Speech Actas

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL EXPERIMENTAL “FRANCISCO DE MIRANDA” ÁREA CS DE LA EDUCACIÓN DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS

SPEECH ACTS LICDA. EVELIN PEÑA JEREZ

1. SPEECH ACTS 1.1. LOCUTIONARY ACT 1.2 ILLOCUTIONARY ACT 1.3 PERLOCUTIONARY ACT 2. ILLOCUTIONARY ACT CLASSIFICATION 3. TEACHING SPEECH ACTS 4. COMPONENTS IN THE CURRICULUM 5. TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING SPEECH ACT 5.1 EXAMPLES.

A speech act is usually defined as a functional unit in communication Austin (1972) . Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.

We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal. Greeting: "Hi, Eric. How are things going?“ Request: "Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?“ Complaint: "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week.“ Invitation: "We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us.“ Compliment: "Hey, I really like your tie!“ Refusal: "Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to work."

(Austin, 1962) involve

LOCUTIONARY ACT

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT

PERLOCUTIONARY ACT

It is the act of saying or writing something that is meaningful and that can be understood.

For example, the following sentence can be understood because it satisfies all the English conventions for constructing a simple sentense in present simple:

I don’t have any money.

It is the act of saying or writing something with a given intention, to produce certain effect on the listener or the reader.

I don’t have any money.

It includes:

Let’s suppose that the sentence was said by a teenager to his/her father. The innocent sentence would become a request , even though it does not satisfy the formal conventions needed to classify a sentence as a command or a question.

Promises Asserts Suggest

Demands

It is the result or effect that is produced by means of saying or writing something. In the example, the teenager might get from his/her father the money he/she is asking for or he might just receive a refusal or a punishment from him.

It includes:

In any case, those replies would be the perlocutionary act or the effect produced by his/her utterance. I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY.

Convincing

Persuading Scaring

Insulting

Searle (1969) classified illocutionary acts into five different categories and assign functions to them

Declaratives

Representatives

Expressives

Directives

Commissives

They are those kinds of speech acts that changes the world through the utterances

E.g. baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband and wife.

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU HUSBAND AND WIFE

They are those kinds of speech acts that states what the speaker believes to be the case or not. Statements or facts, assertions and conclusions belong to this category

Paulo Coelho wrote El Zahir

They are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They express various psycological states such as likes, dislike, sorrow, joy, etc.

I AM REALLY SORRY

They are those kinds of speech acts through which the speaker gets someone to do something. Commands, orders, requests, and suggestions belong to this category.

DON’T PLAY WITH THE MATCHES

They are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future action, such as promises, treaths, refusals, etc.

I’LL BE BACK SOON

It is clear that speech acts have an important role in our daily use of language They enable us to: Compliment

Complain

Apologize

Request

Teaching speech acts not only facilitate the process of communication, but also make it more effective.

They have a marked effect on the student’s performance

Reading skills

Writing skills

Speaking skills

Listening skills

Should include

Description of each situation, intended to highlights its sociopragmatic nature..

Pragmatic awarenessrasing tasks and explicit feedback on L2 pragmatic norms.

Suggested strategies for pragmatic use and norms of L2.

Authentic audio sample interactions

Practice in producing output.

ROLE PLAY DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK DISCOURSE RATING TASKof dialogs in After students have analyzed a number It’s aofpopular tool in interlanguage cultural terms their language functions, it isand timecross to divide them pragmatic research in which students are required This typeand of task the students to rate to in pairs haverequires them act out these dialogs. do an completion exercise provide appropriate various responses on aand continuum based FUNCTION TASK responses to various scenarios. on a given scenario. (Lee and McChesney, 2000) Cohen, 1996)

SPEECH ACT SETS In teaching a given speech act such as apologizing, requesting, complaining, etc. “Is to arrive at a set of realization patterns typically used by native speakers of the target language…” (Cohen, 1996)

The speech act set employed by native speakers in fulfilling a particular speech act, addresses the strategies used in apologizing by native speakers.

SPEECH ACT SETS The strategies are the following: An offer of An expresion of repair, whereby an theapology apologizer or sentence makes a bid to which contains carry out an A relative action or performative provide verb suchfor as payment Apologize, some kind of forgive, damageexcuse, which be sorry resulted form the infraction

AAn promise of of the explanation nonrecurrence, situation which indirectly caused the whereby theapologizer to commit the offence apologizer and which is used by commits himself speaker an as orthe herself not to indiret speech act of have the offense apologizing happen again.

Acknowledgement of responsability, (Cohen, Olshtain and whereby the offender recognizes his or her Rosenstein, 1986) fault in causing the infraction.

SPEECH ACT SETS APOLOGIES People apologize in different ways. For example, if someone complains about the noise from your stereo, you can apologize and: Give an excuse: “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize” Admit a mistake: “I forgot I left it on” Make an offer: “I’ll turn it down right now” Make a promise: I’ll make sure to keep the volume down” • Class activity. How do people usually apologize in your country? What do you usually do when you apologize? B. Listen to three people complaining. What are they complaining about? How does the other person apologize? (More than one answer is possible) Complaint: 1._______________________ 2._______________________ 3._______________________

ROLE PLAY Debbie: What a wonderful painting! Helen: I love that one, too. It was painted by a young Brazilian artist. Debbi: you seem to have a lot of things from Brazil. Helen: Well, my husband’s Brazilian, and I liver there for twenty years. Our son was born and brought up in Rio. Debbie: really? How long have you been back in the States? Helen: a year now. Language: What a is a way of making an exclamation about something. Brought up means raised. A year now is short for We’ve been back in the States for a year.

DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK

Please write in the provided space whatever you would say in the following conversational situations: You forget a meeting with a friend; this is the second time that the same thing has happened with the same person. At the end of the day your friend phones and you says: “I waited for you for more than twenty minutes! What happened? You: ______________________________________________

DISCOURSE RATING TASK Bob is a senior manager who has worked at the company for 20 years. Two months ago a college student intern, Barbara, started a three months project there. There’s a “no smoking” policy at the company. However, Bob, who is not Barbara’s supervisor, has seen her openly smoking in the office several times, even after he has told her that there is “no Smoking” policy. Bob feels very strongly that the smoke is harmful to the employees. He is trying to persuade Barbara to stop smoking in the office. Bob: Barbara, can I talk to you for a minute? Barbara: yes, what’s up? l) I would appreciate it if you could smoke outside. Non assertive ___________________ assertive 1 2 3 4 5 b) Don’t you think it might be a good idea to smoke outside? Non assertive ___________________ assertive 1 2 3 4 5

FUNCTION TASK Decide which type of speech act is represented by each of these statements. 6.Your teacher says, "For tomorrow, please read pages twenty-one and forty-seven." Locutionary ___ Illocutionary____ Perlocutionary____ 10.While talking to a group of friends, you mention that you recently went to hear your favorite band play at a local club. Locutionary ___ Illocutionary____ Perlocutionary____ 3. You and a friend are talking about a T.V show that you both watched the night before. You say, "what did you think about Luke's reaction to Laura's news?" Locutionary ___ Illocutionary____ Perlocutionary____ •When you discover that the grade you got on your math exam is a "B", you let out a sigh of relief. Locutionary ___ Illocutionary____ Perlocutionary____

LICDA. EVELIN PEÑA JEREZ