Journal 4 - Mitchell Rossini

The main keywords that I noticed Gee was using were; discourse, acquisition, and learning. He defines discourse as a socially acceptable way of acting or speaking that signifies that you are part of a specific social group. Acquisition is defined as a way of obtaining knowledge natural through practice or experience. He defines learning as a way of obtaining knowledge through the form of specifically being taught to know a certain skill. Gee argues that both acquisition and learning have their pros and cons but are both beneficial. In class we discussed that knowledge was obtained through situational experience which tags along with Gee's theory of acquisition.

The discourse community I chose is the film industry. The specific jargon paired along with the film industry allows for an easy communication with colleagues while writing scripts or shooting scenes. Anyone can become a member of this community either by way of connections or through college. However, if you are an at home film maker it is easy to acquaint yourself with the discourse. Writing is very important to the film industry because through it you can create worlds, characters, actions, reactions, dialogues, and so much more.  

This discourse community interests me because it is the career field that i am choosing to go into. I must become familiar with the jargon used in the film industry in order to succeed. I can use the connections I have made to other people to get my interview for this project.