INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this assignment is to provide a brief definition of pragmatics, its relevance in language teaching, its main characteristics and how it can be taught through a pedagogical proposal.
A
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Some years ago in 2011, thanks to an
international exchange program for future English language teachers, I had a
chance to travel abroad for the first time in my life. As an advanced English student,
I was excited and confident about my language skills, so I did not give much importance
to the linguistics difficulties I would find during my stay in the United
States. I have a pocket dictionary- I said – “That is all I need to practice my
conversation skills” Let’s focus on what I have to study at school instead! This misconception about my expertise in the
L2 was fed by the fact that I learned English from books mostly and I
considered myself good at memorizing contents.
In the first days of my stay, during one
of my long walks to the campus, I met an American student who went to the same place,
too. So, as I like to make friends, I said “Hi” and then started talking to
her. I introduced myself as I usually
do, and so she did. Then, I asked her some questions about her life which she
considered too personal for a first meeting, so she tried to ignore them by
changing the topic and making body gestures of clearly noticeable discomfort. My looking into her eyes did not help her
feel more relaxed either, so I decided to tell jokes and share some anecdotes
to make her laugh, but any effort I made seemed not to work at all. She had a
different cultural background, I did not understand and I ignored that people
have other ways of doing things there. At first I thought was shy, so I grabbed
her shoulders with my hand to look friendly, but she moved away and told me to
back off “Your mom did not teach you manners? Are you a perv? - She asked annoyed.
Of course, I felt utterly confused and offended by her words. Although I did not comprehend what was
happening, I explained I was not a pervert which she believed to the degree she
could stay close to me for the rest of a very strange silent walk. When we
finally got to school, we said “goodbye” and I made a gesture , so we could
kiss each other’s chicks. She frowned at me and said “That’s weird, dude” and went
in.
After a long process of thinking, I looked for the reason
why our first meeting encounter was a disaster, my grammar, and my accent in
the L2 seemed not to be an impediment in communication, but my gestures, my
behavior and my lack of knowledge in many other aspects of the interaction
certainly were. I lacked pragmatic competence, but I did not know it. I was
completely unaware of an area of the language that went beyond any linguistic
feature I had learned before. On my quest for answers I made a rough comparison
of the ways in which the American student and I behaved during the interaction
and I realized that I had violated several pragmatics norms. Some of them are
listed below:
·
I took the initiative and
said “hello” to greet her. She replies “Hi” but does not show herself so
enthusiastic. It seemed she did not expect to meet a person on her way to
school.
·
I asked questions related to
her relationship status and living area, but she ignored them and preferred
talking about trivial things such as the weather or sports. She looked uncomfortable.
·
I looked into her eyes all
the time to show I was sincere and confident while she avoided that. In her
culture, doing that means to have romantic feelings for someone.
·
I joked around to make her
laugh, but she did not. Eventually she would tell me that her humor is
different from mine and what I found funny was childish for her.
·
I grabbed her shoulder to
look friendly, but she did not respond positively to this, she thought I invaded
her personal space, so she became annoyed and frustrated.
·
I tried to kiss her in the
chick to say goodbye, but she did not kiss me back. To top this off, she said
“that’s weird, dude” and left.
With the information above, it is
possible to state that we both did not achieve to understand each other, and
countless were the others factors that had an impact on our misfortunate
conversation attempt. This experience which turned out to be enriching tells us
that language is not all about grammar, vocabulary and sounds, but also those features
surrounding the language that have an effect and an impact on the relationship of
the language users.
WHAT
IS PRAGMATICS?
Defining pragmatics is not an easy task,
Levinson (1983) as cited by Reigle, L (2011:31) stated that “the field of
pragmatics deals with the context-dependent aspects of language and the intent
behind how a speaker frames or encodes a communicative message” In simple words, in one of his many
presentations, David Crystal (2014) defines “Pragmatics” as the linguistic branch that
attempts to answer “why” the people mean, and why they say it and do it in that
way. When we communicate with other
people, especially when it is the first time, we use our socio-cultural
background and knowledge of the world to establish a conversation. These
aspects are so important that they allow us to set the appropriate conditions for
successful communication. To know when to handshake or kiss a chick, or when to
say goodbye after a previous preparation are codes we learn from observation,
repetition and explanation. We usually call these codes “good manners”, but
there is still a huge amount of knowledge we never know we knew until we talk
with a foreigner. May (1993) as cited
by Cai, L; Wang, Y (2013:142) explains that pragmatics is “the science of knowledge seen in relation to
its users” Any person who wants to learn a foreign/second language must also
consider the people with whom they want to communicate given that it is not
same to speak with a South African, an Australian or a Russian who has learned
English as foreign language. In fact, they three seem to share a common
language, but they have different cultures: contexts, realities, geographies,
manners, history, customs, grammars, accents, way of doings and saying things.
Washburn (2001:21) utters that learning a language means not only the
vocabulary, grammar, and sounds of the language, but also how to use the
language appropriately in different situations, depending on such factors as the
relationship between the speakers, the setting, and the context of the
situation” It is clear that we cannot
separate a language from its users and all that factors and implications that
they take. A teacher who ignores this pragmatic principle may expose his
students to the language corpus, but does not prepare them to act, react to
different stimuli given during the interaction, and develop a conversation
appropriately.
In the SLA field, many researchers have
noticed the importance of pragmatics and have paid attention to “interlanguage
pragmatics” (ILP). Cai, L; Wang, Y (2013:142) claims that “L2 learners, even
the high proficiency L2 learners usually make mistakes in their communication
for their unawareness of pragmatic knowledge” In addition, Washburn (2001:21)
states that native speakers do not tend to correct their interlocutor’s
pragmatic violations which prevents the learners from opportunities to raise
awareness of their own communication mistakes. The current situation marks a
necessity for teaching pragmatics in EFL to deal with the lack awareness;
however, is it possible to teach pragmatics?
Can language learners perform better in a second language if they
receive instruction on pragmatics? A final question would be: How can we teach
pragmatics? We will see this later. Now,
let’s focus on where pragmatics is present in the interaction.
FEATURES
OF PRAGMATICS
According to Moran (2001) as cited by
Echeverría (2009) pragmatics can be divided into two main categories:
linguistic and extra-linguistic pragmatics.
Linguistic
pragmatics.
It
has to do with all the written and oral language and paralanguage. For example:
[written] Syntax:
Van Valir Jr (2001) as cited by Echeverría (2009:11) defines it as “how
sentences are constructed, and users of human languages employ a striking
variety of possible arrangements of the elements in sentences". For
example, the sentences: “you talk with her” or “you talk to her” are not the
same. Even though they are used to refer to the same idea, they respond to a
different vision of the world. “Talk to” means that the action of talking
requires a listener to which the information should be directed whereas “talk
with” expresses the action of talking requires a companion, someone with which
the information should be shared.
The Cambridge advanced English learner’s dictionary
mentions that the first sentence is usually preferred by American English
speakers whereas the second one is usually used by the British.
[Written] Morphology:
From a pragmatic viewpoint, this is
the way in which the words are formed by determined groups of people. For
example, the past tense of the verb “learn” is either “learned” or “learnt”
There is no difference in meaning and its usage generally lies on where the
interlocutor comes from. In some online gaming communities, a noun such
as “tank” has adopted the quality of a verb, so gamers tank, are tanked or go
“tanking” to mean they try to lure the opposing players while others attack. The use of this noun as a verb is generally
used in strategy gaming contexts.
[written/oral] Vocabulary:
It is the words a community uses depending how the see their world. It varies
depending on the cultural background, context, register and knowledge of the
interlocutor. In some communities in USA
for example, to call a person “black” may be offensive, so they prefer to call
them “African-American” which does not describe his skin color but his cultural
background and origin, however; this idea that “black” is offensive is not
shared by some part of the population.
[oral] Pronunciation: The way in which we
pronounce what we say plays a major role in how an interlocutor can interpret an
idea. To utter a word with a rising tone may mean a complete different thing
with a falling tone: A raising tone “Ok?” means doubt, question or concern, a falling tone “Ok” on the other hand can mean
ratification, clarification, closure, etc.
[Oral] Register: The social setting determines how the
interlocutor wants to sound or look to others. The idiomatic expression “what’s
up?” is less formal than the formulaic health related expression “how have you
been?” Both are suitable to greet a
person depending on the context and the relationship of the interlocutors.
[Paralanguage] Onomatopoeia: They are words which are pronounced as they
sound. If a person describes an
explosion as a loud “boom” adds more intensity to the meaning.
[Paralanguage] Interjection:
In the website “yourdictionary.com” this part of speech is defined as a “word
solely designed to convey emotion. It expresses meaning and feeling” Some
interjections are: boo, yikes, ups, aha! which add intensity to the meaning of
the sentences.
Extra-linguistic
pragmatics.
According to Echeverria (2009:13) this
category is composed by “kinesics, proxemics, oculesics, chronemics, haptics
and context. However, the list is still incomplete for Dynel, M (2011:424) who
also includes “Olfatics” and the “physical appearance” of the
interlocutors.
Kinesics: It
is the facial expressions, body language, gestures and emblems such as nodding
or shoulder movement that convey meaning.
In an EFL/ESL setting, a language teacher who has real beginners can use
kinesics while speaking to help his students understand directly what he says
in the L2.
Proxemics: Echeverria
(2009:13) defines it as “the use of space between objects and between
people to convey meaning” For example, a
person who speaks too close to another person may express emotional interest
and eagerness in some cultures.
Oculesics: It’s the eye-movement that conveys meaning
such as winking, staring, rolling, opening and closing the eyes. In some cultures, to wink the left eye while
saying an utterance usually means that the speaker approves an opposite idea. Another example of oculesics is rolling the
eyes upwards when trying to say something. An interlocutor may interpret that
the speaker is still thinking about what he wants to say or trying to remember
some information.
Chronemics: According to Echeverria (2013:14)
this aspect of non-verbal communication can be classified into two different
“patterns of behavior” The first pattern is monochromic and the second is
polychromic. A monochromic interlocutor values and respects his time and the
others’ during the development of the interaction. There are usually no
interruptions given that they prefer to do things one at a time. Polychromic
interlocutors tend not to wait for the other interlocutors to finish their
ideas, so they interrupt and do many things at a time.
EFL/ESL teachers can show these patterns of behavior by
playing TV shows in class. Students can be asked to analyze how the characters
talk and how they take and request their turns. Each pattern of behavior has a
possible interpretation during the interaction.
Haptics: In linguistics, this concept
can be defined as the action of touching that conveys meaning. A person can
communicate the distance they have with their interlocutors when they greet
which can be accompanied with a handshake, a hug, a kiss on the chick or
nodding. There are cultures where a
greeting comes right before a kiss on the chick or when touching someone else’s
hair in a delicate way can have a romantic connotation.
Context:
The professor of computer linguistics Detmer Meurers (2004) divides context into
four categories: Physical context (the
environment that surrounds the hearer/speaker), linguistic context (what has
being said before), social context (the relationship of the people involved in
communication) and epistemic context (knowledge and beliefs of the
hearer/speaker)
Olfatics: Dynel, M (2011:424) mentions
this aspect as the smells of the environment and the interlocutors during the
interaction. A person who has just cooked dinner might smell like the food he
has just prepared, his interlocutor might begin a new topic In the conversation
after he has perceived how great it smells.
In some cultures
like the Chilean one, people tend to take a shower once a day because people
consider that any type of natural corporal odor is a lack of hygiene. In other
cultures unlike the Chilean, people take showers less often which has caused
reactions in the Chilean people when they are abroad. In some interactions,
this corporal odor may stop them from speaking because the odor can be sensed
too easily and therefore it is disgusting.
Physical appearance: It’s
any physical characteristic the person has when they interact. This includes
body shape, size, eyes color, face, skin color, etc.
Our world is full of stereotypes and misconceptions about
people based on their beliefs and knowledge of the world. For example, a person
with a turban on the head is usually taken as a Muslim, a foreigner, a
chauvinist, a potential terrorist among others. Chinese people are considered
to be “yellow” skinned, laborious, intelligent and devoted.
MY
CASE REVISITED.
1. As
an advanced English student, I was excited and confident about my language
skills [….] I have a pocket dictionary-
I said – “That is all I need to practice my conversation skills”
By
that time, my beliefs on learning a language were based on the acquisition of a
linguistic corpus. I knew a considerable amount of vocabulary, I had mastered
English syntactic structures in a written way (which I wrongly assumed I could
use orally, too), my pronunciation was
fairly good for each word, but the pitch and the tone of the words being
pronounced in connected speech could be easily recognized by Native English
speakers who considered me a Spanish speaking foreigner speaking in English.
2. In
the first days of my stay, during one of my long walks to the campus, I met an
American student who went to the same place, too.
I have the cultural belief that sharing interests with a
strange is enough to approach and meet a potential friend. Also, I thought I
had to give the first step since I was “the man” In the traditional Chilean culture,
the man should take the initiative to
talk with a woman for the first time.
3. I
introduced myself as I usually do, and so she did.
I usually greet strangers by saying “hello” (vocabulary)
and smiling (kinesics). The context suggested I should keep a distance of at
least one meter long (Proxemics) until we felt comfortable. Cynthia did not expect to meet anybody, so she
moved her head and body slightly backwards and winked her eyes in surprise
(Kinesics, oculesics)
4. “…
I asked her some questions about her life which she considered too personal for
a first meeting, so she tried to ignore them by changing the topic and making body
gestures of clearly noticeable discomfort”
According
to the context, Cynthia’s belief of a first meeting on a way to school did not
include talking about her private life, that is, information of where she lived
or her boyfriend in the case there was one.
She preferred talking about the weather and the reasons why she
preferred to walk to school: more general things. For her, the conversation was
casual and not necessarily had to end up with a friendship.
She
frowned (kinesics),avoided eye-contact (oculesics) and slightly increased the
distance from me (Proxemics) to show discomfort. By ignoring my questions, she
also interrupted my turns (chronemics) because she did not like the topic.
5. “My
looking into her eyes did not help her feel more relaxed either, so I decided
to tell jokes and share some anecdotes to make her laugh, but any effort I made
seemed not to work at all”
Looking
straight into the eyes (oculesics) to show sincerity and friendliness was a
belief Cynthia did not share with me, so she felt I was acting strange and rude
according to her knowledge of the world. The telling of anecdotes to a strange
and the type of humor were aspects she did not share with me either. My limited background about her culture made
difficult for me to understand the pragmatic violations I made.
6. “At
first I thought she was shy, so I grabbed one of her shoulders with my hand to
look friendly, but she moved away and told me to back off “Your mom did not
teach you manners? Are you a perv? - She asked annoyed”
A person who avoids eye-contact (oculesics), keeps
walking while holding one of her backpack straps (haptics) with both hands and
maintains a rather long distance from her interlocutor (proxemics) fell under
my stereotype of shy personality. By
getting closer to her (proxemics) and touching one of her shoulders (haptics)
with my hand, I tried to help her overcome her incipient shyness (Knowledge of
the world), but in her culture this type of behavior does not exist in this
context, so she did not reacted as I expected according to my previous
experiences.
When she “moved away” (proxemics) and told me to “back
off” (vocabulary /intonation) she communicated she was not happy about my way
of acting. In both cultures, that type of behavior occurs when a person wants
to stay safe from a potential offender.
Then she said “Your mom did not teach you manners” Are
you a perv? (Syntax/vocabulary/intonation/indirect speech act) Why did she not
include my father, too? In the East west
white American culture mothers do an important job in raising their children.
This responsibility is stronger for the mother than the father since the last
one should work and provide money for the family. In Chile, we shared this
vision about the importance of the mother in raising the children and the duty
of the father who tends to be absent or have less time to focus on his family. Thomas (1983) as cited by Washburn (2001:21)
claimed that “the violation of the norm or pragmatic failure is often seen as a
reflection of the character or manners of the nonnative speaker, not the
language speaker’s proficiency in the target language”
The last question:”Are you a perv…?” (syntax /
vocabulary) appeals to my psychological state given that she considered this
“unknown behaviors” fulfill the characteristics of a sex offender. The shortened form of “perverted” is perv
which is usually used by teenage white American people according to Cynthia.
The aspects analyzed above serve as an example of the
many factors that affect communication which people who are nonnative speakers
of English are subjected to ignore. Fraser (2010:15) asserts that “second language
speakers who lack pragmatic competence may produce grammatically flawless
speech that nonetheless fails to achieve its communicative aims”
PRAGMATIC
COMPETENCE IN THE L2
Kasper
(1996) and Desalles (1998) as mentioned by Brock, M; Nagasaka, Y (2005:18)
explain that pragmatic competence is an ability which “equips” second language
learners to use the target language appropriately in particular communicative
events and to interpret meaning in context. Eslami- Rasekh, Zohreh (2005:200) mentions that “Pragmatic
competence consists of illocutionary
competence, that is, knowledge of speech acts and speech functions, and
sociolinguistic competence” How can we develop pragmatic competence then? In order to
answer this question, we need to focus on the foundation of this competence
which according to Echeverría (2010:18) is about culture, communication and intercultural
communication (In the case of 2nd language learners). Since languages are a representation of a
culture, every aspect of it responds to the features of its users: origin,
religion, opinion, beliefs, convictions, dreams, lifestyle, history,
educational level, traditions among many others aspects which conform the way
in which its users learn to behave and react to behaviors when they interact
with other language users.
In my own case,
Cynthia, and I shared English as a common language. She spoke it as native
speaker and so did I as a nonnative. My English grammar was relatively flawless
(in theory) and my pronunciation was intelligible enough to make myself
understood, however; it was far from being equivalent to her English. Our
“Englishes” as a term shaped by David Crystal, were heavily influenced by our
own cultural backgrounds.
Some aspects of
these cultural backgrounds are shown in the chart below.
Cutural aspects
|
Cynthia A.
|
Juan Jara
|
Place of
origin
|
San Marcos,
California
|
Quilpué,
Chile.
|
Age
|
19 years old
|
23 years old.
|
Language
|
English and Spanish (not fluent)
|
Spanish and English (Bilingual)
|
Race
|
White
|
Latino.
|
Educational
level
|
Undergraduate
|
Undergraduate
|
Religion
|
Protestant
|
Catholic
Christian
|
Personality
|
Serious,
talkative, calm, straight-forward.
|
Outgoing, talkative,
humorous and indirect.
|
Income
|
$+2000 from a
job.
|
$ +2000 from scholarship
|
Professional
experience
|
Social
security and fast food service, baby-sitting
|
Fruit
collecting, cashier, accountant.
|
Social status
|
Middle class
in
American
standards
|
Middle class
in
Chilean
Standards.
|
Personal
status
|
Single
|
Single
|
Children
|
None
|
None
|
Main
interests
|
Science.
|
Humanities.
|
Entertainment
|
Talk shows,
sports, parties.
|
Meeting
people, parties, movies and books.
|
Intercultural communication
In the beginning of this assignment, I
referred to the first interaction Cynthia and I have as a “total disaster”, a description that according to intercultural
communication viewpoint was not that bad. Why? Because no matter how hard it
was to understand some gestures and reactions, we achieved to negotiate
meanings in interaction in spite of the cultural differences.
In the chart above, it is possible to see some of the
many aspects that create our own cultural background. These aspects are also
subcultural items that make us participants simultaneously in several
communities with its own “ways of doing and thinking” For example: Cynthia
belongs to: the American nation, the protestant community, the young adult age
community, the working population, the university student community, the middle
class group, among others.
According to Allwood, J (1985:4):“when people of
different cultural backgrounds meet, all differences between them can
potentially lead to misunderstanding” A competent intercultural communicator across
cultures as for the world bank program “ComGAP” not only needs to know the
language of the host culture which is highly valuable but not all, he/she also
needs to understand “pragmatics”, be flexible, tolerant to high levels of
uncertainty, reflexive, sensitive, open-minded, and able to adapt to divergent situations
and contexts. These raise the following questions: Can people develop pragmatic competence? Is it possible to teach it?
THE
TEACHING OF PRAGMATICS
As it has been said before, we cannot claim
we know a language (at least in its full extent) if we only know its words, the
sounds and the grammar of it. We also need context. It is the ability to
understand context the one that makes us truly aware of what is going on around
and how we should react to each given situation.
Can
we teach pragmatics?
Rose, K (2005) claims that it is
possible to develop pragmatic competence in the language classroom provided
that there is long list of investigations [such as Brock, M; Nagasaka, Y (2005) and Eslami-
Rasekh, Zohreh (2005)] that have confirmed that the effect of
instruction in second language pragmatics has a facilitative role. She also
adds that those who receive instruction in these matters seem to perform better
in the target language than those who lack instruction.
Does
language policy matter?
Eslami- Rasekh, Zohreh (2005) asserts
that students should not see the L1 as a negative factor for EFL/ESL but as a
tool that help them understand deeper about foreign cultures by analyzing and reflecting
upon the peculiarities of each language.
Do
textbooks work?
There is a wide variety of textbooks
which, depending on its methodology, can provide learners with language sample
of speakers in “context”, nonetheless Washburn, G (2001) says they always omit
language characteristics that are important because a real conversation has
hesitations, stops, sudden changes of topic, overlaps, ungrammaticality and
other characteristics of interaction that are not presented in this type of
materials. That is the reason why, many
researchers suggest using materials as television shows (sitcoms, dramas or soap
operas) to teach pragmatics. Eslami-
Rasekh, Zohreh (2005) underlies the importance of the videos since the actors
who participate in the shows use real language in real-like contexts.
Television
shows
Unlike textbooks, television shows are a
source of “real language use” whose purpose is not language teaching, but
entertaining. For example, sitcoms use
frequent pragmatic violations and situational humor to entertain their
audience. We cannot expect students to
learn everything from sitcoms, but we can make sure they have the tools to
develop pragmatic awareness of the language they learn. What are the benefits of using sitcoms? Washburn,
G (2001) indicates that they:
·
Provide authentic materials:
language in context.
·
Portray real life pragmatic
violations.
·
Violations are always marked
by laughter.
·
They provide nonverbal
commentary on pragmatic language use.
PEDAGOGICAL
PROPOSAL
Focus of instruction:
The objective of the following activities is to allow EFL
students to reflect upon the differences and similarities that the act of
meeting new people present in different cultures by having them watch two
videos: a British TV commercial and a video clip of the famous American show:
“How I met your mother”
Pedagogical
implications and orientations:
In this lesson, the students have to watch two videos
which have been carefully selected to show them how people talk and behave when
meeting new people in different contexts.
The first video: a TV commercial is directed to British citizens of
Indian cultural background which gives sample of how body language conveys different
meanings. It also shows how technology influences on the way people meet.
The second video “How I met you mother: the meet” is a
video clip compilation of several scenes where “Tracy Mosby” meets each of her
friends in different situations breaking pragmatic rules which can be used a
source of reflection for the students to analyze and study.
Sample lesson plan
Teacher: Juan
Jara Subject: EFL class.
Lesson name:
“Meeting new people” Length:
90 minutes.
Grade:
1st year of high-school. Level: Lower intermediate.
Lesson objective(s):
·
Students will compare the
way in which culture influence on the way people meet new people and introduce
themselves.
·
Students will be able to
recognize some pragmatic violations of the English language that take place
when people meet new people.
·
Students will analyze the elements
of the interaction that can help them grasp the meaning of the speech acts.
Materials required:
·
Computer, internet
connection, over-head projector, speakers, whiteboard, marker, worksheets and
notebooks.
Teaching
procedures:
Warm-up: The
teacher asks two students to perform a jigsaw activity in which they have to
pretend to meet each other for the first time in their country.
Student
two: You noticed someone look sad and want him/her to cheer up. What would
you do in your country?
|
Student
one: You are reading a book on a bench in the park. You are sad and homesick. The book is
about Valparaiso.
|
After the acting, the students must reflect about the
actions and analyze the contextual elements of the interaction: such as
language used, body language and context. Then the teacher asks the students
how meeting new people can change according to context (age, gender, intention,
culture, physical aspect, place, moment, etc) and register their answers on the
whiteboard to discuss.
Activity II: Becoming aware that context plays an
important role in meeting someone new, the teacher presents a video where they
should only focus on the non-verbal elements of the conversation. i.e (Haptics,
oculesics, proxemics, etc)
Afterwards, the teacher hands out a worksheet for the
students to fill in according to the video they have watched. (The table
sections: body language and context must be blank)
Interaction
|
Language used
during the interaction
|
Body language
(What she does with her body)
|
Context
(age, gender, culture, time, place…)
|
The
woman at the restaurant
|
Men:
1.Hey,
I recognize you from somewhere.
2.Hi,
you o’right?
3.
Wow, see you guitar then.
Woman:
I’m
Thania. I’ve always missed you
|
1.
Raise left arm, points out a finger and pulls it back.
2.
Frowing, using arms to take an instrument away.
3.
Frowing, moving part of the lower lip upwards while moving the head in
another direction.
|
-She
is sitting at a restaurant.
-
She has arranged a meeting using a software to meet a potential couple.
|
Students’ answers about body language used and context
may vary from student to student. The teacher asks some students to explain the
context of the interactions and the body language features. i.e
1. What
does frowning mean in this context?
2. What
does the woman expects from the interactions?
Activity III: Once the students have become aware that
body language is also an important part of understanding the context. The
teacher makes a brief introduction of the sitcom “how I met your mother”
showing pictures and data of the characters and then playing the YouTube video
“How I met your mother: the meet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcUVge2YJfQ
Once the video is watched, the students have to do the
following exercises on a worksheet.
I) How did Tracy
meet her friends? Match sentences
parts.
Lily was trying to flirt on the
road
Marshal looks
stressed in the store
Barney asked for a lift on the
train
II) Choose any of
the previous situations, how would you have reacted to that?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
III) What of these
character’s actions do you consider inappropriate for a first meeting
interaction?
____offering cookies
___ kidding
___offering a lift.
____hugging ___giving
advice ____praising.
____ Requesting information ___ Giving comfort.
IV) True or
false.
_____ Tracy is impressed that Lily accepts cookies from a
complete stranger.
_____Marshal gets scared after Tracy seems to know
everything about him.
_____Barney says he recruits people for an orphanage in
order to impress.
_____ Tracy considers that a “seat” distance is enough to
talk to someone.
_____ Barney is astonished at Tracy’s friendly hug at the
store.
_____ For Barney “win the game” means to establish a
serious relationship.
V) Each of the statements below may be considered
inappropriate in some cultures. Could you explain why?
1. To offer food to someone you have just met. _____________________
2. To speak with a full mouth. _____________________
2. To give life advice to people you have just met. ____________________
3. To make fun of someone you have just met. ____________________
4. To lie to someone in order to flirt/ be nice. ____________________
5. To hug a stranger because he looks nice. ____________________
Activity IV) The students are asked to identify and make
a list of 10 accepted and unaccepted norms to meet a person in their respective
countries and answer the question: “Are the same in every culture?
Activity V) The teacher makes a brief description of the
treated lesson contents and has the students comment on what they learned in
the lesson, their traditional views of
meeting people according to textbooks and the way in which the videos showed
“meeting someone new” also depends
factors that are usually skipped or ignored such as context.
CONCLUSION
The teaching of pragmatic is an area of linguistics that
deserves more attention in formal language instruction since it prepares the
language learners with tools to face contexts they are sometimes not prepared
to get involved with (as it was my case)
This preparation is key to become a cross-cultural communicator.
With the spread of globalization and the quick
development of technology, the language students have a chance to learn and
practice languages like no previous times in history: current students can
listen to music in foreign languages, chat with foreigners in real time, read
the newspapers of the word using internet and watching television in the
language of their choice. For teaching, television shows such as sitcoms have
become popular in the EFL classroom provided that they do not only show
language used in context, but also what it surrounds, influence and affect its
users.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
REFERENCES
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