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John Koehler 11/8/13 Fuentes English 1101 The Language of the Game The game of soccer has roots going back to 2500 BCE. Soccer is a sport that is played around the world and has a large threshold of members in its community of practice. It has multiple leagues in different parts of the world and at different skill levels. Communication is an essential part of the game of soccer so much relies on being concise with your words. The sport of soccer has a broadly agreed upon rules and regulations and common goals, an intricate lexis required for efficient communication, and large community of practice. Some of the broadly agreed upon goals of soccer are the games rules and regulations. This is part of Swales definition of discourse communities the focus is on texts and language, the genres and lexis that enable members throughout the world to maintain their goals regulate their membership and communicate efficiently with one another. (Wardle, 500) Knowing the rules of the game is part of the knowledge that goes into being part of this discourse community. The rules of soccer are called penalties each has its own repercussion. Soccer fouls or penalties are simply any number of unfair advantages taken by a player that are called by the referee including; tripping, pushing, and touching the ball with the hands(with the exception of the goal keeper.

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Another regulation of the game is yellow and red cards. When a player commits a penalty and is deserving of a yellow card or a red card the referee must stop play and issue the card to the player promptly. If the yellow card is issued to the player he or she receives a warning, unless the player has already received a warning. In that case the player is issued a red card in addition to the second yellow and he or she is ejected from the game and is not allowed to re-enter for the rest of the game. When play is stopped for whatever reason it usually resumes with a free kick or a throw in. Throw ins typically occur when the ball crosses the side line and possession is rewarded to whoever did not touch the ball last. Offside is another discourse of the game it is often a difficult concept for people to grasp. Often people that are new to the game would not understand the phrase The offensive player is offside if they are nearer to the opponent's goal line than both the second and last opponent and the soccer ball. (Ducksters) This is the basic definition of offside. Someone that was new to the game might not know some of the discourse in this phrase including who the second and last opponent are, or goal line. Both of these phrases require insight of the lexis of the game that someone that is new to the game may not have. The second to last defender is a field player and the last defender is the goal keeper. The goal line is the out of bounds line for the defensive side of the field. Knowing the terms for locations on the field is another part of the lexis of this community of practice. The center of the field has a line that goes all the way across this line is often referred to as midfield. At midfield there is a center circle with a spot where the ball is placed to start the game. Going out of bounds is another way of saying someone kicked the ball across the sidelines or goal lines. When the ball goes out of bounds across the goal line the teams are either rewarded a goal kick or a corner kick. When the offensive team kicks the ball out of bounds the

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defensive team is rewarded a goal kick where they are allowed to kick the ball from inside the goal box. When the defensive team kicks across the goal line a corner is rewarded which is taken by the offensive team at the corner arc. When the ball crosses the sidelines the team that did not touch the ball last is rewarded a throw in. When interviewing a colleague he was asked what is a term used to describe the area where the goal keeper can use his hands? Chris said, One phrase used is in the penalty box (Smith) which signifies the 18 yard box where the goal keeper can use his hands and where players can be rewarded a penalty shot. When a participant commits a penalty inside his or her penalty box than the other team is rewarded a penalty shot. A penalty shot is a one on one single chance shot from the penalty spot. Inside of the penalty box is the goal box which has a line that is on the 6 yard line. One last term to know is the corner flags that are at all four corners of the field they mark where corner kicks are taken.

Soccer has a certain lexis that is used throughout the game to communicate with teammates, coaches, and referees. To tell someone that they have an opponent behind them they

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will either say man on and if he is coming fast they will say man on hard. Similar to this if you want someone to guard an open man you say mark that man Once the ball has been kicked up field to get the team to move up the field someone will say step up There is a lot of terms that go into passing the ball a cross is a ball played in the air. The opposite of a crossing a ball is referred to as playing the ball on the ground or playing feet. When talking to teammates you need to give them direction as to where you are playing the ball two terms that are used to do this include come to and turn which means they have space behind them to continue to dribble the ball. Soccer has specific lexis for the types of kicks that are involved in the game. The first classification of kicks includes direct and indirect free kicks. Direct kicks occur after a penalty and the ball is live as soon as it is kicked; compared to indirect kicks where the ball is only live or can be scored once the opposing team has touched the ball. To start the game they have a kick off which occurs in the center circle. There are two classifications of kicks in soccer passes and shots. A shot is a kick that is attempting to score a goal and a pass is all of the kicks that are not shots. There are a few interesting terms for kicks in soccer one of which is a dummy pass which means you play it to one player who lets it through to another player without touching the ball. A bicycle kick occurs when a player does a back flip to kick the ball. There are two kicks for balls that cross the goal line corner kicks and goal kicks. Corner kicks are taken at the corner flag by the offensive team when the defensive team has kicked the ball out of bounds. Goal kicks are taken when the offensive team kicks the ball out of bounds inside the goal box. One last kick includes a penalty shot which is taken when there is a penalty inside of the penalty box.

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Another specific knowledge of the game includes positions that are played this can be complex because of the multiple playing styles that have different positions. There are 11 players that play on the field at a time and each has a specific job. The defenders include the left and the right backs who play on the outside of the field in the back. Then you have the defenders that play in the middle of the field usually referred to as the stopper and the sweeper. Next we move up the field to the midfielders there are usually for of them two that play in the center and two that play the outsides. They most likely do the most work because they are required to run up and down the field to attack and defend. Next we have our strikers or forwards who play offense and attempt to score goals to win the game. Soccer is a game that is played on a world wide scale played in almost every country in the world. The community of practice has international leagues that unite the world such as the Olympics and the World Cup. The game is a way of uniting people even though not everyone speaks the same language the game of soccer is a common language in itself. The international league is one of the higher leagues in the world, but there is a large amount of classifications of leagues. In the United States soccer starts off at an early age in leagues of different ages and skill levels. Two leagues that are highly recognized include the NCAA and high school soccer. After that it goes to professional leagues English Premier in England, MLS in the US of A, and Serie A in Italy. This shows the large amount of genres involved with the game. This community of practice unites a large number of people through common interests. Its intricate lexis is a description of the reason it is a community of practice. Not only does it have lexis in English but in multiple other languages around the world. The game also includes a lot of genres that cover a large array of countries and skill levels. Communication is the central part of the game and discourse communities alike.

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Work Cited Smith, Chris. "Soccer Terms." Personal interview. 2 Nov. 2013. "Soccer: Rules and Regulations." Ducksters. Technological Solutions, Inc. (TSI), Nov. 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ducksters.com/sports/soccerrules.php>. . Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. "Chapter 3/ Learning to Read Malcolm X." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 500+. Print.