1. Research in Text
and Discourse in
TESOL

2. A Group-led Interactive Discussion
Manusha Nair A/P Balan, PGP 110048
Kohila Vaani A/P Palaniappan, PGP 110059
Hema Loshini Sivarajah, PGP 110058
PBGS 6343 TESL PROGRAM
Faculty of Education
University of Malaya
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico
Facilitator

3. Interactional sociolinguistics
• Focus on how people from different
cultures may share grammatical
knowledge of a language, but
differently contextualize what is said
such that very different messages are
produced (Gumperz, 1982).

4. anthro
linguistic
pology
pragmatics
Interactional
Sociolinguistic

5. Pragmatics
omeaning in context
ooutside of pragmatics, no understanding; sometimes, a
pragmatic account is the only one that makes sense
o Example (David Lodge's Paradise News: 1992:65)
S1: I just met the old Irishman and his son, coming out of the toilet.
S2: I wouldn't have thought there was room for the two of them.
S1: No silly, I mean I was coming out of the toilet.
They were waiting.

6. Linguistics
• The systematic study of the nature, structure,
and variation of language.
• It includes phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse
analysis

7. Anthropology
 studies of human societies and cultures and
their development.
 examines aspects of human existence and
accomplishments
 explores the entire panaroma of the human
experience from human origins to
contemporary forms of culture and social life
Source: http://www.anthro.ufl.edu/documents/about_anthropology.pdf]

8. KEY THEORETICAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
Politeness
(Goffman 1967)
Contextualization Cues
(Gumperz 1982)
Interactional
Sociolinguistics Framing
(Bateson 1972)
Conversational Inference
(Gumperz 1982)
Cross-Cultural Miscommunication
(Gumperz 1982)

9. Politeness
saves the hearers' "face."
(Goffman 1967)
You see a cup of pens on your teacher's desk and you
want to use one. Would you say:
A) "Ooh, I want to use one of those!―
B) "So, is it O.K. if I use one of those pens?"
C) "I'm sorry to bother you but, I just wanted to ask you if
I could use one of those pens?"
D) "Hmm, I sure could use a blue pen right now.―
Source: Balaban, B. (n.d.). Politeness versus Manipulation. Retrieved February 25, 2012,
from http://www.ugb.ro/etc/etc2008no2/s41%20(2).pdf]

10.  Answer (A) : the Bald-On-Record strategy; no effort to minimize
threats to your teacher’s "face‖.
Answer (B) : the Positive Politeness strategy; you recognize that
your teacher has a desire to be respected and it also confirms
that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity.
Answer (C) : the Negative Politeness strategy; you recognize
that you are in some way imposing on her. Some other
examples would be to say, "I don't want to bother you but..."
Answer (D) : Off-Record/ Indirect strategy; trying not to directly
impose by asking for a pen; you would rather it be offered to you
once the teacher realizes you need one

11. Contextualization Cues
(Gumperz 1982)
 signaling mechanisms used by speakers to indicate how
they mean what they say
 recognized by listeners through conversational
inference and interpreted through their own culturally-
shaped background knowledge.
 prosodic (like intonation, stress, pitch register)
 paralinguistic (like tempo, pausing, hesitation) in
nature
(Gumperz, 1978, 1982a, 1982b, 1992a, 1992b, 1999b, 2001)

12. EXAMPLE
TEACHER: James, what does this word say?
JAMES: I don't know. (with final rising intonation)
 teacher interprets "I don't know" reply : James does not
want to try to answer the question (Schiffrin, 1994a)
 context in James's African-American community: rising
intonation conveys the desire for encouragement.
teacher is unable to retrieve the contextualization
presuppositions needed to accurately interpret James’
use of rising intonation in his message from
(Gumperz, 1982)

13. Framing(Bateson's 1972)
 situational framing: based on the setting (e.g., school, workplace)
 functional framing -e.g., casual conversation or lecture
o sub frames based on differing functions (e.g., telling a joke,
telling a story) being accomplished within the larger function.
 tonal framing - tone chosen by conversation participants during
interaction, (e.g., joking , sarcastic, or serious tone).
 self-imposed framing -i.e., the way each person frames him-/herself
as intelligent, powerful, and trustworthy; the way people frame
one another during the interaction, or other-imposed framing.

14. Conversational Inference
(Gumperz 1982)
 participants activelypredict what comes next, based on the line
of interpretation suggested by on-going talk as measured against
prior interactive experience.
 Gumperz's view: speakers do not follow conversational rules, but
are rather guided by interpretive norms which are continually
reinforced or revised in the light of on-going interpretation.
 communicative functions of linguistic variability and its relation
to speakers' goals.

15. Cross-Cultural Miscommunication
(Gumperz 1982)
 cross-cultural: interaction with persons of different
cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation,
religious, age and class backgrounds.
 cross-cultural communication
 process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's
cultural differences through language, non-verbal
gestures, and space relationships.
 process by which people express their openness to an
intercultural experience. (Clarke and Sanchez, 2001)
 examines causes of misunderstandings

16. SUCCESSFUL
COMMUNICATION
CORRECT
ERROR FREE
MESSAGE AND INTERPRETED BY
COMMUNICA-
MEANING BY THE LISTENER
TION(RARE)
SPEAKER
Most human interactions have some
degree of MISCOMMUNICATION.
WHY?

17. Other ways of successful conversation
a. Listening
b. Talking briefly
c. Talking confidently
d. Using non-verbal communication to send
message effectively
e. Taking care of language and jargon
f. Creating a level of comfort

18. contains a wide array of understanding of speaker's
features: words, grammar, intentions, emotions,
syntax, idioms, tone of voice, politeness, seriousness,
emphasis, speed, emotion, character, beliefs, priorities,
and body language motivations, and style of
communicating
Message from speaker to
listener
(Maltz and Borker, 1982)

19. Intercultural
communication
Language, Code-
power and switching
institutions
Five major
research
trajectories
(Gumperz)
Discursive Language
identity and
construction gender

20. Code-switching
 use of more than one language, or language variety in
conversationin a manner consistent with the syntax
and phonology of each variety.
occurs in a multilingual society like Malaysia and Singapore.
speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in
both languages
 considered a sub-standard language usage by many scholars

21. Spanish and English Codeswitch
Lolita: Oh, I could stay with Ana?
Marta: but you could ask papi and mami to see if you could
come down.
Lolita: OK.
Marta: Ana, if I leave her here would you send her upstairs
when you leave?
Zentella: I’ll tell you exactly when I have to leave, at ten
o’clock. Y son las nueve y cuarto. ("And it’s nine fifteen.")
Marta: Lolita, te voy a dejar con Ana. ("I’m going to leave
you with Ana.") Thank you, Ana.
[Retrieved February 25, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching]

22. Gumperz: Code switching & contextualization
 sociolinguistics, linguistic, anthropology, and the
sociology of language.
 early work in northern India focused on Hindi and its
range of dialects (Gumperz 1958, 1961, 1964a, 1964b)
 describes three levels – village dialects, regional
dialects, and standard Hindi
 most male residents, who travel considerably, speak
both the village and the regional dialect
[Nilep, C. (2006, June). “Code Switching” in Sociocultural Linguistics, 19.
Retrieved February 25, 2012, from
http://www.colorado.edu/ling/CRIL/Volume19_Issue1/paper_NILEP.pdf]

23. Intercultural
communication
 interpersonal interaction between members of different
groups, which differ from each other in respect of the
knowledge shared by their members and in respect of
their linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour. (Knapp)
 seeks to understand how people from different countries
and cultures behave, communicate and perceive the
world around them.

24. Contribution of Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS)
 identifying causes of intercultural miscommunication
 uses of address terms
- word/ phrase for the person being talked or written to.
- what is considered proper and polite in one language
may cause embarrassment or disrespect in another.
 Example: terms such as xiansheng and xiaojie (Mr. or Sir, Miss or
Lady) carry different connotations in Chinese
xiansheng and xiaojie are honorific titles
Sir or Mr. - very common address form

25.  structuring information
o modulate the presentation of the information in such a way as to
relate that information to prior context.
Example: “See you later” in the American context can mean “I'll
see you again, sometime”; alternative way of saying goodbye
but her neighbor from a different culture misunderstood and
thought that her friend is going to meet her in a while.(Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYtdpPN_Fhs

26.  uses of pacing and pausing
“I had a British friend who I thought never had anything to say (which was
becoming rather annoying) until I learned that she was waiting for a pause
To take her turn - a pause of a length that never occurred around me ,
Because before it did, I perceived an uncomfortable silence which I kindly
headed of f by talking.‖ (Deborah Tannen)
[Tannen, D. (n.d.). The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication . Retrieved February 19, 2012,
from http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/pdfs/the_pragmatics_of_cross
cultural_communication.pdf

27. Language and gender
differences between forms of language used by women and
those used by men.
Women – higher involvement Men – lower involvement
closer together farther apart
more eye contact less eye contact
more understanding checks fewer understanding checks
more attention signals fewer attention signals
shorter gaps longer gaps
more overlap less overlap
shorter turns longer turns
more frequent speaker change less frequent speaker change
less appeal to expert knowledge more appeal to expert
knowledge
[Norrick, N. R. (n.d.). Sociolinguistics. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from www.uni-
saarland.de/fak4/norrick/.../VL%20Socioling%20neu.ppt ]

28. Discursive identity
construction
 create and negotiate identities in interaction.
o workplaces
o educational settings
o families
o other social groups
 reveal the various linguistic means by which identities are
constructed, make efforts at linking linguistic features with broader
ideologies, and in general contribute to our understanding of how
individuals use language to accomplish social goals

29. setting up the role of the father in family interaction as the judge
of others’ activities (Ochs and Taylor, 1992a, 1992b, 2001)
 Example: ―a father starts out more conversationally, asking if
the daughter knows the time required to apply for a passport,
and when she expresses her uncertainty, he quickly accuses her
of not taking responsibility and expresses the concern he and
her mother have about her inaction.‖
 father reinforcing his hierarchical role as father and
constructing his identity as a caring parent.‖ (Johnson, 2007)
[Johnson, R. (2007). The Co-Construction of Roles and Patterns of Interaction in Family Discourse, 7
(2), 10-14. Retrieved February 20, 2012, from journals.tc-
library.org/index.php/tesol/article/download/319/240]

30. Language, power
and institutions
 Focus on issues of dominance and inequality.
 Institutional encounters in which power is negotiated and exercised,
like academic assessments, medical encounters, and courtroom
interactions have also been examined by drawing on IS, although
the focus of such analyses is not necessarily power.
[VAN DIJK, T. A. (n.d). Structures of Discourse and Structures of Power. Retrieved February 20, 2012, from
http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Structures%20of%20discourse%20and%20structures%20of%20powe
r.pdf]

31. METHODOLOGY
 Ethnographic component (observations of speakers
in naturally-occurring contexts and participant-
observation).
Provides
multiple
 Audio- and/or video-recording of interactions.
perspectives
on interaction,
 Detailed linguistic transcription of recorded
which can be
conversations.
particularly
insightful in
 Careful micro-analysis of conversational features in
cases of cross-
the context of the information gained through
cultural
ethnography.
(mis)communic
ation.
 Post-recording interviews.

32. EFFECTS
 explores how language works; gains insights into the social processes
through which individuals build and maintain
- relationships
- exercise power, project and negotiate identities
- create communities.
 diverse cultural groups often understand and employ these cues
differently.
 misunderstandings and conversational breakdown occur: when
interactional participants have dissimilar ―contextualization conventions‖
(Gumperz, 1982a)—that is, different ways of conventionally using and
interpreting contextualization cues
 contribute to larger social problems of ethnic stereotyping and differential
access to information and opportunities.

33. “contribute to a more nuanced understanding of
cultural differences and how these manifest
interaction, but also because they aim to educate the
public about cultural aspects of communication.”
[Gordon, C. (n.d.). Gumperz and Interactional Sociolinguistics. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60564375/Gumperz-and-Interactionnal-Sociolinguistics]
[Retrieved February 27, 2012 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=QOwJf
Q_4QKA]

34. REFERENCES
Avruch, K. (n.d). Cross-Cultural Conflict. Retrieved February 19, 2012
from http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C14/E1-40-01-01.pdf.
Bailey, B. (2008, July). Interactional Sociolinguistics. Retrieved February
20, 2012, from http://works.bepress.com/benjamin_bailey/59/
Balaban, B. (n.d.). Politeness versus Manipulation. Retrieved February 25,
2012, from http://www.ugb.ro/etc/etc2008no2/s41%20(2).pdf]
DuPraw, M. E. and Axner, M. (n.d). Working on Common Cross-cultural
Communication Challenges. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from
http://www.pbs.org/ampu/crosscult.html
Gegeo, K. A. W. (n.d).Ethnography in ESL. Retrieved February 27, from
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3587257
Gumperz, John J. (1982). Discourse Strategies. Studies in Interactional
Sociolinguistics 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

35. Gumpers, J. J. and Gumpers, J. C. (n.d). Language and the
communication of Social Identity. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from
http://antroling.wikispaces.com/file/view/Gumperz.Language+and+Social
+Identity.pdf
Johnson, R. J. (n.d.) A Multi-Layered Framework of Framing. Retrieved
February 19, 2012, from http://journals.tc-
library.org/templates/about/editable/pdf/3_ForumJohnson_Final.pdf
Laks, B., Cleuziou, S., Demoule, J. P. & Encrevé, P. (2007). To appear in
The Origin and Evolution of Languages: Approaches,Models,
Paradigms, ed. London: Equinox.
Mufwene, S. S., (n.d). What do Creoles and Pidgins tell us about the
evolution of language??? Retrieved February 25, from
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/publications/CREOLES-
LGEVOLUTION-Revisions-1.pdf

36. Nilep, C. (2006, June). “Code Switching” in Sociocultural Linguistics, 19.
Retrieved February 25, 2012, from
http://www.colorado.edu/ling/CRIL/Volume19_Issue1/paper_NILEP.pdf
Studies in Interactional Studies. (n.d). Retrieved February 19, 2012 from
www.cambridge.org/knowledge/series/series_display/item393789
Tannen, D. (n.d). Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural
Communication. Retrieved February 25, from
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/githens/tannen.htm.
Tannen, D. (1985). Handbook on discourse analysis: Cross-Cultural
Communication. London: Academic Press London

37. More References
About Anthropology. [Retrieved February 25, 2012, from
http://www.anthro.ufl.edu/documents/about_anthropology.pdf
Chen, Y. (2010, July). Cultural Differences in Chinese and American
Address Forms, 2 (2), 82-83. Retrieved February 28, 2012, from
ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ach/article/download/6580/5176
Farewell Misunderstanding. Retrieved February 27, 2012 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYtdpPN_Fhs