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.
The Functions of Communication
1. Instrumental function: Getting things done, satisfying needs
2. Regulatory function: Controlling others. Giving instructions
3. Interactional function: Establishing and maintaining social
relations
4. Personal function: Expressing one’s individuality, emotions
and thoughts
5. Heuristic function: Exploring one’s environment, learning
about the world, questions others, and gaining information
6. Imaginative function: Creating and expressing one’s fantasies
about oneself, others and the world
7. Representational function: Communicating about ideas,
conveying messages
M.A.K. Halliday
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
 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.
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
In Japan it is important to have empathy with others – omoiyari
In Japan if you see an indecent flier you
would pick it up and dispose of it in case it
offended someone
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
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,"
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
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
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
FATHER KNOWS BEST
1954 - 1960
 a reflection of inequality
in the larger society
 Language use is one
means of transmitting this
knowledge
Status and Role in American English
tantrum
How is children’s lack of power revealed
Age confers abilities to
demand and maintain the floor
 Gender differences
 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
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.
gender stereotypes
Giving and Receiving Directives
Bald imperatives
assert power
overtly
mitigated expressions,
questions, and
statements soften the
directive
rationales soften the speaker’s
control and acknowledge the
addressee’s feelings
 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
Bald imperatives
assert the speaker’s
power to control the
actions of others
girls more likely to
use mitigated forms
(polite indirect,
explained
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
Leave it to Beaver 1957
“tell your father what happened”
 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
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.
Discourse – Communication event
Conversations
Arguments
Narratives
Interviews
Speeches
Debates
Lectures
Jokes
each has its own distinctive components, interactional contexts
with particular participants
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
 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
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
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
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
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.''
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
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
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
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
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