In the passage from James Paul Gee’s journal, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, Gee defines Discourses as a combination of, “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”(Gee 6). This is important for Gee because he states that, “it is not what you say, but how you say it” (5).  He repeated gives examples of people having proper grammar, but are lacking the social aspects of speaking. Discourses are more than just speaking the language, its the way you do it and combines social life with words. For example, all my life I had grown up in Maine, so while searching for colleges I thought that I knew that I wanted to leave. I applied to many colleges all over New England, but when I went to visit them I did not feel like I fit in. My discourse I had was a life in Maine, and not somewhere else.

 

Someone can’t be taught to have a discourse, but they can learn through being surrounded by others who have that certain discourse. While Gee is talking about how you can not teach someone to be a linguist, he states, “The most you can do is to let them practice being a linguist with you”(7). This applies to other professions as well such as a veterinarian, historian and such. They are submerged with other of those professions and gte real life exposure to that profession.

 

A primary Discourse is the first Discourse that someone develops. Gee states, “ Our primary Discourse constitutes our original and home-based sense of identity”(8). You get your primary Discourse from the group that you are surrounded by from the beginning, for example your family.  Secondary Discourse comes from interaction outside of your family group, for example school, church, work and so on. Gee’s distinction between dominant and nondominant discourses is important because it identifies the difference of each Discourses outcome. They are both secondary Discourse but dominant Discourse has social goods as an outcome where as non dominant doesn’t.