Examples Of Discourse Community

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To me, a soccer team is the perfect example of a discourse community. I have played soccer all my life and I started playing competitively for St Ignatius College Prep School. I played for the junior varsity team and then later as I learned more about the game started playing for the varsity team. In soccer, there are no time outs and little stoppage of play, so communication with coaches is limited. For a team to play well, each player must know what they need to do on and off the field. The objective of a soccer team is very simple; score and do not let your opponents score. When your team has the ball, every player already knows to help the person who has the possession of the ball to score. As soon as the ball is lost to the opponent, …show more content…

If a player was directly to the left or right of another player on the field and wanted a pass, he would shout “square” and whomever had the ball would know there was somebody ninety degrees to his left or right who was open and 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 asked. In soccer, the key to winning is being able to foresee 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 terminology used in a soccer team is when a person asks 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 from games into practices and meetings and begins to take its rightful place in the vocabulary of the player. Once the lexis is known, it makes communication easier and faster for the team and can positively alter the outcome of games by simply eliminating little mistakes which could turn into costly

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