Short Analysis: Analyzing language in a discourse
community
College funded organizations are designed for students to
take a break from their papers, studies, and peer gossip
stories, and unwind with educational discussions, positive
thinking, and goal oriented aspirations. When students
connect with others they learn new ways to think and
communicate with new friends along the way. Every
discourse community has a specific goal to reach and those
goals cannot be reached without language. As a college
student, being able to express one’s self intellectually with
others not only benefits the individual, but other who are
listening as well. Language is the most important aspect in a
discourse community because it gives each member of the
discourse community a chance to learn from one another
and reach a common goal.
I conducted an interview with an active member of an
organization called PASU located at Kean University. PASU
stands for Pan African Student Union and the goal of PASU
is to allow students who are pan African to get a chance to
learn about the communities and uplift one another for the
greatest awareness of self. PASU is a discourse community
because it has a common goal, new and old members,
forms of intercommunication, uses genres to further its aims,
specific lexis, and uses participatory mechanisms for
information and feedback from its members.
Analysis of interview questions
As I sat down with my interviewee, I was able to ask her a
few questions about PASU and how she felt about the
language used within PASU. One of the questions I had
asked was “Can PASU run itself without language?” The
interviewee instantly replied without much hesitance saying
“No, PASU could never run itself without language because
the main purpose of PASU is to have communication with
others and share knowledge.” With her response I am
already aware of how important language is to this
community. I nod my head and continue to ask more
questions about PASU’s language. I then asked her a
question about the staff members, who are known as the Eboard. The E-board usually begins the meetings with
information about different events and important news within
PASU, their main focus is to conduct an informative meeting
each and every PASU meeting. I asked the question of “Do
you think the E-board would be able to conduct the meeting
without language?” She answered with a moment’s pause
and said, “I don’t think so, I especially think it would be hard
for new members to get informed about what PASU is and
stands for without the use of the E-board or members
explaining it, especially because its all very casual
conversations when we talk about different events in the
media and outside communities.” Although PASU has its
own main goals, what the interviewee is saying is that it
would be impossible to conduct an effective meeting that
would explain the goal of PASU, as well as the limit the
amount of information a new member would be informed
with attending PASU for the first time. Without the use of
language a new comer would be incapable of understanding
PASU’s objective for the pan African community. I began to
ask more in depth about the discussion topics. During each
meeting a discussion topic is planned by the E-board
members as they collaboratively address specific topics
within the black community such as current events, or simply
random topics that are relatable to its members. I asked my
interviewee, about how relevant the discussion topics were
and if they were important? She responded, “The discussion
topics are pretty important because we discuss the topics
that benefit us in the black communities, I remember when
the Trayvon Martin incident occurred, many PASU members
had many opinions about that topic. We spoke about that
topic in great detail. We discussed that topic so many times,
and it was interesting to hear everyone’s opinion on such a
devastating event.” From her response it is evident that
PASU uses language within the discussion topics as a way
to reflect the situation, such as the Trayvon Martin case, to
educate one another and speak about the discrimination that
the black community still faces today. Therefore the way the
members use language is by uplifting and educating faces
today. Therefore the way the members use language is by
uplifting and educating one another on the issues they face
as a community. If language is not used within PASU there
common goal of educating the community members would
never be achieved. Moving to the final part of the interview, I
asked her was she able to learn from the language used
within the discourse community. She had agreed that she
did. She learned a great deal from hearing others opinions
and solutions to certain problems that she would have never
come up with herself.
Observations of interview
During the interview I noticed that I was the most dominant
person because I was the one asking the questions leading
to a detailed answer supported by my interviewee. Although
I was the most dominant with the questions, there were a
few times that the interviewee led me to other unscheduled
questions. When we began talking about the effectiveness of
the language, she brought about an answer that led me onto
a different path of focus. When I asked her about the
effectiveness she agreed that the language was effective, in
some ways, not all. I then proceeded that she tell me more
about how language was not always effective. Her response
was that the E-board members should use more effective
language when respecting those who have the floor when
responding to a discussion topic. She went on to say that out
of respect for the member, the E-board should settle
everyone else down so that the speaker has a chance to
clearly give his or her response. This was also her big story
because she gave the interview a different focus that shifted
the response that I, as the interviewer predicted. She was
able to provide evidence and detail to the question of the
effectiveness of the language used. She explained during
the interview that language used is effective, but can also be
improved through verbal language from the E-board
members.
While interviewing, I noticed the interviewee gave very
general answers toward the beginning of the interview. As
she got a sense of the ease of questions she was able to
open up and give more detail about other questions,
especially the conversation leading to her big story. When
she gave more detail it allowed me to play around with more
detailed questions that allowed her to open up even more.
This made the interview feel more like a general
conversation between two people instead of a research
based questionnaire.
Conclusion
In conclusion, college funded organizations are not just the
usual show up and become a member of some random club
that looks great on a college transcript or resume. Joining an
organization is about actively participating among peers to
reach specific goals within the community, using the most
important aspect, which is language to connect with those
members. Without the use of language there is no way that
members can discuss relevant information that relates to the
specifics of culture, accomplish main goals of the particular
discourse, or actively communicate and learn from others
within the discourse community.