Effective communication can be very hard sometimes if you don’t comprehend the different types of discourses. For example, Primary and Secondary discourses. Primary discourse refers to the way an individual interacts with their immediate social environment, which would most likely include family and close-knit friends. It forms a basis for how you express yourself and depict the world around age from a young age. In contrast to Primary discourse, Secondary discourse touches more on the formal form of communication you learn with people outside beyond your initial, everyday interactions. Other types of discourse would include dominant and non-dominant discourses. Dominant discourses could bring more power and influence in a society. An example could be going to college – you go to college to benefit from the education and receive a degree to later on in life get a good job. On the other hand, a non-dominant discourse represents engaging in groups just because you want to without receiving any benefits from it.
Another concept that might be important to understand in order to comprehend what discourses are is “mushfaking”. The term mushfaking is when you pretend or fake knowing certain ideas and strategies when full proficiency is lacking. For instance a non-native Spanish speaker who isn’t fluent might “mushfake” and use basic familiar words and general phrases to make it seem as if they are fluent in the language.
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