- Respond now to this position: “Teaching speech acts seems to put teachers and students in a straightjacket. Won’t we be limited to teaching students dialogs that they have to memorize? Don’t we want them to be more creative in their use of the second language?”
I think defining, describing, and explaining speech acts to students, seems much more difficult for the teacher to describe to L2 learners. J.L. Austin does a thorough, yet still confusing, explanation of interpersonal language functions. As a prospective teacher, I could only use graphs and charts to explain this phenomenon.
I think every culture experiences locution changes, and implicit or alternative meanings behind what a person says; however, cultural speech act transfers probably more than confuses L2 students, and would be hard to explain. I think as a teacher, you have to let student acquire this understanding naturally, through their own interactions and error correction. Much like Professor Duarte explains about her experiences, in her lecture.
So, to answer the question above, I think speech acts more guides teachers in the break-down of language functions, and help teacher aid student utterances, inferences, and understanding. However, having students memorize speech acts seem unnecessarily confusing and too contrived.Considering the following scenario: A beginning adult in ESL class that is uninterested and not progressing well. The student is in the U.S., temporarily, to work and save as much money as he can, and then return to his hometown and help his family. He is living with an aunt and uncle who speak little English and use their first language at home. His friends are young people from his home country who do not speak English well or very much. He is in the ESL program to improve his English enough to understand his boss better and follow his instructions better.
2. I do not think it is fair, yet, to assume, Sociolinguist, John Schumann, would consider this student’s circumstances a “bad learning situation." However, I do agree that this guy's social distance may have a negative impact on his process of acculturation, and interfere with the SLA process. Shumann's, social distance theory helps teachers perceive social-cultural interferences, or, obstacles that may disrupt student progress. With teacher perception, there could always be something the teacher may not fully know, for example, maybe the student does not have time to study because he is working so much. It would not be fair for teacher to assume student is uninterested, because we don't really know what the student's life is like. His family may discourage his L2 acquisition and create pressure for him to work and make money, and not see the value in his education.
The key is to consider the combination of student socio-cultural relations in the U.S., i.e. similarities in L1 &L2 culture, student motivations, length of residence. The negative implications of student's situation, are L1 dominance in this home life, short length of stay in U.S., and most strikingly, his lack of motivations. But, I would like to point out, his lack of motivation may derive from him not having a choice to work, away from his family. His home life works against him because he can only communicate in his native language to his family.
As a teacher, I would still see opportunity in the man's L2 learning ability, and would not consider his situation as"bad learning situation," because I think his job and L2 classes are still working towards his U.S. acculturation. Even if he finds more comfort in interacting with students from his native culture, as teachers, we must assign diverse small groups to break social barriers. I would push him to seek more interest in ESL course to further his career path, and not just get by. I would, also, encourage him to practice with friends and basic English use at home, letting him be the teacher. I can see how "bad combinations" of situation may affect his L2, but I would also strive to find the cultural similarities to help this student transfer and relate to new language to his home life, and hope he finds purpose in that.
Edited by Alexandria White on Dec 2 at 8:49am
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