INSTRUCTIONS FOR TASK 3 (SECOND MODULE)

GOAL: You are to test whether by "accommodating" linguistically and culturally you manage to establish a better rapport with a native speaker of English.

DEFINITIONS: For the purposes of this experiment, we have simplified the notion and process of accommodation a great deal. In this experiment, to accommodate does not mean, as it normally does, to converge toward your interlocutor's expressive style. In fact, you do not know ahead of time the cultural background of the person you will meet in the pub you choose to visit, so you cannot document yourself, ahead of time, on her/his probable expressive style. And you do not have (as of yet) an ethnographer's ability to guess and reproduce – on the spot – people's value systems and expressive style.

So for this experiment it will be enough if you adopt the expressive style of your Anglo double (Tasks 1, 2). Whoever s/he is, s/he will invariably have many Anglo cultural values in common with your interlocutor – in theory, more than you would have as an Italian.

So before entering the pub, do as you did at home before living a day as your double. Repeat the anti-Italian counter-maxims and then, when you feel neither Italian nor anything, the maxims of your double to introject your double's value system. After this you should automatically begin to speak like him or her because of your new Weltanschauung.

When you feel ready, go inside the pub and follow the “pub etiquette” described in the text by the sociologist Kate Fox. Strike up a conversation with various people at the bar until you find one you consider suitable: (a.) because s/he seems likely to accept answering your questions, (b.) if possible because she comes from a culture and sub-culture not too far from that of your double. (This second condition is optional.)

Tell your “subject” that you have to ask a few questions for an English assignment at your university. Lead her/him to a table where you can speak more easily, and then take out your recorder or cell phone (use the “video” option for the cell phone since there is no time limit as there usually is with the audio option). Explain that the recording is just to help you write your report and that you will erase it immediately afterward. (But don't!)

For the questions to ask, use the ones you made for Task 4 during the First Module. Since the questionnaire is just an excuse, you don't have to memorize your questions; you can read them from a piece of paper. These questions are quantitative, so after each one add a qualitative question. Try to establish an empathic rapport as your double.

Then, half way through the questionnaire, change character.

From the time you entered the pub up to this point, you have (in theory) been expressing yourself as your double would. Now switch back to your normal Italian self. If possible go to the bathroom and there repeat your Italian maxims (the ones you previously denied with your counter-maxims). Or try thinking about how your family would like you to be. Act like that. Then return to your table as your Italian self and continue the Interview. PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN OFF YOUR RECORDER WHILE YOU ARE IN THE BATHROOM AND TO TURN IT ON IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU SIT DOWN AGAIN.

Try to notice if your interlocutor relates to you any differently while you ask the second half of the questions on your questionnaire. If s/he looks at your strangely, do not hesitate to ask: “Why are you looking at me that way? Is there a problem?” But most of all try to notice if your Interlocutor is treating you any differently. If you listened to my interview of Giorgia, you heard her describe, in the second part of the interview, how her Irish friends changed their way of speaking to her when she acted like an Italian: they spoke more slowly, used more standard English and fewer Irish expressions, etc.

Then when you finish the interview, continue talking as your Italian self until your beer (and your interlocutor's beer) get low. Then offer to buy the next round and go to the bar. REMEMBER TO TURN YOUR RECORDER OFF WHILE AT THE BAR AND TO TURN IT ON AGAIN AFTER PAYING FOR THE ROUND. While at the bar, repeat mentally your anti-Italian counter-maxims and your double's maxims and return to your table (with two beers!) as your double. If you cannot go to the bar for some reason (for example, your interlocutor insists on buying the next round), then go to the bathroom again and change back to your double there.

Now you are in the critical last five minutes of your conversation (the first part will probably have taken you ten or fifteen minutes). Up to now you have tried to notice if your interlocutor treats you differently according to the way you express yourself. In this last phase, you want to get her/him to make her/his impressions explicit.

Start by “open” or “grand tour” questions like “Are you good in judging people's character?” or, even more indirectly, by making a leading statement like “I think it's important but difficult to judge people's character when you first meet them.” (This gives your interlocutor the opportunity of making comments on your character, as s/he has perceived it up to that point. Use the word “character”, not “culture” which is too intellectual.) If your interlocutor refuses the bait and does not talk about you, after a while you can be explicit: “So, what kind of person do you think I am?”

Then, when your interlocutor starts giving her/his opinion, ask “structural” or “contrast” questions to make her/his ideas more precise. For example: “Just a minute, let me see if I understand. You think I am open and familiar like a fellow American would be, but you also think I am Italian. How can I be both?” Or: “You said I appear familiar; what do you mean by 'familiar', someone you have know for a long time or just someone predictable?”

Add an “example” question every time it is possible: “Excuse me, you said I seem predictable. Can you give me an example of what I said or did that seemed predictable?”

After 5 minutes of this kind of questioning, you can turn the recorder off. You will probably have from 15 to 30 minutes of recording to give me.

Then, back home, write a two or three page report IN ACADEMIC ENGLISH on what you learned from your experience. “Academic English” is the English of your double when s/he is participating in an intellectual discussion, for example during a lesson at the university. In other words, you write the report in the “best” English of your double.

During your experimentation you may have discovered that your interlocutor prefers you when you are your Italian self, since you are perceived as more fascinating precisely because you are different. Or perhaps you noticed that s/he prefers you when, by the way you express yourself, you seem closer to her/his way of thinking and speaking. In the second case you will have produced evidence supporting accommodation theory: In the first case you will have produced evidence falsifying it.

EMAIL ME YOUR REPORT AND YOUR RECORDING (if it's a digital file) BY MAY 20^TH: If it's a mini or regular cassette, bring it with you to class on Wednesday, May 21^st.

Criteria I will use in judging positively your conversation and your report.

You adopted clearly distinctive ways of speaking English as your double and as yourself.

You spoke naturally while expressing yourself as your double. That is, you did not sound like someone imitating your double: you sounded like you were saying what you were really feeling in that particular moment.

The report contains many exact transcriptions from your recording. How many?

-- As many of your utterances as necessary to illustrate why you think your way of speaking changed (or remained the same, if your experiment was a failure)

-- As many of your interlocutor's utterances as necessary to illustrare why you think s/he noticed a difference (or did not notice a difference, if your experiment was a failure).
Six or seven lines of transcription may be enough but probably you will need more.
Remember: a scientific report is scientific even if it reports a failure. Failures are a necessary part of scientific progress: they help others do better experiments in the future.

The report is in Anglo academic style:

1. you begin by announcing what the paper is about and what your finding (conclusion) is,

2. then you explain how the experiment was conducted
3. then you give the reasons that you think justify your conclusion (for example, your transcriptions),
4. finally, you give your conclusion again – a second time – and say what it's epistemological value is (how “sure” that conclusion is: it is 100% certain? or only 51% certain? or just a guess? or...???) and the reaons why you give it that epistemological value.