Reflections on discourse communities

Broadly speaking, a discourse community is a group of people who share distinguishing features. Kutz (1997) argues that “its members agree on a particular knowledge, equal purposes, common relationships and similar attitudes and ideas” (cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001, p.1). In this line of thought, Bizzel (1992) states that a discourse community “is a group of people who share certain language-using practices [that] can be seen as conventionalized”(as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001, p.1).
Community colleges can be an example of a discourse community. At this point, Kelly Kleese (2004) outlines that “members of a two-year college discourse communities share understandings about how to communicate knowledge and achieve shared purposes, and they exhibit a flow of discourse that has a particular structure and style (. . .)” (p.2). Specifically, students in a community college share a communicative competence in terms of language, knowledge and skills.
Discourse communities are often described as “little ecosystems” as Porter (1992) named them (as cited in Kelly Kelly-Kleese, 2001, p. 2). If this particular type of community were isolated, people would not be able to interact with other communities which is one of its main characteristics. Likewise, there are not any limits but permeable boundaries that make discourse communities flexible and constituted to coexist within the society.





References
Kelly-Kleese, C.(2001) Editor’s choice: An open memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College review. Retrieved September 2010, 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 September 2010, from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541
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