Extended readings

Chapter 2 Discourse and society

Baker, P. (2011), ‘Discourse and gender’, in K. Hyland and B. Paltridge (eds), Continuum
Companion to Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum, pp. 199–212.
This chapter provides an overview of issues in researching language and gender. A sample
study is provided which looks at ‘cougar’ as an emerging gendered identity.

Benwell, B. and Stokoe, E. (2006), Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
Benwell and Stokoe’s book takes an interdisciplinary view on discourse and identity draw-
ing on work in the areas of sociology, ethnomethodology, critical theory, feminism, philoso-
phy, cultural studies and human geography. The book looks at texts across a wide variety of
discourse contexts.

Block, D. (2007), Second Language Identities. London: Continuum. Chapter 2, Identity in

the social sciences today.
Block’s chapter provides a very clear discussion of the theoretical background to the issues
outlined in this chapter. He discusses the discursive construction of identity, performativ-
ity, positioning, communities of practice, ethnicity, race, national identity, migrant identity,
gender, social class and language identity.

Block, D. (2010), ‘Researching language and identity’, in B. Paltridge and A. Phakiti. (eds),
Continuum Companion to Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. London: Continuum,
pp. 233–349.
This chapter provides an overview of issues in researching language and identity. It dis-
cusses research strategies for doing identity research and, in particular, narrative analysis.
Block provides a sample study to show how the issues he has discussed can be taken up in
this kind of research.

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Extended Readings

Borg, E. (2003), ‘Key concepts in ELT: Discourse community’, ELT Journal, 57(4), 398–400.
In this article Borg provides an accessible introduction to the notion of discourse commu-
nity. He suggests ways in which the notion of discourse community is a useful one for lan-
guage teachers, especially for people working in the area of English for specific purposes.

Cameron, D. (2001), Working with Spoken Discourse. London: Sage. Chapter 11, Identity,
difference and power: locating social relations in talk.
This chapter of Cameron’s book discusses identity and power in discourse. She focuses on
the idea of ‘socially constructed selves’ and the ways in which people continually construct
and reconstruct their identity through their encounters with other people and their use of
discourse. Cameron also discusses the notion of ‘co-constructed selves’, pointing out that
communication, and indeed identity construction, is a two-way process. It involves not only
the construction of a particular identity but also the recognition of that identity by others.

Cameron, D. (2007), The Myth of Mars and Venus. Do Men and Women Really Speak
Different Languages? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Myth of Mars and Venus is an accessible review and critique of the literature on lan-
guage and gender. Cameron shows how many popular writers have been both selective and
inaccurate in their discussions on this topic. Cameron (2010) continues this argument in
her paper ‘Sex/gender, language and the new biologism’.

Coates, J. and Pichler, P. (eds) (2011). Language and Gender: A Reader (Second edition).
Boston: Wiley-Blackwell.
This collection of readings has contributions by key authors such as Bucholtz, Cameron,
Coates, Davies, Eckert, Hall, Holmes, Kiesling, Swann, Tannen, Weatherall, and West and
Zimmerman in the area of language and gender. Topics covered include gender and power,
same-sex talk, language, gender and sexuality, theoretical debates and new directions in
language and gender research.

Cutting, J. (2007), Analysing the Language of Discourse Communities. Bingley, England:

Emerald.
Cutting’s book provides a very detailed example of the analysis of the language of a particu-
lar discourse community, in this case, applied linguistics masters students studying at a uni-
versity in the United Kingdom. She examines how the students’ use of language changes as
their knowledge of the field increases and they begin to form a group. She looks specifically
at grammatical reference, the use of vocabulary, implicitness and speech act functions.

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 Extended Readings

Deckert, S. and Vickers, C. H. (2011), An Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Society and Identity.

London: Continuum. Chapter 2, Identity as central theme in linguistics.
This chapter is an excellent overview of the notion of identity in sociolinguistics research.
The coconstruction of identity through language is discussed as well as gendered, social and
cultural identities. Identity is also discussed in relation to multilingual speakers, native and
non-native speakers and migration.

Eckert, P. and McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003), Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
While largely about language and gender, this book starts from a very broad base, elaborat-
ing on many of the social aspects of spoken and written discourse that have been presented
in this chapter. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet discuss in detail the social constructionist
view of discourse; that is, the way in which what we say and do contributes to the construc-
tion of particular (in this case gendered) identities.

Lin, A. and Kubota, R. (2011), ‘Discourse and race’, in K. Hyland and B. Paltridge (eds),
Continuum Companion to Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum, pp. 277–90.
Lin and Kubota discuss the discursive construction of race, drawing on critical race the-
ory, whiteness studies, positioning theory and storyline analysis. They discuss how racist
ideologies are produced and reproduced in elitist discourses. They then describe a study
which examined messages posted on a Hong Kong-based online discussion forum of Dae
Jang Geum, a Korean TV drama, looking at how the Self and Other are constructed in the
discourse.

Meyerhoff, M. (2011), Introducing Sociolinguistics (Second edition). London: Routledge.

Meyerhoff’s book contains excellent chapters on language and social class, social networks,
communities of practice, language and gender and politeness. The development of each
of these issues is discussed in detail, in both linguistic and social terms. Key terms are
explained alongside the main text in each of the chapters.

Nero, S. J. (2005), ‘Language, identities, and ESL pedagogy’, Language and Education, 19(3):
194–211.
In this paper Nero discusses the ways in which English language learners engage in acts
of identity in university settings. The relationship between identities and ESL pedagogy is
discussed and suggestions are proposed for language identity and awareness activities that
take account of this.

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Extended Readings

Omoniyi, T. (2011). ‘Discourse and identity’, in K. Hyland and B. Paltridge (eds), Continuum
Companion to Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum, pp. 260–76.
This chapter provides an overview of issues in language and minority identities research. A
sample study is provided which looks at how minority identities are constructed and main-
tained in media discourse.

Sunderland, J. and Litosseliti, L. (2002), ‘Gender identity and discourse analysis: Theoretical
and empirical considerations,’ in J. Sunderland and L. Litosseliti (eds), Gender Identity
and Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.1–39.
This chapter is a clear and accessible introduction to the topics of discourse and identity
and discourse and gender. Sunderland and Litosseliti discuss identity as something that is
both multiple and fluid and how identities are both realized and constructed as people ‘do
identity work’ in their use of spoken and written discourse.

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© Brian Paltridge (2012) Discourse Analysis
London: Bloomsbury