2. What is context?
The situations in which texts are
produced – written or spoken, or
received – read, heard, listened to.
3. Context of production
Language medium
Individual beliefs, knowledge and background
Social and historical events
Consideration of implied reader/audience
Actual writer/text producer
4. Context of reception
Consideration of implied writer
Social and historical events
Beliefs, knowledge and background
Language medium
Actual reader/audience
5. Relevance
In your study of texts, context of production
and context of reception are equally
important.
A key idea is that the audience/reader of a text
has an impact on deciding its meaning.
Two other key concepts are those of an implied
writer and an implied reader.
Implied writer – the person we imagine to have
created a text.
Implied reader – the person a writer imagines
reading/receiving his text.
