suggestions anyone?

[MJ Hardman]

Yes, you are quite right. What constitutes 'speech turns' varies enormously.
Remember the story in Wagner's book about the teenage boy in English and in
Haudenosaunee, where the English boy got all the attention, interrupting the
two women's conversation, and the Haudenosaunee teenage boy served but did
not interrupt his mother and her guest?  Remember the article in the Aymara
book that compared Aymara, Chinese and Cuban?  Aymara took turns with a lot
of silence between, Chinese with a little bit, and Cubans overtalked.
Cubans generally overtalk (and for them it is not interrupting -- it's like
having two conversations simultaneously -- and I could do that back then
myself, but not now).  Who speaks to whom and in what rhythm varies
enormously culture by culture and that includes children/adults and in what
role.  When I was a child I was scolded for greeting adults; when I got to
Perú I quickly noticed it was otherwise and behaved appropriately.  Another
young woman arrived and behaved like a gringa, and the adults were seriously
insulted -- she was trying 'not to interrupt'.  Discovering what is correct
may not be easy; in Field Methods, as you know, I teach students to think of
themselves as 2 year olds, and really funny -- grownups who can't even talk
as well as 2 year olds, so, learn to laugh *at* yourself and *with* others
so that you can learn and so that telling you that you are making a mistake
is not being discourteous (as is the case almost every place).  There is a
lot, a massive lot, of bad ethnography and linguistic info out there because
courtesy did not allow someone to say 'that's not right'. Creating a
situation where it is discourteous NOT to correct you has to be job of a
researcher, plus incorporating the notion that you are two intellectuals
with the same goal -- understanding a language/culture, two equals, the
inside voice and the outside voice.  And oh yes, silence.  One of my former
students, Polish, actually did a book on silence in language, the meaning
thereof, when and how it is used.

Now, I have gone on too long; you shouldn't have asked the question! (not
really, but I suspect that for those of this list, I'm only saying what
everybody knows).  I hope you are enjoying the work.

MJ

On 12/10/10 2:00 AM, "Chun (Jimmy) Huang" <huangc20 at UFL.EDU> wrote:

> Thanks, Phil, for the observation.
> Yeah it may be cultural. (I think it was) Dorothy Lee wrote
> something like this: For the Americans, zero/silence is "nothing"
> and thus needs to be filled up; but for Japanese (for example), it
> bears its own existence and value. Hence, a Japanese person can
> sit around all day not doing anything (in American eyes) while
> enjoying her break, but when an American got a break, she'd need
> to find something to do or she'd feel that she has wasted the
> time.
> 
> Yeah but the teacher-student/adult-children relationship must be a
> different thing. I think in East Asian cultures in general the
> adults would have a even stronger desire to help children do
> things than the American or European adults would. In Taiwan's Han
> society, there's this saying, "Children should be all ears, no
> mouth" - that is, when adults (parents and teachers) speak,
> children are not supposed to respond. Maybe that's why the
> Taiwanese students, when learning a second language, tend to be
> better in writing and reading than in speaking. maybe.
> 
> Dr. Hardman, please help me out if I made a wrong reference. I am
> on a road trip and couldn't check my bookshelves.
> 
> Jimmy/Chun
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu Dec 09 18:40:54 EST 2010, Phillip E Cash Cash
> <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I don't know if anybody has mentioned this but I will just
>> briefly add
>> that in terms of behavior, adults have this (mostly unexamined)
>> drive
>> to be understood when speaking to children.  Much like when
>> people
>> have this (largely unexamined) need to blurt out speech when
>> silence
>> enters into the conversation.  Is it a cultural thing?  Hmm, not
>> sure,
>> maybe.
>> 
>> Perhaps it might force the issue when teaching a language.  One
>> could
>> have the greatest curriculum in the world but if the teacher has
>> this
>> unexamined need to be understood it could limit the options of
>> learners.  Maybe this is the source for some teachers blurting
>> out
>> English during your lessons.
>> 
>> Just curious,
>> Phil
>> 
>> 
>