Blog #4

Our class may not be a discourse community simply because as a teacher you have to much command and power over the group. Discourse communities are filled with strong minded people who like to help guide conversations but it is a not a job that you get paid to do. As a teacher who gets paid I think it violates whether or not we can be viewed as a true discourse community.

This is not to say that we do not share a lot of similarities with discourse communities. We have genres of communication like blogs, emails, group work, and basic speech in class. These mechanisms aid us in getting feedback and correct information about topics. We also maintain a certain classroom etiquette when addressing the teacher and class mates, Our class also relies on correct terminology to validate our knowledge on a subject(lexis). Lastly, we have an expert that can give us the correct answers in the teacher who acts as a mediator of discussion. However, the role of the teacher in the class is such a powerful governing body that it may be too big an influence for me to label our class discourse community.