University of Rome III - Faculty of Letters – 2003-04 - Module: Seeing and Saying things in English (studied during Accommodation in Intercultural Conversations in English) - Patrick Boylan

Dossier

1. For December 18th, select some distinctive variety of English for which you feel an affinity. Then find someone who speaks that variety and whom you can use as your English-speaking “double”. How to do all this?
   
   - First, click here for the web page “Films in English.” It lists films in the Lab featuring people who use varieties of English other than R.P. (British Received Pronunciation) or G.A. (General American). The settings and the stories of the films you see will also help you choose the particular English-speaking community to study. Remember: You have to find a community with whom you feel an affinity. (You can also use films from the video rental stores listed on the web page “Films in English.”)
   
   What do R.P. and G.A. sound like (phonology)? What characterizes their verbal forms and usages (lexico-grammar, pragmatics)? What textual and stylistic features connote them? Listen to and then read the following samples of R.P. and G.A. English. Remember, for your Dossier you must choose a kind of English to study that is NOT like these two dominant varieties. They are given here so that you can hear the kind of English you should NOT choose for your project: R.P. with Southern regional influences.. . .G.A. largely Midwest with Western influences.
   
   - Secondly, use the Internet to document the variety of English that you have chosen. Examples of resource pages: click> Englishes or Englishes --> Australian (including “Strine”) or TokPisin (“Talk Pidgin”, the English of New Guinea). “To document” means to make a linguistic description that expresses the specificity of the variety.
   
   A hint [drittata]: There are a lot of Bangladeshis and Irishmen in Rome so if you choose their variety of English you will have an easy time finding people to interview.
   
   - Thirdly, use the materials we studied during the first module to document the culture (value system) commonly associated with the variety of English you have chosen. The film will help you appreciate the culture. The materials are here and here.
   
   A hint: There may be no film for the culture you want to document. For example, no feature films have been made of the TokPisin community in New Guinea. In that case, listen to the radio station of that community on the Internet to hear how people there interact orally. (You don't know how to hear radio stations on your computer? Ask one of the PC Help volunteers: click here.) You can also read the local newspapers on the Internet and you may find novels by local writers at Feltrinelli International Book Store (piazza della Repubblica).
   
   - Finally, when you have identified the kind of English you want to hear (and live!), click here for lairs in which to find people, in Rome, who come from the English-speaking community that you have documented. It is not necessary to interview them yet. Your first task is to locate them in Rome.
   
   In conclusion, for the Dec. 18th lesson you are to bring NOT an interview, NOT a description of the variety of English you have chosen, NOT the cultural dimensions of your target community, but ONLY the materials you have collected to produce all these things. The materials should include:
   
   a. a list of the sound/video sources you will be using to document the variety of English you will be studying (example: You could submit a piece of paper on which you have written “My sources are the video cassette Rebel Music available in the Language Laboratory, plus the audio files patois.wav and creole.mp3 which I found at the site http://www.jamaican-speech.com.“ That's all you need to say.);
   
   b. printouts of Internet pages or photocopies of pages from books of descriptive linguistics, useful for describing the variety of English you have chosen.
   
   c. documentation useful for understanding the target culture.
   For example, the documentation can be simply a piece of paper on which you have written “My source for Jamaican culture is the video cassette Rebel Music available in the Language Laboratory“. You can also include printouts of Internet pages or photocopies from ethnographical studies, magazines, song lyrics, literary works giving a feel for the culture, etc.
   
   
   
   

2. For January 8th: Write your description of the way of saying things and the way of seeing things typical of your target culture. A description of the “way of seeing things” means using Cultural Dimensions to make hypotheses about the value system of the people in the target culture. It also means making Existential Maxims that summarize the value system.

3. For January 15nd: Distance yourself from your Italian culture, by
   
   - introjecting your target culture Existential Maxims and then
   
   - living at home for one day as your double.
   
   Write a one-page ethnographic account of what you observed in your home through the eyes of your double.

4. For January 22nd: Over the weekend, conduct an interview of target culture subjects in one of their “lairs” in Rome, using the principles described in the text here. Before your interview, you must introject once again the Existential Maxims of the target culture, then interact with target culture subjects, accommodating substantially to them.
   
   Write a two-page ethnographic report of your interaction.

5. For January 26th: Submit your dossier with all the work you prepared (steps 1 - 4).