University
of Rome III _ School of Humanities _
Degree in Languages and International Communication |
Academic
Year: 2008-09
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Course
convener: Patrick Boylan _
Email:
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Second
Year / Second Semster English Course (English 2b)
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3.3 |
4.3 |
6.3 |
10.3 |
11.3 |
13.3 |
17.3 |
18.3** |
20.3 |
24.3 |
25.3 |
27.3** |
31.3 |
1.4 |
3.4 |
7.4 |
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Annarita |
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Chiara |
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Eugenia |
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Pamela |
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Roberta |
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(Elisa) |
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News,
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9.4.09 THANKS FOR THE CHOCOLATE EASTER EGGS! ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!
NOTICE: Lesson on May 4th: noon to 2pm in Room 3.01 (the teacher's office) on the third floor.
19/3/09: SEE YOUR CORRECTED HOMEWORK IN “TASKS” SECTION
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Recap
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3.3.09
DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION
"Communicating" according to Jakobson (1982: 350-377 [1958]): Sender / message / context / coding / transmission / channel / Receiver / decoding.
But in culturally asymmetrical situations, “communicating" means establishing a relationship (a contact in which concomitant changes are presumed to be reciprocally causal) in which to search for a common code
Several students defined communication as “interaction” but did not say “interaction for what purpose” -- not coding/decoding a message which presupposes a common code already agreed upon.
DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE
As a faculty: the
mind's sense-making mechanism (sense is made through interaction
with other sense-making agents), fundamentally volitional with a
cognitive overlay. (Plato in Cratylus, Humboldt)
As a semiotic system: -- For most linguists, a “code” (see above) -- For Saussure: as langue, a “verbal semiotic system”; as parole, instances of language (but not mere instantiations of langue!!). -- For this course: - as langue, a will to mean (in a particular way) deriving from a will to be (in a particular way, i.e. ≈ culture), specifically a “matrix of sedimented, socially-acquired values governing expressive behavior”; - as parole, a will to mean (in a particular way) in a specific, concrete, communicative event – thus, a highly modulated (articulated) volitional state of “pre-verbal meaning”, conditioned by one's langue.
Halliday's
7 functions of language: (M.A.K. Halliday, Language as social semiotic - The social interpretation of language and meaning. London, 1978).
4.3.09
Problem: The teacher's office (3.01) is occupied by a colleague: where can the four students have their lesson? The teacher said that, if they wanted, they could go to Room B on the other side of the campus, a very large classroom but one that was empty at that hour.
The answer given by the four students: Room B. If there are no other classrooms available, then we can all cross the campus to go there.
After a short discussion, second proposal: A table in the student café downstairs. Quicker to get to. Friendlier surroundings. (A huge, empty classroom can seem strange for a class with 4 students.)
Question: Why was the short discussion necessary?
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Short
interaction in English: ordering and having a coffee together.
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Addition
to the discussion (on 3.3.09) about seating arrangement. The
teacher asked the students if they saw anything significative in
the fact that, when he entered the room the first day, (1.) they
all were sitting in the first row with notebooks open and pens
poised; (2.) the teacher sat down in the second row behind them,
instead of sitting behind the teacher's desk.
From P. Boylan, La comunicazione interculturale nella scuola multietnica, 1999
6.3.09
Review of discussions on 3.3.09 and 4.3.09 for Annarita who joined the class.
Add
to notion of “communicating through furnishings” (il
comunicare attraverso l'arredo):
Add to notion of “communication”: code not entirely common, message not entirely known.
Add to notion of social conditioning in learning languages, the social pressure to maintain inner group identity, especially strong in cultures based on family/clan solidarity.
10.3.09
Add to notion of “language”: In defining language, distinguish between langue and parole (Saussure): - as parole language is the “will to mean” that erupts in a communicative event, - as langue language is the sedimentation of perceived/produced acts of parole which produces a Weltanschauung and a a disposition to express oneself in a certain way: Thus, to speak a language means to acquire that disposition and express oneself from within a certain “world”; to immerge oneself into that world (at least temporarily).
Add
to notion of “language function”: 1. Representation (“move people to see and understand”, 2. Expressivity (“move people to feel and like/dislike), 3. Appeal (“move people to want and do”).
Boylan ("Language as Representation, as Agency, as Being", 2002). You use language:
1. to represent something (to yourself, to others) such as an idea, the description of a feeling, etc. and you study this function of language in your linguistics courses. These courses ask: “What are the formal properties of series of sounds and graphemes that produce meaning?”;
2. to do something and you study this function of language in your sociolinguistics and pragmatics courses. Pragmatics is a discipline that studies the illocutionary and perlocutionary force of words in context (example: “The door!” meaning “Please close the door”). See J. L. Austin in How to do things with words. These courses ask: “What are the 'rules of use without which the rules of grammar are useless'?” – Dell Hymes, “On communicative competence” in J. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics. Penguin, 1972 (orig 1971), p.278.
3. to BE something and you study this function of language in courses teaching language as culture (like this course). To be someone in English, you have to acquire an Anglo persona when speaking English, and thus speak A CULTURALLY CONNOTED ENGLISH
11.3.2009 OR.... PERHAPS IT IS POSSIBLE TO SPEAK A “NEUTRAL” FORM OF ENGLISH? SUPPOSEDLY
“NEUTRAL” ENGLISHes:
___________________________________
Varieties
of English in the world (Crystal, English
as a Global Language, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997). (language
contact) Pidgin >>> Creole >>>
Language
13.3.2009
How
to accommodate formally to an interlocutor? The answer's
easy: observe and imitate her/his pronunciation, way of
interrupting, topic preferences, speech rate, and all the other
formal features.
The (post-)modern view of knowledge is not like the 17th and 18th Century view of knowledge as “immutable laws” (e.g. Newton) – which, of course, are “immutable” only within well-defined special conditions of time, place and agency. Neo-positivism and other relativist epistemologies (e.g. Gadamer's hermeneutics) see knowledge as an attempt at construing meaning by projecting hypothetical models onto (or resonating empathetically to) phenomena that resist being known “directly”. Indeed, the only directly “knowable-as-100%-true” assertions are “obvious” tautological/intuitive truths, like 2+2=1+3, or “Rome is not Venice”. All other “truths”, however strong and well-reasoned our convictions be, are nonetheless contingent truths (Wittgenstein).
So
all you can do is ATTEMPT to GUESS the world view of an English
speaking interlocutor.
FOR NEXT TUESDAY (MARCH 17th) DO TASK 1. SEE BELOW.
17.3.2009
Review
of so-called neutral (or non national) forms of English:
So
our project now is: what English do we want to learn to speak
and what “cultural pallette” do we want to learn to
make use of, to render our existential states? As
for the intentional states: When you speak you will focus on THIS, not on the characteristic verbal forms. But...
Worldviews A
= Five values (beliefs and/or affects and/or wants)
19/3/09: SEE YOUR CORRECTED HOMEWORK IN THE“TASKS” SECTION
1.
When you google for other sources, remember to use ENGLISH
words (there is very little in Italian). Sample
google requests (you can invent variants) using “Irish”
as the variable: Irish intercultural OR “cross-cultural” communication OR mediation You can also make one long request using both strings indicated above!
---- Discussion on the Sapir Whorf hypothesis. ----- (See the comments, by searching for the word “Whorf”, in Accommodation Theory Revisited.)
20.3.09
Debriefing encounter with the American (and international) film club members.
What
effect does accommodation produce on interlocutors? Explanation of Task 1b: Explain
what is CHARACTERISTIC in the formal features of the verbal
repertory of your variety of English. The concept of
“characteristic” implies that you have an idea of a
“neutral form” of English, for example Quirk's
Nuclear English, even if it does not exist as the idiom of any
speech community (see the other “culturally neutral”
varieties discussed on 11.3.09). So with respect to the common
core of features, what distinguishes the variety of English you
have chosen to learn?
To
do the experiment, you have to be able to do code switching AND
identity shifting in English. For
next Tuesday (March 24th) you should have prepared two sheets,
one for Task 1a and the other for Task 1b (as
explained above).
24.3.09
Stanislavski's
“magic if”. Southeast
British English,
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Hegemonic British will-to-be (up to WWII) |
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Self in control, experiential learning |
Directness, |
Horizontality, rule observance |
Uncertainty
avoidance, |
Short-term orientation, individualism |
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Universal
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Concreteness, |
Explicitness, |
Gentlemanliness |
Responsibility |
Eclecticism |
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Skin-ology,
or |
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Phrasal
verbs, quasi deictic definite articles; |
Heavy use of connectors; oral stress placement to “telegraph” essential information |
Qualifiers
to avoid brash assertiveness; |
Extensive documentation, proof; source attribution; future agenda, charts, graphs. |
Creativity by varying genres (new situations, fads...) |
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*Low
context: a cultural value proposed by Edward Hall, in opposition
to “High context”: Anglos do not like to have to
guess meaning from context in reading and listening; they prefer
that things be “spelled out” (preferably with bullet
points) so that their dependence on context is low.
Italian speech is typically high context: you need a high
degree of understanding of the context in order to understand a
speaker's allusions. The
cultural value “Form Trusting” is not used here
because it varies within the Anglo community. Formality
is a situational variant (as any register), not a general
property of Anglo will-to-mean; oriental discourse, for example,
can be as highly formal (but in a different, high-context and
intuition-based way) as the most formal R.P. British English.
TASK 2: CORRECT THIS STUDENT'S ANSWER TO A QUESTION ON AN IMAGINARY EXAM A Student's Answer: Most people consider the English language to be a single thing but in reality it is many things, many Englishes. This is because there is no single variety that is both rooted in a geopolitical community and used as a universal standard. Thus, "English" is a fiction; only "Englishes" exist. Of all the Englishes born in Britain and in her former colonies, some have conserved Anglo cultural values and, in their respective communities, constitute the prestige models: General American, Cultivated Australian, R.P. English, etc. They are what Kachru calls the "norm providers". Others, especially those that use English words to express local cultural values (Indian, Singaporean, Philippine, Nigerian Englishes for example), have traditionally taken their linguistic norms from the first group, although lately they have started to become "norm developing" and many people already call them "New Englishes".
25-03-09
Since
many of you hope to be future English teachers in the school
system, a short discussion on what it means to know – to
learn – to teach. Also with reference to what the Corso di
Laurea proposes – de facto – as knowledge, learning,
teaching. Any social institution always has, as an auxiliary
purpose, the maintaining of the society of which it is a part,
this is the function of what Gramsci called “traditional
intellectuals”, who are “sovrintendenti della
sovrastruttura,” guardians of the traditional beliefs that
structure society and give it order. (The order always serves a
function useful to the dominant classes, which is not always
apparent.) Thus, our Corso di Laurea, in spite of its
inefficiency, is in reality fulfilling a plan that serves those
who are dominant in it. Your task is to understand what is going
on and to collaborate actively if you approve, or raise other
students' awareness of what is going on if you do not approve,
and take initiatives with them to change things.
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The
common characteristics of “English”
expressivity.
Do Task 2 for March 31st. (Read the instructions for Task 2 below)
31.3.09
Discussion
of Pam's and Ann's Task 2. To what degree do they embody
the Anglo mindset and discourse patterns? And on the level of
material realization, to what extent do they use typical English
verbal forms?
1.4.09 (Read the instructions for Task 3 below).
3.4.2009
7.4.09
3.
According to the nominalist view of phenomena, English does not
exist as a real entity but only as a highly limited combinatory
potential of a reduced verbal system abstracted from
concretely existing Englishes; thus it exists only in the minds
of linguists as a (limited) potentiality. But, in the view
proposed in this course, English does exist as a concrete
reality, on the Earth: it exists as a family of idioms,
indeed as a métis family of idioms. (Note: the
term “family” is also a relational term and
therefore a non existing entity; what is concrete are the
specific members of the métis family, which occupy
specific historical/geographic areas – that we can
investigate empirically – and which form a specific,
one-off inventory or list. The word “family” is used
to evoke that list and has no other denotation or connotation.)
Enel press release translation
Do Task 4 for April 8th: (SEE TASKS SECTION BELOW).
8-4-2009
Last
theme for discussion:
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Research
tasks Return
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TASK 1
With respect to the variety of English you have chosen (Southeast British English, Hiberno English, New York and West Coast General American, Jamaican English, Cultivated/Broad Australian):
Intentional Matrix (Worldviews): A
= Five values (beliefs and/or affects and/or wants)
Formal
Description ONLY of the verbal repertory
= Third Attempt 1bABCDEF <- EXCELLENT!
TASK 2
Annarita
= 2
ok Pamela = 2 ok Chiara = 2 ok Roberta
= 2 (not
very clear or detailed)
TASK 3
Encounter with the (East Coast) American students from Trinity College, 2 April 2009 (8-10 pm). Speak
the variety of English you have studied for the first part of
the evening; note the reactions (if any) of your interlocutors.
If none comment on your way of speaking, ask them questions
indirectly. (Do NOT ask what they think of your “English,”
otherwise they will comment your grammatical competence; ask
what they thing of your “way of speaking” -- this
will encourage them to speak of your communicative competence.)
You will also note, subjectively, the degree of entente
you achieve with your American interlocutors. (For an
explanation of the notion of
entente, see note
2 in Accommodation
Theory Revisited> At
home you will write a (minimum) one-page paper reporting your
three observations But fist, read ALL of Accommodation Theory Revisited and, in writing your report, make use of the concepts explained. Your report should be presented as evidence for or against the claims made in the text.
Chiara = 3
ok
TASK 4
First imagine and introject
the mind-set and value system of the Author-in-the-text (who is
not so much the ENEL Press Relations Officer who wrote the
release, as the idea that person has of the ENEL management and
in particular the boss, Chicco Testa. The worldview of these
“committenti”
is what probably drives the form that the press release
takes.) As you can see,
communicative translation is a form of accommodation
--
you adapt your reading of the source text to the mind-set of
your committente
(you
see in it what s/he sees in it), and you adapt how you write the
target text to the mind-set of your future readers (so that they
see in it as much as they can of what the committente
sees
in the original text).
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Program
(set texts) Return
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1.
Accommodation Theory
Revisited>
Attenders (Frequentanti) 1.
Accommodation Theory
Revisited>
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Exam
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Attenders
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Regulations
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