Kiara Frischkorn
6 Sep 2018
Michael Cripps
English 110 I
Cuddy, Gee, and more Part II: Reading Response
1. Gee defines Discourses as “saying writing-doing-being-valuing, believing combinations”(6). Why is this “combination” important for Gee?
A discourse holds everything we value in a sort of “Identity kit”. You need to have intensity for a certain subject to make it a discourse. You need to believe and value everything around and in a subject, for it to be your discourse.
2. Gee writes “While you can teach someone linguistics, a body of knowledge you can’t teach them to be a linguist” If so, how does one become a linguist, a sociologist, biologist, etc.
You can give someone the knowledge of a certain topic, but it is up to them if they want to pursue that subject. Teaching a person to give CPR will not make them become a doctor. We pick our jobs based on passion. I am taking a marine biology class, but learning about tides and animals will not make me a biologist. The extra effort I put into my passion will drive me to become one. “Discourses are not bodies of knowledge”(7), but rather “Instructions on how to act, talk, and often write”(7). Having the knowledge of a veterinarian won’t make you one. However, if you wake up every day with the drive to save animals, that makes you a veterinarian.
3. Gee breaks down discourse into some different types of categories. What is the difference between primary and secondary discourse? Why is Gee’s distinction between dominant and nondominant discourses important?
Primary discourse is learning from an intimate group of people, it can be your family for example or a tightly knitted church group. “Primary discourse constitutes our original and home-based sense of identity, and I believe it can be seen when we are interacting with intimates in casual social interactions”(8). Primary discourses can become foundations that later discourses that you acquired later in life. Secondary discourses are the discourses we experience in the community, a local bar or shopping mall. They require certain commands if we acquire fluently, we become more apprenticeships with. The way I distinguish dominant discourses and nondominant discourses it imagines working for money compared to volunteering. “Dominant discourses which have the potential acquisition of social good like money”(8), while “Nondominant discourses brings solidarity with a large social group, and social goods for the community at large”(8). Dominant discourses keep personal gain in mind, while nondominant are better for the community.
