Discourse community
A discourse community consists of a group of people who share a set of values and premises that are understood as basic, as a particular term for communication. Linguist John Swales defines a discourse community as “a group that has goals or purposes and communicates to achieve those goals.” In this article we will elaborate the definition of discourse community.
Some discourse communities, maybe those who read/write a certain academic journal, or subscribe to Madonna fan emails. Each discourse group has its own unwritten rules, for example, a journal will not accept an article claiming “discourse is the coolest concept”; on the other hand, members of a subscribed list will not necessarily appreciate a review of Madonna ‘s latest single Psychoanalysis of Freud . Most people move within and between different discourse communities on a daily basis.
Since the discourse community itself is intangible, in order to facilitate understanding, the discourse community can be imagined as a forum that operates in some form . Journal authors/readers and Madonna fans can be seen as an example of a forum, or “a concrete manifestation of the functioning of a discourse community“.
The term “discourse community” was first used by the sociolinguist Martin Nistrand in 1982. It was later developed further by the American linguist John Swells . [3] Swales proposes 6 clear characteristics that encapsulate the way those who speak English as a second or foreign language acquire academic writing style:
- A discourse community:
- Broadly agreed public goals were reached.
- There is a mechanism for mutual communication among its members.
- It mainly uses its participation mechanism to provide information and feedback.
- Use and thus possess one or more styles to facilitate the achievement of goals.
- In addition to having the community‘s own style, it has some specific terms that only belong to the community.
- Threshold for members with an appropriate level of content relevant to the community itself and mastery of community was welcomed with affection by its members. To distinguish himself from the others, the neophyte wore white clothing. In Christian religious terminology.
Explanation of definition discourse community
The idea of the discourse community offers a kind of cross between linguistics and anthropology or related social sciences. Any set of people who use a common language can be described as a speech community. Technology is expanding the types of discourse in educational contexts.
A discursive community is usually defined as a community of people who use a particular type of language or discourse. Many different examples of discursive communities illustrate how universal the term is. It can describe a group of people with common interests, or a group of highly qualified scientists or technicians. Any group of people using a common language can be described as a discursive community.
The idea of a discursive community provides a kind of intersection of linguistics with anthropology or related social sciences. In the curriculum, teachers can give students assignments related to the analysis of these communities, either to study the actual discourse for linguistics, or to analyze how the language reflects the structure of the community. Students often start by defining a community that uses a kind of discourse, and then move on to find out what this common language means and why it is used.
Another example of a community using discourse is a group of readers of a particular scientific or academic journal. Some other kinds of words can be used to describe people involved in these professional or intellectual communities. In some cases, examples of these words in English are borrowed from other languages, such as Italian or Latin, for example: cognoscenti or literati.
In cases where discursive communities are less formal, it may be more difficult to define a common language that marks them as a whole. One common example is the recruitment of fans of a certain celebrity, whether it’s an athlete, musician or actor. Outsiders can often identify some of these common languages as being associated with “internal knowledge” or an unusual acquaintance with the details of the life of a celebrity, family, or environment.
What individuals are in discourse communities?
Any group that works meets Swales’s standards share a discourse neighborhood. Basketball groups, Taco Bell workers, librarians, city planners, lecturers, runners, superfans of Beyonce – all share distinctive vocabulary and create particular person discourse communities.
You may be in a couple of discourse neighborhood concurrently.
For instance, a trainer who’s an avid kickball participant in a kickball league and can be concerned in grassroots voter-turnout group is a part of (a minimum of) three discourse communities:
- the neighborhood of lecturers that shares the discourse of studying and pedagogy (grading rubrics, classroom engagement)
- the kickball league, which shares the discourse of the game (the principles of the sport, kicking technique)
- the voter outreach neighborhood, which shares the discourse of grassroots activism (canvassing, polling, lobbying)
Easy methods to Discover Discourse Communities
You do not want tutorial articles to discover discourse communities. You simply should be a bit of artistic.
Methods to Discover Communication Amongst Discourse Communities
- Observe and document discourse communities whereas they convey.
- For instance, attend a gathering of your neighborhood.
- Interview a member or group of members of a specific neighborhood to ask about their lexicon, shared targets, and energy construction.
- Use Google to see if you could find examples of written communication.
- Message boards
- Official communication, similar to media releases
- Publicly out there listservs
- Social media similar to Fb or Twitter conversations
- Neighborhood publications like newsletters, magazines, or commerce publications
we hope you understood the definition of discourse community.
