Discourse Patterns Research Articles

Assessing the strategic levers in the discourse of best-performing CEOs: a three-dimensional model

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to assess the patterns in the public discourse of successful chief executive officers (CEOs) in terms of performance, with the CEO's strengths and aspects to improve.Design/methodology/approachThis paper aligns with the literature that appraises CEO public discourse and relevance. From the literature review, the strategic levers in CEO discourse toward high performance are identified. The CEO letters in the period 2017–2019 of the top 25 best performing CEOs (BPCs) according to Harvard Business Review ranking 2019 are qualitatively examined through a multiple close reading analytical technique and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is applied to assess the patterns.FindingsThe paper delivers a three-dimensional model representing how the identified strategic levers are articulated by BPCs in the BPC's discourse following diverse patterns. This paper points out BPC's strengths, among them a high level of moral reasoning compared to previous studies and improvable areas such as the extended absence of autocritique at the firm and personal level or the lack of leverage on the need for agility and proactive adaption.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes further CEO awareness of the strategic role of the discourse and offers clues to enhance CEO awareness, as well as criteria for boards of directors to appraise CEO discourse.Originality/valueAdopting a novel approach, this paper addresses the strategic levers triggered by CEOs in their letters from a managerial implication perspective, providing relevant theoretical insight on how they are articulated.

Collaborative discourse during coteaching: A case study of one in-service teacher's growth

This qualitative case study conducted in the United States from 2017 to 2020 examines how one in-service teacher's (IST's) coteaching practice shifted when collaborating with three different pre-service teachers (PSTs) during clinical practice. Through the analysis of recorded planning/assessing sessions, the authors identified primary discourse patterns and stance embodied by the IST. Over three years, the IST's discourse changed, shifting positioning from that of leader to teacher educator to learner/collaborator. An increase in asking for input and decrease in justifying/explaining thinking indicated a collaborative stance. Implications for other TPPs interested in shifting an IST's coteaching practice are provided.

Impact of the Context of Socioscientific Issues on Discourse Patterns Used in Science Classes

This study is a qualitative study conducted to examine the effect of socioscientific issues (SSI) on discourse patterns used in the classroom. The research was conducted with four elementary science teachers working in a public school. The research was designed as case studies of these four teachers and data resources were video recordings of these teachers’ routine and SSI based lessons. The data was analyzed through discourse analysis. The discourse patterns used by teachers were examined in terms of adjacent the utterance, triadic, and chain discourse patterns. The results indicated that the discourse patterns used by the teachers in their routine lessons changed dramatically in the context of SSI and the chain discourse pattern came to the fore in the courses processed in the context of the SSI.

Diplomatic letters from the Republic of Ragusa in the fifteenth century

Abstract In this paper, I study the ways in which (im)politeness strategies are used in letters sent by the Republic of Ragusa to its ambassadors in the Bosnian Kingdom during the fifteenth century. The corpus for this research comprises the Lettere di Levante collection, today kept in the Dubrovnik State Archives, Croatia. I aim to determine the politeness strategies that were used in the letters based on the Brown and Levinson framework. The paper focusses on mitigating strategies used when making requests, expressing condolences, offering congratulations and making threats. The research reveals patterns in conversational and written exchanges, whose goal is to be conventionally polite and diplomatic. This research aims to offer insights into intercultural communication in Europe, inter-European influence, and communication patterns in diplomatic discourse and might be of interest to political scientists, historians and diplomats.

Analysing Interaction in Science Classrooms

One central issue for research in classrooms is to provide insights concerning characteristics of classroom interaction that can help teachers improve their teaching. In the present study, we analyse spoken interaction in one elementary physics classroom by the use of two different frameworks, targeting similar aspects of social communication, namely how discourse patterns shape the relations between participants. The two frameworks utilized are on the one hand analyses of the communicative approach according to Mortimer and Scott, combined with analyses of discourse patterns such as IRE-patterns, and on the other hand analyses related to the interpersonal meta-function in Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, SFG. The aim was to highlight possibilities and limitations of the different frameworks. 
 Our analyses reveal that the two analytical frameworks have partly the same, partly different affordances concerning what they can reveal about classroom interaction. The analyses of the communicative approaches have the potential of elucidating discursive patterns and power relations at a general level, while the analyses based on SFG can provide more details about the power relations in terms of how the participants actually structure their utterances. The results are also discussed regarding implications for education.

Language diversity as resource or as problem? Educator discourses and language policy at high schools in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT The ways in which educators talk about diversity, and specifically about linguistic diversity, reflect underlying beliefs about language in society and influence teaching practice. Semi-structured interviews with 55 high school teachers in the Netherlands were analyzed qualitatively in order to identify teachers’ discourse patterns related to the backgrounds and home languages of their students as well as language policies in the school context. The teachers struggle with the labels to categorize students with migration backgrounds, showing awareness of problematic insider-outsider labels. In terms of language diversity, deficit discourses about home languages and a monolingual focus on Dutch acquisition for immigrants highlights the prevalence of a language-as-problem orientation in decisions about language use. Language policy is focused on the development of skills in the target language, Dutch, and the promotion of a Dutch-only norm in the high schools. However, some interviewees describe the potential resource of the mother tongue in the classroom. Highlighting taken-for-granted assumptions in the discourses of Dutch teachers does not negate their best intentions in preparing their students for society. Rather it demonstrates the influence of language ideologies on teaching practice and the importance of teacher preparation and increased awareness of students’ home language resources.

‘One Thing’: Stoic Discourse and Paul’s Reevaluation of His Jewish Credentials in Phil. 3.1–21

Biblical scholars frequently discuss Paul’s relationship to his Jewish ancestral practices and heritage, a debate that is due in no small part to his inconsistency on the topic. Although some recent scholars have highlighted statements expressing Paul’s esteem for such credentials, the correct interpretation of his devaluation of them in Phil. 3.1–21 is a lingering scholarly problem. I argue that this text evidences adaptation of Stoic patterns of discourse that indicate that Paul’s devaluation does not depict his repudiation of such practices and credentials but his refusal to compare them to ‘knowing Christ’. His use of these patterns of discourse is designed to establish the first-order value of ‘knowing Christ’ and to model for the Philippians the epistemological evaluation he believed was crucial to their eschatological salvation.

Linguistic and Communicative Practices in the US Military’s Response to the COVID-19 Emergency

There has been debate on the language used by the media and the government in communicating about the pandemic emergency (Kranert et al. 2020; Cardinale 2021; Kalkman 2021). One of the main criticisms lies in their extensive use of “military metaphors”, a common trend in healthcare discourse (Nie et al. 2016; Parsi 2016). In truth, the US military avoids such aggressive language in favor of a more positive professional discursive approach (Parcell and Webb 2015), with greater focus on the support and implementation of clear, structured pandemic emergency plans. As a result, the military has managed to maintain its activity and a relatively low fatality rate while becoming a model of containment in certain areas (Nevitt 2020). The study will adopt the CADS (Corpus Assisted Discourse Analysis) methodology to analyze a corpus of military press articles and Department of Defense resources. It will draw qualitative insights on productive discourse patterns of military and governmental authorities, while empirically confirming or questioning such insights. In doing so, the study aims at highlighting alternative linguistic strategies that may be productively used in civilian emergency communication.

Student interaction discourse moves: characterizing and visualizing student discourse patterns

Student-centered instruction allows students to take ownership over their learning in the classroom. However, these settings do not always promote productive engagement. Using discourse analysis, student engagement can be analyzed based on how they are interacting with each other while completing in-class group activities. Previous analyses of student engagement in science settings have used methods that do not capture the intricacies of student group interactions such as the flow of conversation and nature of student utterances outside of argumentation or reasoning. However, these features are important to accurately assess student engagement. This study proposes a tiered analytical framework and visualization scheme for analyzing group discussion patterns that allow for a detailed analysis of student discourse moves while discussing scientific topics. This framework allows a researcher to see the flow of an entire conversation within a single schematic. The Student Interaction Discourse Moves framework can be used to extend studies using discourse analysis to determine how student groups work through problems.

Պարտվողական խոսույթը և նրա դերը Լեռնային Ղարաբաղի պարտության մեջ (ըստ ԵԱՀԿ Մինսկի խմբի հայտարարությունների) / Defeatist Discourse and its Role in the Defeat of Nagorno-Karabagh (on the Example of the Statements of the OSCE Minsk Group)

This article investigates the impact of defeatist discourse on the outcome of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, focusing on the statements made by the OSCE Minsk Group. The research aims to present the linguistic units employed in the statements of the ОSCЕ Minsk Grоup, constituting elements of a defeatist discourse that exerted influence on the trajectory of the conflict, culminating in the ultimate defeat of Nagorno-Karabakh. The objectives encompass the identification of defeatist discourse patterns within the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group, examination of their potential ramifications, and comprehension of the role such language may have played in the defeat of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Gestão da Reserva Extrativista Tapajós-Arapiuns: Limites e possibilidades na percepção de seus conselheiros

Abstract Protected Areas (PAs) are strategic for sociobiodiversity conservation; they strengthen traditional communities and promote sustainable development and their territorial management needs to be inclusive, participative and integrating. This study analyzed the shared management of the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve and how the members of its Deliberative Council perceive its contributions to the PA’s socioeconomic development. Analysis of the results of the semi-structured interviews used content analysis to extract the data and identified discourse patterns that indicate aspects that could be improved to foster the institutional strengthening of the Deliberative Council itself.

БОЛЬШАЯ РОЛЬ «МАЛЫХ» СЛОВ (на материале английского языка)

The object of research in the article is functional parts of speech, and the subject matter is their role in the language realization of its main functions: cognitive, communicative and interpretive. As the author states, functional words have been thoroughly studied in the context of structural paradigm whereas their role in the reconstruction of the work of consciousness calls for a more detailed analysis which is the aim of the article. The analysis is carried out on the material of the English language with occasional references to the Russian language. The main methods of analysis are introspection and semantic interpretation, inferential and context-situational types of analysis. As the analysis shows the functional parts of speech contribute greatly to the language realization of its main functions: cognitive, communicative and interpretive. The history of the determination category, constituted by the opposition of the definite, indefinite and zero articles, reveals that articles reflect the cognitive development of a human being, the transition from the perception of a single object to categorization, i.e. from concrete to abstract thinking. The participation of the article in the actual division of the sentence reveals its contribution to the language realization of its communicative and interpretive functions. The main function of the prepositions consists in forming the scaffolding for our thought on its way to verbalization in the sentence as a special format of knowledge about a situation of reality. Prepositions serve as language markers of the roles of participants of the event, presented in the sentence. Besides, the variation in the choice of a preposition manifests the difference in the focus of attention during the perception of an event as well as the difference in the perception of the same event by different types of language consciousness. Conjunctions as markers of the character of relations between the components of a composite sentence as a special format of knowledge manifest the possibility of different interpretations of the relations between the events of reality presented in the proposition of the composite sentence as a mental analog of reality. The study of conjunctions in the cognitive aspect enables us to get knowledge about the cognitive development of a child as well as about the specificity of discourse patterns in different languages related to ethnocultural factors. Reflecting the deep relations between the events of reality, conceptualized by the individual mind, conjunctions carry out an important function in the fiction text, participating in the expression of its dominant meanings and the plot development.

Exploring social and cognitive engagement in small groups through a community of learners (CoL) lens

A variety of research studies reveal the advantages of actively engaging students in the learning process through collaborative work in the classroom. However, the complex nature of the learning environment in large college general chemistry courses makes it challenging to identify the different factors that affect students’ cognitive and social engagement while working on in-class tasks. To provide insights into this area, we took a closer look at students’ conversations during in-class activities to characterize typical discourse patterns and expressed chemical thinking in representative student groups in samples collected in five different learning environments across four universities. For this purpose, we adapted and applied a ‘Community of Learners’ (CoL) theoretical perspective to characterize group activity through the analysis of student discourse. Within a CoL perspective, the extent to which a group functions as a community of learners is analyzed along five dimensions including Community of Discourse (CoD), Legitimization of Differences (LoD), Building on Ideas (BoI), Reflective Learning (RL), and Community of Practice (CoP). Our findings make explicit the complexity of analyzing student engagement in large active learning environments where a multitude of variables can affect group work. These include, among others, group size and composition, the cognitive level of the tasks, the types of cognitive processes used to complete tasks, and the motivation and willingness of students to substantively engage in disciplinary reasoning. Our results point to important considerations in the design and implementation of active learning environments that engage more students with chemical ideas at higher levels of reasoning.

Pengaruh Keterampilan Bahasa Guru terhadap Penalaran Siswa

Understanding the vocabulary that is part of the body of language contributes significantly to overall understanding in many areas of content, such as mathematical reasoning. Teachers are expected to be able to pay attention to the way children communicate their reasoning in order to respond appropriately to improve children's reasoning and communication in their mathematical thinking. This study explores specifically the effects on teachers' language skills in demonstration lessons while teaching mathematics in the classroom and the learning objectives of improving students' reasoning ability. The study involved teachers from three different schools in Langsa City. The large number of teachers does not seem to pay special attention in the course of demonstrations of the broader pattern of justification-based discourse being formed. Only with the introduction and understanding of these specific difficulties can teachers then begin to address the instructional needs of their students from a language perspective. Designing and delivering vocabulary instructions effectively is a necessary action. Failure to design, convey, and understand children's language will have an effect on the growth of their mathematical alignment. In an effort to improve the overall mathematical performance of students, teachers need to recognize the importance of language to children's mathematical reasoning.

Promotion in Academic Discourse: Authors’ Centrality Claims in Their Research Article Introductions

Centrality claims in the introduction part of a research article are aimed at attracting readers’ attention towards the research topic to be discussed in the article. Readers will decide whether or not to continue reading the article if the appeal is effective and the claims of the importance and usefulness of the article are accepted. However, most studies investigate only the discourse patterns and linguistic features of article introductions without analyzing further how authors attract readers’ attention to the importance of their research topic. This study aimed at comparing the types of centrality claims found in the introductions of articles published in high-rank and low-rank international journals in Applied Linguistics. Forty articles chosen from four Scopus-indexed international journals in Applied Linguistics were used in this study. The results showed that on average every article used 3.65 appeals of different types. Two types of claims (appeal to salience and appeal to problematicity) are more frequently used by authors than the other two types of appeal (appeal to topicality and appeal to magnitude). The data also reveal that, although not significant, the journal ranking correlates with the frequency of appeals used in the introductions. It is suggested that authors in Applied Linguistics should use multiple types of appeals in their introduction to attract readers’ attention to their research topic so that they are willing to read the entire article.

The Proposal of a Verbal Interaction Framework for Elementary Science Teachers

This study is purposed to specifically present and suggest two of the five aspects of the existing framework using data recorded by science class teachers. Mortimer and Scott (2003) viewed teaching purposes, content, communicative approach, patterns of discourse, and teacher intervention as five aspects of classroom discourse analysis, analyzed for secondary science classes. In this study, four episodes were extracted from elementary science classes, the entire analysis was conducted, and the analysis frame developed in this study was applied. The results of the study showed that elementary science classes were analyzed differently according to class flow and the score of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). In addition, the analysis framework presented in this study and the score of the RTOP were slightly consistent.

From football field to global politics, will FIFA discourse help Russia? A critical discourse analysis of headlines

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the FIFA World Cup 2018 headlines generated by Russia are a means to utilize and apply soft power with the aim to restore Russia’s role as one of the powerful and influential states in the global politics. Analysing the use of evaluative patterns in selected headlines, this paper scrutinizes the socio-historical influences that shape and reinforce nationalist and capitalist ideologies, and hence drive the discourse patterns within the headlines. Governed by the theories of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Appraisal Theory, the analysis revealed that the headlines were crafted to help Russia move out of global isolation. This symbolic domination was fulfilled by regaining global legitimacy while surging up nationalism and patriotism through the lexical choices applied in crafting the FIFA discourse. This study provides a model for future analyses of the socio-political and historical influences and contexts of the discourses surrounding global events like FIFA.

Metaphors of the virtual: how ordinary people frame what the internet is

ABSTRACT This article explores how experiences of the virtual are metaphorically articulated in people’s narratives of these experiences. It analyses a database of 171 responses by UK adults of all ages and backgrounds to establish how they used metaphor to frame their experiences online, at a time when the internet was increasingly becoming a platform for living everyday life. The article finds that respondents used a multiplicity of metaphoric frames simultaneously, some of them well established and conventionalised in discourse, and some newer. Although there is evidence of a new way of metaphorically framing the virtual as a way of experiencing the everyday, this had not yet replaced conventionalised metaphors in the data, but co-existed with them. The article argues that a slow shift in discourse patterns may be taking place alongside a shift in experience, whereby the role of technology in mediating the everyday is gradually becoming invisible.

Locating Language-Teacher Identities in the Settler-Colonial Universe

The practice of English language teaching has long been an important part of socializing transnational migrants and international students into ongoing English-dominant settler-colonial projects in North America and beyond. The professional activities, knowledge, and identities of English language instructors are therefore central to the reproduction of the settler-colonial order. In this article, I investigate the relationship between language-teacher identities and settler-colonial discourses of raciolinguistic differentiation and hierarchy in Canada. Working in a discursive constructionist conceptual framework, I adopt occasioned semantics to analyze excerpts from research interviews with two ELT instructors in post-secondary and adult ESL contexts. I demonstrate how these instructors’ talk about students and languages performed language-teacher identities-in-discourse and argue that these performances reflected and contributed to reproduction of settler-colonial discourse patterns. I further suggest that settler colonialism constitutes for ELT practice in Canada a hermetic “universe” with its own internal logics and relations that must be examined and made explicit through reflection. Some pedagogical implications of this analysis include the need for ELT instructors as well as English-language teacher educators to develop an awareness of local settler-colonial histories, teach for truth and reconciliation, and embrace strategies for de-naturalizing the settler-colonial “universe” as they create spaces of possibility for decolonization to be carried out. One research implication is that language-teacher identity scholarship would be strengthened by embracing epistemological and methodological decolonization.

(O)mission statements

This paper interrogates the mission statements and strategic development plans of two universities in South Africa in order to unpack both the deficit and surplus messages embedded in them. One of the universities is located in a rural setting and was classified as formerly disadvantaged, while the other one was a formerly white and privileged university. This article is a qualitative study andemploys a content and discursive analytic approach, together with McLaren’s (1994) typological framework on the four forms of multiculturalism in order to interrogate the mission statements and strategic development plans of the two universities in question. Both the mission statements and the strategic development plans are examined for the ways in which they discursively identify whois included and excluded from the realisation and attainment of the missions and development plans of the two universities studied. The article argues that specific discourse patterns emerge from the two universities’ mission statements and strategic development plans to the extent that either marginalising messages or promissory and empowering messages are conveyed inadvertently in the inscriptions. The article ultimately suggests that there is a need for a shift from a deficit discourse to looking critically and reflexively at current university practices and shortcomings in the use of discourse patterns to include or exclude significant agents in both the crafting and implementation of the principalities embedded in their mission statements and strategic development plans.