachers summon a social language, they reveal the values and beliefs of the social group in which they are participating.” (as cited in Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles, Lopez-Torres, 2003, p.5)

       To conclude, in the light of the papers published by the four authors cited, it can be asserted that Swales (1990) has provided us with a thorough set of principles characterizing a discourse community.

 

 

References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

 

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved from   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

 

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved from  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

 

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press

 

 Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405