16.1332, Review: Discourse/Sociolinguistics: Koester (2004)

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1332. Tue Apr 26 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1332, Review: Discourse/Sociolinguistics: Koester (2004)

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.
Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomi at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Dooley at collberg at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 26-Apr-2005
From: Giampaolo Poletto < janospal at libero.it >
Subject: The Language of Work 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 03:25:17
From: Giampaolo Poletto < janospal at libero.it >
Subject: The Language of Work 
 

AUTHOR: Koester, Almut
TITLE: The Language of Work
SERIES: The Intertext series
PUBLISHER: Routledge
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2688.html


Giampaolo Poletto, doctoral student, Doctoral School in Linguistics, 
University of Pécs, Hungary

DESCRIPTION

Koester's methodological approach to the object and reader of his study is 
displayed in the layout of each of the six units of this work. A short 
introduction stating the purpose and briefing on the content is followed, 
in a mixed order, by situational samples to work on, a commentary on the 
most relevant discursive features, specific monitoring activities, with 
given answers when required, a summary, activities for further discussion. 
The main issues are presented in the first unit and gradually examined in 
the next interwoven units, where some of their specific features are 
comparatively pointed out and exemplified. Recurring graphical devices 
contribute to visually frame the different stages and single out some 
guiding concepts. Workplace discourse is therefore examined moving from 
the general to the particular, in the context of a practical textbook 
accessible to students and useful for scholars, who are directly involved 
in the making of the study and can separately draw inspiration from its 
parts for their own purposes. References and an index of terms are 
provided in the end. 

The analytical perspective unfolds as follows. 
The first unit (1-13), along with the concept of 'institutional talk' of 
Drew and Heritage (1992), points out the relevant features and differences 
between casual and workplace conversation, as to goal orientation, turn-
taking rules or restrictions, allowable contributions, professional lexis, 
structure, symmetry. Samples are two live conversational exchanges: 
Students Chatting Round the Tea Table (see Carter and MacCarthy, 1997:86); 
Editorial Office. Further extracts shift to and focus on the relevance of 
professional contexts, which vary as to the registers used and the genres 
occurring.

The second unit (15-28) proceeds from and develops the previous closing 
issue: how language dynamically perspectivizes the values and attitudes 
related to the workplace and specific professions. The focus is on the 
role of work, the concept of 'career', the place of the individual. The 
context of the discourse community is viewed from within and from without. 
In this sense stereotypes, highly influencing on our perceptions, play an 
important role. Samples include: three written texts, from a careers 
magazine and a job advertisement from a guide; one live report on a 
worker's productivity. 

The third unit (29-52) sheds light on the features of some basic written 
genres common to different professions. The emphasis is on conventions and 
structures of genres, which are as stabilized as flexible and subject to 
variation. Again, samples cover communications within and without the 
professional community. Exchanges between co-workers are referred to 
through the analysis of a letter and three email messages, which are 
examined as to their distinctive traits, partly owing to Louhiala-
Salminen's (1999) observations on the informality of fax and email. Sales 
promotion letters addressing customers are then viewed along with the 
concept of 'move' (see Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993), in a general and 
specific perspective. The unit conclusively focuses on the business 
meeting and shifts to the relationship between written and spoken 
workplace interactions, through the analysis of a draft and the transcript 
of an excerpt from a conversation, both on the same topic.

The fourth unit (53-75) specifically details on spoken workplace genres. 
They can be as highly structured and conform to a pre-set agenda, as the 
transcript of a meeting shows, as unplanned and spontaneously arising out 
of a particular situation, as emphasized through the exam of a negotiation 
prompting between co-workers. The relevant interactions are affected by 
both the work situation and the role of the speakers. The former appears 
to be more incident than the latter, given its mutability at different 
times. Negotiation is finally tied to problem-solving conversations, which 
follow a definite problem-solution textual pattern, as defined by Hoey 
(2001). The sample is a conversation between colleagues, which highlights 
the collaborative aspect of workplace talk and its belonging to the 
category of procedural discourse, here exemplified through extracts from a 
training session. 

The fifth unit (77-100) is on relationships at work, where mostly 
asymmetrical talk - namely between co-workers, subordinates and managers, 
suppliers and service providers with customers - infers people pay 
attention to task goals and relational goals. Such conversations do not 
necessarily focus on an ongoing task, thus discursive differences from 
ordinary conversations may not be so clear-cut, as they show transcripts 
of three variably task-focused workplace conversations, a nominal 
printout, a report of a lost order, a meeting with a supplier, two 
telephone service encounters. Along with what previously said about 
instructions and explanations in procedural discourse, now the focus 
shifts to the role of the subordinate 'listener', in particular to a 
minimal or non-minimal response. This form of back channelling guarantees 
that the message is being received and reflects the way the speakers 
administer their specific hierarchical relationship. With reference to the 
situational context, it implies the enactment of politeness strategies, 
which directly tie to the notion of face as illustrated by Brown and 
Levinson (1987), even in the case of telephone interactions, more 
thoroughly examined by Cameroon (2000) and Cheepen (2000).

The sixth unit (101-116) conclusively covers texts - such as career 
advisers, job fairs, books and manuals on applying for a job, on the one 
side, articles in newspapers and magazines, on the other side - on the 
topic of entering the job market. The first three samples are careers 
advisers taken from newspapers. They show how they provide instructions 
and explanations of procedures of some kind. Their specific discursive 
traits are then compared looking back at spoken procedural genres. The 
following exam of a set of two job advertisements from a newspaper allows 
to draw a parallel with sales promotion letters, since they are persuasive 
genres and have a characteristic move structure. 

EVALUATION

Almut Koester's book synoptically focuses on the language of work, in 
different, autonomous and interdependent stages, which shape an 
investigation based on workplace oral and written conversations or 
communications. The study provides a first discursive insight. It is an 
exploration quite sharply opening and closing, where an analytical 
operative path is plainly outlined and unfolded. Theoretical approaches 
are not meant to be under scrutiny or construction. Unresolved problems 
are not meant to be emphasized or discussed. The reader is actively and 
factually called to examine transcripts and commentaries, to then 
concentrate on the suggested activities. The whole leads one to experience 
a widening in multiple directions that is practicable and forthcoming.

REFERENCES

Bhatia, V .K. (1993) Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional 
Settings. London: Longman.

Brown, P. & S. Levinson (1987) Politeness: Some Universal in Language 
Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cameroon, D. (2000) Good to Talk? Living and Working in a Communication 
Culture. London: Sage.

Carter, R. & M. MacCarthy (1997) Exploring Spoken Language. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press.

Cheepen, C. (2000) Small talk in service dialogues: the conversational 
aspects of transactional telephone talk. In J. Coupland (ed.) Small Talk. 
Harlow: Pearson Education, 288-311.

Drew, P. & J. Heritage (1992) Talk at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press.

Hoey, M. (2001) Textual Interaction: An Introduction to Written Discourse 
Analysis. London: Routledge.

Louhiala-Salminen, L. (1999) From business correspondence to message 
exchange: What is left?. In M. Hewings & C. Nickerson (eds.) Business 
English: Research into Practice. Harlow: Longman, 100-114.

Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research 
Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Giampaolo Poletto is a doctoral student at the Doctoral School in 
Linguistics of the University of Pécs, in Hungary. His linguistic fields 
of interest are discourse analysis, pragmatics, and applied linguistics. 
His research focuses on humor as a discursive strategy for young learners 
of Italian, in a cross-sectional and cross-cultural context.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1332