Howard Giles (1973)- Accommodation Theory At times, speakers will try to make their language resemble that of their audience to improve communication. This is known as convergence. Some speakers may attempt to use language to distance and distinguish themselves from others. This is known as divergence.

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975)- IRF Structure (initiation, response, feedback) This is a way of analysing educational discourse. The IRF structure is a three-part conversational exchange in which a speaker starts the conversation, a second speaker responds and then the first speaker provides some feedback to what the second speaker said.

John Swales (2011)- Discourse Community Swales defined those within the community as:

4. Possessing the knowledge and skill to be considered eligible to participate in part of the community.

Drew and Heritage (2003)- Inferential frameworks They suggest that members of a discourse community share knowledge built up over time and used to understand implicit meanings within an organisation.

Norman Fairclough (1995)- Synthetic personalisation the simulation of private, face-to-face, person-to-person discourse in public mass-audience discourse (print, radio, television).

Brown and Levinson (1987)- Face Threatening Acts Face can be positive (an individual needs to feel valued, liked and appreciated) or negative (an individual’s need not to feel imposed upon or have their freedom of action threatened). FTAs are when we say something that makes an individual feel uncomfortable and less respected.

Koester (2004)- Phatic Talk- Koester believes phatic talk has an important part to play in getting jobs done. Being sociable and engaging in personal chat promotes values of solidarity and is an important aspect of workplace communication.