Before I read the articles by Swales, Gee, and Mirabelli, I did not have the slightest idea what a discourse community was, but the idea, once known, is quite simple. A discourse community, according to Swales, has a few defining characteristics. First, a discourse community must have a common set of public goals. The community must also have methods of communication between its members. Primarily, these methods are used to provide information and feedback to its members. Throughout these communications, specific lexis is used to help describe anything in the discourse community. The last point Swales stresses states “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a sustainable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise,” (473). Although it may seem to be a large criteria to meet, hundreds of discourse communities can be found in the average citizen’s daily life. Anything from a sports team to a small business could be considered a discourse community as long as it fits the list Swales imposed. For this assignment, I chose to follow a soccer team midway through their season to find out just how good of a discourse community a soccer team is.
I believe a soccer team is the perfect example of a discourse community. Although a soccer team may seem simple, it can be quite complex. In soccer, there are no time outs and little stoppage of play, so communication with the coaches is limited. For a soccer team to play well, each player must know their responsibilities on and off the field. Swales first point states the “discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” (471). The common goals of a soccer team are pretty rudimentary; score but don’t let opponents score. In other words, when their team has the ball, every player already knows to help advance the ball to the goal. As soon as possession is lost to the opponent, the team switches into a defensive mentality. In this ever-changing game, players must constantly be aware of their surroundings. Every player knows if they lose track of their surroundings, they could make a mistake which could lead to a goal for the opposition.
To stop mistakes from happening, a senior member of the discourse community is chosen to act as the captain on and off the field. Having a captain is a necessity of a soccer team. With no team captain, there is no leadership on the field. The captain can be compared to a conductor of an orchestra. He knows how the team performs best and can execute the goals of the team well. He manages the team and makes them work to the best of their abilities. To differentiate between the captain and a player, a keen eye is necessary. During a match, the captain will be wearing either an arm band or a leg band that says captain. Seeing the difference between a coach and a player is normally easy. Coaches tend to be a lot older than the age group that is competing. They have acquired the most knowledge and experience and can teach the team how to reach their goals and minimize the mistakes made in the process. Between the coaches and captains, newcomers to the discourse community have multiple mentors to learn the necessary lexis and knowledge of the community.
From my interviews, I found out about some specific lexis within the team. If a player was directly to the left or right of another player on the field and wanted to call for a pass, he could simply shout out “square”, and the ball carrier would know there was somebody ninety degrees to his left or right who was open, looking for a pass. Instead of simply yelling “left” or “right”, “square” is used so only people in that discourse community know what is being foretold. In soccer, the key to winning is being able to anticipate the opposition’s next move. Thus, if a player just called out “left” or “right”, the next move of that team is known. Another example of lexis in a soccer team is when a person calls for a “through ball”. This means a player is asking the person in possession to pass the ball not directly to him, but in front of him so the player has the ability to run into space and then receive the ball, instead of having to dribble through a defender to reach the same space. Lexis carries over practices and meetings into games and begins to take its rightful place in the vocabulary of the player. Once the lexis is embedded in the brain, it makes communication easier and faster for the team and can positively alter the outcome of games by eliminating little mistakes which could add up to a costly error.
Besides using specific lexis to communicate with each other, players and coaches use e-mail, phone calls, texts, and even letters to communicate times of tournaments, games, scrimmages, practices, and meetings to every person within the discourse community. Modern technology aids communication between coaches and players a lot. Before cellular phones, people could only be contacted at their place of residency, but with modern phones, people can be reached almost anywhere at any time. This technology makes it very easy to communicate and transmit information within the discourse community. If a member of the discourse community did not know a specific piece of information, it is likely that member’s fault. In modern times, the abundance of technology makes it very easy to communicate with others.
After spending some time watching soccer games, interviewing players, and dissecting the game, I think a soccer team is a great example of a discourse community. It is obvious that the team has common public goals. They include scoring on their opponents and not letting their opponents do the same to them. They have specific lexis that is used on and off the field like “square” and “through ball” to help communication between the team. This lexis is important because it helps hide the intentions of the team and leaves the opposition guessing. There are constantly new players joining the team and people leaving the team, so captains and coaches have the responsibility of teaching the new players the lexis and knowledge of the team. Finally, members of the discourse community communicate using modern technology like cell phones, e-mail, texting, and other forms to communicate. After researching a soccer team and performing multiple interviews, it is clear a soccer team fits Swales definition of a discourse community.
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