A Discourse Analysis Study of Graffiti at Secondary Schools in Jordan

Abstract

This research aims to explore the thematic meanings of graffiti written on the walls and desks at secondary public schools in the Directorate of Education for the Qasabat Irbid District during the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The data comprise 207 written graffiti taken from different locations. Braun and Clarke's (2006) Thematic Analysis and Fairclough's (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis are adopted to account for the data thematically and linguistically. The findings of the study show that the qualitative and quantitative data fall into three main discourse themes: Religious, Political, and Emotional. Each one has been classified into subcategories accordingly. The results also show that the highest percentage of the discourse theme domains is related to the emotional one which constitutes the half of data. The lexical features indicate that the language of the graffiti is simple. Yet, it presents a complete thought. Languages and language variations are also identified.