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.