Evidence to Support Swales’ (1990)Theory of Discourse Community

          Swales (1990) defines what a discourse community is and proposes six characteristics for identifying one. The aim of this paper is to define what a discourse community is by presenting cites  from different authors evidencing and supporting Swales’ (1990) ideas.

          The first and second characteristics have to do with having an agreed set of common public goals and a mechanism of intercommunication among its members. Regarding these characteristic, Hoffman, Artile and Lopez Torres, L (2003) stated that “Teachers interact with colleagues in goal-directed activities that require communication and the exchange of ideas […]” (Hoffman et al., 2003)

          The third characteristic is about information exchanges and feedback. This  can be evidenced by the following idea presented by 4th grade teacher “Not only impart learning to teacher but learn and accept information from them as well as very often we can learn from each other” (as cited in Wenzlaff & Wieseman, 2004).

          Swales (1990) states that discourse communities should also have community-specific genres with highly specialized terminology. Regarding these features Kelly-Kleese, (2001) states the following: “The community college can be seen as adopting language that has been given particular meaning within the larger higher education community, meaning that is less applicable to its own community but is nonetheless consistently used”

          The last characteristic, concerning the level of expertise the members of a discourse community, is evidenced by the following statement by Boyer (1987), “While not all [faculty members] are or should be publishing researchers, they, nonetheless, should be first rate scholars” (as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2004)

          To conclude, the cites from authors like Boyer (1987), Hoffman, Artile, Lopez Torres (2003) or Kelly-Kleese (2004) mentioned above show that the six characteristics mentioned by Swales (1990), may  refer to a discourse community. These principles are reflected on most academic articles.

     References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artile, A.J., & Lopez Torres, L (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into practice. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s choice: an open memo to community

              college faculty and administrators. Community college review.

Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers need teachers to grow.

Teacher education quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405

A Critique on Bailey’ (2006) s Handbook

          Bailey’s (2006) book: Academic Writing, A Handbook for International Students, second edition, focuses on the writing skills needed by foreign students who are taking courses taught in English. The book is divided into four parts; each part containing examples, explanations, exercises and cross-references. This useful book is organised in a simple and clear way as Bailey (2006) stated that students “can work either with a teacher or by themselves, since the structure of the book has been made as simple as possible to allow them to find what they want quickly” (p. vii ).

          The purpose of part one is to show students the basic components of written texts, such as paraphrasing, the organization of paragraphs, plagiarism and proof-reading. Those skills needed for most types of academic texts, such as making comparisons or giving examples, are dealt in Part two. Part three focuses mainly on grammatical items, such as the use of articles, passives or prepositions. Part four offers models of various types of writing, such as letters and different types of essays.  The book also includes writing tests for students to check their progress as well as the answers to the several exercises provided.

          To conclude, Bailey’s (2006) handbook proves extremely valuable for international students who wish to improve their writing skills. It is exceptionally well organised and full of suitable practice exercises. The author pointed out that the book “it is a flexible course that allows students of all subjects and levels, from foundation to PhD, to practise those aspects of writing which are most important for their studies” (p. vii). Since the book is also directed to those students who are just beginning to polish their writing skills, it would have been better if Bailey (2006) had included a glossary. In that way foreign students would have been able to find those academic terms they are not familiar with. It is strongly recommended for novice students to have a dictionary at hand.

                                                                       Reference

Bailey, S. (2006). Academic writing: A handbook for international students (2nd ed.) Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Taylor & Francis e-Library. Retrieved from

http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/ii_kgpm_27.pdf

 

Mid-term Exam: Annotated Bibliographies

Stockwell, G. (2012). Working with constraints in mobile learning: a response to Ballance. Language Learning & Technology . Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/stockwell.pdf

         Stockwell (2012), responds to Ballance’s (2012) claims about ideas previously stated by Stockwell (2010) himself regarding the nature of the vocabulary activities chosen and the impact of smart phones in learning adding that “Ballance had insufficient understanding of the activities that were used in the project" (p. 24). In adittion, Stockwell points out issues regarding mobile learning and analyses why learners prefer using PC’s over mobile phones for language learning activities “despite the fact that the activities on the mobile platform were designed for very short periods of time to be used effectively while on the move” (Stockwell, 2012, p. 29)

Reference 

Stockwell, G. (2012). Working with constraints in mobile learning: a response to Ballance. Language Learning & Technology. Retrieved on October 15, 2012 from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/stockwell.pdf

Mid-term Exam: Outline

New Tools for Language Learning

Purpose: To summarize Balance’s article on mobile learning.

Thesis: Technological innovations used for language learning: CALL and MALL. 

Audience: EAP teachers and students. Narrow.

Mobile Language Learning: More Than just “The Platform”

I Computer assisted language learning (CALL)

     A. Roots in the audio lingual method

     B. Focuses on the learner’s autonomy

            a. distance learning

     C. Engages language learners in communicative tasks outside the classroom.

II. Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

     A. Focuses on vocabulary activities

     B. Pre smart-phones era

           a. internet costs

           b. constraints by the technology availability.

     C. Smart- phones era

           a. app-based

           b. exploiting touch screen technology

III. Conclusion

Reference 

Ballance, O. J. (2012). Mobile language learning, more than just the platform. Language Learning & Technology . Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/ballance.pdf