Alexander Hayes

WRT 105

Assignment #2

28 October 2013

 

My Youth Group

 

          What is a discourse community? A discourse community is described as a group of people who share a set of “discourses.” Discourses are understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. John Swales defined discourse communities as “groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals.” The only people who go to youth groups are the perfect kids who never do anything wrong and go to church every week and discuss God and what is going on in their life. Many people believe this to be the stereotype but while doing my research I find this to be quite wrong. While there may be those kids within this community they do not represent it as a whole they are just a small part of a larger group. When you look at a group of people you classify them according to how they look, act, or talk. Gee says in order to be recognized as part of a certain community you must “Speak the right way, but you have to act and dress in the right way as well.” While people do not realize it all of these factors add up to form discourse communities. Rarely do people take the time to look deeper into those communities to get a better understanding of them. Three artifacts represent this community Jesus Christ, the music and the conversations.

          Christianity began over 2000 years ago with Jesus Christ and disciples. Jesus would travel around the villages preaching religion and teaching people the will of God. Jesus would eventually die for the sins of man but three days later he would be resurrected and gave hope to the world. Jesus became known as the messiah for the Christianity religion as well as the teacher of God. People now continue to tell his stories and worship him today in what is known as Christianity. There are all different kinds of ways people get to get together to worship and praise God and one popular way for teenagers is youth groups because it allows for them to learn about God but in a modern and more fun way.

          As I walked into this dark light room filled, and turned the corner I saw a group of teenagers standing up with their hands in the air while singing songs that I had not ever heard before. Originally I was somewhat confused but the mood appeared to be very upbeat and when I listened closer I realized that they were Christen songs. As I walked in one of the first things I noticed was that it appeared to be a very eclectic group of kids, it was not like regular church where people dressed in slacks and a button down, they all seemed to be wearing whatever they wanted. When I interviewed my roommate, Connor, why he began attending these youth groups he said, “Because one day my friend convinced me to go and I haven’t stopped coming since.” Which I noticed appeared to be common theme with all of the kids I asked. After the songs had finished everyone proceeded to sit down in their chairs and a younger looking man came out on a stage and began discussing verses of the bible. Apparently the pastor picks out different chapters or verse to discuss each week with all of the kids. This week we discussed a few different verses, one of which was from Luke and said, Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” After reading this verse and taking some time to just really ruminate on what was said we all went around discussing what this verse meant to us and how we felt about it. As I looked around the room they became very serious and you could really tell all of the kids take these verses to heart and are not just hearing but actually listening to them. Throughout the whole service I noticed that people really began to open up to each other but no one was forced to say anything, they all chose to speak which made it more powerful when people speak because they want to and not because they are forced to. Everyone was also so accepting of each other and I felt as though I was part of a second family. While interviewing Connor I asked why everyone was just so open with everything, because it is not always an easy thing to simply open up to some random person you just met. His answer was “because no one is weird or different, we are all equal in God’s eyes and no one will judge you or look at you differently, everyone is there to help out and support you.” I really took that answer to heart especially after attending a youth group and I gained so much respect for him and all who attend the groups. Afterwards we all began to sings songs again and the youth group was coming to an end. After I began to walk I really felt as though I had become one of them.

          Gee refers to conversation as “talk and writing that has gone on in a specific social group or in society at large around a major theme, debate, or modify.”  In youth groups they engage in conversations through discussions dealing with things related to the bible and Christianity in general. During each meeting the pastor will choose a few different verses and they will discuss each one of these with each other. These conversations within the youth groups are similar to other discourse communities in that others may talk about religion and Christianity but the way it is going to be presented is different. At a youth group they go about how they discuss things in a more modern way than if you were to go to an adult mass.

 According to Gee each community has its own social language that differentiates it from another and this was no exception .When the pastor, or leader, would talk about “scriptures”, “books”, or “chapters” out of the bible, the bible is consists scriptures, or sacred writing, which are all separated into books and within each of those books there are chapters but I was unaware of what these words meant so I kept having to get clarification for the people around me. People who do not attend church or who are outside of Christianity may not know what these words mean or understand the context of which they are being used in. Social language refers to the way we change our language in different social situations and youth groups are a prime example. While attending a youth group you are going to talk differently than you would while just hanging out with your friends. You are not going to begin discussing scriptures while playing videogames with friends and vice versa.

          Multiple variables make up what is necessary to be considered a part of a certain discourse community, so what makes you a member of a youth group? According to Gee “you can’t just ‘talk the talk,’ you have to ‘walk the walk’ as well”. Big D discourse is comprised characteristics of a certain group including how they act, think, their values, and how they interact. In order to recognized as a member of a youth group you must be a member of that religion and have common values with others in the group. Although people within a youth group do not dress the same or all interact the same they do have same ideals and values, which for a group dealing with religion is a key aspect.

          What makes people attend these youth groups and continue to come back and what makes them any more special than another discourse community? Gee states that in order to be recognized as Discourse you must put “ language, action, interaction, values, beliefs, symbols, objects, tools, and places together in such a way that others recognize you a particular type of who engaged in a particular type of what”. My experiences while attending this youth group really made it clear to me that they are in fact a discourse community. Throughout the whole service I never felt out of place or that I was not welcome there. I felt as though I was immediately accepted as one of them and I had become friends with all of them. All different kinds of people attend these you groups and it is not just the “goodie goods” and the “church boys” like people seem to think, they are all just people looking to express their views among their peers. As I first walked through those doors into that dark room with Connor I was a little skeptical of what I was getting myself into but as I walked out I had a whole new outlook on youth groups.