� Pragmatics Packet
The general goal of this course is to introduce participants to the
role of culture in the field of English Language Teaching. We will discuss
how culture relates to teaching, but more generally we will examine how
culture effects communication. The goal of language learning is, of
course, the ability to develop communicative competence; that is, the
ability to communicate fluently in the target language. Communicative
competence can be simplified as:
«Knowing how to say something (form)
« Knowing what to say (meaning)
« Knowing when to say it (use).
Knowing "how" and "what" is not enough. For example, the form "먹자" in
Korean means "Let's eat;" however, I am an American. In America, one can
say "Let's eat" to just about everyone. This is because we have strong
cultural beliefs that are egalitarian in nature. However, if I apply my
cultural beliefs to Korean, I will quickly find myself in trouble, because
Korean culture has strong beliefs about showing proper respect to people
who are older or in a higher social position.
To illustrate what I mean, imagine that I am at my daughter's first
birthday party. I turn to 장모님 and say: "먹자." Will this make her happy? No,
it won't! It will make her angry because I spoke to her publicly in
a way that didn't show appropriate respect. What I should have said was: "드세요," but I didn't say that because my understanding of what was
culturally appropriate was different than hers. In other words we had
different cultural expectations. Thus, different cultural expectations
influence how language is used.
Although we will spend some time comparing Korean culture to
Anglo-American culture like I did above, it is not the main purpose of the
course. More importantly, you will be introduced to the idea of World
Englishes; that is, the idea that English and the cultures that influences
it are no longer solely owned and controlled by native speakers. There are
approximately 1.8 billion to 2.4 billion speakers of English world wide
depending on the source and the level of fluency considered, but of those
billions of speakers only 400 million of them are native speakers of
English. It is the culture of these other speakers of English that
we are most concerned about, because it will be their cultures that will
change the cultural expectations that surround the use of English.
In this age of globalization, English, for better or worse, has become the
default international language. Consequently we need to understand how
culture influences the language we use to communicate. Culture is both
ubiquitous and hard to see; that is it's everywhere, but we are not always
aware of its effect on language form, meaning and use. This course will
help you to identify how culture affects language and how you can make
your own learners aware of those effects.
This section will list other stuff
Week | Text | Topic | Homework |
1 | Ch. 1 | Get acquainted & define culture | Read Ch. 1, ex. 1.1-1.3 |
2 | Role play | Role play cross-cultural communication | Reflection 1 Ch. 2, 2.2-2.5 |
3 | Ch. 2, 2.2-2.5 | Reflection 1 due Concept of self: individualist vs. collectivist |
Ch. 2, 2.10-2.13 |
4 | Ch. 2, 2.10-2.13 | Concept of time: poly-chronic vs. mono-chronic | Ch. 3, 3.2-3.5 |
5 | Ch. 3, 3.2-3.5 | Verbal communication: direct-indirect |
Ch. 4, 4.1-4.5 |
6 | Ch. 4, 4.1-4.5 | Culture in the workplace: high-power distance vs. low-power distance |
Reflection 2 Ch. 2, 2.6-2.9, Review exercises, pp. 48-52 |
7 | Ch. 2, 2.6-2.9 | Reflection 2 due Personal vs. societal responsibility: Universalist vs. particularist |
Ch. 2, 2.14-2.17 |
8 | Ch. 2, 2.14-2.17 | Locus of control: Internal vs. external |
Ch. 3, 3.6-3.8 |
9 | Ch. 3, 3.6-3.8 | Nonverbal communication: body language |
Review Ch.1-4 |
10 | Presentations comparing Korean culture and North American culture | Prepare presentations |
|
11 | Movie: Gung Ho or Bend it like Beckham |
Analyze aspects of culture | |
12 | Movie: Gung Ho or Bend it like Beckham |
Analyze aspects of culture | Read Pragmatics handout Read Kia article Reflection 3 |
13 | Pragmatics handouts | Reflection 3 due Pragmatics |
Prepare final projects |
14 | Pragmatics handouts | Pragmatics analysis of TV sitcoms | Prepare final projects Reflection 4 |
15 | Final Project | Pragmatics group presentations | Prepare final projects |
16 | Final Project | Pragmatics group presentations Reflection 4 due |
More stuff...