1. ‘ I must borrow your notes ’ : Teaching Politeness Strategies Presented by: Shira Packer, M.A. [email_address] York University English Language Institute (YUELI), Toronto, ON NOT FOR REPRODUCTION OR CIRCULATION WITHOUT THE EXPLICIT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
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5. A Brief History of Pragmatic Competence Communicative competence (Hymes, 1972) Organizational competence (Bachman, 1990) Pragmatic competence (Bachman, 1990) Sociolinguistic competence (Bachman, 1990) Illocutionary competence (Bachman, 1990)
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Notes de l'éditeur
-interest for instructors, curriculum developers, and administrators looking to understand more about targeting learners ’ communicative needs beyond the tradition point of instruction such as grammar and vocab, etc. Title is something that I remember hearing a few years back and it stuck with me. I remember thinking how could a student get the impression that this statement was an appropriate way to make a request. Year later, this notion contributed to the impetus of my Masters ’ Thesis and much of the information that I ’ ll be presenting today was collected, created, or deduced from my study. In a nutshell, I provided I performed a teaching intervention on three pragmatic structures, or politeness contexts, at the EAP program where I teach to 13 intermediate english language learners from various language groups. Requests, apologies, and compliments 90-minutes each, then used classroom observations, a post-instruction survey, and post-instruction one-on-one s to determine students perceptions of how useful the lessons were to them.
Theoretical to practical Requests: High frequency of use in academic and non-academic settings Pragmatics, or socio-pragmatics is not synonymous with politeness. Politeness is an aspect of pragmatic competence.
3. To explore I worked with the notion that English learners can benefit from the positive transfer of pragmatic knowledge from their L1 some aspects of pragmatic knowledge are believed to be universals (Kasper & Rose, 2001)……..therefore one of the roles of instruction is to make learners ware of what the can and cannot transfer from their L1 in L2 contexts.
Politeness is a behaviour or action Pragmatic competence is knowledge and ability to use rules Can teach knowledge and rules of politeness but teaching behaviour is more complex. Therefore, we teach pragmatics and pragmatic competence and hope that students use this knowledge towards politeness.
Org= formal sstructure (grammatical and discourse) Prag= Socio= ability to use language appropriately according to the context, illoc-= not the literal meaning but what the speaker is actually trying to do eg. It is so hot in here …….intended meaning – open window. Do you have the time? Are you hungry? Hi dad, is mom home? I really wish I had a ride home from school. What ’ s your phone number? Often this competence that is lacking when make pragmatic errors Politeness theory= focuses on the importance of considering sociopragmatic variables such as social power, social distance, sex, age, and degree of imposition when making linguistic choices to realize speech acts. Even though multiple theories regarding classification, each recognizes the distinction between grammatical and sociolinguistic comp. and recognize the contribution of sociolinguistics to communicative ability
Even minor pragmatic errors cause Miscommunication between native and non-native speakers is often the result of pragmatic error (Clennell, 1999) Especially important for students planning on spending a lot of time in an English speaking environment or having consistent contact with native speakers in for example business negotiations….where speakers are expected to be strong without being rude Face-threatening: disturbs the presentation of self which the interlocutor wants to project to others Being polite consists of attempting to save face for another Positive: characterized by desire that self image be approved of or to be liked (eg. Ignoring someone threatens positive face) Negative: desire not to be imposed upon Strain social relationships- but understanding pragmatics can promote relationship development (after instruction, students can recognize this) Oral acad disc= tutorial discussions, 1 on 1 interactions with prof, TAs, group work with native English speakers….source of anxiety, may lead to lack of participation which is most certainly reflected in academic assessment Emph on oral difficulty not writing….program emph written academic discourse Clennell: eg. Native English speaker remarks to nonnative eng speaker “ YOU haven ’ t said much ” interprets as adverse comment on lack of participating when it was rather meant a a gentle invitation to join the discussion thus leading to sociopragmatic failure….
Misconceptions: Eg. Give me your stapler. Also the is the idea that canadians are forgiving to foreigners, so some students feel that the consequences of pragmatic error are minor, however, not true. Build confidence= after instruction students reported being better able to negotiate excuses and apologies with homestay mother, increases success with ordering at a restaurant, and apologizing for pushing a cumbersome stroller in public areas. Students find it useful and indicated that they would have liked additional lessons in various pragmatic areas such as suggesting, giving opinions, criticizing, refusing invitations. Make learns aware of the existence of pragmatic competence…… Start off lesson with greetings and exploring formality and contextual appropriateness How do you do? How are you? What ’ s new? What ’ s up? What ’ s happening?
Social distance: eg family or friend vs. stranger Power relationships: classmate vs teacher Vary within a language…..imagine how vary across languages!
Main function of compliment gives addressee positive face by including him in a social group Americans: according to brown and levinsons polite theory, direct request are intrinsically impolite and face-threatening because they infringe on the hearer ’ s territory Apologies: olshtain 1989 suggests that explicit apology and acknowl materialize to arying degrees in all situations and all languages, but the situations which call for apologetic remediation may differ from culture to culture.
Frequ- Also, democratic society place high value on social solidarity to establish equality, but other cultures that legitimize hierarchical social structures, Chinese, may offer fewer compliments as a demonstration of respect for authority. (yu, 2005). Gender- women more likely to say LOVE something, more likely to accept compliments given by men that other women. topic= American English speakers are more likely to compliment on changes in appearance and new possession, owning to the fact that newness is highly valued in American society. Other cultures, such as Chinese, more likely to comment on ability and performance. Chinese teachers from jiansu prov…compliment as request to be gifted… It has also been proposed that non americans may perceive american compliments are insincere since non american compliments serve a much more limited set of functions. Response strat American eng more likely to use rejection than speakers from other cultures. Herbert 1990 Americans avoid simple acceptance. ….we experience an internal struggle between the desire to agree with the speaker and the desire to avoid self praise. Acceptance is used in only 33% of american compliment responses and particularly infrequently among close friends.
Although contrastive analysis is no longer considered a foundation for instructional programs, Contrastive features may help to understand error production by some Arabic speakers, develop appropriate activities and exercises in response. Negative transfer from first language can be considered interference. Recognition of some mechanical features of the Arabic language can assist teachers in addressing problems with learning grammar, literacy, etc.
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