University of Rome
III - Degree in Languages & International
Communication - Convener: Patrick Boylan - Academic
year 2006-07
COURSE:
612-o MODULE II
English I for English minors, OCI
Group ____ Group Leader:
_________________
TASK N° 2
Due date: May 16, 2007 for the reports to
the Group Leader,
May 18, 2007 for a copy of the reports
plus this sheet to the teacher.
Ethnographic
Report Evaluation Form
SINCE THIS REPORT COUNTS
FOR THREE ACTIVITIES PLUS THE WRITTEN EXAM,
EACH OF THE 5
CRITERIA IS WORTH 4 POINTS, FOR A TOTAL OF 20 POINTS.
1. MAXIMUM 4 POINTS
FOR THE QUALITY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE REPORT.
Explanation:
The student should write as her/his double would write.
Since the double went to an Anglo school, this means that the report
should be linear, explicit, responsible (=
documented), because these traits characterize any Anglo
mentality. But the other traits of British Academic Style (formal,
hedged, gentlemanly) may apply only in part and the
variety of English used may not be SBE (South-eastern British
English) at all. For example, if the double is Crocodile Dundee
(who hates formality, gentlemanliness, hedging) the report will be
what Crocodile Dundee would write for a high school or college
teacher in Broad Australian (not cultivated Australian). The
report will be linear, explicit and responsible
because that is intrinsic to any Anglo mentality, but only minimally
formal, hedged, gentlemanly. (because Dundee
considers these things “false”) Another example:
if the double is Lady Diana (who was a very poor student), the
report will be in SBE and it will be formal, hedged,
gentlemanly because that is how Diana learned to speak in her
exclusive Sloan Square clubs. But it will be only minimally
linear, explicit and responsible (=documented)
because, although Diana has an Anglo mentality, she didn't learn to
organize and document her thoughts in a highly precise way at school
(she failed many exams at school and was never accepted by any
university).
Of course, the Group Leader cannot be an expert
in how each double speaks and writes, so it is the responsibility of
each student to write an INTRODUCTORY NOTE (un capello
introduttivo in alto, prima dell'inizio della relazione, in lingua
inglese) explaining what language features s/he used to seem like
someone from her/his double's culture.
POINTS:
4 =
there are a large number of precise language features in the
INTRODUCTORY NOTE and the report is written
respecting those characteristics; it has a highly particular style.
0 = there are very few or only generic indications of style in
the INTRODUCTORY NOTE and the report does not
seem linguistically characteristic of anyone in particular.
3, 2,
or 1 = between the two extremes.
2. MAXIMUM 4
POINTS FOR THE QUALITY OF THE
MAXIMS.
Explanation: The
Italian maxims and counter-maxims should really help an Italian
person to distance himself/herself from Italian culture; thus, the
themes should concern what is essential to the stereotype of an
Italian. Of course, no Italian conforms to ALL of the
stereotypical traits. But if an Italian does not conform at
all to ANY trait, then s/he is probably considered “a
little original” or “peculiar”
by other Italians. Thus the Italian maxims + counter-maxims are good
if the Group Leader, after repeating them out loud and
internalizing them (using Stanislavsky's “Magic IF”),
feels really peculiar. If s/he interacts with
other Italians, s/he should seem “original” to
them. If so, the maxims are good.
With respect to the double's
maxims, they should characterize the double as an accepted member of
some recognizable community of native English speakers. The
Group Leader can apply the same test as above. After internalizing
the double's maxims, s/he should feel like a “new person,”
someone who corresponds at least to the stereotype of the double's
community of native English speakers. If so, the maxims
are good.
Points:
4 =
“The double's maxims do not simply give
me (=the Group Leader) new ideas, they make me feel like a new
person, someone who would fit into what I know of the double's
culture.”
0 = “The double's maxims are generic
and do not distinguish very well the double's culture;
when I (=the Group Leader) say them I feel I am still Italian,
although i may have some new ideas in my mind.”
3,
2, or 1 = between the two extremes.
3. MAXIMUM 4 POINTS FOR
THE QUALITY OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS +
INTERPRETATIONS.
Explanation: What counts here is not “how
successful” the student was in living her/his double. What
counts here is how well s/he attempted to live her double and how
intelligently s/he interpreted her attempt and its effects (whether
positive or negative). In the report the student should indicate what
s/he saw and heard that was "strange" – if everything
in her/his home seemed normal to her/him, then s/he probably did not
enter into her/his double's mentality. Attention: the Group Leader
should penalize attempts by the student to exaggerate feeling
differently. Example: One student last year wanted to be Tolkein,
author of The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring. So the
student wrote: “When I sat down at the dinner table with these
strange people [= HIS FAMILY], I noticed that
they all used a strange box on the table to communicate to each
other; two people would speak to each other while looking at the box
[= THE TV SET THAT THE FAMILY WATCHED WHILE EATING].”
This is clearly NOT a natural observation. It is an idea that the
student invented “tutto di testa” to be clever,
perhaps imagining what a Hobbit would say. But it is not possible
that the student, as Tolkien, could have felt the TV set as some
strange interpersonal communication device. Thus, this observation
(justly) got zero points.
The exercise “Spending a day
as your double” is about feeling things differently for a day,
not being inventive or clever for a day. Here is an example of a
satisfactory report written by another student, who also became
Tolkien for a day. He wrote: “The dinner table conversation in
the Italian family was frightfully insipid – if you allow me
the expression, it was downright boring. All they talked about is
what fantastic things they had eaten at some previous dinner at
someone's home. Or who was ill among their numerous aunts and
cousins. What drivel!” Now THIS is Tolkein speaking: the
eccentric Oxford English professor turned novelist.
In
addition, the Student should note the pressures s/he felt to conform.
Since s/he is writing in Anglo style, s/he must document the
pressures: “The mother of the family repeated again and again
that she found me distant, and to 'close the gap' she kept offering
me things to eat and asking me to smile while eating and say that the
food was good. Now I see how Italian mothers tie their children to
them for life: through food which must be consumed together happily
Probably the Catholic ritual of communion, which has the same value
of creating a community through the consummation of a host, is of
Italian origin.”
Note that in the cases above the
student gives both the observations and the interpretation of values
together. It could be possibile however for the student to give them
separately, like this:
-- 1. Things seen and heard that were
“strange”.
-- 2. The pressures to conform
-- 3. The
values that (1.) and (2.) represent
Normally, however, it is
better to explain the values immediately, after each example.
How
many observations count as a good report? How profound must the
interpretations be? This is the decision of the Group
Leader.
Points:
4 = the report of OBSERVATIONS OF
STRANGENESS and PRESSURES TO CONFORM was detailed, documented,
profound and gave a good ethnographic picture of the Italian family
from the standpoint of the double.
0 = the report was a simple
narrative, largely generic, leaving all the work of interpretation to
the reader. It did not have any cultural focus (it did not seem to be
written through the eyes of any particular double).
3, 2,
or 1 = between the two extremes.
4. MAXIMUM 4
POINTS FOR THE QUALITY OF THE LINGUISTIC AND BEHAVIORAL
INTERACTION.
Explanation: The student should indicate what
s/he said and how s/he interacted during the day as her/his double.
There should be a large number of transcriptions (made from memory,
unless the student used a hidden recorder) of sentences actually
said, both by the student and by her/his family members, as well as
descriptions of their way of interacting. The sum of these
transcriptions and descriptions should give the Group Leader the idea
of a language (and of interactional behavior) different from Italian.
It should appear to be an Anglo “way to mean” things,
specifically the way used in the double's community.
Furthermore,
the student should indicate the sense of the reactions of her/his
family members. That sense should reveal the characteristics of the
culture of the double. For example, if the family says to the student
(alias Crocodile Dundee) “Ma che maniere che hai oggi, mica
viviamo nel bosco”, the Group Leader knows that the student
expressed Australian “outback” coarseness. The opposite
applies to Lady Diana, of course.
Points:
4 = the
report of VERBAL and BEHAVIORAL interaction was detailed, documented,
profound and gave a good picture of what English is as a “will
to mean” in a particular way (in the way used by the
double)..
0 = the report did not document, with transcriptions,
but only described generically the interactions.
3, 2, or 1
= between the two extremes.
5. MAXIMUM 4
POINTS FOR THE QUALITY OF THE CONCLUSIONS (IN ITALIAN).
In
her/his final commentary, the student should demonstrate a profound
awareness of the value of the exercise “Spending a day as your
double”, in terms of appreciating what English is, what it
means to speak English (or any second language), how a language is an
expression of a culture, how her/his own way of seeing things and
saying things in Italian is shaped by the multiple influences of
her/his family: habits, household furnishings and decorations,
rituals, linguistic expressions, etc.
On the other hand, the
student could, instead, criticize the exercise “Spending a day
as your double” as worthless or even counterproductive, giving
her/his reasons for this opinion.
Or the student could
formulate a compromise between the two positions. What is important
is that the arguments be well reasoned and presented.
Points:
4
= the conclusions gave a rigorous evaluation of the worth of the
exercise “Spending a day as your double”. After
reading them, the Group Leader should be able to recommend the
exercise in the future or the contrary, justifying his/her
position.
0 = the final remarks were inconclusive or just a
summary of what was written above.
3, 2, or 1 = between the
two extremes.
WRITE STUDENTS'
NAMES ON LINE, GIVE 0 TO 4 POINTS FOR EACH CATEGORY, INDICATE TOTAL.
1. ___________________
Language = __ Maxims = __ Observations = __
Interaction = __ Conclusions = __ Total
= __
Comment:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. ___________________
Language = __ Maxims = __ Observations = __
Interaction = __ Conclusions = __ Total
= __
Comment:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.
___________________ Language = __ Maxims = __
Observations = __ Interaction = __
Conclusions = __ Total = __
Comment:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.
___________________ Language = __ Maxims = __
Observations = __ Interaction = __
Conclusions = __ Total = __
Comment:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comment:
_______________________________________________________________________
5.
_________________________ Form = 0 1
Content = 0 1 2 3 4
Total = __
Comment:
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
1.
___________________ Language = __ Maxims = __
Observations = __ Interaction = __
Conclusions = __ Total = __
Comment:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________