Some notions of discourse communities

Many researchers support the criteria Swales (1990) establishes to define a discourse community. In fact, Hoffman Kipp , Artiles and Lopez Torres (2003),  Kelly Kleese (2001, 2004) and Wenzlaff and  Wiesemen (2004) talk about a discourse community as a group of scholars who use the same kind of words. They share their pronunciation, the topics they deal with. They form professional communities.

     Kelly Kleese (2001) refers to the reconceptualization of community college teaching  as scholarship. Mohr (1996) also emphasizes  the future of teacher research:

      teacher research will contribute to the knowledge base of the

      profession …… and teacher researchers will participate as equal

      partners in the discourse of the profession. (as cited by Kelly Kleese, 2004,

      p. 5)

 Besides, when referring to the need of redefining scholarship in the community college, Kelly Kleese (2004) states university professors’ need for communication as well as collaboration between discourse communities. She also emphasizes the fact that college faculty members and administrators must have the chance to share their perspectives and experiences. All these concepts imply a need of common objectives and participatory mechanisms that Swales (1990) includes as one of the characteristics of a discourse community.

Wenzlaf and Wieseman (2004) accounts for the nature of teacher learning in a cohort based master’s degree program in curriculum and pedagogy. He concludes that being immersed in collaborative culture as well as interacting in a discourse community lead teachers to feel comfortable and establish a rapport with each other both personally and professionally. This also contributes to a better appreciation of their own beliefs and is closely connected to one of the characteristics Swales (1990) states for a discourse community, “their members develop and use systems of speech and writing that are sometimes quite specific” (p. 135). What these scholars mean is that the highest awareness of peers’ perspectives contributes to the most specific vocabulary shared by the members of that discourse community. 

Kelly Kleese (2004) also gives emphasis to the importance of shared discourse and provides a definition of discourse communities as “a group of people who share certain language-using practices (that) can be seen as conventionalized” (Kelly Kleese, 2004, p. 1). She adds that a discourse community is primarily bound by its uses of language although there are some other kinds of ties to consider in this aspect such as the geographical, ethnic and socioeconomic ones.

The boundaries of discourse communities are flexible. However, it is essential to redefine as well as to delineate the limits on discourse communities. For all of the scholars above mentioned, communicative competence is crucial as far as the nature of discourse communities is concerned. In all of these types of communities language has been given particular meaning and it is the use of a distinct kind of language that characterizes them. Therefore, Hopmann Kipp et al. (2003), Kelly Kleese (2001, 2004) and Wenzlaff and Wieseman (2004) provide clear evidence of some of the characteristics of a discourse community in accordance with Swales (1990) views.

 

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

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