Discourse Communities through the eyes of Swales (1990)

Describing Discourse Communities following Swales' (1990) criteria

            Swales (1990) establishes some criteria to define the requirements that communities must fulfill to be considered as discourse communities. According to this criteria, one of the characteristics that discourse communities have is common goals and specific interests towards which they work cooperatively. “The community college can be seen as a discourse community [because] its members have, over time, developed a common discourse that involves shared knowledge, common purposes, common relationships, and similar attitudes and values, shared understandings about how to communicate their knowledge and achieve their shared purposes” (Kutz, 1997 as cited in Kelly- Kleese, 2001, para. 4).

Kutz's understanding of a discourse community also provides evidence of the number of aspects these communities have in common besides the final goal. Kutz (1997) adds that “discourse communities [also] share a flow of discourse that has a particular structure and style” (para.4). Kutz's view introduces a second requirement following Swales' (1990) criteria: Community-specific genres. In reference to this, Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles, & Lopez-Torres (2003) speak of a “social language” that these communities acquire and that might be defined as “a discourse peculiar to a specific [societal group—eg. professional or ethnic group] at a given time” (Holquist & Emerson, 1991, cited in Hoffman- Kipp, et al., 2003, para. 26) that “reveal the values and beliefs of the social group in which they are participating” (Hoffman-Kipp, et al., 2003, para. 26).

Swales (1990) additionally sustains that these communities also have “participatory mechanisms” that serve the purpose of communication channels for its members towards the construction of knowledge since “interaction with the people in one's environment are major determinants of both what is learned and how learning takes place” (Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004, para. 4). The authors add that “the community, too, changes through the ideas and ways of thinking that its new members bring to the discourse” (Putnam & Borko, 2000, as cited in Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004, para. 4).

Participatory mechanisms take place alongside with what Swales (1990) considers to be another requirement: “information exchange”. In this regard, Porter (1992) speaks of “fuzzy boundaries” between communities, which implies that “discourse communities cannot be isolated from other discourse communities” (as cited in Kelly- Kleese, 2001, para. 7).

John – Steiner and –Mahn (1996) asserts teachers utilize in their work cognitive mechanisms such as the use of scientific concepts (Hoffman- Kipp, et al., 2003), of theories of learning and pedagogy among others (Hoffman- Kipp, et al., 2003). As exemplified here, Swales (1990) includes “highly specialized terminology” as another characteristic since a community, following his criteria, should make use of specific words, abbreviations and acronyms to define concepts as it advances in the development of knowledge.

            A number of requirements that discourse communities should meet to be considered as such has been discussed and supported with evidence from different articles following Swales' (1990) criteria to define discourse communities.

References

Hoffman- Kipp; Artiles, A; & Lopez- Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, 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 October 2007, 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 October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Wenzlaff, T; & Wieseman, K. (2004). Teachers need teachers to grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405