WA2

The Basketball Team

                        I have decided to do my research within the cultural group of the men’s basketball team of the Texas A&M University Commerce. In order to conduct this ethnographic research I will study the literacy of the team. To conduct the research I will attend practices and also attend games to observe the ways that the men’s basketball team communicates with each other, the way they behave with each other and how they interact with one another. This is considered their literacy. While observing the men’s team, I will look for a variety of communication starting from verbal all the way to non-verbal such as signs they show each other. By observing the Texas A&M University Commerce men’s Basketball team and their very own ways of communication and interaction, I am doing field working.

                        While doing this fieldwork that is linked to ethnographic research, I the researcher will observe and describe the way the players are in connection with each other. I will focus on their behavior with one another, their coach, their life with basketball and finally, the language they communicate in. In order to collect this data and get accurate information and a better understanding of their communication I will not only go there once, but several times over a collected time period. If I get the chance I might also get to look at their plays and find out how their written down communication works in contrast to their verbal and non-verbal one.

                        I have also thought about asking a few of the players questions about how their sport and the literacy they learn through it helps them in real-life off the court and outside the field house. Through talking to them I might also see myself if it effects their normal speech and behavior in any way possible as this could be happening.

                        The study will take place here at Texas A&M University in the field house, where all the action takes place - the basketball court! The field house is a very important location to observe the language within the team because the sport takes place especially on the court. By choosing to observe and collect data in the field house I can accurately gather information on the men’s basketball team because they’ll be in their natural habitat.

As I am a track and field athlete and a former gymnast myself I have taken interest in a variety of sports. Ever since I came to this university and met a couple of the basketball players on the team, I have found interested in their season, on how they compete during the season and now want to find out more about their culture. I anticipate learning more about the interaction of the team and how this interaction helps them on the court and more importantly in the game. This knowledge of their interaction might also help me see and feel my own communication in the sport of track and field.

 

 

Works cited

 

Adkins, Tabetha. Ethnographic Inquiries In Writing. Southlake, Texas: Fontainehead, 2010. Print.

Sunstein, Bonnie Stone and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing. 4^th Edition. Boston, MA: Belforn/St. Martin’s. 2012. Print.