Academic summary of Key Concepts in ELT: Discourse community by Borg, E. (2003). 

 

The Relevance of Discourse Communities

                It is undeniable that people have a need to belong to a community. Members of a community have a sense of trust, belonging, and security. In discourse communities, key features include the pursuit of rules and conventions, basic values and assumptions, participants’ opinions, feedback, and specific lexis. In the article entitled Key Concepts in ELT: Discourse community, the author - Erik Borg (2003) -analyzes the concept of discourse community from the point of view of different authors and perspectives.

                Borg agrees with Swale’s (1990, cited in Borg, 2003) notion of discourse community as members who share common goals and achieve them by belonging to the community. Borg presents two versions of discourse communities: the speech community, a term coined by Hymes (1972, cited in Borg, 2003), and the interpretive community, whose origin goes back to Fish (1980, cited in Borg, 2003). Following Swales, Borg suggests that members can belong to a community even if they are not physically united - because they share common interests. Borg’s article addresses at least three points of contention: the size of the discourse community, the necessity or non-necessity of discourse and whether or not the notion of collective purpose defines a discourse community. In addition, he reflects on Wenger’s (1998, cited in Borg, 2003) notion of community of practice, in which mutual engagement and jointed enterprise  are added to better clarify the concept of discourse community. Finally, Borg considers stability, power of discourse, and genres as a set of necessary rules to belong to a community.

In summary, discourse communities are characterized by the development of certain rules and norms of behavior, but also by a sense of belonging and commitment. Participants in discourse communities focus on the common language of a profession or a particular interest group. In addition, because opinions of participants are essential, feedback among members is necessary.

References

 

Borg, E. (2003). Key concepts in ELT. Discourse community. ELT Journal 57(4), 398-400. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/57.4.398

Fish, S. (1980). Is there a text in this class? The authority of interpretive communities. Harvard University Press. 

Hymes, D. H., Pride, J. B. (Ed.), & Holmes, J. (Ed.). (1972). On communicative competence.

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

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press. 

 

 

 

 

Collecting Evidence 

This Infographic shows that as a group, we have been working together to achieve this part of the task.

 

Memorable Song

Mrs. Moon is a teacher of English who has worked with students of all ages for more than ten years. In one of her adult courses, nevertheless, she found it quite difficult to get the attention of three of her learners. The class was made up of five students but three of them, a girl, her  brother and their mother were completely silent and apathetic learners. Lessons were hard for both the teacher and the three beginners, and Mrs. Moon usually felt really frustrated, since most of the time the learners weren’t even looking at her.

One evening, the class was in absolute silence and completely motionless –as the learners were labelling school objects with their definitions-when Mrs. Moon’s mobile phone rang. She had forgotten to mute it, and so a very famous song started to play. Mrs. Moon was not a fan of that particular singer, but Sophie, her daughter, had set one of her favourite songs as her mother’s ringtone.

Much to her surprise, the teenage girl gasped and shouted, “It's him! I love him! Oh Miss, please, turn the music up!!” Mrs. Moon did as she was asked, and the students started to hum and sway to the music. From that moment on, they always finished their lessons listening to different songs, working with them, and learning the lyrics. Yesterday they dealt with a pop ballad as the boy is a big fan. Today, they will listen to a song from the fifties – it's their mother’s turn. 

 Hello everybody!

I´m Silvia. I live in Guatimozín, a small town in the south east of the province of Córdoba. I live with my daughter Clara. She's thirteen and she's at first year secondary school. At present, I am working in  a secondary school and in an school for adults. I love teaching but I need to do something different. I am seeking for new jobs opportunities. This is why I decided to start this journey. 

I have enrolled in this course because my objectives are improving my writing and my language skills. Writing is quite difficult for me and I consider I'm not a creative person. I would also like to add that I really find pleasure in learning new things all the time even though sometimes I don't have enough time to do that. 

I hope we all enjoy this journey!!