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Examination of Discourse Practices in an I.T. Training Room

 

Content is exemplified by the requirement of the student to conduct the examination in the time-honoured manner stipulated by the doctor. Relations are shown by the student's professional relationship' to the audience and subordinate relationship' to the doctor. The limited subject positions' of student' and aspiring doctor' infer particular linguistic formats peculiar to these participant roles. It is worth noting however that the control given in this example is not solely through direct means. The student's acceptance of the doctor's right to command and question comes from the naturalisation of this discourse type between the two participants. However, it may be argued that as the dominant participant the doctor is controlling the student by this choice of discourse type and the preference for it in this order of discourse (p39, Fairclough, 2001).
             Traditionally training centres on the transmission of knowledge and skills from the trainer to the trainee. This notion assumes an unproblematic, mono-directional flow of information from transmitter to receiver that does not take into account the social relations or social distance of the individuals involved. The issue of social relations and distance between participants is of extreme importance and in formal situations can operate as a means of restricting access to certain discourse types due to the additional demand that formality places on participants (p 54, Fairclough, 2001). Fairclough suggests that power may be frequently disguised as politeness and courtesy exemplified by politeness formulae frequently used in the classroom' environment. The question this issue raises is when is a request made by a teacher' actually in effect a command. The use of politeness formulae hides the authority of the teacher but can also be deployed to solicit specific behaviour from students.
             In a paper entitled simply Critical Discourse Analysis' Van Dijk (1998) identifies similar control techniques.


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