Reflective Essa'y First Draft

Surname 1

Surname 3

Othman Bajunaid

Loretta Kennedy

ENGL 10

9/17/2021

Discourse Community: Volleyball

Since the beginning of the world, humans have always operated in groups or communities whereby they share common goals, values, and interests. A highly recognized expert in linguistics from the University of Michigan Professor John Swales introduced the concept of a discourse community and identified six major characteristics that define this communities. The characteristics are developed based on the agreed upon common goals. They include, “broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, the use of its participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, utilizes and possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, acquired some specific lexis, and has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise” (Swales, 4). The volleyball team perfectly matches the category of a discourse community. Just as communication plays a huge role in any discourse community, communication is also very essential in volleyball. There are many different aspects of the volleyball team that members have to follow such as the terminologies used in the game, goals, and the rules of the game.

The volleyball community brings together different volleyball players to improve their lives, achieve success which is the main goal of the team, and prepare the next generation of football players. The volleyball discourse community defines Swales (1990)’s concept of discourse community. The first characteristic Swales associates with a discourse community is a set of common goals. The volleyball team’s main mission is to emerge victorious in all their games while connecting the members of the team to one another and promoting professional development. Every member of the team learns how to communicate and be closer to one another because this is the only way through which the team can achieve their goals. There are rules that guide the volleyball community which every member including the coaches must abide by. By learning and understanding the rules from the experts of the game, the players know how to play the game perfectly and they too become experts as time goes by. The success of the team relies on how well members can collaborate and follow the rules.

Aside from the goals and regulations in the volleyball community, there are terminologies and a language that only participants of the game can understand. For example, some of the terminologies in a volleyball game include pass, serve, set, and hit. Someone who does not understand or have experience of this terms will not know what is going on in the game, what routes to take when playing, or even what the couch or referee is saying. If someone does not get the point “serve the court zone”, they are likely to decrease their chance of passing the ball correctly or accurately pass the ball to the right hitters who can make a successful attack.

A volleyball team must contain a certain number of participants. The sixth and last characteristic Swales (1990) associates to a discourse community is “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (4). For instance, a volleyball game contains two teams of 6 players on each side. The members in a volleyball team must meet the required expertise for them to participate in the game. With expertise, every player understands their role in the game and every individual focuses on their task, making the achievement of goals easy. The players take both responsibility and pride in their roles through communicating, sharing ideas, and completing every task successfully. The goals of the team have a positive impact both on the players and the couches. When someone is coming into the volleyball discourse community, they expect a couple of things such as new information, experiences from experts, and rules of the team.

Personally, I am not a member of the volleyball discourse community but am a big fun of the game. This is why I chose the volleyball discourse community in my project so that I can be able to determine whether or not to join the community. I have goals to achieve in life and one thing I have learnt from the volleyball team is that you must have goals to succeed in life. The team is more of a school for many life lessons. For instance, I have to learn to work in a team, communicate, and collaborate in order to be part of the team. This are important life lessons we need in our different communities today. I want to explore the volleyball discourse community and understand the importance of skills such as taking responsibility. This is something that will help me not only in the volleyball team but also in my entire life. One thing I usually see in the game is players communicating back and forth and coordinating to score. Volleyball is a very loud and communicative sport. The skills of the game are the same skills we need to successfully thrive in our communities.

Works Cited

Swales, J. M. (2016). Reflections on the concept of discourse community. ASp. la revue du GERAS, (69), 7-19.