ELT 501: Sociological & Psychological bases of Language Acquisition

1. Ethnography
Presented by:
Ms. Joy M. Avelino
MA Ed-ELT

2. Varieties of Talk
•Marshall (1961)
•Basso (1972)
•Fox (1974)
•Reisman (1974)
•Frake (1964)

3. The Ethnography of
Speaking

4. According to Hymes (1974)
• An ethnography of a communicative
event is a description of all the
factors that are relevant in
understanding how that particular
communicative event achieves its
objectives.

5. Ethnomethodology

6. - Ethnography is alternately both
a research methodology and
a way of writing up research. (1)
- the study of single group
through direct contact with their
culture.

7. Speech is used in different
ways among different
groups of people. Each
group has its own norms of
linguistic behavior.

8. Marshall (1961)
• Marshall has indicated how the !Kung
have certain customs which help them
either to avoid or reduce friction and
hostility within bands and between
bands.

10. • According to Marshall, speech among
the !Kung helps to maintain peaceful
social relationships by allowing people
to keep in touch with one another
about how they are thinking and
feeling.

11. Basso (1972)
• The Western Apache of East-Central
Arizona choose to be silent when there
is a strong possibility that such
uncertainty exists.

13. • They are silent on ‘meeting strangers’
whether these are fellow
Western Apache or complete outsiders;
and strangers, too, are expected to be
silent.

14. Fox (1974)
• Fox (1974) has described how the Roti
consider talk one of the great
pleasures of life - not just idle
chatter, but
disputing, arguing, showing off
various verbal skills, and, in
general, indulging in verbal activity.'

16. • Silence is interpreted as a sign of
some kind of distress, possibly
confusion or dejection. So social
encounters are talk-filled.

17. Reisman (1974)
• In Antigua, people speak because they
must assert themselves through
language. They do not consider as
interruptions behavior that we would
consider being either interruptive or
even disruptive.

19. • Reisman says that in Antigua ‘ to enter
a conversation one must assert one’s
presence rather than participate in
something formalized as an exchange.

20. Frake (1964)
• Subanun of the Philippines, who employ
certain kinds of speech in drinking
encounters. Such encounters are very
important for gaining prestige for
resolving disputes.

22. • Frake (1964) has described how to talk,
what he calls ‘drinking talk’, proceeds in
such encounters, from the initial invitation
to partake of drink, to the selection of
proper topics for discussion as drinking
proceeds competitively, and finally to
displays of verbal art that accompany
heavy, ‘successful’ drinking.

23. (S) Setting and Scene
EXAMPLE
Setting refers to the time and The living room in the
place. (the concrete physical grandparents' home might be
circumstances in which speech a setting for a family story.
takes place).
Scene refers to the abstract The family story may be told
psychological setting, or the at a reunion celebrating the
cultural definition of the occasion. grandparents' anniversary. At
times, the family would be
festive and playful; at other
times, serious and
commemorative.

24. (P) Participants
EXAMPLE
- Speaker and audience. At the family reunion,
an aunt might tell a
- Participants include story to the young
various combinations of female relatives, but
speaker-listener, males, although not
addressor-addressee, or addressed, might
sender-receiver. also hear the
narrative.

25. (E) Ends
EXAMPLE
Purposes, goals, and The aunt may tell
outcomes. a story about the
grandmother to
entertain the
audience, teach
the young
women, and
honor the
grandmother.

26. (A) Act sequence
EXAMPLE
- refers to the actual form and The aunt's story might
order of the event. begin as a response to a
toast to the grandmother.
The story's plot and
development would have a
sequence structured by
the aunt. Possibly there
would be a collaborative
interruption during the
telling. Finally, the group
might applaud the tale and
move onto another subject
or activity.

27. (K) Key
EXAMPLE
Key refers to the tone, The aunt might imitate
manner, or spirit in which a the grandmother's voice
particular message is and gestures in a playful
conveyed: light-hearted, way, or she might
serious, precise, pedantic, address the group in a
mocking, sarcastic, pompous, serious voice
and so on. emphasizing the sincerity
and respect of the praise
the story expresses.

28. (I) Instrumentalities
EXAMPLE
Instrumentalities refers to the
choice of channel, (e.g., oral,
The aunt might
written, or telegraphic). speak in a casual
register with
many dialect
actual forms of speech employed,
such as the language, dialect, features or might
code, or register that is chosen. use a more
formal register
and careful
grammatically
"standard" forms.

29. (N) Norms
EXAMPLE
Norms of Interaction refers to the In a playful story by the
specific behaviors and properties aunt, the norms might
that attach to speaking
allow many audience
interruptions and
collaboration, or possibly
Norms of Interpretation how these
[behaviors] may be viewed by those interruptions might
someone who does not share be limited to participation
them, e.g., loudness, silence, gaze by older females. A
return, and so on. serious, formal story by the
aunt might call for attention
to her and no interruptions.

30. (G)Genre
EXAMPLE
Genre refers to category . The aunt might tell
of event . a character anecdote
about the
(e.g. poems, proverbs, grandmother for
riddles, sermons, prayers, entertainment, or an
lectures, and editorials.) exemplum as moral
instruction.

31. Leither (1980, p. 5) states, ’the aim
of ethnomethodology is to study the
processes of sense making (idealizing
and formulizing).
Ethnomethodology is a branch of
the social science which is concerned
with exploring how people interact
with the world and make sense of
reality. (3)

32. Common Sense
Commonsense knowledge
refers to a variety of things. It is the
understandings, receipts, maxims, a
nd definitions that we employ in
daily living as we go about doing
things.

33. Practical reasoning
Practical reasoning refers to the
way in which people make use of
their commonsense knowledge and to
how they employ that knowledge in
their conduct of everyday life.

34. OTHER REFERENCES
(1)http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrbaldw/372/Ethnography.html
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Hymes
(3) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-
ethnomethodology.htm

35. Thank you!