Third Year English for the curriculum Languages and Linguistics
Lingua Inglese III annualità  per il curriculum  Lingue e Linguistica

Topic: Methodologies for the study of contemporary English.

Regulations, credits - Regolamenti, CFU> 
Assessment - Esame: contenuti e date> 
Roll - Registro iscrizioni-presenze-voti> 
Office hours - Ore di ricevimento> 

 <Programma e testi - Syllabus, set texts
 <Sunto delle lezioni - Recap of lessons
 <Attività di ricerca - Research tasks
 <Notizie, avvisi - News, Messages

 
Novità: "CREDITO DI LABORATORIO": supplementary credit of 1 CFU -- click> 
     

Mon. 1-3 pm, Room 16 
Lunedì,  13-15,  aula  16  

Wed. 1-3 pm, Room 11 
Mercoledì, 13-15, aula 11 

Fri. 2-4 pm, Room 11 
Venerdì 14-16, aula 11 

SYLLABUS,  SET TEXTS,  HANDOUTS 

Syllabus

   
Methodologies for the study of contemporary English

Success or failure in intercultural communication in English (both in Native/Non-Native or Non-Native/Non-Native encounters) depends only to a certain extent on the speakers' mastery of English vocabulary, syntax and phonology.  What are the other communicative instruments that speakers need to master?  What parameters can be devised to describe the adequate or inadequate use of these instruments?  How can students use this knowledge to guide their "permanent education" as linguistic-cultural mediators?

The present course will seek answers through individual and group reflection and experimentation, inside and outside the classroom.

     For the organizational aspect of the module -- requirements and credits, evaluation criteria and so on -- see the main menu.   As for the Reading List, it follows.

 Set Texts 
("programma")

1. M. Clyne. 1996. Inter-cultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   Available at university book stores.
   Note: Attenders read chapters indicated during course; non attenders read all chapters (1 to 7 plus Appendixes).

2. P. Kistler and S. Konivuori,(eds.). 2003. From International Exchanges to Intercultural Communication. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.  
   Thanks to permission granted by the authors, photocopies of the book may be had at Pronto Stampa, via Ostienese 461.
   Note: Attenders read chapters 2 (by Marie-Thérèse Claes), 5 (by Bernd Müller-Jacquier), and 9 (by Liisa Salo-Lee): non attenders read entire book (chapters 1 to 10).

3. P. Boylan. 2004. "Understanding others". SIETAR Deutschland Journal 10:1 (April), pp. 28-32.   For both attenders and non attenders. 
   To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
   Note: Only the downloaded version is divided into sections for group work.

4. "Avviso sull'esame".   
   To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
   Note: Although aimed at non-attenders, the text constitutes exam material for all students since it analyses what it means to "know" English in the context of the exams for this Course.  (International students: read the English version; Italian students: read the Italian version as it discusses your particular situation in more detail).

 Handouts 
 
("Dispense per i soli frequentanti -- i non frequentanti NON devono leggere questi testi.")

<cliccare                     "Learning language as culture"
 
Documento storico di 20 anni fa: è il Manifesto (la prima dichiarazione di principio scritto in lingua italiana) di una nuova concezione di apprendimento delle lingue vive, basata sull'introiezione culturale.
La pagina riprodotta è la Postfazione al volume Accenti sull'America di Patrick Boylan, Roma: Armando Curcio Editore, 1987, p. 387. In glottodidattica, "Learning language as culture" viene chiamato anche "l'approccio comunicativo-culturale".

 
Common European Framework of Reference (CEF)
You'll hear teachers at Roma Tre (and elsewhere) speak of the Common European Framework (CEF) levels of competence in a second language. For example, our university entry test is targeted for Level B1 in reading ability and A2 in speaking ability. What does this mean? Click the orange dot if you want to know more about the system (which many people criticize as simplistic, so it will probably undergo change in the near future).
 

Learn English on the Internet... FREE (no fees to teachers or schools!)
Clicking on the orange dot will open a page full of Internet sites where you can practice and extend your English. But you have to know how to distinguish what sites are most useful to you. This means asking yourself (1.) what learning English really means and thus (2.) what kinds of competence you need to acquire and only then (3.) what exercises are best for you.

Return to Menu 

LESSONS 
 Monday. 1-3 pm, Room 16;    Wednesday, 1-3 pm, Room 11;    Friday, 2-4 pm, Room 11 

 
This module meets 17 times (15 lessons, 2 exams):

November  5  8  10* 12*  15  17   19*  22  24   26  29*
December  1  3   6   8*  10  13   15   17  20   22
January  10  12 14*

* November 10, 12: No lesson, teacher away (conference, Dublin)
* November 17: First partial Exam
* November 19: Lesson may be is annulled (meeting, Amsterdam)
* November 29: First partial Exam
* December  3: No lesson (Dissertation Commission)
* December  8: No lesson, national holiday
* December 13: No lesson (Dissertation Commission)
* December 20 & 22: Christmas holidays anticipated (Rector)
* January  14: Second partial Exam (June 2005 = final exam)

Students who attend regularly and do all assignments will be exonerated from half or more of the books.  "Attend regularly" means no more than 3 absences (the exam days do not count).

 
Room 16: Group seating arrangement
 
Groups = 6/8 students, 3 (or 4) in front and as many behind:

This allows everyone to participate in the group discussions.

 

      
AFTER EACH LESSON, SEE HERE FOR THE SLIDES/NOTES USED.
 

5
Nov

 
- Overall course goal: see handout  Learning language as culture
 
- Photos next time. (Who can bring a digital camera?
   Write me: patrick @ boylan.it)
 
- First research project: HOW TO DISCUSS AN ACADEMIC TEXT USING BRITISH ACADEMIC DISCUSSION STYLE. The text is "Understanding Others" (one of the Set Texts).  See Research Task 1 for instructions.
  

8
Nov 

 
British Academic Discussion Style

How to search the Internet with Google to find pages on
"British academic language for discussions"

1. Click on Advanced search and build your query in this order:

a. put basic keywords in their order of importance in the field "all" (or in the field "exact phrase" if it is a syntagme like "academic speech" ).  Order of importance: think of the keywords that must be on the kind of page you are looking for; then put first in the field "all" the ones that are the least frequent in English.  Example: "features style discussion".

b. put discriminators in the field "at least one". Discriminators are highly specific keywords of which very few will appear on the page you want; using them obliges Google to select only a specific page type.  Example: "gambits, turn-taking, intonation, gestures" (again, less frequent words first).  If Google says there are no pages with all these words (as well as the words you put in "all" and "exact phrase"), eliminate the discriminators first.  Eliminate the last discriminator, try searching again, if Google continues to say "No pages found" eliminate the second-to-last discriminator and so on.

c. limitors: in our case, we want to find pages on British academic English, so we will use the limitor ".uk" that we put in the "domain" field.     ".uk" obliges Google to search only UK sites.

Note: This is a better strategy than using "British ... academic ... discussion ... characteristics" as your basic keywords. You will not find many pages entitled "British discussion": Brits would not normally entitle their site that way because they consider their way of speaking/writing as normal, not as particularly British.   An American site would, of course, use the title "British academic speech" if it studied this subject, but such sites are rare.   In conclusion, there are many sites in the UK offering advice to students, especially foreign students, on how to write and speak in a way acceptable in their Universities, and these sites have names like Academic Discussion Style or English for Academic Purposes, without the word British.

2. Results of my search: three pages that you can use to compare with what you found and agreed upon in your group:

a. Using English for Academic Purposes (University of Hertfordshire) or Features  N.B. I added some information to this page. The authors say British academic speech is linear (citing Kaplan) and I contest the concept of linearity as ethnocentric.
b. ACTS course notes (University of Sussex)
c. Research paper on peer discussion online (Open University)

3. Use the bibliographies and keyword syntagmes from theses pages as leads to other pages. For example, once you have discovered that the expression "Using English for Academic Purposes" exists, put the expression in the "exact phrase" field to discover similar sites.
 
Task for next time (Nov. 15th): See Task 1b in the Research Tasks section.

P.S. I forgot to tell the photographers to take the group pictures: can you bring your cameras for the next time? 

15
Nov.

Photographers: Sorry, about last time. On Monday, Before class begins, divide the 6 groups among you.   Take 3 close-ups of each, like this shot>
Then write the students' names down (in order) on a sheet and give the sheet to me. You can sent me the digital photos to 3LL @ boylan.it.

  Please enroll!  Fill out the form (click>  ) and send it to me by e-mail.  I can't count your work unless you have filled out the form.

CLASS DISCUSSION

- What does "understanding others" mean?
- What does it mean to discuss a topic like that using "British academic style"? (Observable phenomena)
- What did it mean for you to (attempt to) do so? (Subjectivity)
- How would you prepare for a class discussion if you were attending a British university with an ERASMUS grant?
- Are you going to prepare the same way, in the future, before your class discussions at Roma Tre? Why or why not?
 
_________________________________________________________

For next time: learn to use spontaneously the cue sheet explaining how, in four steps, to obtain a clarification from an interlocutor whom you do not understand. (To be valid, you must use all four steps.)

17
Nov.

  Please enroll!  Fill out the form (click>  ) and send it to me by e-mail.  I can't count your work unless you have filled out the form. 

Discussion topics

- American academic English: Eastern Central pronunciation and lexico-syntax; semi-formal register (colloquialisms and metaphors based on pop culture, but only for effect); terminological precision; explicit argumentation.  Anglo explicitness: first conclusions and premises, then empirical evidence, finally connection between evidence and conclusions (repeated).

- Simulation of a lecture in American English (the so-called "linear" discursive style in English "demonstrated" by Kaplan)
     Interrupt using the standard 4-stages for requesting clarification

- Simulation of a lecture in British English (the "sense" of your adaptation to British or American style: Accommodation Theory Revisited)
     Interrupt using the standard 4-stages for requesting clarification
 
For next Monday and Wednesday: see Task 2a and 2b
(preparation for Activity 2 as illustrated in the initial slides) 
 

22
Nov. 

(Exam preparation)

Questions on recent class discussions

QUESTION 1. In class I described, on 3 levels, the custom. in many Irish pubs, of singing the national anthem upon closing. Level 1 was the empirical description of the event. What were levels 2 (deeper) and 3 (the deepest)?
First indicate a label for each level and add a description of what it shows.
Then indicate what I said (on that level) about singing the national anthem.

Example:
Level 1: Empirical description
              (what anyone would see observing the event).
We saw a pictures of musicians in a Dublin pub and heard a recording of them performing.  They were 20-year-olds, male, wearing casual attire: one had an American-style football shirt and jeans.  At closing time the musician with a kind of bagpipe began playing the Irish national anthem and, although the others had been playing seated, they all stood up (one with his hands clasped behind his back). The people in the pub did, too, and sang along in Gaelic.  Upon finishing there was a long applause, whistling and hooting. 
Level 2: _______________________
              (___________________________________________________)

Level 3: _______________________
              (___________________________________________________)



QUESTION 2. I called official history "myth" and gave, as an example, the official history that many Irish people give of their custom of singing the national anthem at pub closing time ("a revolutionary practice introduced during the fight for independence from Britain").  I said that the practice was not Irish but copied from the British during the second World War, in sign of allegiance to the Commonwealth. Is my history "right" or "myth"? Why?


QUESTION 3. What is a "linear" essay?
     What is it for an average educated Italian reader (give topic order)?
     What is it for an average educated Anglo reader (give topic order)?


QUESTION 4. For your first task you and your group invented the criteria (or "parameters") to define "British academic style".  Then you used them to judge participants in your group discussion.  Why didn't the teacher give you the "right parameters" to help you conduct your discussion "more correctly"?
 

24
Nov.

 
- Comments on Research Task 2a:

-Choose a scene from a film in English (best if some national, regional, ethnic, class-distinctive variety).
- Write a description of at least 5 of the language features in the scene together with the relative cultural (not individual) characteristics that these features evoke.

  
- Comments on introjection à la Stanislavski based on two sources: Dulwich College Drama  (cache),       Laura's Dissertation
 
 
For other lists of cultural parameters, click here for Beamer or here for Bell.

26
Nov.

 
Comments on Chapter 5 in the book edited by Kistler and Konivuori, From International Exchanges to Intercultural Communication
        Linguistic Awareness of Cultures: Principles of a Training Module
                                     (by Bernd Müller-Jacquier)

austin gb
searle usa

speech act theory

locuationary "The door is open" door = / / open = 0

illocutionary force "Please close the door"

social values for giving orders

- imperative or

- declarative = rising tone + pointing out evident situation

perlocutionary force = strong or weak social convention

 -------------------------

Class Discussion
(topics we did not have time to cover on November 15th)

1. - According to the authors brought together by Kistler and Konivuori, what is "intercultural communication"?

2. - Why do researchers study "intercultural communication" as a discipline -- isn't it implicit in studying communication in an L2 or lingua franca?

3. - What must you study about English in order to be able to use it to communicate interculturally (in order to possess "cross-cultural competence" in English)?

4. - What is "English", then?

5. - What does it mean to "communicate" in English?

6. - What is "cross-cultural competence" in English?

7. - If your answers to the above questions are true, what relevance do the courses in the Corso di laurea in lingue e comunicazione internazionale have with your study of English?

8. - What justifies the study program in lingue e comunicazione internazionale as it is currently conceived?
  

29
Nov. 

 
Discussion on how to participate in an exam for a course in English ("in" means "on the subject of Anglo idioms", "conducted in one or more of the Anglo idioms". Since idioms are "ways of being", taking a test in English can also mean taking it in the Anglo fashion. The discussion examines the possible practical consequences of this definition.
 
Mid-term exam (esonero).
 

1 Dec. 

 Transportation strike. No lesson.

6 Dec. 

 
The concept of "critical incident" in intercultural communication in English.  The example of the conflict during the Nov. 29th lesson.  Analysis of what could have been done to avoid it.  The concept of "creation of a third space" (Homi Bhabha, Alice Tomic).  

Practical exercise: analyzing and proposing a solution for the "critical incident" described in M. Byram, Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice (Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 2001:

critical incident - clash between value systems for ex. during our exam:
universalistic ......................particularistic
tolerance is not enough.
always possible = tolerant
but understand = introjecting the other's value system

A introjects B's value system

B introjects A's value system

then they must create a common space

"third space" Tomic, Homi Bhabha

both A and B must make the effort

Example from Byram:

"An Italian student, in a British University, comes late to class (there was a traffic jam and the bus was late). He enters the class and excuses himself to the teacher and starts to explain why he is late. The (British) teacher interrupts him angrily, tells him to sit down and be quiet, and continues the lesson. The Italian is hurt. That evening he complains to other Italian students that the British are cold and unfeeling.

Each group selects a leader:

- what was behind (underneath) the conflict

1) story or "official explanation" (myth)

2) value system

What should the student do in the future?

10 Dec.

     
M. Clyne. 1996. Inter-cultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse. As FREQUENTANTI you are responsible for

- Chapter 3 "Speech acts in intercultural discourse" and

- Chapter 4 "Variation in communication patterns and intercultural communication breakdown in oral discourse". 

My initial plan was to ask you to study these two chapters and produce another recorded group discussion.  Unfortunately, the anticipated Christmas holidays have prevented this. 

These two chapters remain, however, the content of your second esonero (January 14th).

They also furnish the structuring terminology and procedures for your credito supplementare ("credito di laboratorio"). For this extra credit, due by Easter, you are to interview a native speaker of the variety of English you learned for Task 2 and/or 3. You are then to transcribe your interaction and comment on the

-- communicative breakdowns (the misunderstandings, conflicts, missed occasions, etc.) due to intercultural diversity, or the

-- communicative breakthroughs (empathetic resonance, epiphanies, entente) due to intercultural convergence through accommodation.

In making your description, you must use the descriptive apparatus that Clyne uses, as well as his terminology, as explained in Chapters 3 and 4.

NOTE:
These chapters purport to furnish you with a conceptual and terminological apparatus enabling you to make a "scientific" description of communication between people from different cultures.  But what does "scientific" mean?
Class discussion: "Scientific" means an 1. explicit   2.replicable   3. synthetic   4. protocol of observations producing 5. "knowledge". (Which, according to Popper, should be 6. "falsifiable" -- but there is discussion whether Popper's criterion is in fact practicable.)

But what is "knowledge"? To be discussed on Dec. 10th and 17th.

15 Dec

 
Knowledge (including knowledge of "English") as a social construction.
Changing linguistic needs in a changing society and economy: people in an advanced tertiary economy must produce (and sell abroad!) ideas and values, not just plastic and metal objects -- and this means knowing how to relate (in English) to your foreign interlocutor.
Redefining key terms (communication, language, knowledge, etc.) enables us to redefine what "English" we learn and how we learn it, in our advanced tertiary economy.

For more details of the "redefinition of key terms", click here. (or, for a version you can download onto your computer and read with your word processor, click here.

 Practical example of how an English class can change with the new definitions: TASK 3 (if a language is a will to mean, than students can learn English while using the Italian verbal repertory at home with their family).
 

17 Dec

 
"Spending a day at home as your English-speaking double" -- the rationale behind this activity:

1. Review of our definition of "knowledge": the mental constructs and behavioral schemes that give you a hold on some aspect of reality.  Or rather, what is for you "reality".  Or rather, what is "reality" for you, conditioned as you are by your society .  In other words, "knowledge" consists of the mental constructs and behavioral schemes that give you a hold on some aspect of those phenomena that you and your community have chosen to notice and have judged to be worth investigating.

Thus knowledge implies a "will to know" one thing rather than something else: it is therefore a choice and thereby volitive and ethical.  See, for example, what "knowledge of English" means for a University of Rome professor today, for a University of Rome (or Bari) professor 10 years ago, for a student today or 10 years ago, for the Queen of England, for the President of the United States, for the Premier of India, for a Black ghetto rap singer, etc.
2. To discover the relative nature of linguistic knowledge, with respect to English, one should begin by seeing it in one's home environment.
3. Garfinkel invented a technique for discovering latent cultural rules in one's own culture -- becoming a boarder at home (H. Garfinkel, 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
4. Research Task 3 is a variant of Garfinkel's technique.
 

10 Jan 

  
 M. Clyne. 1996. Inter-cultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse.
Example of analysis of an interaction -- success and failures due to differences in cultural styles of communication.

The concept of critical incident -- examples from your own travels abroad.
 

12 Jan  

 
More on the concept of "critical incident" - J. Stewart's thesis on the cathartic effect of critical incidents (see Freud's Der Witz) and thus their usefulness or even necessity for learning a second language culturally.
 
More on analyzing interaction using Clyne. Superlative example: D. Alalov's analysis of TV personalities using Poggi's pentagram.

 Discussion on the rules to follow for the exam next time. Historical compromise: 2 closed book factual questions, two open-book questions involving reflection.
 

14 Jan.

 
Last lesson!
 
(Sob!!!) ?
(Yeah!!!) ?
 

Return to Menu 

 
TASK 1a
Due date: November 8th

What does it mean to speak English using "British academic discussion style"?
Pronunciation: RP (increasingly acceptable: Estuary English).
Paralinguistic features?
Prossemics? Gaze? Gestures? Posture?
Interactional style? Turn-taking?
Register (lexico-syntax but, more in general, characteristic discourse features)?
- general (cohesion markers and other gambits...);
- discipline specific (terminology, phraseology...)
Tone (ironic...)? Style?
Topic selection and ordering?
Kind of reasoning?
Kind of humor?

If you had to prepare for a discussion before the Cambridge Board of Examiners, in view of a scholarship award to a British University, how would you prepare yourself for the interview from the linguistic/cultural standpoint?

For Nov. 8th bring a list of features you would practice (and which you will use for our next activity: a discussion in British academic style).


 

TASK 1b
Due date: November 15th

Make a Group List of Features of British Academic Discussion Style that the members of the group consider understandable, important, and easy to put into practice for the recorded discussion session.   This list will substitute the "official" criteria found on the evaluation sheet that the group leader will use:

Then organize a group discussion on the text "Understanding Others". Be active as listeners, interrupting for clarification (use gambits to be polite), backchanneling, focusing your gaze on the speaker. When it is your turn to present the paragraphs you have studied, use the British Academic Speech characteristics that your group has selected as important. After the recording the group leader will listen to the cassette and evaluate everyone: you can participate in the evaluation and offer your comments.

 
TASK 2a
Due date: November 22th

Please enroll!  Fill out the form (click>  ) and send it to me by e-mail.  I can't count your work unless you have filled out the form.
  

For the next activity: work in teams of two (only if necessary, three).
Choose an L2 double (alter ego)* that you both would like to be.
*Any L2 speaker, even marginal, that you would like to be for a day, from one of the films in the language lab (click here) or from a video rental shop (click here).
Choose a scene showing your double interact with others in her/his culture. Copy about 10 lines containing typical speech/cultural features.
Note: Choose the scene carefully. You will be acting it out next week!
Read Chapter 5 (by Bernd Müller-Jacquier) in Kistler and Konivuori and, using the terminology illustrated, write a one page description of at least 5 of the language features in the scene (better if more) together with the relative cultural (not individual) characteristics that these features evoke.
For example, suppose I chose Crocodile Dundee and in one scene he tells a teacher:
"Hey, mate, that explanation don't make no sense."
You would write: "This is an example of Australian outback directness (Dundee calls the teacher's attention by saying 'Hey'), masculinity ('mate' expresses camaraderie), weak power distance (Dundee's direct criticism does not try to save the teacher's face) and informality (Dundee disregards the grammar rules of cultivated Australian).  The combined directness of all these features goes far beyond what an educated Australian (or German) would communicate in an analogous situation. Moreover, it is completely in contrast with stereotypical Italian or Japanese indirectness"
DIRECT_________________________________________________________ INDIRECT
Outbacker   Cultivated Australian       German                                              Italian                Japanese
 
 
Your report must follow this layout:

 
Your group leader will mark your report using this evaluation sheet> 
On Monday the group leader will give me the evaluation sheet plus one report from each group of two students (if the group is an uneven number, one of the subgroups will contain three students). Each report is made up of a page with the film excerpt and a page with the linguistic/cultural analysis of that excerpt. The group leader's mark for the report applies to each of the co-authors.
 

 
TASK 2b
Due date: November 29th 
 
 

 Re-enacting the scene (you will become Hollywood actors and actresses).
 
Staniskavski's Acting Method in four words: "Do NOT act!  Be!"

1. Determine your double's values and why they might feel intrinsically good.
Examples of values: preferring monochronic to polychronic thinking; abandoning your individualism to live for some collectivity; liking or disliking close contact with others...

2.Close your eyes and remember strongly emotional events in you life in which you felt each value keenly.  If you have never felt them (or if you have felt them but abhorred them), try to remember moments as an infant in which you might have felt them as good.  (Freud said "infants are polymorphic", until parents educate them.)

3. Evoke all the emotional/volitional states of your double simultaneously and then think how you might spontaneously act in given situations with those wants and feelings.  If you are truly "in character". whatever you do will seem "right" for your character.

4. Make a list of maxims summarizing the inner injunctions your feel.  You will repeat this list -- out loud -- every time you want to become your double again.

For more details, see the Dulwich College Drama  (cache), <click

See also, in Italian, il processo di interiorizzazione (Bianconi)   <cliccare.

 Make a video recording (or, if this is not possible, just an audio recording) of the scene you described culturally in Task 2a.  Let your group leader view it.  Do not explain anything to him/her (do not say: "Here I am expressing irony, here I am being collectivistic..." If these states-of-being are not obvious, then you probably did not really feel them intensely while you were recording the scene -- otherwise they would have come through.  What communicates them is not the text you use, but the way you situate yourself with respect to that text.

To view the videocassette with your group leader, make an appointment with him/her in the language lab. (The group leader can ask the previous group leader to evaluate the cassette with him/her, to minimize the risk of prejudice.)

Your group leader will evaluate you using the evaluation form here> 
 

     
TASK 3
Date for consigning your project to your group leader: January 10th 

What is the “logic” behind this kind of research task?
For an explanation, click here.
(For just the description of this task, click here.)

This task is composed of five steps:

1. You have already done the first step: you have chosen a variety of English, preferably a peripheral or marginal variety -- i. e., a national, regional, ethnic or class-distinctive variety of English such as the Yorkshire (Northeastern) British English of many characters in Ken Loach films, or the Black American English ("Ebonics") of many characters in Spike Lee films, etc. And you have tried to grasp the "will to be" (culture) of those characters, i.e. the culture associated with their way of speaking -- at least, in the lines you chose to playact.

N.B. Some of you asked if you could change your character: yes, this is possible.  It may even be advisable, to make your "Credito di laboratorio" project easier.  For this project (your last task for this module), you will be asked to interview a person who shares your character's culture.  For example, if you chose Crocodile Dundee, you must find and interview an Australian from the Outback: this is not too difficult, if you visit the hostels around the Stazione Termini.  But if, on the other hand, you chose a Tok Pisin-speaking fisherman from New Guinea (one of the characters in a James Bond film), you will probably want to change your character since you are not likely to find anyone like that in Rome.

2. Then, dig deeper into your character's culture.  Imagine ten maxims that your character seems to say to her/himself every morning when s/he gets up, and that make her/him speak and interact the way s/he does.  Write these maxims down on a sheet of paper.

At the top of the paper, identify your character ethnolinguistically if you have this information or can imagine the answers: name, age, sex, birthplace, where educated, level of instruction attained, parents' ethnic origin and education and work, language variety spoken at home, language variety spoken at work (if different), places of prolonged residence where other idioms are spoken, religious or political or idealistic affiliations (if any), linguistic-cultural affinities (if any -- e.g., the Italian singer Zucchero and the Irish singer Van Morrison have an affinity for American "bluegrass" culture: when they sing they seem to be from Kentucky or Tennessee).

Examples of the maxims a student might write if he has chosen the "Outback" culture of Crocodile Dundee:
1. "Everyone's equal so you can call your dad and mum by their names ("Luigi", "Pina") and tell them (or a teacher or a priest or anyone) dirty jokes... well, if you know any funny ones."
2. "Fancy language is for lawyers and women (neither to be trusted); so just say what you want plainly.  Or just take it."
3. "Nature -- and that means dirt, too -- is good; civilization -- armchairs, fancy crockery, bidets, ceremonies, titles, and the subjunctive (congiuntivo) -- is bad."

Then do the same thing in italiano. Cioè, scrivere 10 massime che sembrano guidare il tuo comportamento e che ti fanno comunicare ed interagire "da italiano/a" con altri italiani, che ti "sentono" come uno di loro proprio perché capisci intimamente (e forse condividi) i valori evocati dalle massime. Solo che, a differenza della lista in inglese, dopo ogni massima, apri una parentesi e scrivi un buon motivo per criticarla, o addirittura per ripudiarla.

Esempio: 1. La mamma è sempre la mamma. (Mah!  Le mamme sono soprattutto una tirannia matriarcale!  Via!)
2. Se mangi qualcosa in un treno, dire prima "volete favorire" e se ti giri, dire "scusate le spalle", ecc. (Che ipocrisia! E se ti mangiassero quasi tutto? Fai l'offerta solo perché sai che diranno di no!  Se hai da magiare, mangialo e basta!  Se ti devi girare, girati e basta!)
3. La Cultura italiana è gloriosamente millenaria, ad es. i ruderi nel Foro. (Una gloria? Quella brutta massa di pietre rotte? Mah!  Attaccarsi al passato è solo una scusa per non impegnarsi nel presente... o costruire un futuro.)

Le massime non devono necessariamente seguire, tema per tema, quelle in inglese come in questi esempi. Inoltre, le ragioni che dai per ripudiare ogni valore italiano (ossia, le contro-massime) non devono necessariamente essere quelle che il vostro personaggio avrebbe potuto inventare.  Ma se fosse possible, sarebbe meglio (perché rinforza la tua alter identità).

3. Choose a day you want to spend with your family as your character.  (Maybe you won't resist the whole day, but try as long as you can.) When you wake up in the morning, first repeat your Italian maxims: read the "positive" maxim silently and then say the counter-maxims (the ones between parentheses) out loud.  If you share your bedroom with others, do it in the bathroom, to be alone!  Do this twice.

Then try to remember how you felt when you playacted your English-speaking character. Try to remember his/her character as something positive. Finally, in that state, repeat the 10 maxims in English out loud. Twice. >

And that's it: you're ready. Open the bathroom door and walk out as your character.

4. During the day, take note of everything you see as strange in your home life, thanks to the new viewpoint you have assumed.  This includes ways of speaking, of interacting, and of course of judging things.  It also includes customs, clothing, eating habits, home furnishings -- everything. (Make written notes since they help you remember details better: but do this without your family noticing!! The best solution is to go periodically to your room to jot down what you have observed in the preceding hour.) 

If you feel you will unduly shock your parents with your "strange" behavior, try to stay on the sidelines as much as possible and observe your family members more than interacting with them.  If you feel during the day that you are slipping back into your Italian persona, go to your room and read the Italian counter-maxims and the English maxims out loud again; this should "recharge your batteries".

That evening, write your observations down as an Ethnographic Report. You write the report as your character would have written it after spending a day with your family, to explain to a friend back home what life is like in an Italian family.  Use her/his kind of English.  Then, draw a line like this:
                                     _____________

and, tornando alla tua persona italiana abituale, descrivi in italiano l'esperienza complessivamente, ciò che essa ti ha insegnato o che non ti ha insegnato, insomma il suo valore educativo o meno, ai fini dell'apprendimento della lingua inglese. Il tutto, sia la parte in inglese che la parte in italiano, in tre-quatto pagine dattiloscritte, doppia interlinea, ampie margini.

5. Consign your sheet with the 20 maxims (10 in English and 10 in Italian) together with your 3 or 4 page Ethnographic Report to your group leader on January 10th, for correction and submission on January 12th.

Your group leader will use the following form to mark your work: click here> .

Read the form before doing the assignment so that you know what you will be marked on.
 

     
"CREDITO DI LABORATORIO"
Supplementary credit of 1 CFU

For students intending to give the Final Exam in June,
(probably June 23rd, but the date has to be confirmed),
due date: April 27th - 3:30 pm - Office (Room 3.09)
Proroga May 4th- 3:30 pm - Ufficio (Stanza 3.09)
 
Novita: Simone, Jessica and Francesca wrote asking about
how to do the Credito Supplementare. 
My answer to them may be of interest to you. 
Click here> 
 
Novita: For students giving the Final Exam in July (2° appello,
probably on July 7th but the date has to be confirmed),
due date: May 18th - 3:30 pm - Office (Room 3.09)

Due date for the Autumn Exam Session:
Friday, September 9th from 3 to 5 pm in my office (Room 3.09)
and NOT in the morning during the Lettori exam, which has changed dates.
_____________________________________________

1. Task: Analysis of Native/Non-native communication in English using the constructs and terminology presented in Clyne.
  - The non-native your analyze is yourself. 
  - The native is a speaker of the variety of English you studied for Tasks 2 and 3. You must first conduct a (recorded) conversation with this person, then transcribe and analyze the recording.
   - The constructs (linguistic, pragmatic, ethnomethodological, etc.) are those described in Chapters 3 and 4 of Clyne. The entire book gives examples of how to apply them to intercultural conversations.  (Note: Clyne was trying to establish a method -- this is why so many of you found his examples "boring" and his analyses "senseless nitpicking".  You are expected to build on his work and offer more satisfying descriptions of your intercultural breakdowns and breakthroughs -- explanations which, using the concepts discussed in class, illuminate the dynamics of intercultural communication as the search for a common code through creating a "third space".)

Non-frequentanti: The English of the native speaker with whom you converse must be a marginal variety of an "inner circle" English or ANY of the Englishes from the outer circle (second ring), as described by Kachru here.  In a word, choose any native speaker of English who uses a variety of English other than R.P. (British Received Pronunciation) or G.A. (General American). You do not have to learn to use this variety, as the frequentanti do; you can speak with your informant as you normally do in your non-native English.

2. The Frequentanti have to do more than just analyze breakdowns and breakthroughs. They have to test whether by "accommodating" linguistically and culturally they manage to establish a better rapport with the native speaker of English.

For the purposes of this experiment, we have simplified the notion and process of accommodation a great deal.  To accommodate means simply to introject your interlocutor's value system and speak as a consequence.  And we defined the value system as the series of maxims you wrote for Task 3 -- plus the "counter-maxims" you wrote to distance yourself from your native Italian way of seeing and saying things. Thus, for the purposes of this experiment, to accommodate means simply repeating (and trying to believe) the counter-maxims and then, when you feel neither Italian nor anything, repeating (and trying to believe) the maxims representing the value system of speakers like your double.

Thus the Frequentanti will attempt to conduct a semi-spontaneous conversation with a native speaker of the variety of English they have studied: but first, they will practice the accommodation procedure. In practical terms this can mean going to the bathroom for a minute to "get into character" or, if you are able to do so, just repeating mentally the counter-maxims and then the maxims.

During your conversation you must switch back to your normal Italian self at least once (this will probably happen normally, as you forget the maxims and get "out of character).  Try to notice if your interlocutor relates to you any differently.  Then get back into character again by repeating the counter-maxims and then the maxims and continue to observe if your interlocutors' attitude to you changes.

You may discover s/he prefers you when you are your Italian self -- different but fascinating.  Or you may discover that s/he prefers you when you seem closer to her/his way of thinking and expressing her/himself.  In the second case you will have produced evidence supporting accommodation theory; in the first case you will have produced evidence falsifying it.  Of course, the actual value of your evidence will depend on your ability to keep all but the dependent variables under control -- a difficult task, indeed.  But even if your evidence turns out to be shaky, you will have acquired a method for testing accommodation theory on your own in the future.

Thus the Non-frequentanti will observe and analyze only the grosser communication breakdowns due to an obvious lack of linguistic knowledge or to obvious critical incidents. And they will note breakthroughs as the successful application of linguistic knowledge or so-called universal pragmatic rules (such as the politeness behavior described by Brown and Levinson).

The Frequentanti, on the other hand, will not only note the same things but will also note the more subtle kinds of breakdowns due to intercultural misunderstandings and the more subtle breakthroughs due to intercultural entente.  And they will do so in the context of the changing dependent variable: no accommodation (seeing and saying things in English as they normally do as Italians) or total accommodation (seeing and saying things in English as their interlocutor does).


3. The report, typed on a computer, should be at least 4 pages no more than 6 of text (i. e., not including the pictures, diagrams, background web pages, etc. that you may wish to include). As to form, the paper is to be addressed to the American academic community.
 

____________________________ POSTILLA ________________________

La studentessa M.M. Mi ha scritto una e-mai dicendo di non capire bene, anche dopo aver letto le istruzioni che precedono, come fare il lavoro di ricerca assegnato per il Credito di Laboratorio.

Le ho scritto la risposta seguente, che metto qui sul sito, nel caso che qualcun altro abbia lo stesso suo problema.

M.M. ma chiede, dunque: “Per quanto riguarda il credito di laboratorio le volevo chiedere se può spiegarmi come strutturare la relazione e su quali parti concentrarmi di più, cosa devo analizzare nello specifico perchè ho letto le cose che ci sono scritte sul suo sito e il libro da lei indicato ma non ho capito bene.

Comincio dando un consiglio generale, se mi permetti: quando fai un lavoro di ricerca o anche un semplice compito, la prima cosa da chiederti non è COME farlo ma “che senso ha farlo?” (a parte il voto, naturalmente).

Quando avrai trovato un senso nel ricercare le risposte che il compito chiede, allora saprai come ricercarle -- poiché saranno risposte alla stessa domanda che te ti stai ponendo.

Nel caso presente, il compito – come hai appena letto -- consiste nel trovare ed intervistare una persona di madre lingua inglese, ma che parla una varietà diversa dalle due varietà di maggiore prestigio (l'inglese R.P dell'Establishment Britannico. o il General American dell'Establishment dell'East Coast),. Devi pure registrare la vostra conversazione, se ci riesci senza dirlo (intanto la persona non verrà identificata nella tua relazione), altrimenti in modo palese.

Poi a casa deve sbobinare e trascrivere “scientificamente” i passi importanti che noti nella conversazione. Infine, su qui passi, devi fare lo stesso lavoro sul tuo modo di comunicare in inglese durante (da non nativa parlante) durante la conversazione, che Clyne ha fatto sui non native speakers che egli ha analizzato nel suo libro. Userai il suo apparato descritto (linguistico, pragmatico, sociolinguistico). Inoltre cercherai di fare meglio ciò che lui fa molto male o non fa affatto (pur avendo messo questa pretesa – che sto per dire -- come titolo del suo libro), ossia devi cercare di analizzare la conversazione come istanza di comunicazione interculturale. Devi vedere se ci sono stati problemi di comunicazione tra te e il tuo interlocutore e se ce ne sono stati devi etichettarli e descriverli: si è trattato di fraintendimenti o non convergenze culturali? Oppure più banalmente si è trattato di problemi puramente linguistici,o pragmatici?

Poi devi trovare altri passi significativi, in positivo, nella registrazione della vostra conversazione. (Spero che non si saranno soltanto momenti di incomprensione o di rottura, cioè breakdowns!). Quindi troverai e descriverai i momenti in cui hai stabilito un vero contatto, una vera intesa, momenti in cui c'è stato cioè un "breakthrough."

Il tutto nella lunghezza indicata nelle istruzioni. Usando il tipo di linguaggio e lo stile di scrittura indicati.

Poi concluderai dicendo se questo lavoro è servito per farti capire come interagisci in inglese e per farti capire ciò che dovresti fare per imparare a comunicare meglio in inglese in futuro (Dovrai, ad esempio, imparare più parole, perché hai constatato che i breakdowns erano soprattutto dovuti alla non conoscenza di un termine specialistico? O se no, a che cosa?).

Quindi concluderai dicendo il senso del lavoro che hai fatto.

(Senza paura di dire che era una gran' perdita di tempo, se questo è la conclusione alla quale sei pervenuta!)

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