[Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Seems to me we are, in fact, getting somewhere with this discussion. Sure,
we pretty much all agree on the basic principles but we might be elaborating
strategies to cope with the issues we have.

Like ESL, register awareness is a tricky thing to teach. We can in fact go
with context both from pragmatics and from "ethnography of communication."
As simple as it may sound, it seems that appropriate ethnographic examples
are a good start. Movies like AT, excerpts from sitcoms, dialogue
reenactment in the classroom... Actually, a dialect coach specialised in
non-standard dialects (say, for movies) certainly has neat things to say.
That's why I was enthused by Squires's notion of teachable items. With the
right tools, we can certainly get students (including future teachers) to
understand that formal learning of a language fulfills specific functions
depending on context. Contrary to what my soprano friend was told, it's not
about changing the way you talk, it's about giving you tools to speak in an
appropriate fashion at all times.

It might be personal but I find that my own use of informal registers in
classroom situations seems to carry the point across with students who still
perceive me to be eloquent. It's especially clear in English as the effect
of hearing me say "duuude" clashes with my typical Frenchy accent.

On 3/29/07, Richard J Senghas <Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu> wrote:
>
> On 29 Mar 2007, , at 8:55 PM, Kephart, Ronald wrote:
>
> > Richard,
> >
> > Alexandre may correct me, but I understood him to imply a
> > preference for
> > adding to people's linguistic repertoire, rather than trying to
> > make them
> > lose their non-standard dialect altogether.
>
> and
> >
> > Too often, the "speech therapy" enthusiasts seem to promote the
> > idea that
> > speaking non-standard is some kind of character flaw that has to be
> > eliminated. As though there should be "rehab" for non-standard
> > speakers.
> >
> > Damn! Y'all got me started...
>
> Sorry, I meant to be slightly humorous (though partly serious).  I
> find it as hard to get people to really think, and think differently,
> about "correct" language as it is to get them to *use* language
> differently.  Both are hard retrainings, both involve dealing with
> deeply-seated socialization that normally operates at the
> unconscious, semi-automatic levels.  But in the end, usually success
> at getting them to recognize pragmatics results in changes in use
> (and reactions to uses), too.
>
> But yes, my basic approach is to (try to) make people value being
> richly-lingual, and to understand the range of opportunity and
> enjoyment that can be opened by being aware of pragmatics as much as
> syntax.
>
> -RJS
>
> Richard J Senghas  (Professor of Anthropology, Sonoma State U,
> California)
> Visiting Researcher, Institutionen för nordiska språk
> Stockholms universitet
> S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
> Richard.Senghas at nordiska.su.se
> Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Alexandre
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
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