“A major advantage of the concept of community of practice is… studies that illustrate the emergent nature of communities and the inseparability of language from actual social contexts.” (Ahearn 133) In social situations, we usually do not focus on the language that is spoken. It is only when we look at a transcript and analyze specific words and phrases. In doing this we can see which words and phrases are used by whom. These specific words and phrases that usually associate with a certain community is often exchanged between different communities.
The Big Bang Theory is a TV show about the interactions between various people who identify with certain communities. The certain communities shown within this scene is the nerd culture, women culture,
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It’s your values and beliefs. When a person has a mutual understanding or outlook, they would have mutual engagement. These TV characters show mutual engagement because they are part of the same community. A majority of them speak in “nerd speak” which is a language community. In the show, Howard says in Christopher Walken’s voice “You’d think, after all these years, I’d know not to fly over volcanoes. I’m a freaking idiot.” and Sheldon, who also speaks in “nerd speak” replies “The dragon’s Christopher Walken. That’s perfect.” (3:55) Sheldon appreciates his references because he understands them. Sheldon and Howard speak the same language and are a part of the same community. Therefore, they show mutual engagement. For someone who is not a part of this community, such as Penny, would have a harder time knowing what he’s talking …show more content…
Most of the people within this scene are in the nerd and academic culture. Therefore, they have similar behaviors and skills as each other. The people within the culture all come from a science background. An example of this is Leonard and Sheldon are physicists while Howard is an aerospace engineer, Amy is a neuroscientist, and Bernadette is a microbiologist. Leonard, Howard, Amy, and Bernadette shows multilingualism because they are more relatable with Penny, who is not a part of the nerd culture. They are able to understand Penny and vice versa, more so than Sheldon. Sheldon and Penny do not show a shared repertoire except for when agreeing that women do not play Dungeons & Dragons. After this game, they all have a shared repertoire in playing Dungeons & Dragons before and having experience in this game, even though they are from different cultures and backgrounds.
Even with their differences, mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire brings these group of friends together. Through their language, they show different cultures such as nerd culture, academic culture, and women’s culture. The Big Bang Theory shows different cultures and the people in these cultures who are able to maintain friendships through their language. Language is such a big part of day to day life but is not always something that is looked
In Richard Lederer’s article “All American Dialects”, he states the ironic truth that “most of us are aware that large numbers of people in the U.S. speak very differently than we do.” (152) How is it that one language can have so many speech communities? It is because of the way our nation was developed. Our language is a mixture of culture and lifestyle that has diverted our English dialect, so that each region’s speech is unique. How I speak can define who I am, determine what I do, and locate exactly where I’m from in the U.S. This is the value of my, and my language’s speech communities. If one was to travel to Germany they would be constantly hearing German. What they wouldn’t notice is that each city within Germany tends to have their
In the article“Speech Communities” by Paul Roberts, he uses examples in the text to helps give his audience an understanding of what a exactly speech community is and how they are formed in our lives.
Literature Review In “The Concept of Discourse Community,” Swales begins by introducing the discourse community. Speech communities share information and knowledge regarding speech. Swales described six main characteristics of a discourse community. It is important to understand these six characteristics because they are used to describe any discourse community that you are analyzing. In Erik Borg’s “Discourse Community” peer review journal, there are some similarities as well as key differences from Swales work.
How do groups of people in our society all interact with each other? There are so many different ways people communicate, whether by writing, speaking, or even educating. As John Swales, James Paul Gee, and James E. Porter express, it all has to do with the concept and involvement of a discourse community. The process of common goals and purposes being constructed with the knowledge gathered in a discourse community and expanded by literacy, linguistics, and experience. The authors, Swales, Gee, and Porter, all emphasize key characteristics that they believe best describe a discourse community. Yet, their characterization leaves behind a controversy on both legitimate control and trust a discourse community
John Swales (1990), author of “The Concept of Discourse Community,” basically explains his own definition of what an actual discourse community is. Swales was able to break to concept down into a list of six characteristics that a group must have in order to be considered a discourse community. The first characteristic he mentions is that “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common goals”. (Swales, 1990, p. 471) He provides an example of an ordinary person joining an organization with “private hopes of commercial or romantic advancement.” The second characteristic mentioned is “a discourse community has mechanism of intercommunication among its members”. (Swales, 1990, p. 471) This basically means that communities don’t always have to meet in person on a regular basis in order to be considered a discourse community. They communicate in li...
In “Intersexuality and the Discourse Community,” James E. Porter claims that a discourse community is organized by a group of people who have the similar interests and he also said “an individual may belong to several professional, public, or personal discourse communities” (400). It shows that people can be in the different discourse communities, which help me realized that I should take part in the other organizations except the different courses at OU to make my life colorful. Thus, I take part in the “the University of Oklahoma Chinese Student Union” (ouscss). The members in OUSCSS comes from China, we have same culture and language. Usually, we stay together to celebrate the Chinese Festival. Taking part in the OUSCSS can help me reduce the yearning of home. More than that, In “the Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales lists six defining characteristics which can find out a group of people in a discourse community includes “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has an acquired some specific lexis” (220-222). It means we need to know some academic vocabulary so that we can understand the knowledge professors teach in class. In my physics class, as an International student, I often have some new words such as “piston” “thermodynamics” “hypothetical heat engine”, at the beginning of the semester, I really confuse in class because of the specific lexis. When I learned from John Swales, I realized that I should preview the chapter to know the academic words. Thus I can understand the knowledge that professors talked in class. Additionally, I may have some academic words when I work in the future, so I should prepare for my future and have a goal on future’s world. I should know the specific lexis, so that I can take part in the discourse communities in the future as soon as possible. Soon, I
“The Big Bang Theory” is a television show about two brilliant physicists, Leonard and Sheldon, geniuses in how the universe works and in the laboratory, but socially awkward when it comes to everything else. Their lives change when a beautiful, young, newly-single woman, Penny, moves in the apartment across the hall from theirs. Penny quickly becomes part of Leonard and Sheldon’s social group, which includes equally socially awkward Howard and Raj, due to Leonard falling in love with her. With Penny’s common sense and social skills the four male friends will soon find out that they truly know little about the world around them.
Discourse communities play a big role in life and how humans interact in general. A discourse community refers to a group of people who have language, life patterns, culture, and communication in common with each other. The idea of a discourse community has also been used to bring people of different orientations together, like family members, students, or committees. All of these types of people might have different standards of living, like their level of income, education, and work abilities. Discourse community can also refer to a speech community, because the main feature of a discourse community is communication. A discourse community can include groups of different regional areas that may or may not share norms and living patterns
From this perspective, for immigrants learning the language of the host country is a tool to develop a net of useful social contacts. Cristina Rodriguez states that in addition to its role in developing social bonds, the language use assists with preserving a multilingual en...
A community is comprised of a group of goal oriented individuals with similar beliefs and expectations. Currently the term is used interchangeably with society, the town one lives in and even religion. A less shallow interpretation suggests that community embodies a lifestyle unique to its members. Similarities within the group establish bonds along with ideals, values, and strength in numbers unknown to an individual. Ideals and values ultimately impose the culture that the constituents abide by. By becoming part of a community, socialization...
I built upon my cross-cultural experiences as I befriended exchange students from Belgium, Japan, and Korea. Each time, the friendships enriched my appreciation and understanding of not only my own culture, but the very concept of culture. What falls under the cultural blanket can vary from person to person, and I found it to be very interesting that while one person could claim lan...
are constantly working out which word to use. When they talk to each other they often select the word or the phrase from the language to express their thoughts, feelings.
The way people interact with one another effects how they communicate. More specifically, their verbal and nonverbal communication define their social group, which in turn gives them their cultural identity. For instance, since I live in the Midwestern United States, I call a fizzy beverage ‘pop’, while someone in the northeast might call it ‘soda ' and someone from the southern part of the United States would likely refer to it as 'coke '. This shows the people in my area
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.
Language. It is a sign of who we are and where we come from. As language defines us, so does it unite us, but it can also impose barriers that drive us apart. As our society aggressively pursues globalization, individuals who maintain cultural sensitivity and strive for effective communication despite language barriers will be an increasingly important commodity; individuals who can also pass the gift of adept communication to others will be invaluable. On the eve of my college graduation, the culmination of four years ' immersion in language and communication and the beginning of a lifetime of educating others in these disciplines, I feel increasingly the weight of