SIETAR Congress 2004, Berlin - Thursday, April 1, 2004, 11:30 a.m. - Track 9, DOR 24, 311
New Wants, New Ways, New Words
Patrick
Boylan
e-mail: patrick@boylan.it
Department
of Linguistics -- University of Rome III
via
Ostiense 236 -- 00146 Rome, Italy
A pleasure and an honor to speak in this university...
Wilhelm
von Humboldt (entry): |
Karl
Marx (stairway, main hall): |
|
|
Über die Vershiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss au die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts, published posthumously by Wilhem's brother Alexander in 1836. |
11th thesis on Feuerbach, written in 1845 as personal notes, and published posthumously by Marx's colleague Engels in his Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klasssischen deutschen Philosphie, 1886. |
Stoics, Plato: language = RATIONAL propositions
I.
Humboldt: Man
perceives things in the way that the language he uses presents them
to him.
relativism1,
ordinary talk2,
language as being3
1Boas,
Sapir, Whorf, Hymes: relativism
2Austin
(Oxford school): ordinary language
---
but from 1960's: Chomsky's "neo-platonism" has dominated
---
3This
presentation (building on Gadamer and Halliday):
Being
Let's start, however, from practical considerations.
IC
is in transition:
less
and less space for craftsmen (intuition);
in
the near future: space only for
theoretically-grounded
professional consultants.
(Compare with
computer "consultants" 10 years ago.)
Examples of a "different" kind of LC2 instruction training:
identikit construction (+ being alter ego at home)
joining an LC2 Internet Dating Service or SIG
Compare such activities with "Intercultural games":
BaFà
BaFà, . Barnga,
. Ecotonos...
Intercultural
Sourcebook: Cross-Cultural Training Methods,
S. Fowler &
M. Mumford, Intercultural Press, Yarmouth, 1995.
Vision of LC (language/culture): sets of rules rationally describable
Vision
of LC Learning: attaining (through learning the
language) a tolerant understanding of a divergent culture.
(But you remain you. Thus purely formal
accommodation.)
.
.No! . . tolerant
. . . . understanding .
. . . divergent
Compare the two kinds of activity:
Given
the other party's
language/culture matrix, |
|
understands
it |
feels
it as part of herself |
tolerates it |
likes partaking in it |
considers it divergent |
considers it instructive |
(But only the ICP on the right can work in other cultures creatively.)
This
is an example of how we might respond
to meet the challenge of
rethinking our discipline:
rethinking
what is "communication", "language",
"culture"...
... to be able to teach/train creative
ICPs.
So let's begin to rethink....
FIRST STARTING POINT -- Language Learning
Beginner student: . . How are you?
Advanced
student: How's
it going? *
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . What d'ya say? *
.*But:
possibility of sounding false, ridiculous.
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ... ...
... .Why?
expressive
stance .|....if....|
. existential stance
expressive
stance .|.GAP,.|
. existential stance
expressive
stance .|..then:..|
. existential stance
.
Stance = bodily position (posture); . also a psychological position
1st
intuition:
expression
& way of being
are linked.
(If
expression is consonant with the speaker's way
of being,
s/he will sound natural even if ethnicity,
etc. is diverse.)
Peter
Trudgill (1983:145): the falsely American pronunciation of many
British pop singers
"Acts
of conflicting identity. The sociolinguistics of British Pop--Song
Pronunciation" in P. Trudgill, On Dialect - Social and
Geographical Perspectives, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.
But
the genuine-sounding American accent of singers who have
"acculturated"...
Mark
Knopfler (Yorkshire) "Tenessee",
Van Morrison
(Ireland), "Chicago Black"...
expressive stance = existential stance, way of being
Practical conclusion (for Language Teaching):
Just
as musical
scales and rules of harmony are not 'music', |
"language" = EXPRESSION |
LANGUAGE = WILL TO MEAN |
CULTURE = WAY OF BEING |
Repertories: lexis, gestures, genres |
Particular expressive stances |
Particular existential stances |
conversations, literature... |
genius of the language, style... |
philosophies, ethics, politics... |
Language
is an alogical, intentional matrix,
a will to mean rooted
in a way of being (culture).
Language shapes repertories of artefacts to represent itself by analogy: gestures, words, mimicry, even silence.
Teaching
a language ≠ simply teaching repertories,
but a
people's will to mean rooted in their way of being.
SECOND STARTING POINT -- Intercultural Training
Intercultural Effectiveness
Peace
Corps: "Tolerant
understanding of divergent behavior." (But
don't go native!)
. .No!
. . tolerant . . . .
understanding . . . .
divergent
Intercultural Effectiveness
IC Trainers: "Capacity to live contentedly and work successfully in another culture"
Thomas Vulpe et al., A profile of the interculturally effective person, Centre for Intercultural Learning, Canadian Foreign Service Institute, 2000.
external
(behavioral), pragmatic (task
focused) definition
But:
behavior ≠ understanding . . task
completion ≠ creativity
Better: entering into a
subjectivity
Intercultural Effectiveness
This
presentation: "Capacity
to react to and participate in meaning-making events
in a given culture, as a member might."
Boylan
1980, 1987, 1991, 1998, 2000 - available on the web:
www.boylan.it
-- click on "RESEARCH"a
kind of UNDERSTANDING that produces CREATIVITY
"culture" = CUSTOMS |
LANGUAGE = WILL TO MEAN |
CULTURE = WILL TO BE |
Repertories: greetings, etiquette, taboos.. |
Particular expressive stance |
Particular ways of being, existential stances |
table talk, business cards, giving orders... |
style, spirit, genius of the language... |
philosophies, ethics, lifestyles, politics... |
_____________________ ... ..___________________________________________
FORMAL ACCOMMODATION . . .. . .SUBSTANTIAL ACCOMMODATION
How?
1.Change
of viewpoint: Begin
rethinking language as:
a
sedimentation of modulations of social behaviour
created by repeated reactions to meaning-sharing events and by
repeated attempts at (co-)producing such events in response to a felt
need
to represent something (to oneself, to others),
to do something (through representation), above all
to be something (through representing, doing).
(Cf. Buhler's, Jakobson's, Halliday's speech functions)
2. Dare to experiment learning activities that:
-
call for a change of tastes, values
- provoke a "transformation
of consciousness."
Examples:
identikit construction (+ being alter ego at
home)
. . . . . . . . joining an LC2 Internet Dating Service or SIG
. . . . . . . . For more activites like these, click here.
Compare such activities with "Intercultural games":
IC:
understanding "them".
. .IC: understanding us
Given
the other party's
language/culture matrix, |
|
understands
it |
feels
it as part of herself |
tolerates it |
likes partaking in it |
considers it divergent |
considers it instructive |
(But only the ICP on the right can work in other cultures creatively.)
Rethinking language as...
New WANTS -- To speak another language (or, more simply, communicate interculturally) most effectively, one must acquire a new volitional (existential) stance..
New WAYS -- The new wants will produce new behavior: one will begin doing things differently to seek different kinds of satisfaction.
New WORDS -- Language is not words but a behavioral complex; nonetheless, behavior includes talking and gesturing: thus among the new ways of behaving will be the use of new words to make one's wants felt.
Research:
Phenomenon |
Perception* |
Interpretation** |
1. An accumulation of signals... |
...taken to be intentional and thus an offering... |
...constitutes an existential value. |
2. An accumulation of values... |
...taken to be coherent and thus a stance... |
...constitutes a conversational contribution. |
3. An accumulation of contributions... |
...taken to reveal a Weltanschauung and thus a frame... |
...constitutes a scene, the basic unit of a narrative event. |
|
||
|
II. Karl Marx: Philosophers have only interpreted the world variously; now it is time to change it.
Two visions of Intercultural Communication (IC):
|
|
---|---|
IC=understanding "them"* |
IC = understanding us |
*Gen. Sanchez's IC courses for Marines in Iraq and Wolfowitz's statement.
Two visions of Intercultural Communication (IC):
understanding
"others"
(to manipulate or defeat them:
win/loose as a policy)
understanding
"ourselves in others"
(to empathize with
them: win/win when possible)
Thank you.
Bibliography
at www.boylan.it
-- click on the word RESEARCH
Slides at
http://interculture.interfree.it/sietar/
in a few days.