Discourse Communities

A view on Discourse community

     A discourse community (DC) can be defined as “a knowledge community, a social mechanism that holds people together, and which emerges from them with certain values, aims, expectations and language-using practices” (Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p13).   Following Swales (1990) there are six basic criteria which characterize a DC. They are as follows: common goals, participatory mechanisms, information exchange, community-specific genres, highly specialized terminology and high general level of expertise.   Our aim is to support this idea from different points of view.   

     One of the most relevant aspects Swales (1990) proposes is that of participatory mechanisms understood as a way to provide information and feedback.   This idea could be  supported by that presented by Hoffman (2003) of teacher reflection.   It is understood as “ a process that is embedded in every day activities situated in school cultures that are social in nature , where interactions with others are an important medium in which reflection occurs”(p 3).    Hoffman also highlights the concept that following this practice “teachers function as resources for one another, providing each other with guidance and assistance on which to build new ideas” (p 5), which clearly reinforces the belief of teachers working as a cohort group.   Perhaps, the most relevant aspect is that “we are using the notion of reflection as a metacognitive mechanism that teachers can use to regulate their own practice before, during and after teaching” (p 5),  Since teaching involves working with so many people in many different situations, teachers must reflect on their practice as a group so as to obtain the best achievements.    In order to do so, Wenzlaff’s (2004) contribution might be very helpful.   He declares that “a collaborative culture comprised of teachers from different levels of schooling and content areas, as well as different district contexts, can help teachers to broaden their perspectives about teaching and learning an educational system” (p 9).   This idea clearly supplements the concept of participatory mechanism together with information exchange introduced at the very beginning.   Wenzlaff concludes that “a discourse community cannot exist in the absence of a collaborative culture and an environment that supports risk-taking” (p 9).

     In conclusion, discourse community is a concept that enriches the teaching process by turning this practice into a reflexive and collaborative one, where the members benefic not only by reflection but also by  social interaction.

References

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y., (2010). Unit 1: Building up a community of teachers and prospective researchers. Retrieved September 2011, from http: //caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=11392

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice.

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C., (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly.

Swales, J. M. (1990).  Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.