Discourse Studies Research Articles

Time matters: a critical multimodal study of an English learning app for children in China

ABSTRACT Time and its management, as evident in the scheduling, sequencing and structuring of activities, is important in early childhood education (ECE). While ECE apps have been changing teaching and learning practices for over a decade, research has yet to examine how they represent and manage time. To address this gap, we analysed the representation and management of time in iHuman ABC, a popular English learning app for children in China. Adopting Djonov and Van Leeuwen's (2018) model for analysing semiotic software and Van Leeuwen’s (2008) critical discourse studies framework, we examined temporal features in the app's design and references to these features in promotional materials and user reviews. Findings reveal that iHuman ABC reflects an instructivist ideology which considerably limits children’s ability to organise their time and contradicts research-based recommendations for teaching English. This study contributes to critical multimodal studies of the potential of software to transform educational practices.

Review of Cheng & Machin (2023): The law and critical discourse studies

Review of Cheng & Machin (2023): The law and critical discourse studies

‘All my friends here are ghosts’: everyday geo-legalities in a rural poultry town

ABSTRACT In recent years, feminist legal geographers have pressed for deeper engagement with the lived experience of law’s spatial logics including methodologies that extend beyond the study of legal discourse, practice, and enforcement to include ethnographic and other qualitative approaches that centre the experiences of those living with legal precarity. Building upon the work of feminist political geographers concerned with intimacy geopolitics, the concept of everyday geo-legalities emphasizes the ways that people interpret the spatiality of law, legal practice, and state policing and how it affects their lives, livelihoods and im/mobilities. This research reveals how undocumented im/migrants in a small, rural poultry town interpret and socially negotiate their racialized legal status in terms of im/mobility, heighted workplace pressure, increased job-related health risks, persistent fears of immigration raids, family separation and deportation, and prejudice and policing due to discourses of racialized criminalization. Social and familial relations, however, are central to the everyday negotiation of these dynamics, as community connections and care emerge from experiences of marginalization. This paper thus emphasizes how social relations are central to analysing the complexities and contradictions of everyday legal geographies.

Are videogames represented as violent in the press? Hypothesis testing using md-cads and corpora of UK newspapers from 2000 and 2020

Previous academic research has argued that videogames are represented as violent in the media, and that these representations provide a justification to study videogames as a social object. However, little systematic research has been done to confirm whether such representations occur frequently, or whether this is a non-representative assumption based on a small number of news stories. Through using methods associated with Modern-Diachronic Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (md-cads), we explore two corpora of newspaper articles from the British press containing references to videogames: one contains data from 2000 and the other from 2020. We find that whilst newspapers do represent videogames as promoting violence, these representations occur much more frequently in 2000 than in 2020, and that in 2020 this idea is more regularly challenged. Furthermore, in 2020 there is a greater focus on the benefit of videogames for the economy compared to 2000. The research highlights the need to critically revaluate assumptions about how the media represents not only videogames, but also comparable topics.

Gender-Related Differences in the Performance of Request in the Algerian Classroom Discourse

Despite extensive research on requests, there remains a notable gap in understanding gender differences in Algerian classrooms. This study investigates how male and female students and teachers formulate requests during classroom interactions, using responses from a discourse completion task (DCT). The aim is to explore how gender influences choice of request strategies and variations in directness, considering social variables such as power dynamics, social distance, and the imposition level among participants. The study focuses on identifying similarities and differences in request behaviors between male and female interactions among Algerian students and teachers, as well as among students themselves. Data were collected through a Discourse Completion Task featuring three scenarios of classroom interactions, involving 115 male and female participants. The findings indicate that gender significantly influences the selection of request strategies and levels among Algerian students and teachers. Female students and teachers tended to employ more indirect request strategies compared to males, who typically favored direct approaches across all scenarios. Furthermore, the study reveals that the degree of directness varied for both genders based on socio-cultural factors such as power dynamics, social distance, imposition levels, and religious norms prevalent in Algerian society. The research highlights that students generally opt for conventional indirect strategies when making requests to teachers. In contrast, direct requests are more commonly used when individuals of equal social status interact or when the requester holds a higher status than the respondent. This study contributes new insights into the impact of gender and socio-cultural factors on request strategies and politeness in Algerian classroom discourse, enriching the field of cross-cultural pragmatics and classroom discourse studies.

‘Stupid Girls’ vs. ‘Real Men’: Identity Construction and Social Media Polarization over Revenge Porn

The purpose of this paper is to explore polarization in the discourse of social media commentators over crimes of Revenge Porn. Revenge porn refers to “the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images” (Bond and Tyrrell 2021, 2166), videos, or other intimate material, which are weaponized against its victims. As with other crimes, revenge porn cases are highly discussed on social media, where users might (a) reproduce prejudice and stigma against victims or, contrarily, (b) resist victim-blaming and shaming ideologies as a form of activism and call for empathy (Garcés-Conejos Blitvich and Bou-Franch 2019; Palomino-Manjón 2022). In light of this, this paper examines the discursive construction of the phenomenon of revenge porn and the evaluations proposed of victims and perpetrators on the social network YouTube with the aim of unveiling conflicting ideologies online. To this end, the present study analyzes a corpus of 14,000 comments (ca. 411,000 words) from four different YouTube videos tackling revenge porn cases. The paper adopts a Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) approach (Partington et al. 2013) and uses Sketch Engine to analyze the corpus. Additionally, a more detailed analysis of evaluative resources and linguistic patterns is carried out. Results show that polarized understandings of revenge porn abound in the corpus. Specifically, victim-blaming ideologies are discursively concealed, whereas traditional ideologies regarding sex are overtly encoded. Moreover, male users affiliate with newer constructions of masculinity and dissociate from the illegal actions attributed to perpetrators. Women/victims are generally derogated for not conforming to societal views of common-sensical sexual behavior or praised for their strength in standing social judgment.

Framing discomfort on YouTube: Narratives of non-binary dysphoria

In Western thinking, the binary gender system has long held a central position, often side-lining identities that exist beyond this binary framework. This facet of gender discourse frequently leads to the omission of non-binary individuals from discourses not only of gender, but more broadly of societal concern. As a result, it is not unusual for these individuals to experience discomfort, both in respect of their gender identity and in relation to societal expectations, often leading to gender dysphoria. It is no chance, in light of the above, that clinical definitions and comprehension of gender dysphoria predominantly center on a binary understanding of gender, even though the experience of gender dysphoria extends beyond this binary framework. Over the past decade, social-media platforms have emerged as dynamic arenas where non-binary individuals can openly express their gender identities. In this context, social-media holds considerable influence as a potent tool (Angouri, 2021) for the construction and portrayal of non-binary identities online. Within this discourse, the articulation of discomfort with one’s own physical appearance seems to be a recurring theme. This study explores the articulation of emotional discomfort among non-binary YouTubers, in relation to their gender experience. It employs a methodology relying on Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies (Gillings et al., 2023), using the Sketch Engine software (Kilgarrif et al., 2014), to identify distinctive lexical patterns that characterize the expression of discomfort and dysphoria. The dataset includes YouTube videos from five channels owned by non-binary YouTubers, which could be considered, by virtue of their content and stated purpose, as explicit non-binary communicative gender performances. The paper primarily investigates how discourse surrounding suffering and discomfort contributes to the portrayal of non-binary identities in online spaces, and seeks to observe whether the expression of this discomfort can be construed as a means of seeking validation for these identities within the social-media domain.

Unmasking the depoliticisation of ICT in digital competence frameworks for educators: a critical discourse study

ABSTRACT This study explores digital competence education by looking into how discourse in a typical digital competence framework for educators may or may not promote democracy in the way it features information and communication technology (ICT). The authors examined the Norwegian Professional Digital Competence Framework for Teachers, which is aligned with similar frameworks from all over the world and therefore offers insight into international discourse about ICT. They performed a critical discourse study (sociocognitive approach) to uncover inherent knowledge and assumptions about ICT. Findings show an adaptive approach to this technology, which is conveyed as a ‘tool’, ‘arena for participation’, ‘(communication) channel’ and ‘changing force’. Thus, there is a focus on participation in politics ON the internet. Politics OF the internet and ICT, however, is not mentioned, which indicates that the technology is naturalised and thereby kept away from democratic debate. This suggests a risk of democratic deficiency.

Generative AI Adoption in Postsecondary Education, AI Hype, and ChatGPT’s Launch

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into postsecondary education and many other sectors resulted in a global reckoning with this new technology. This paper contributes to the study of the multifaceted influence of generative AI, with a particular focus on OpenAI's ChatGPT within academic settings during the first six months after the release in three specific ways. First, it scrutinizes the rise of ChatGPT as a transformative event construed through a study of mainstream discourses exhibiting AI hype. Second, it discusses the perceived implications of generative AI for writing, teaching, and learning through the lens of critical discourse analysis and critical AI studies. Third, it encourages the necessity for best practices in the adoption of generative AI technologies in education.

#Sportsball anti-fandom as identity performance on X: The case of Australian Football League Women's (AFLW)

This article identifies a novel form of sports anti-fan identity present amongst X (formerly Twitter) followers of The Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) competition – #sportsball fans – whose nascent attachment to women's Australian Rules football is publicly performed as an ironically detached becoming-a-fan-ness, often rooted in a self-identified, pre-existing aversion to both sport and sports fandom. The term #sportsball serves as a shorthand for these types of new fan identities, for whom ironic distancing and expressions of surprise at their sudden affective attachment to football serve as a bridging device for traversing different textualities, for protecting the curated online self, and for managing expectations within pre-existing online communities. Identified via a corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) analysis of 71,332 posts drawn from official match day hashtags for the AFLW's inaugural 2017 season, #sportsball fans represent a significant contribution to our understanding of mediated fan practices and online identity construction.

The semiotics of red-tagging: hateful affects against the community pantry movement

Abstract This study demonstrates how a red-tagging post on the community pantry movement in the Philippines performs its affective work of hate through the use of diverse modes of meaning-making (composition, representation, and language). It does so by employing a semiotic approach that integrates a multimodal framework that is attentive to materiality and an affective approach to discourse studies. The analysis traces and reveals different affective affordances of the semiotic resources in the chosen red-tagging post. Overall, the study sheds light on how red-tagging practices – in this case, in the form of a poster/Facebook post – are strategically semioticized, thus contributing to a larger political project of constructing an affective discourse of hate against the community pantry movement.

Terminology, popularisation and ideology in contemporary China

Abstract This paper explores the relationship between terminology, the popularisation of scientific and technical knowledge and ideology in the People’s Republic of China. Specifically, it presents a study that focuses on an online daily column entitled ‘Scientific & Technical Term of the Day’ (每日科技名词), a terminology popularisation project promoted by China’s contemporary political leadership and implemented through the digital institutional platform Xuexi qiangguo 学习强国. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of critical discourse studies and legitimation in discourse, as well as frame analysis and frame semantics, the paper presents an analysis of expository texts designed to complement the knowledge provided by terminographic definitions of the terms published in the daily column. The focus is on the framing of China and the Party-state in these texts, which, it is argued, can also be interpreted as legitimation strategies.

Communicating intergenerational justice and climate change: a study of youth-generated environmental discourses

Abstract Awareness of climate change as an intergenerational issue with inequitable risk burden for younger generations is a relatively recent phenomenon. However, youth activists have already managed to come to occupy a meaningful role in climate advocacy. Accepting the invitation to search for positive new discourses to live by, this paper applies a positive discourse analytical lens to the study of the online discourses produced by the youth climate activists of Generation Climate Europe (GCE), the largest coalition of youth-led networks on climate and environmental issues at the European level, examining how GCE newsletters and podcasts use discursive strategies and multimodal resources to communicate their message. The (corpus-assisted) positive discourse analysis of this GCE-produced content revealed that the youth activists designed a complex virtual space brimming with cross-references, intertextuality, and options for its audience that projected an identity for the coalition as a productive, solution-oriented, and agentive organization. The discourses produced by GCE were carefully tailored to a specific interpretive community and they aimed to both claim and impart authority and expertise. GCE’s interactional practices strove to generate wiggle room to resist the status quo and advocate for critical issues such as intergenerational justice and institutional transparency. In disclosing these results, the authors hope to have contributed to understandings of how sustainable climate advocacy is currently being enacted by youth within digital communication across platforms.

THE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF FRAUDULENT DISCOURSE TEXTS

The article pays attention to modern Russian psycholinguistic analysis in the study of fraudulent dis-course. It is shown that currently in the country, as a result of the increase in the number of crimes committed using mobile phones, scientifi c interest in the speech of a fraudster, methods of infl uencing the victim is increasing, and the question of the need for eff ective protection against unwanted communication arises. The description of the live speech of a fraudster in a real communication situation is relevant; the subject of scientifi c research attracts resear-chers with the opportunity to understand the mechanisms and methods of infl uencing the consciousness of a real or potential victim. The material consisted of recordings of the verbatim content of phonograms in criminal cases. The authors attempt to consider the text of the fraudster’s speech from the point of view of a psycholinguistic approach. A review is made of the scientifi c views of Russian scientists on the manipulation of opinions and actions, and the basic concepts are qualifi ed. The concepts of “linguistic picture of the world” and “linguistic consciousness” are revealed. The authors of the scientifi c article convincingly demonstrated how the slightest change in the communi-cation situation instantly aff ects the structure of the dialogue. We study how the process of substitution of linguistic consciousness occurs in a situation of communication between a fraudster and a victim. The focus is on the seman-tic, pragmatic, syntactic aspects of speech manipulation. Attempts have been made to identify the reasons for the victim’s unquestioning adherence to the criminal’s instructions. In conclusion, the authors proved that in order to prevent this type of crime, it is most important to convey to the potential victim that it is necessary to break off the communicative act (hang up), not to give the criminal the slightest chance to replace the linguistic picture of the world, to immerse the victim in an illusion, which, when disappearing, will cause damage not only to the victim’s bank account, but also to mental health. The theoretical signifi cance of the scientifi c article is seen in the fact that the real recorded speech of the fraudster was studied and the suggestive potential of the remarks was investigated. The results of the study will be useful to anyone who fi nds themselves a victim within the fraudulent discourse.

Mechanisms for analyzing Islamic educational discourse in light of heritage constants and development trends A comparative descriptive study of school discourse as a model

The cultural heritage of previous nations constitutes an important source of human knowledge, and its importance lies in the fact that it is also inspiring for any contemporary reading in many fields. The educational stock of the Islamic nation is part of this human heritage, and is no less important. It is distinguished by its bright heritage characteristics, which we can reformulate by following contemporary approaches and methods, which reveals to us appropriate conditions and data for talking about an Islamic educational discourse and considering it as one of the human educational discourses no less rich and diverse than it, and this is a prelude to a fair and equitable conscious reading of it at the level of perception and practice. And the efforts made and embodied in what the bright minds of a group of thinkers who paid attention to the importance of education. In addition to building schools, innovating educational methods in teaching learners, and the efforts of philanthropists and donors to sponsor the expenses for them and for their patrons, including student teachers, there is much evidence of this. The topic is an attempt to shed light on the forms of schools among Muslims, which contributed to highlighting trends within the educational discourse among Muslims, which today must be researched and discovered with contemporary visions and methods. This is of course based on the need of humanity in the twenty-first century for an integrated and comprehensive educational discourse that is based on human experience and responds. to the requirements of the times. Keywords: Discourse analysis, heritage constants, discourse development trends.

Breaking the Postmodern Deadlock: Metamodernism’s Methodological Revolution

Abstract This paper is a response to the roundtable on Metamodernism: The Future of Theory, focusing on the work’s methodological implications and theoretical advancements. Using traffic jams as a case study, Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm illustrates how his approach both incorporates and transcends the insights of discourse studies. He abridges a version of his theory of process “social kinds,” which he describes as dynamic, socially constructed clusters of properties, defined by the anchoring processes – dynamic-nominalist, mimetic, and ergonic – that uniquely contribute to their properties. He shows how focusing on these anchoring processes challenges conventional methodologies and could herald new research paths in religious studies and other fields, advocating for a shift towards a more inclusive and dynamic interpretation of social phenomena.

FAIRCLOUGH’S CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ALDI TAHER’S NEWS IN ONLINE MEDIA

This research focuses on the news of Aldi Taher as a Bacaleg in online media. The purpose of this research is to find out how the image displayed by three online media (tempo.co, republika.co.id, and detik.com) and its relation to social reality. In this research, the method used is descriptive qualitative method. Data analysis uses critical discourse study theory proposed by Norman Fairclough. The results show that there are different variations of media images. Tempo.co tends to focus on reporting Aldi Taher's politics as a Bacaleg by finding out responses to the political world, Detik.com is more focused on the Aldi Taher phenomenon on social media but is reported neutrally, while Republika.co.id is more focused on reporting the Aldi Taher phenomenon and his unique image known on social media. Key Words: Critical Discourse Analysis, Online Media, Celebrity

The place of discourse analysis as an analytical method of text and speech interpretation in modern linguistics (on the example of sports communication research)

This article is devoted to the consideration of discourse studies development as well as that of discourse analysis. This method makes it possible to take into account not only the linguistic (verbal) aspect, but also the supra-linguistic (extra-verbal) one, as it also focuses on the situational peculiarities of the text or statements, their pragmatic and functional features, the cultural and historical context, and many other factors. Nowadays discourse analysis is widely used for interdisciplinary research, which determines the relevance of studying the prospects for its further use. This work provides a historical overview of discourse studies formation and development. Various approaches to the key concept interpretation from this area, which is discourse, are analysed. The process of discourse analysis formation as one of the most important parts of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of discourse studies as well as various approaches to its implementation are considered. Some new ways of using discourse analysis to conduct research on various institutional types of communication are proposed, which is demonstrated by the example of implementing this method in the study of sports rhetoric.

Navigating Crisis and Democracy: Analyzing Mexico through the Neo-Weberian State and the TODO framework

This study uses the Neo-Weberian State (NWS) and TODO frameworks to examine Mexico’s public sector reforms and current challenges. Analyzing the trajectory of public administration reforms reveals a historical context of mixed logics, weak institutions, and limited capacity, further aggravated by recent democratic backsliding, dismantling, and austerity cuts. Next, based on the TODO framework, emphasizing turbulent environments, oscillating knowledge quality, domino-falling types of interdependence, and opposing solutions, we analyze the case of the migration crisis at the US-Mexico border as a way to exemplify current challenges faced by the Mexican public sector. The analysis exposes shortcomings in crisis management, highlighting political neglect, strained US-Mexico relations, and prolonged uncertainty for asylum seekers. Overall, the study underscores Mexico’s need to enhance systemic resilience governance. Findings contribute to the study of discourse on governance models, emphasizing the importance of adaptive frameworks for crisis management and democratic governance in the Global South.

Examining the Language of Politics and the Politics of Language via Political Discourse Analysis

An overview of political discourse analysis (PDA) research is provided in this essay. We start by placing this work in the context of the linguistic and political shifts that occurred in the last half of the twentieth century in the social and human sciences. We next go over many opinions about what constitutes the political and relevant subjects of study for PDA. We examine the connection between PDA and critical discourse analysis (CDA), adopting an inclusive understanding of politics and discourse. We conclude by reviewing political discourse studies in terms of the theoretical and analytical frameworks they use, as well as the sociopolitical topics they tackle.