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PRACTICE, While Others Use The Terms To Mean Different Things, For Example

Swales defines a discourse community as having six key characteristics: (1) shared goals, (2) communication mechanisms, (3) feedback mechanisms, (4) use of genres to further communication, (5) specialized vocabulary, and (6) relevant expertise among members. Members adopt a register of language specific to the community rather than a general speech community. Examples include email lists, support groups, and subscribers of academic journals. Discourse communities facilitate communication rather than being an end in themselves.

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Francis B. Tatel
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11 views

PRACTICE, While Others Use The Terms To Mean Different Things, For Example

Swales defines a discourse community as having six key characteristics: (1) shared goals, (2) communication mechanisms, (3) feedback mechanisms, (4) use of genres to further communication, (5) specialized vocabulary, and (6) relevant expertise among members. Members adopt a register of language specific to the community rather than a general speech community. Examples include email lists, support groups, and subscribers of academic journals. Discourse communities facilitate communication rather than being an end in themselves.

Uploaded by

Francis B. Tatel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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discourse community

A term used by Nystrand (1982) and then developed by Swales (1990: 2427),
who defines a discourse community according to six characteristics: (1) a
broadly agreed upon set of common goals, (2) mechanisms for
intercommunication among members, (3) participatory mechanisms to provide
information
and feedback, (4) owns and uses one or more genres to further its communicative
aims, (5) has acquired specific lexis and (6) has a number of members
who have a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
Members of discourse communities adopt a REGISTER of language, making
them different from a SPEECH COMMUNITY, which involves inherited or adopted
languages. However, being a member of a discourse community also involves
understanding and utilizing concepts and expectations that are set up with a
particular community as well as being aware of language. Examples of discourse
communities could involve users of an email mailing list about a
particular television programme, members of a support group (e.g. Alcoholics
Anonymous) or people who subscribe to or publish in the same academic
journal. Discourse communities tend to function as mechanisms for enabling
communication, rather than as an end to themselves. The term is used by
some writers (e.g. Cossard 2006) as being interchangeable with COMMUNITY OF
PRACTICE, while others use the terms to mean different things, for example,
Hewings (2005: 38) suggests that community of practice is a related but
broader notion.

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