john swales discourse communicaties Flashcards
OCCUPATION
what is the concept john swales developed?
discourse communities: describes groups of people who share common goals and use specific communication to achieve them.
what is a discourse community?
a group of people that frequently take part in discourse.
what are the group members of a discourse community known to have?
the group members of a discourse community are known to have things in common such as values, judgements and forms of communication, which signals their membership and identity within that group.
what does shared communication include?
shared communication includes:
actively engaging in conversation WHILST utilizing specific types of WRITTEN or SPOKEN communication forms relevant to their goals (e.g. research papers, technical reports).
What do members of the community consistently use?
- discourse communities will use a set of lexis specific to them that the members of the community consistently and regularly use.
- this may include things like accent or dialect features, slang, jargon or even neologisms that are specific to that discourse.
what is an example of jargon that are specific to a discourse?
- a group of doctors would use medical jargon such as idiopathic (a condition without a clear course) when having a conversation with one and other within their discourse community.
- however, they would not use medical jargon when speaking to people not in this discourse community as they would be unlikely to understand.
What will specialist lexis be representative of?
the specialist lexis used will be representative of the members common interests.
EVALUATION: what has the term ‘discourse communities’ faced criticisms of?
the term “discourse community” has faced some criticism for potentially excluding diverse perspectives within groups.
- it has also been compared to the concept of “communities of practice”, which emphasizes learning and knowledge sharing within groups.
despite the criticisms, what does Swales’ framework remain?
Swales’ framework remains valuable for understanding how communication shapes and defines group interaction and goal achievement.
