Showing papers on "Discourse analysis published in 2000"

Critical discourse analysis

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This paper provides a survey of critical discourse analysis (CDA), a recent school of discourse analysis that concerns itself with relations of power and inequality in language. CDA explicitly intends to incorporate social-theoretical insights into discourse analysis and advocates social commitment and interventionism in research. The main programmatic features and domains of enquiry of CDA are discussed, with emphasis on attempts toward theory formation by one of CDA's most prominent scholars, Norman Fairclough. Another section reviews the genesis and disciplinary growth of CDA, mentions some of the recent critical reactions to it, and situates it within the wider picture of a new critical paradigm developing in a number of language-oriented (sub) disciplines. In this critical paradigm, topics such as ideology, inequality, and power figure prominently, and many scholars productively attempt to incorporate social-theoretical insights into the study of language.

Varieties of Discourse: On the Study of Organizations through Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Discourse is a popular term used in a variety of ways, easily leading to confusion. This article attempts to clarify the various meanings of discourse in social studies, the term's relevance for organizational analysis and some key theoretical positions in discourse analysis. It also focuses on the methodological problem of the relationship between: a) the level of discourse produced in interviews and in everyday life observed as `social texts' (in particular talk); b) other kinds of phenomena, such as meanings, experiences, orientations, events, material objects and social practices; and, c) discourses in the sense of a large-scale, ordered, integrated way of reasoning/ constituting the social world. In particular, the relationship between `micro and meso-level' discourse analysis (i.e. specific social texts being the primary empirical material) and `grand and mega-level' discourse (i.e. large-scale orders) is investigated.

Situated literacies : reading and writing in context

Abstract: Situated Literacies is a rich and varied collection of key writings from leading international scholars in the field of literacy. Each contribution, written in a clear, accessible style, makes the link between literacies in specific contexts and broader social practices. Detailed ethnographic studies of a wide variety of specific situations, all involving real texts and lived practices, are balanced with general claims about the nature of literacy. Contributors address a coherent set of issues: * the visual and material aspects of literacy * concepts of time and space in relation to literacy * the functions of literacies in shaping and sustaining identities in communities of practice * the relationship between texts and the practices associated with their use the role of discourse analysis on literacy studies These studies, along with a foreword by Denny Taylor, make a timely and important contribution to literacy theory and suggest directions for the further development of the field. Situated Literacies is essential reading for anyone involved in literary education.

Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing

Abstract: Why do engineers "report" while philosophers "argue" and biologists "describe"? In the Michigan Classics Edition of "Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic" "Writing," Ken Hyland examines the relationships between the cultures of academic communities and their unique discourses. Drawing on discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and the voices of professional insiders, Ken Hyland explores how academics use language to organize their professional lives, carry out intellectual tasks, and reach agreement on what will count as knowledge. In addition, "Disciplinary Discourses" presents a useful framework for understanding the interactions between writers and their readers in published academic writing. From this framework, Hyland provides practical teaching suggestions and points out opportunities for further research within the subject area. As issues of linguistic and rhetorical expression of disciplinary conventions are becoming more central to teachers, students, and researchers, the careful analysis and straightforward style of "Disciplinary Discourses" make it a remarkable asset. The Michigan Classics Edition features a new preface by the author and a new foreword by John M. Swales.

Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text

Abstract: PART ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Language, Discourse and Discourse Analysis Varieties of Discourse Analysis Example of Discourse Analysis PART TWO: METHOD Discourse and Data Data Collection Preparation for Analysis PART THREE: ANALYSIS Analysis I Strategies of Interpretation Analysis II Patterns and Context Identities in Talk Research Examples PART FOUR: EVALUATING AND REPORTING Warranting in Discourse Analysis Writing the Report

Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis

Abstract: PART ONE: TEXTS AND METHODS On Social-Research Methods of Text Analysis What Is a Text? How to Obtain Material for Analysis An Overview Map of Methods and Theories PART TWO: OVERVIEW OF METHODS OF TEXT ANALYSIS Content Analysis Grounded Theory Ethnographic Methods Two Ethnomethodologically Oriented Methods of Text Analysis Membership Categorization Device Analysis and Conversation Analysis Narrative Semiotics SYMLOG as a Method of Text Analysis Two Approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis Functional Pragmatics Distinction-Theory Text Analysis Objective Hermeneutics PART THREE: OVERVIEW AND COMPARISON Bibliometric Survey The Prominence of Methods of Text Analysis Comparison of Methods of Text Analysis

Discourse as a Strategic Resource

Abstract: In this article, we outline a model of how discourse can be mobilized as a strategic resource. The model consists of three circuits. First, in circuits of activity, individuals attempt to introduce new discursive statements, through the use of symbols, narratives, metaphors, etc. aimed at evoking concepts to create particular objects. These activities must intersect with circuits of performativity. This occurs when, for example, concepts are contextually embedded and have meaning for other actors; when symbols, narratives and metaphors possess receptivity; and when the subject position of the enunciator warrants voice. Third, when these two circuits intersect, connectivity occurs as the new discursive statements `take'. Using an illustrative example of an international NGO operating in Palestine, we show how an individual brought about strategic change by engaging in discursive activity.

The Theory and Practice of Discourse Parsing and Summarization

Abstract: From the Publisher: Until now, most discourse researchers have assumed that full semantic understanding is necessary to derive the discourse structure of texts. This book documents the first serious attempt to construct automatically and use nonsemantic computational structures for text summarization. Daniel Marcu develops a semantics-free theoretical framework that is both general enough to be applicable to naturally occurring texts and concise enough to facilitate an algorithmic approach to discourse analysis. He presents and evaluates two discourse parsing methods: one uses manually written rules that reflect common patterns of usage of cue phrases such as "however" and "in addition to"; the other uses rules that are learned automatically from a corpus of discourse structures. By means of a psycholinguistic experiment, Marcu demonstrates how a discourse-based summarizer identifies the most important parts of texts at levels of performance that are close to those of humans. Marcu also discusses how the automatic derivation of discourse structures may be used to improve the performance of current natural language generation, machine translation, summarization, question answering, and information retrieval systems.

L2 Literacy and the Design of the Self: A Case Study of a Teenager Writing on the Internet

Abstract: This article presents a case study that uses ethnographic and discourse analytic methods to examine how electronic textual experiences in ESL figure in the identity formation and literacy development of the learner. First, the article reviews some recent work in literacy studies, L2 learning, and computer-mediated communication to provide a conceptual basis for studying discursive practices and identity formation in L2 learning. The results of a case study of a Chinese immigrant teenager's written correspondence with a transnational group of peers on the Internet then show how this correspondence relates to his developing identity in the use of English. This study develops the notion of textual identity for understanding how texts are composed and used to represent and reposition identity in the networked computer media. It also raises critical questions on literacy and cultural belonging in the present age of globalization and transborder relations.

Discourse and Context in Language Teaching: A Guide for Language Teachers

Abstract: PART 1: BACKGROUND Chapter 1 Introduction to Discourse Analysis Chapter 2 Pragmatics in Discourse Analysis PART II: LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE Chapter 3 Phonology Chapter 4 Grammar Chapter 5 Vocabulary Epilogue to Part II: Interrelationships among the language resources PART III: LANGUAGE PROCESSING Chapter 6 Listening Chapter 7 Reading Chapter 8 Writing Chapter 9 Speaking Epilogue to Part III: Integration of Language Skills and Discourse Processing PART IV: IMPLEMENTATION Chapter 10 Curriculum Design and Materials Development Chapter 11 Assessment Chapter 12 Discourse Training for Teachers and Learners

Media and communication research methods : an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches

Abstract: Part I: Getting Started Chapter 1: What Is Research? We All Do Research, All the Time Scholarly Research Is Different From Everyday Research Cultural Studies and Research Nietzsche on Interpretation Problem of Certainty Diachronic and Synchronic Research The Way the Human Mind Works Overt and Covert Oppositions Thinking Fast and Slow Quantity and Quality in Media Research Media and Communication Why a Book That Teaches Both Methodologies? Considering Research Topics What Is Research? Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 2: The Research Process Search Strategies Sources of Information How to Read Analytically Doing a Literature Review Primary and Secondary Research Sources Searching on the Internet or the Game of "Find the Info If You Can!" Analyzing Methodology in Research Articles The Research Process: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Part II: Methods of Textual Analysis Chapter 3: Semiotic Analysis Saussure's Division of Signs Into Signifiers and Signifieds Semiotics of Blondeness Semiotics and Society Peirce's Trichotomy: Icon, Index, and Symbol Allied Concepts Clotaire Rapaille on Culture Codes Semiotics in Society: A Reprise Syntagmatic Analysis of Texts Paradigmatic Analysis of Texts Skyfall: A Paradigmatic Analysis Applications of Semiotic Theory Paul Ekman on Facial Expression Semiotics: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 4: Rhetorical Analysis Aristotle on Rhetoric Rhetoric and the Mass Media A Brief Note on the Communication Process Certeau on Subversions by Readers and Viewers Applied Rhetorical Analysis A Miniglossary of Common Rhetorical Devices Other Considerations When Making Rhetorical Analyses A Sample Rhetorical Analysis: A Sea to Skin Advertisement Rhetorical Analysis of the Visual Image Images in Narrative Texts Rhetorical Analysis: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 5: Ideological Criticism Mannheim's Ideology and Utopia Defining Ideology Marxist Criticism Roland Barthes on Mythologies The Problem of Hegemony The Base and the Superstructure, False Consciousness, and the "Self-Made Man and Woman" Post-Soviet Marxist Criticism Basic Ideas in Marxist Criticism A Marxist Interpretation of the Fidji "Snake" Advertisement John Berger on Glamour Identity Politics Feminist Criticism of Media and Communication The Social Conception of Knowledge Phallocentric Theory: The Physical Basis of Male Domination Political Cultures, the Media, and Communication Pop Cultural and Media Preferences of the Four Political Cultures Marxist Perspectives on Social Media A Preview of Critical Discourse Analysis Ideological Criticism: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 6: Psychoanalytic Criticism Freud's Contribution Cell Phones and the Psyche: Applying the Theories of Erik Erikson Neuropsychoanalysis: Freud and Neuroscience Jungian Theory Psychoanalytic Criticism: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Part III: Qualitative Research Methods Chapter 7: Discourse Analysis Defining Discourse Analysis Teun A. Van Dijk on Discourse Analysis Spoken and Written Discourse Styles and Written Discourse Political Ideology and Discourse Analysis Critical Discourse Analysis Advertising and Critical Discourse Analysis Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of an Advertisement Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 8: Interviews The Prisoner Interviews Number Two What Is an Interview? Four Kinds of Research Interviews Why We Use Interviews How to Interview People Questions Investigative Reporters Ask The Structure of Conversations and Interviews Transcribing Tapes Making Sense of Transcribed Interviews Coding Problems With Interview Material Interviews: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 9: Historical Analysis What Is History? History as Metadiscipline or Specialized Subject Is History Objective, Subjective, or a Combination of the Two? Kinds of Historical Research The Problem of Writing History The Problem of Meaning Historical Periods Baudrillard and Jameson on Postmodernism Postmodernism and Historiography The Historical and the Comparative Approach History Is an Art, Not a Science Doing Historical Research Historical Analysis: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 10: Ethnomethodological Research Defining Ethnomethodology Boxed Insert on Ethnomethodology by Dirk Vom Lehn Garfinkel's Ingenious and Mischievous Research Using Ethnomethodology in Media and Communication Research Metaphors and Motivation Love Is a Game Humorists as Code Violators Techniques of Humor Ethnomethodology and the Communication Process Ethnomethodological Research: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 11: Participant Observation Defining Participant Observation Significant Considerations When Doing Participant Observation A Case Study of Participant Observation: Readers of Romance Novels Problems With Participant Observation Benefits of Participant Observation Studies Making Sense of Your Findings An Ethical Dilemma Ethics and Research Involving Humans Participant Observation: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Part IV: Quantitative Research Methods Chapter 12: Content Analysis Defining Content Analysis Why We Make Content Analyses Methodological Aspects of Content Analysis Aspects of Violence Advantages of Content Analysis as a Research Method Difficulties in Making Content Analyses Content Analysis Step by Step Content Analysis: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 13: Surveys Defining Surveys Kinds of Surveys: Descriptive and Analytic The VALS Typology Survey Methods of Data Collection Advantages of Survey Research Problems With Surveys Surveys and the 2012 Presidential Election A Note on Media Usage Surveys: Shares and Ratings Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Survey Questions Writing Survey Questions Making Pilot Studies to Pretest Surveys Conducting Online Surveys Samples Obtaining Random Samples Evaluating Survey Accuracy Surveys: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Notes Further Reading Chapter 14: Experiments Everyday Experimentation Defining Experiments The Structure of an Experiment The Hawthorne Effect Advantages of Experiments Disadvantages of Experiments The "Black Rats" Case and Experimental Fraud A Checklist on Experimental Design What's an Experiment and What Isn't? Experiments: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 15: A Primer on Descriptive Statistics with Felianka Kaftandjieva Levels of Measurement Descriptive Statistics Measures of Central Tendency Measures of Dispersion The Normal or Bell-Shaped Curve The Problems With Ratings A Cautionary Note on Statistics Statistics and Comparisons Data on Media Use in America Smartphones The Problem of Interpretation Statistics: Applications and Exercises Conclusions Note Further Reading Part V: Putting It All Together Chapter 16: Nineteen Common Thinking Errors Common Fallacies Conclusions Further Reading Chapter 17: Writing Research Reports Keeping a Journal A Trick for Organizing Reports Outlines, First Drafts, and Revisions Writing Research Reports The IMRD Structure of Quantitative Research Reports Writing Correctly: Avoiding Some Common Problems Academic Writing Styles A Checklist for Planning Research and Writing Reports Conclusions Further Reading

Narrative Psychology, Trauma and the Study of Self/Identity:

Abstract: This paper aims to provide an overview of a narrative psychological approach towards the study of self and identity. The narrative psychological approach can be classified as broadly social constructionist insofar as it attempts to examine the cultural structuration of individual experience. However, building on recent criticism of certain social constructionist approaches (such as discourse analysis), it is argued that these approaches tend to lose touch with the phenomenological and experiential realities of everyday, practical life. Accordingly, they overplay the disorderly, chaotic, variable and flux-like nature of self-experience. Drawing on recent research on traumatizing experiences such as living with serious illness, this paper argues that the disruption and fragmentation manifest in such experiences serves as a useful means of highlighting the sense of unity, meaning and coherence (the `narrative configuration') more commonly experienced on an everyday level. Moreover, when disorder and incohere...

The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social-linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse

Abstract: Increases in immigration have led to an enormous growth in the number of cross-linguistic medical encounters taking place throughout the United States. In this article the role of hospital-based interpreters in cross-linguistic, internal medicine ‘medical interviews’ is examined. The interpreter’s actions are analyzed against the historical and institutional context within which she is working, and also with an eye to the institutional goals that frame the patientphysician discourse. Interpreters are found not to be acting as ‘neutral’ machines of semantic conversion, but are rather shown to be active participants in the process of diagnosis. Since this process hinges on the evaluation of social and medical relevance of patient contributions to the discourse, the interpreter can be seen as an additional institutional gatekeeper for the recent immigrants for whom she is interpreting. Cross-linguistic medical interviews may also be viewed as a form of cross-cultural interaction; in this light, the larger political ramifications of the interpreters’ actions are explored.

Discourse Analysis Organizational Analysis

Abstract: The question of discourse, and the manner in which it shapes our epistemology and understanding of organization, are central to an expanded realm of organizational analysis. It is one which recognizes that the modern world we live in and the social artefacts we rely upon to successfully negotiate our way through life, are always already institutionalized effects of primary organizational impulses. Social objects and phenomena such as ‘the organization’, ‘the economy’, ‘the market’ or even ‘stakeholders’ or ‘the weather’, do not have a straightforward and unproblematic existence independent of our discursively-shaped understandings. Instead, they have to be forcibly carved out of the undifferentiated flux of raw experience and conceptually fixed and labelled so that they can become the common currency for communicational exchanges. Modern social reality, with its all-too-familiar features, has to be continually constructed and sustained through such aggregative discursive acts of reality-construction. The idea that reality, as we know it, is socially constructed, has become an accepted truth. What is less commonly understood is how this reality gets constructed in the first place and what sustains it. For the philosopher William James, our social reality is always already an abstraction. Our lifeworld is an undifferentiated flux of fleeting sense-impressions and it is out of this brute aboriginal flux of lived experience that attention carves out and conception names:

Discourse Socialization Through Oral Classroom Activities in a TESL Graduate Program

Abstract: This article explores the discourse socialization of nonnative- and native-English-speaking graduate students through their engagement in one type of classroom speech event, oral academic presentations (OAPs). From a language socialization perspective, an 8-month ethnographic study investigated how students were expected to speak in two graduate courses in a TESL program and how they acquired the oral academic discourses required to perform successful OAPs. Data were collected mainly from classroom observations, video recordings of OAPs, interviews, and questionnaires. The OAP discourse was analyzed as embedded in the local culture of the graduate courses, being linked with ethnographically derived information. Findings suggest that both nonnative and native speakers gradually became apprenticed into oral academic discourses through ongoing negotiations with instructors and peers as they prepared for, observed, performed, and reviewed OAPs. OAPs, which are commonplace, seemingly straightforward activities, were also found to be complex cognitive and sociolinguistic phenomena. Based on these findings, this article argues that academic discourse socialization should be viewed as a potentially complex and conflictual process of negotiation rather than as a predictable, unidirectional process of enculturation. Implications for L2 pedagogy and future research are discussed.

Signs and meanings in students' emergent algebraic thinking: A semiotic analysis

Abstract: The purpose of this article, which is part of a longitudinal classroom research about students' algebraic symbolizations, is twofold: (1) to investigate the way students use signs and endow them with meaning in their very first encounter with the algebraic gen- eralization of patterns and (2) to provide accounts about the students' emergent algebraic thinking The research draws from Vygotsky's historical-cultural school of psychology, on the one hand, and from Bakhtin and Voloshinov's theory of discourse on the other, and is grounded in a semiotic-cultural theoretical framework in which algebraic thinking is considered as a sign-mediated cognitive praxis Within this theoretical framework, the students' algebraic activity is investigated in the interaction of the individual's subjectivity and the social means of semiotic objectification An ethnographic qualitative methodology, supported by historic, epistemological research, ensured the design and interpretation of a set of teaching activities The paper focuses on the discussion held by a small group of students of which an interpretative, situated discourse analysis is provided The results shed some light on the students' production of (oral and written) signs and their meanings as they engage in the construction of expressions of mathematical generality and on the social nature of their emergent algebraic thinking

The Structure of Discourse in Collaborative Learning

Abstract: The authors examined the types of discourse structures that emerge during peer learning and the ways in which those structures are related to learning. One hundred and five 5th graders learned about writing conclusions that summarized the results of experiments they had conducted with electrical circuits. In groups of 4, they discussed the quality of 3 conclusions. The discourse structure of the discussions could be readily characterized as a network of arguments and counterarguments. The quantitative measures of the quality of those argument structures were positively related to improvement in the students' ability to write their own conclusions. In addition, the students who simply discussed whether the 3 conclusions were OK or not OK generated less complex argument structures than the students who discussed which of the 3 conclusions was best and which was worst. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the structure of peer discourse as a mediator of what students learn from peer...

The Limits of Discourse Analysis in Organizational Analysis

Abstract: Discourse analysis, particularly in its Foucauldian form, has become increasingly influential within organizational analysis in recent years as increasing disillusionment with mainstream theories and methodologies has encouraged a growing acceptance of constructivist epistemology. This ‘turn towards’ discourse analysis has been further reinforced by wider, contextual developments, such as the deepening impact of postmodern styles of thinking and their rediscovery of the crucial symbolic processes and practices through which ‘organization’ is constituted as a recognizable and legitimate cultural form. In a number of substantive research domains—such as organizational subjectivities and identities, organizational representation and communication, and organizational surveillance and control—Foucauldian discourse analysis has become an influential mode of theoretical interpretation and empirical investigation. My purpose is to identify and evaluate what I see as the major limitations of Foucauldian discourse analysis as applied to the study of organizational practices and forms. I intend to suggest that there are inherent ontological, epistemological and theoretical weaknesses exhibited by the former and that these need to be ‘repaired’ by drawing on a number of core ideas from critical realism.

Aphasic discourse analysis: The story so far

Abstract: This paper provides a critical review of the literature currently available relating to aphasic discourse. It outlines the major approaches which have been taken to analysis, differentiating the structuralist and functionalist frameworks in particular and discusses the resultant gap existing in aphasiology research between microstructural linguistic aspects of discourse and macrostructural/pragmatic aspects. Studies addressing lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and conversational aspects of discourse, as well as those focusing on specific aspects such as cohesion and text macrostructure are discussed and placed in a theoretical perspective. The different methodologies involved in the various studies are critically examined, with implications for using different elicitation techniques in particular discussed.

On Reform Movement and the Limits of Mathematical Discourse

Abstract: In this article, I take a critical look at some popular ideas about teaching mathematics, which are forcefully promoted worldwide by the reform movement. The issue in focus is the nature and limits of mathematical discourse. Whereas knowing mathematics is conceptualized as an ability to participate in this discourse, special attention is given to meta-discursive rules that regulate participation and are therefore a central, if only implicit, object of learning. Following the theoretical analysis illustrated with empirical examples, the question arises of how far one may go in renegotiating and relaxing the rules of mathematical discourse before seriously affecting its learnability.

Complaint Sequences Within Antagonistic Argument

Abstract: This article examines a corpus of audio and audiovisual recordings of people engaged in acrimonious argument, in which complaints and accusations are being made about the behavior of copresent parties. Analysis focuses on the sequences immediately following complaints. The initial replies predominantly consist of denials, which are made up of 2 main types-"didn't do it" and "not at fault" denials. Their shape and distribution is considered with special reference to claims that have been made concerning the reversal of the preference for agreement within argument sequences. Further analysis is provided of the ways in which the original complainers treat initial replies from complainees. These are shown to be consequential for the subsequent trajectory of the sequence and, specifically, for the exposure of acrimony and rancor. The complainer and complainee alignments are also constructed so as to preserve a relation between them in which one is the complainer, the other the complainee. However, this is alte...

Unsettled moments in settled discourse: Women superintendents' experiences of inequality

Abstract: In this article, the discourse of 12 women superintendents is examined with the expressed aim of determining if patterns in their talk about their superintendency experiences contain events or episodes of inequality The study’s examination is guided by an adaptation of Swindler’s theory of “settled” and “unsettled” social periods Qualitative inquiry and analysis methods are used to identify emerging themes or topics of talk Five topics of talk emerge from the narrative data: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people Each of these topics is examined for settled and unsettled properties and further analyzed using the lenses of Chase and Bell’s identified strategies to discover how the women treat their experiences of inequality in their discourse

A Discourse-Dynamic Approach to the Study of Subjectivity in Health Psychology:

Abstract: As one of the key tools of social constructionist research, discourse analysis has allowed us to explore the ways in which `health' and `illness' are constructed through language. There are two major ways in which a Foucauldian version of discourse analysis has been applied within this context. Discourse analysis has been used to deconstruct expert discourses of health and illness (Focus 1) and to determine the extent to which dominant discourses are reflected in lay people's talk about health and illness (Focus 2). This article argues that in order to progress our understanding of the subjective experience of what it means to be `healthy' or `sick', discourse analysis needs to develop Focus 2 through the use of memory work and positioning theory. The article concludes by sketching a research programme for a discourse-dynamic approach to the study of subjectivity in health psychology.

Learning to Be Professional Technical Classroom Discourse, Practice, and Professional Identity Construction

Abstract: Instruction in the technical and scientific disciplines often provides students with the technical skills necessary to succeed in industry. However, these disciplines also focus on socializing students into professional identities. This study examines one exemplar discipline, mechanical engineering, to see how classroom discourse and practice construct professional identities for students (as future engineers) and their customers. Results suggest that although students' conceptions of the customer provided glimpses of professional identity, design processes in these classrooms were ultimately driven and shaped by academic communicative practices, audiences, and goals. Given this, instructional interventions are provided to integrate professionalization processes within classrooms where situated learning is apparent.

Constructing normality: a discourse analysis of the DSM-IV

Abstract: The purpose of this research was to explore how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) 1994, (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) defines mental disorder and the theoretical assumptions upon which this is based. The analysis examines how the current definition has been constructed and what the criteria for specific mental disorders suggest about what is regarded as normal. The method employed for the research was a critical discourse analysis. This critical approach to research is primarily concerned with analysis of the use of language and the reproduction of dominant belief systems in discourse. It involves systematic and repeated readings of the DSM-IV (1994) to examine what evidence was employed by the text to substantiate its definition of mental disorder and how in the process some assumptions are made about what constitutes normality. This study challenges a central assumption in the DSM-IV’s (1994) definition: that it is a pattern or syndrome ‘that occurs in an individual’. The proposal that it occurs in an individual implies that it is a consequence of faulty individual functioning. This effectively excludes the social and cultural context in which experiences occur and ignores the role of discourse in shaping subjectivity and social relations. This study proposes that the definition and criteria for mental disorder are based on assumptions about normal behaviour that relate to productivity, unity, moderation and rationality. The influence of this authoritative image of normality pervades many areas of social life and pathologises experiences that could be regarded as responses to life events.

Fusion and the cognitive basis for bilingual discourse markers

Abstract: This paper argues for a cognitive motivation behind the nonseparation of the systems of discourse marking available to bilinguals. It produces evidence that bilingual speakers, in an unconscious ef...

Discourse Analysis: What Does it Offer Housing Studies?

Abstract: This article reviews the emerging literature which uses discourse analysis to explore questions for housing research. It considers the extent to which housing researchers have exploited the potential of discourse analysis as a research approach and assesses the nature of the contribution that employment of this approach has made to housing studies. The article firstly examines the nature of the empirical terrain which has been opened up to housing research through its engagement with discourse analysis, before moving on to assess the extent to which this engagement has helped to illuminate housing processes. It concludes by arguing that discourse analysis offers a critical perspective, not only in relation to questions surrounding the use of language, but also for more traditional issues in housing research.