Swales’ Requirements of a Discourse Community

This is the first paper out of three that will be written for the EAP class (English for Academic Purposes) in 2011. In the first assignment, Swales' requirements for a Discourse Community are analized and terms are defined so as to have a first glimpse of the concept and its main features.

Swales (1990) considered that a discourse community should meet six basic requirements. As regards the first characteristic stated, which refers to the group’s common goals, Clark (1994) describes “[the members of a discourse community] …determine the beliefs and purposes they will share” (as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001, p.61).

As for the second characteristic, which mentions participatory mechanisms that provides information and feedback, Kelly -Kleese (2001) states that there is a triad among readers, writers and texts, but in this triad the readers have a passive role since they do not have power to correct or criticize the texts and the writers have the real power. She reveals that members of a discourse community should have equal access to discourse that establishes the goals they have in common. Clark (1994) adds that these communities “tend to minimize or exclude the participation of some people as they establish the dominance of others” (as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2007, p.61).

The third element of Swales’ (1990) basic criteria is connected to information exchange; the members should be intercommunicated. Hoffman-Kipp (2003) mentions the need for social action in these groups as well as Kelly-Kleese (2007) who points out the idea of multiple allegiances in human discourse.

With reference to the last three elements in Swales’ list, they concern “community-specific genres-the group should use at least one genre to define their association, highly specialized terminology and high level of expertise” (Pintos, 2011, p. 13). Kelly-Kleese states “language is a social event that is defined, shaped and constrained by the culture of the setting in which it is used” (p.774) By using the language system, skilled groups will control other people’s view of social reality. The usage of words, the pronunciation and topics to discuss are the elements that define speech communities. Wenzlaff (2004) suggests group work since problems are solved better and goals are further achieved within a group than individually. He states that this is a key element to improve the teachers’ development.    

 A conclusion drawn by Katz (1997) is helpful to summarize the majority of Swales characteristics:

[ I]ts members have, over time, developed a common discourse that involves shared knowledge, common purposes, common relationships, similar attitudes and values, shared understandings about how to communicate their knowledge and achieved their shared purposes, and a flow of discourse that has a particular structure and style. (Katz, 1997, p. 200)

References

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

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