How do you say…? A critical discourse analysis of

intercultural language learning in

wordreference.comElizabeth DeifellAkiko Hagiwara

University of IowaLanguage Learning in Computer Mediated Communities

NFLRCUniversity of Hawai’i October 11-13, 2009

Outline

I. Language Learning, Culture(s) and Power

II. Language Learning Community

III. Wordreference.comIV. Quantitative ApproachV. Qualitative ApproachVI. Findings

Language Learning, Culture(s) and Power

• Kramsch and Whiteside (2007)

• Showstack (2009)

Language Learning Community

• Language Learning=Language Use

• Multilingual

• Cross-Cultural

• Shifting identities

• Power relations

Wordreference.com• Provides cyber online dictionaries and

forums

• Topics of forums: translation, word usage, terminology equivalency and other linguistic topics

• Must register and agree to the rules of participation before being able to post

MembersModerator• There were around 50 moderators• Invited by the administrator• Each has authority to

- Merge or delete duplicate posts and threads;

- Edit posts as necessary;- Ban members, when necessary

Senior member (more than ?? posts)Member (more than 30 posts)Junior member (1 post or more)

The Study

Research Questions1.What are rhetorical strategies

members employ?2.How do members create and

refute authority while explaining the meaning of words?

Mixed Methodologies: Quantitative and qualitative approaches

Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis

• Food related topics

• Data Collection – 10 topics from

Spanish and Japanese forums

Functional moves categories (Adapted from Paulus & Phipps, 2008)Factual Participatory Reflective Lear

n

Ask Greet/Close/Joke Agree Learn

Support/extend (examples; reasons)

Name Disagree (restatement of other’s post)

Answer Acknowledge/ Encourage

Challenge (asking Qs. e.g. Is that true? )

Claim (no connectionto the prior post)

Invite/Mitigate Respond to challenge

RestateTransition/temporal (Directing the conversation to a previous post)

Emotion

Examples of “functional moves”

• Are you sure X means Y?

• Perhaps it‘s not advisable to use it as the Japanese translation for sake. For disambiguation, use nihonshu.

• I found that people do use 塩切り as an

independent noun. It seems to be a terminology in cooking.

Challenge

Disagree

Learn

Functional moves

Subcategory: Factual

Subcategory: Participatory

Claiming authority categories

Dictionary (cyber and hardcopy) 

Textual citations from other sites  (e.g. Wikipedia, Hyperlinks to other websites)

Textbook

Reference to Wordreference (inter reference)

Photos

Linguistic knowledge (e.g., use of Latin (the root of Spanish) 

Witness (e.g., “I saw…” “I’ve never heard...”

Claim without authority

Examples of “claiming authority”

• 馳 (chi) originally means "to ride a horse" and 走 (sou) "to run", in other words, "to ride to a market and buy best food to prepare excellent cuisine."

• If someone invites you, ごちそうさまでした is a mandatory social protocol. One may tell this to the restaurant staff if the food is really good.

Linguistic knowledge

Claim without authority

Claiming Authority

Qualitative

Critical Discourse Analysis

• Power

• Legitimacy

• Authority

Critical Discourse Analysis

Fairclough (1989, 1992)

• Explores link between language and social practice

• Empirical approach to discourse analysis

Three level approach to CDA

• Textual

• Discursive

• Sociocultural

Findings

• Questions of legitimacy are complex in asynchronous multilingual, multicultural language communities.

• Particularity (Ellis, 2005).

• Linking local to global. Fractal metaphor (Agar, 2005).

• The majority of the participants do not cite an outside text to support their claims of legitimacy.

• A closer look at those claims that we deemed “claims without authority” in fact challenge authority in perhaps more subtle ways.

What is(are) the right answer(s)?