Showing papers on "Discourse analysis published in 2015"

Defining academic literacies research: issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy

Abstract: Academic literacies research has developed over the past 20 years as a significant field of study that draws on a number of disciplinary fields and subfields such as applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociocultural theories of learning, new literacy studies and discourse studies. Whilst there is fluidity and even confusion surrounding the use of the term ‘academic literacies’, we argue in this paper that it is a field of enquiry with a specific epistemological and ideological stance towards the study of academic communication and particularly, to date, writing. To define this field we situate the emergence of academic literacies research within a specific historical moment in higher education and offer an overview of the questions that the research has set out to explore. We consider debates surrounding the uses of the singular or plural forms, academic literacy/ies, and, given its position at the juncture of research/theory building and application, we acknowledge the need for strategic as well as epistemological and ideological understandings of its uses. We conclude by summarising the methodological and theoretical orientations that have developed as ‘academic literacies’, conceptualised as a field of inquiry, has expanded, and we point to areas that merit further theoretical consideration and empirical research.

What is policy? 21 years later: reflections on the possibilities of policy research

Abstract: This paper is a reflection on What is policy? Texts, Trajectories and Tool Boxes, which was first published in 1993, in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. It looks back to what the 1993 paper was trying to do and at some of the developments of the ideas first sketched there in my later work, in particular in the book How Schools Do Policy (2012). It also considers the continuing tensions between domination and agency, discourse and text, in policy research and the misuse of the concept of discourse in some policy analysis work.

Searchable talk: the linguistic functions of hashtags

Abstract: An important dimension of social media discourse is its searchability. A key semiotic resource supporting this function is the hashtag, a form of social tagging that allows microbloggers to embed metadata in social media posts. While popularly thought of as topic-markers, hashtags are able to construe a range of complex meanings in social media texts. This paper uses the concept of linguistic metafunctions, to explore how hashtags enact three simultaneous communicative functions: marking experiential topics, enacting interpersonal relationships, and organizing text. Corpus-based discourse analysis of linguistic patterns in a 100 million word Twitter corpus is used to investigate these functions and how they relate to the notion of social search.

Methods of Critical Discourse Studies

Abstract: This is a sophisticated and nuanced introduction to critical discourse analysis (CDA) that covers a range of topics in an accessible, engaging style. With international examples and an interdisciplinary approach, readers gain a rich understanding of the many angles into critical discourse analysis, the fundamentals of how analysis works and examples from written texts, online data and images. This new edition: • expands coverage of multimodality •adds two new chapters on social media and analysis of online data •supports learning with a guided introduction to each chapter •includes a new and extended glossary Clearly written, practical and rigorous in its approach, this book is the ideal companion when embarking on research that focuses on discourse and meaning-making.

Practice Theory, Work, and Organization

Abstract: Davide Nicolini (2013): Practice Theory, Work, and Organization. An Introduction, Oxford University Press, x + 222 pages, ISBN 978-0-19-923159-1DOI[To be announced]Practice theory seems to be both a very influential and at the same time a rather neglected source of influence on working life studies. It is only with this special issue on practice-based approaches to working life studies that this journal deals explicitly with practice theoretical perspectives on working life. But a more thorough review of working life studies soon revels that many investigations have been inspired by the works of Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, discourse analysis, cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), ethnomethodology or Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's studies of learning in communities of practice. Although different sources and theoretical strands inspire these studies, they seem to have one thing in common: They have an interest in understanding and describing actors' activity, interactions and performances. In short, they seek to understand the practices that actors (re)produce in working life. Viewed from this perspective, it is a warranted claim that working life studies are immensely inspired by theories of practice. However, one could claim that such a perspective just juxtaposes loosely related and random coupled theories. Is it useful, or of interest at all, to couple such diverse theories just because they all-in one way or another-deal with practice? Davide Nicolini thinks so.Nicolini sets out to demonstrate that all the before-mentioned theoretical stands do not only have in common that they deal with activity, action, and work, but they also have much more in common. The theories are also united in stressing that social life must be understood and investigated as a material and corporeal reality where activity transpires. They are all preoccupied with allowing room for the individual actions of actors, and they are all skeptic about rationalist and reductionist explanations of conduct (homo economicus) and sociological accounts that see action as rule or norm governed (homo sociologicus). Instead, they strive to understand individual action as both structured and emergent and creative. All the mentioned theories object to representationalist construals of knowledge, meaning, and discourse. Our access to reality is always mediated through our social and corporeal activities. Finally, Nicolini makes clear that all the theories stress the importance of focusing on power relations, conflicts, and interest. Practice is thus perceived as a field of tensions where actors produce and reproduce differences and inequalities. By focusing on the practices in working life-and not separately on the individual practitioners-practice theory envisions a relational and dynamic perspective that encompasses the complexity of working life. It fosters a sensitivity that can accommodate both the routines of working life and the breaches of routine.Nicolini traces the roots of practice theories back to Aristotle and Marx's different concepts of Praxis and to the modern philosophies of Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Nicolini call attention to Wittgenstein and Heidegger as the modern fathers of the practice theoretical perspective in philosophy and social science. Wittgenstein demonstrated that conceptual understanding always presupposes a fundamental unarticulated practice, and Heidegger showed us that being-in-the-world is foremost a matter of practical and unproblematized coping in action. Both Wittgenstein and Heidegger opposed the Cartesian worldview that separates the thinking and perceiving subject (res cogitans) from the exterior world (res extensa). Practice theories thus decline to accept the modernist perspective that actors are isolated and decoupled individuals that through their actions seek to interact with one another and the world. The point of departure for an analysis should lean on the opposite premise. …

Discourse and digital practices : doing discourse analysis in the digital age

Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction: Discourse Analysis and Digital Practices Rodney H. Jones, Alice Chik, Christoph A. Hafner Chapter 2 Discourse Analysis of Games James Paul Gee Chapter 3 Discourse, Cybernetics, and the Entextualization of the Self Rodney H. Jones Chapter 4 Tagging on Flickr as a Social Practice David Barton Chapter 5 Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity in Online Consumer Reviews Camilla Vasquez Chapter 6 YouTube as Text: Spoken Interaction Analysis and Digital Discourse Phil Benson Chapter 7 Co-constructing Identity in Virtual Worlds for Children Christoph A. Hafner Chapter 8 Recreational Language Learning and Digital Practices: Positioning and Repositioning Alice Chik Chapter 9 Investigating Digital Sex-Talk Practices: A Reflection on Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis Brian King Chapter 10 Apps, Adults and Young Children: Researching Digital Literacy Practices in Context Guy Merchant Chapter 11 'It's Changed My Life': iPhone as Technological Artefact Victoria Carrington Chapter 12 Digital Discourse@Public Space: Flows of Language Online and Offline Carmen Lee Chapter 13 The Discourse of Celebrity in the Fanvid Ecology of Club Penguin Machinima Jackie Marsh Chapter 14 Discourse of 'Curation' in Digital Times Ilana Synder Chapter 15 The Discursive Construction of Education in the Digital Age Neil Selwyn

Looking Holistically in a Climate of Partiality: Identities of Students Labeled Long-Term English Language Learners

Abstract: In recent years there has been growing awareness about a sub-group of students labeled Long-Term English Language Learners (LTELLs). Our study seeks to show how students who fall within the LTELL category see themselves through the lens of their lived experiences as (emergent) bilinguals, students, family/community members and transnational individuals. Countering discourses which frame these students as deficient, we apply the discourse of partiality framework as a lens through which to better understand how these students perceive themselves via their languages, ethnic-connectivity and academic trajectories. We argue that the discourse around the label can be understood as a racial project that serves to perpetuate white supremacy through the marginalization of the language practices of communities of color. We conclude by exploring how schools can take a broader view of this population to create positive learning opportunities that build on who they are and how they see themselves.

Exploring Sustainable Development from an Ecofeminist Perspective : A Discourse Analysis of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Abstract: The concept of sustainable development has largely failed to address environmental and social crises in a meaningful and transformative way, despite its growing popularity. Ecofeminism offers a way to understand and challenge assumptions embedded in the sustainable development discourse. A critical reading of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s discourse identified six themes: (1) economic empowerment of women (2) reporting does matter (3) reporting on socio-economic measurements (4) solutions for all (5) shifting focus and (6) defining the middle class. Each theme is based on one of five different characteristics of dualism. It can be concluded that sustainable development discourse perpetuates the dualism of Progress / Rejuvenation which is a duality that further maintains a broad system of dualism already in existence throughout Western society. The study contributes to a better understanding of the importance of more diverse platforms of understanding that allow for transformative solutions to pressing ecological and social crises.

Political Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Defining political discourse as talk and text produced in regard to concrete political issues (language in politics) or the actual language use of institutional political actors (language of politicians), this article outlines traditionally recognized and newly identified links between language and politics. After clarifying some conceptual ambiguities and elaborating the historical roots of political language research, the article surveys themes, actors, methods, data, and research goals of PDA, based on key texts and the latest studies in the field. Keywords: argument and persuasion; language and social interaction; political communication; political media content

Discourse in a Material World

Abstract: We challenge recent assertions that discourse studies cannot de facto address materiality. We demonstrate how a Foucauldian theorization of discourse provides a way to analyse the co-constitutive nature of discursive and material processes, as well as explore the power relations implicated in these relationships. To illustrate our argument, we identify exemplary studies that have effectively combined a study of discourse and different aspects of materiality – bodies, objects, spaces, and practices. In doing so, we show how discourse scholars are able to study both materiality and power relations

Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities

Abstract: 1. Introduction Adam C. Schembri and Ceil Lucas 2. Sign languages in the world Jordan Fenlon and Erin Wilkinson 3. Sign languages in contact David Quinto-Pozos and Robert Adam 4. Variation and change in sign languages Robert Bayley, Adam C. Schembri and Ceil Lucas 5. Discourse analysis and sign languages Elizabeth A. Winston and Cynthia Roy 6. Language policy and planning in Deaf communities Josep Quer and Ronice Muller de Quadros 7. Language attitudes in Deaf communities Joseph C. Hill.

Discourse, Small d, Big D

Abstract: The notion of “Big ‘D’ Discourse” (“Discourse” spelled with a capital “D”) is meant to capture the ways in which people enact and recognize socially and historically significant identities or “kinds of people” through well-integrated combinations of language, actions, interactions, objects, tools, technologies, beliefs, and values. The notion stresses how “discourse” (language in use among people) is always also a “conversation” among different historically formed Discourses (that is, a “conversation” among different socially and historically significant kinds of people or social groups). The notion of “Big ‘D’ Discourse” sets a larger context for the analysis of “discourse” (with a little “d”), that is, the analysis of language in use. Keywords: cultural/critical communication; identity; language and social interaction; discourse; discourse analysis

Indigenous languages and the racial hierarchisation of language policy in Canada

Abstract: This paper addresses language policy and policy-making in Canada as forms of discourse produced and reproduced within systems of power and racial hierarchies. The analysis of indigenous language policy to be addressed here focuses on the historical, political and legal processes stemming from the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963–1969) to the 1982 Canadian Constitution and its aftermath. Through a critical historical and discursive analysis, we demonstrate how racial hierarchies and language ideologies favoured French and English dominance and reinforced the marginalisation of indigenous groups defined in terms of the socially constructed and assigned category of race. We relate these race-based language policies to contemporary indigenous language struggles in Canada, including the Task Force Report on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures (2005), and describe the logic imposed by colonial constitutional arrangements on indigenous language promotion, revitalisation and mobilisation in ...

Sustainable Making? Balancing Optimism and Criticism in HCI Discourse

Abstract: We examine the recent move from a rhetoric of “users” toward one of “makers,” “crafters,” and “hackers” within HCI discourse. Through our analysis, we make several contributions. First, we provide a general overview of the structure and common framings within research on makers. We discuss how these statements reconfigure themes of empowerment and progress that have been central to HCI rhetoric since the field's inception. In the latter part of the article, we discuss the consequences of these shifts for contemporary research problems. In particular, we explore the problem of designed obsolescence, a core issue for Sustainable Interaction Design (SID) research. We show how the framing of the maker, as an empowered subject, presents certain opportunities and limitations for this research discourse. Finally, we offer alternative framings of empowerment that can expand maker discourse and its use in contemporary research problems such as SID.

PhD crisis discourse: a critical approach to the framing of the problem and some Australian 'solutions'

Abstract: A feature of HE reform discourse is the tendency to construct the rationale for reform in terms of averting calamity and risk. We refer to this risk talk as ‘crisis discourse’. This study examines the formulation of PhD crisis discourse internationally and in Australia. We find that a key feature of PhD crisis discourse is that universities are producing too many graduates for too few academic jobs; and graduates lack skills that enable them to be productive in jobs outside academia. In Australia, the discourse has shifted from one dominated by efficiency concerns from the late 1990s to the present focus on graduate skills and employability. The policy solution to the efficiency crisis in the Australian PhD resulted in system-wide changes in research training funding focused on increased efficiency. The current unemployability discourse has as yet prompted isolated institutional responses, the introduction of new PhD programs or re-badging existing offerings as pro-skills development offerings. Following an examination of three Australian institutional responses, we conclude that the crisis discourse signals tensions surrounding the PhD: should achievement in doctoral education be measured by outcomes in intellectual excellence or the responsiveness of qualification to the current needs and priorities of society?

Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse‐Historical Approach

Abstract: The discourse-historical approach (DHA) belongs in the broadly defined field of critical discourse studies (CDS). Many theoretical and also methodological concepts used in DHA are equally valid for other strands in critical discourse studies—even if their contexts of emergence have led to different toolkits. Still, these approaches draw on each other, thereby reproducing a common conceptual frame while they develop their own distinct orientations. The DHA is distinctive both at the level of research interest and methodical orientation (an interest in identity construction and in unjustified discrimination; a focus on the historical dimensions of discourse formation) and with respect to its epistemological foundation—that is, with respect to its being oriented toward the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, and in particular toward Habermas's language philosophy. Keywords: argument and persuasion; cultural/critical communication; interdisciplinarity; language and social interaction; media theory; argumentation; critical theory; discourse studies; intertextuality; perspectivation

What is a discourse approach to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media: connecting with other academic fields?

Abstract: The wider field of discourse studies is still only beginning to turn its attention to social media despite a number of notable scholarly works. But as yet there has been little that has dealt speci ...

Group-level formative feedback and metadiscourse

Abstract: This research explores the ability of grade 2 students to engage in productive discussion about the state of their knowledge building using group-level feedback tools to support their metadiscourse Two aspects of knowledge work were common to the comparison and experimental classes: “Knowledge Building talk” (KB talk) involving teacher-student discussions and the use of Knowledge Forum, an online environment optimized to support Knowledge Building/knowledge creation and to represent and support student work and KB talks Students in experimental conditions additionally reviewed visualizations of vocabulary use and discourse patterns during KB talk time Two formative feedback visualization tools were co-developed by the classroom teacher and researchers to show (a) overlaps and discrepancies between words students used in their Knowledge Forum notes and words used by writers more knowledgeable in the field and (b) frequency of discourse moves indicated by students’ use of epistemic discourse markers in Knowledge Forum These visualizations served as grounding for KB talk concerned with interpreting the visualizations and considering their implications A comparison of two classes similar except for presence or absence of these visualizations showed significant effects favoring the experimental class in domain-specific vocabulary, repertoire of discourse moves, scientific understanding, epistemic complexity of ideas, and interpersonal connectedness of online discourse

Arguing collaboratively: Argumentative discourse types and their potential for knowledge building

Abstract: Background There is growing interest in using argumentative discourse in educational settings. However, in a previous study, we found that discourse goals (persuasion vs. consensus) while arguing can affect student outcomes in both content learning and reasoning. Aims In this study, we look at argumentative discourse data from a previous study to ask how differences in discourse might account for the differences we observed in learning and reasoning outcomes. Sample One hundred and five dialogues (57 disputative, 48 consensus) between 7th grade science students attending a public high school near Tarragona, Spain. Methods Participants were randomly assigned to conditions and paired with peers who disagreed with them on three topics related to renewable energy sources. After instruction on each topic, they were asked to either ‘argue to convince’ (persuasion condition) or ‘argue to reach consensus’ (consensus condition) on that topic. Conversations were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Results Students in the persuasion condition engaged in shorter conversational exchanges around argumentative claims and were more likely to use moves that foreclosed discussion, whereas students in the consensus condition were more likely to use moves that elicited, elaborated on, and integrated their partners' ideas. Conclusions When arguing to reach – rather than defend – a conclusion, students are more likely to coconstruct knowledge by exchanging and integrating arguments. These findings are consistent with predictions about the potential of argumentation for knowledge building and suggest that teachers must attend to discourse goals when using argumentation to support learning and reasoning.

Modeling Learners' Social Centrality and Performance through Language and Discourse.

Abstract: There is an emerging trend in higher education for the adoption of massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, despite this interest in learning at scale, there has been limited work investigating the impact MOOCs can play on student learning. In this study, we adopt a novel approach, using language and discourse as a tool to explore its association with two established measures related to learning: traditional academic performance and social centrality. We demonstrate how characteristics of language diagnostically reveal the performance and social position of learners as they interact in a MOOC. We use CohMetrix, a theoretically grounded, computational linguistic modeling tool, to explore students’ forum postings across five potent discourse dimensions. Using a Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology, we determine learners’ social centrality. Linear mixed-effect modeling is used for all other analyses to control for individual learner and text characteristics. The results indicate that learners performed significantly better when they engaged in more expository style discourse, with surface and deep level cohesive integration, abstract language, and simple syntactic structures. However, measures of social centrality revealed a different picture. Learners garnered a more significant and central position in their social network when they engaged with more narrative style discourse with less overlap between words and ideas, simpler syntactic structures and abstract words. Implications for further research and practice are discussed regarding the misalignment between these two learning-related outcomes.

Coding Classroom Interactions for Collective and Individual Engagement

Abstract: This article characterizes “engagement in science learning” from a sociocultural perspective and offers a mixed method approach to measuring engagement that combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Conceptualizing engagement from a sociocultural perspective, the article discusses the advantages of a mixed methodological approach, and specifically how mixed methods can expand and enrich our understanding of engagement in certain science learning situations. Through this sociocultural viewpoint, engagement is defined as meaningful changes in disciplinary discourse practice, which captures the dialectical relationship between the individual and collective. The combined use of CDA and SNA integrates an individual's relative position in a group with her situated language use.

Advancing knowledge‐building discourse through judgments of promising ideas

Abstract: Evaluating promisingness of ideas is an important but underdeveloped aspect of knowledge building. The goal of this research was to examine the extent to which Grade 3 students could make promisingness judgments to facilitate knowledge-building discourse. A Promising Ideas Tool was added to Knowledge Forum software to better support knowledge‐building discourse. The tool helped students select promising ideas from their group’s written online discourse and then aggregate and display selections to support collective decision making regarding most promising directions for subsequent work. Students knew in advance that their selections would influence the direction of group work, and through iterations of procedures came to better understand how individually selected ideas would become the focus of class discussions and next knowledge‐building efforts. The basic design was repeated over two cycles of promising-idea selections, discussions, and follow-up activity to refine ideas. Qualitative and quantitative results indicated that students as young as 8 years of age could make promisingness judgments benefiting their community. Through use of the Promising Ideas Tool and discussion based on results from its use, Grade 3 students achieved significantly greater knowledge advances than students not engaged in promisingness judgments and discussions.

Extreme Case (Re)formulation as a Practice for Making Hearably Racist Talk Repairable

Abstract: This article investigates the interactional organization of racism through participant production and uptake of explicit racial membership categories across a corpus of 50+ hours of audio-/video-recorded interaction in three U.S. states. The discourse analysis examines one participant method for addressing “hearably racist” talk: echoing extreme versions of the problematic utterance to provide opportunities for repair work on inferable associations between membership categories and category-bound activities. Orienting to implicit inferential material as the source of trouble licenses participant account-seeking; treating the racism as a repairable downgrades its status as an overt instance of racism.