Acquisition of Communicative Competence

1. Acquisition of Communicative Competence When children learn to speak they learn several things simultaneously • The sounds (phonemes) of their language and their meanings (morphemes) and the rules by which they are put together (syntax) • They also learn the cultural model for correct communication. Eg. How to be polite • They learn about the sort of social person they are and will be • They learn the techniques of effective communication e.g. Turn taking.

2. The Functions of Communication Instrumental function: Getting things done, satisfying needs Regulatory function: Controlling others. Giving instructions Interactional function: Establishing and maintaining social relations Personal function: Expressing one’s individuality, emotions and thoughts Heuristic function: Exploring one’s environment, learning about the world, questions others, and gaining information Imaginative function: Creating and expressing one’s fantasies about oneself, others and the world Representational function: Communicating about ideas, conveying messages M.A.K. Halliday

3. These functions are universal but the means of achieving them vary from language to language and culture to culture • What is the culturally and contextually appropriate ways to make a request, offer an apology, assert one’s rights, respond to the rights of others, tell a joke, engage in conversation, ask a question etc. • How do we do these things? • In other words these are the norms or models of speech – the socially accepted ways of speaking • These norms are culturally relative • To speak according to the norms of the society is to achieve one’s goals is to communicate competently • As are the strategies parents use to bring the speech of their children into line

4. People also have to be aware of the relationship they have with the people they are interacting with • Are they the same age, same gender, or social status. • What are the cultural values attached to these social distinctions? • Awareness of these things is important in choosing the appropriate style of communication.

5. Politeness “Each culture socializes its members to display behaviours that reflect values that it upholds” • Be gentle, not forceful or insistent. This doesn't mean you need to act like a meek, quiet pushover. It means that when you do something, offer something, or make a request, you do it without pressuring the people around you and making them feel like they're being pushed into a corner. • When in doubt, observe others. How are they greeting and addressing each other? • Start a conversation by asking questions about the other person. Try not to talk about yourself too much • Do not yell, or laugh at jokes or remarks you made yourself. • Have a laugh which shows you are having fun, without being loud. Loudness either indicates arrogance or insecurity. • Remember to say please and thank you Being polite in Yiddish Niles being polite being polite

6. In Japan it is important to have empathy with others – omoiyari • indirect expression is favoured over explicit statements of opinions and wants • speakers must learn to be sensitive to the feelings (or face) of addressees, to be aware of how their statements might affect others • if you say something that makes someone look bad, that is impolite • It can end a business deal In Japan if you see an indecent flier you would pick it up and dispose of it in case it offended someone

7. It all has to do with confidence, being proud, and wanting to be respected and therefore being afraid to say something completely wrong • In mixed classes of Westerners and Asians, Asian are generally group very hesitant to speak out if they do not know, comprehend, or simply cannot do a certain exercise or question. Why? - Because they could lose face or perhaps make their trainer or teacher feel embarrassed. • Westerners on the other hand have a much more direct way of communication - it is to the point • In Japan and most other parts of Asia being polite to another person is more important than supplying objectively correct information. • This in return could lead to never ever hearing a "no".. • And you would never hear: "Oh, you look fabulous today,"

8. Expressing emotion in Samoan • Samoan culture teaches children to openly display emotions, both positive and negative • People talk openly about their own and another’s attitudes, reactions and sentiments • Samoan has two sets of personal pronouns, one that is semantically neutral for emotion or affect and the other that expresses sympathy for the speaker, hearer or referent e.g. “Dear me” • For example they would refer to themselves as • “poor me” initially in begging which they are encouraged to do • children learn pronouns that express sympathy for oneself before those that indicate empathy for others

9. How to Insult Someone • question the interlocutor’s competence , intelligence, appearance, behaviour etc. • Ignore them • Profanity is frequently used to strengthen an insult’s emotional impact. • insulting language reveals the tensions between social classes and ethnic groups in modern society. • insults are often an indicator of flawed reasoning about the character or motivation of others.. • Perceptions of insulting language often vary, and often depend on the context and persons involved as much as the actual words. • For example, African Americans hold mixed views of the term "nigger", sometimes using it as a rugged form of mutual affection in popular culture, but resenting the term when used in pejorative sense, especially when spoken by members of other ethnic groups. Jackie chan insult Like all other interactions, disagreements, and event insulting someone, are rule-governed events funny insults

10. Power and Status: Family relations • people’s rights and obligations differ depending on their status and the kinds of roles they perform • Some people, depending on status age and/or gender have more or less rights and powers • a reflection of inequality in the larger society • Language use is one means of transmitting this knowledge FATHER KNOWS BEST 1954 - 1960

11. Status and Role in American English tantrum How is children’s lack of power revealed • often unsuccessful in getting the attention of adult addresses • adults often interrupt their speaking turns • giving and receiving directives - Adults issue more directives to children than they receive • Fathers in particular, are more likely to offer insults • Children introduce topics the least • Stories are usually about them – their behaviour is judged • Age confers abilities to demand and maintain the floor • Gender differences

12. Gender differences • Fathers interrupt children more than mothers • Both parents interrupt daughters more than sons • Boys interrupt girls more than girls interrupt boys • adult women tend to become silent when interrupted by men • In most Western societies, adults speak differently to boys from birth. Boys are also treated to more vigorous 'rough and tumble' play by males with different accompanying language ('fatherse'). • This results in boys picking up and using male-type language.

13. gender stereotypes

14. Giving and Receiving Directives rationales soften the speaker’s control and acknowledge the addressee’s feelings Bald imperatives assert power overtly mitigated expressions, questions, and statements soften the directive • Frequency and style of issuing directives imply differences in social rights to control others • Hints are a linguistic style of directive that is chosen to issue commands are sensitive to the speaker’s rights and autonomy to refuse • They leave open the possibility of refusal

15. an outright refusal is an assertion of autonomy, implying rights to control oneself and challenging the authority of an issuer of commands • Boys more likely to refuse directives overtly • Girls more likely to ignore – a covert act of self assertion that is deferential to issuers authority • Bald imperatives assert the speaker’s power to control the actions of others • girls more likely to use mitigated forms (polite indirect, explained

17. In family narratives children are likely to be the protagonists – persons who the story is about more than ½ the time. • mothers about ¼ of the time and fathers about 20% • This means that the listeners (adults/fathers/mothers) are most frequently the judge and jury of the child’s actions • Children’s actions are more open to scrutiny than parents • They have to behave i.e. They have less autonomy Leave it to Beaver 1957 “tell your father what happened”

18. Terms of Address • Terms of address are sensitive indicators of social status and interpersonal relationships • In languages with complex pronoun systems based on participant’s identity, children need to learn the social meanings expressed by these linguistic forms • Determines which pronoun will be used on the basis of the difference in social status (or power) between the speaker and addressee. • wealth, age, sex, institutionalised role in the church, the state, the army, the family ... • The T of "intimacy" versus the V of "formality" (French tu or vous) • Based on an asymmetrical relation and is non-reciprocal.

19. Discourse – Communication event • Conversations • Arguments • Narratives • Interviews • Speeches • Debates • Lectures • Jokes • each has its own distinctive components, interactional contexts with particular participants

20. Learning to converse is a social activity that involves an understanding and awareness of other participants and their intentions • Also requires knowledge of how utterances are connected to prior speech • It is a skill that is learned • There are rules of interaction depending on the genre of discourse • These have to be learned as well as knowledge of the boundaries of each type of discourse

21. How to begin, maintain and end conversations • Talk must be relevant to the context - topics, participants interest and ongoing activities • Children have to learn to converse in a relevant coherent manner • learn the complex rules that organize talk • depends on cognitive, linguistic and social maturation

22. Conversation Structure • Roles of speaker and listener are continually exchanged • How does one signal that you are finished speaking, or that you want your turn, or that you not finished speaking • Maintain the floor with “um” • When a question is asked are you not obliged to respond? • As speakers children ask questions to engage others in talk • Guess What? • Give appropriate signals to speakers indicating active listening • These signs or backchannel cues, include nods, and smiles and vocalizations such as um, yeah, right

23. Cohesion in Conversation • How do we keep the conversation going • Talk is linked to prior talk , to previous statements • e.g. question and answer, where it is obvious • Cohesion is achieved though content - topics • Topics normally shift during conversation encounters but the content of talk should be focussed or relevant to current issues

24. linguistic devices are also used to organize discourse • Children lack this skill • In English cohesion is achieved through various means, including use of pronouns (it) and demonstratives (this that) and processes of substitution, comparison, conjunction, and clausal dependency • Pronouns and demonstratives relate or refer to previously mentioned entities • This car is a sports car. It’s also red • Comparatives (same, other, more) have similar functions • It’s also bigger than yours •  Conjunctions (and) also eliminate redundancies and make language more efficient • This car is bigger than yours and it’s mine (and this car is mine) • Children acquire these devices quite early

25. cohesion and minimization of repetitiveness is also achieved through substitutions of words • Use of synonyms – thing, stuff, do • ellipsis - omissions of textual material that is assumed to be shared by co-participants • what’s in there - ‘cookies’ • Are you ready yes (instead of yes I am ready) • Connected discourse makes reference to activities or entities outside the conversation – see that • They also make reference to previous utterances in discourse • e.g. the pronoun “it” can refer to what has previously been described • these are called deictic markers • The horse is running. The horse is getting ready to jump – repeats nominal labels instead of replacing second and subsequent mentions with anaphoric pronouns (pronouns that refer back to objects in the text or situation in which they are uttered • ``A woman walks. She smokes.''

26. Interactional Cooperation • communicative interaction is cooperative • participants normally signal their attentiveness not only to each other’s talk but also to each other as people through marks of politeness • greetings and partings and apologies • many of these are overtly taught to children as part of their socialization – say thank you • polite signals indicate one’s concern for participants and help minimize potential conflict because they recognize addressee’s rights to fair treatment • Interactions in children often involve requests for permissions .e.g. permission to use a toy • to obtain one’s goals speakers need to phrase their desire in n appropriate form • a request that is too abrupt or demanding may be rejected, although one that is too unobtrusive risks being ignored • children learn a multitude of strategies, adjusting their choice to perceived situations and speakers

27. When their desires are blocked by others, children try to achieve their goals by resorting to repetitions, rephrasing, explanations and additional claims • children frequently seek permission to join play groups • when already established they need to use various strategies in order to gain admittance • e.g. non-verbal cues, personal appeals, • indirection n verbal and nonverbal behaviour is considered a feature of politeness and thereby acknowledges people’s rights and claims • politeness on the part of one actor tends to be answered by polite responses by others

28. Narratives • May involve reporting of previous experiences • events usually have relevance to the speaker as part of her life • Narrators are obliged to make their stories relevant to addresses as well • Should have a point or be entertaining or newsworthy • Reporting one’s experiences is a learned skill. • Kids narratives are often boring, undramatic, - except perhaps to other children

29. Characteristics of Narratives • Abstract: summarizes the main point or result of the story • Orientation: identifies time, place and characters • Complicating Action: recounts events in chronological order • Evaluation: transmits attitudes or emotions of speaker and or other characters • Result or resolution: provides point of the story • Coda: terminates the story, so that listeners do not ask: and then what happened. • Theme

30. N. American narrative models emphasize plots that focus on a heroic character who overcomes great danger and difficulty • the themes of risk, struggle and accomplishment are basic to such narratives • British narrative models focus more on status and class and keeping up appearances