The Language of Employability : A Corpus-Based Analysis of UK University Websites

This book employs a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology to analyse the language used by university careers services in the UK. Drawing on a corpus which includes the public-facing websites of careers services from 24 Russell Group and 34 Post-92 universities, the author highlights some of the potentially problematic 'common-sense' views and ideas that are currently promoted to students using these services. She argues that the language used by university websites promotes neoliberal ideology and encourages the denaturalisation of such language. This book will be of interest to linguists, sociologists, education scholars, and scholars who are otherwise interested in the notion of employability. Maria Fotiadou completed her PhD at the University of Sunderland, UK. She is now an independent researcher, and her research interests are in corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, the discourse of employability, gender studies, language and power, ideology, and resistance Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction: The Marketisation of Higher Education in the UK and the Language of Employability 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Careers Services and Advisers in HEIs 1.3 Employability and Skills 1.4 What Is Employability? 1.5 Why Examine the Discourse of Careers Services? 1.6 Previous Research on the Marketisation of HE and Employability 1.7 The Aim and Position of the Book 1.8 Research Questions 1.9 Overview of the Book References 2 Higher Education Since the 1980s 2.1 Towards the Marketisation of HE 2.2 The Early Stages of Managerialism in HE 2.3 The Abolition of the Binary Line 2.4 The Introduction and Rise of Undergraduate Tuition Fees 2.5 Competition Between HEIs in the UK 2.6 Representation of a ‘Competitive’ World Reality 2.7 Students as Customers and ‘Powerful’ Actors 2.8 Summary References 3 Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Power 3.3 Ideology and Hegemony 3.4 Expertise 3.5 Discourse 3.6 Critical Realism 3.7 Critical Discourse Analysis 3.7.1 Critique 3.7.2 Fairclough’s Three-Stage Analytical Framework 3.8 Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar 3.8.1 Transitivity 3.8.2 Participants 3.8.3 Circumstances 3.8.4 Mood 3.9 Van Leeuwen’s Representations of Social Actors 3.10 Presuppositions and Assumptions 3.11 Metaphors 3.12 Criticisms of CDA 3.13 Corpus Linguistics 3.14 Criticisms of CL 3.15 CDA and CL Synergy 3.16 Summary References 4 Data and Methods: University Websites and Corpus-Based CDA 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Corpus Linguistics Tools and Methods 4.3 The Universities’ Careers Websites as a Genre/Domain of Interest 4.3.1 Data Selection: Russell Group and Post-1992 Universities 4.3.2 Corpus Design, Construction, and Methodological Issues 4.3.3 The Mapping of the Careers Websites 4.3.4 Criteria for Data Selection 4.4 The CEW15 Corpus 4.5 Methodology 4.6 Analytical Framework 4.7 Summary References 5 The Representation of the Job-Seeking Reality and the Notion of Employability 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Representation of the ‘World’ and the ‘Job Market’ 5.2.1 Identifying the Context of the Services’ ‘World’ 5.2.2 The World of Work 5.2.3 Competition in the Job Market 5.2.4 Job Hunting 5.3 The Discourse of Employability: What Is Employability? 5.3.1 Skills 5.3.2 The Variety of Skills 5.3.3 Employable 5.4 Evaluative Language 5.4.1 The ‘Reality’, the Problem, and the Solutions 5.4.2 A Comparison of ‘Evaluative Adjectives’ in CEW15, COCA, and NOW 5.5 Summary References 6 Understanding Careers Services and Their Roles 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Careers Services and Their Role 6.2.1 Careers Services as a Professional Body (Group and Individuals) 6.2.2 The Places/spaces in Which Careers Staff Act 6.2.3 Careers Education 6.3 Careers Services as the Actor of Clauses 6.3.1 Verbs That Follow the Pronoun ‘We’ 6.4 Overview of Frequently Used Patterns 6.4.1 ‘We Are’ 6.4.2 ‘We Have’ 6.4.3 ‘We Do’ 6.4.4 Lexical Verbs 6.4.5 Modal Verbs 6.4.6 Areas of Focus 6.5 Professionalism and Expertise 6.5.1 The Careers Services Claimed ‘Expert’ Knowledge 6.5.2 ‘We Know’: Knowledge of the Students’/Graduates’ Actions and Future Plans 6.5.3 ‘We Know’: Knowledge of What Students Do 6.5.4 ‘We Know’: Knowledge of What Students Do not Do 6.5.5 ‘We Know’: Knowledge of What Students Are Going Through and How They Feel 6.5.6 ‘We Know’: Knowledge of What Employers Want 6.5.7 ‘Employers Are Looking For’ 6.6 Services, Resources, and Tools Offered to HE Students 6.7 The Helping Nature of the Careers Services’ Role 6.8 Therapeutic Culture and Discourse 6.8.1 Therapy and Careers Services 6.8.2 The Problem Students Face 6.8.3 Specialists Who Offer Help 6.8.4 Career Counselling and ‘Diagnosis’ 6.8.5 ‘Treatment’ Offered by the CSs 6.9 Summary References 7 Similarities and Differences in the Language Used by Post-1992 and Russell Group Universities 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Student ‘Choice’, University Groups, and Competition 7.3 Russell Group and Post-92 Sub-Corpora Comparison 7.3.1 Considering Previous Corpus Findings 7.3.2 Keywords 7.3.3 Statistically Significant Differences in Keywords 7.3.4 Employability 7.3.5 Placements, Internships, and Work Experience 7.3.6 Help and Support 7.3.7 N-grams 7.4 Summary References 8 Conclusions: Denaturalising the Language of Employability 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Research Questions and the Main Findings of This Study 8.3 The Job-Seeking ‘Reality’ Presented to Students by the CSs 8.4 The Nature of the Careers Services’ Professional Role 8.5 Similarities and Differences in the Discourse of P92 and RG CSs’ Websites 8.6 Denaturalisation and Praxis 8.7 Recommendations for Future Work References Appendix References Index