Dr. Miller
EDUC 4222
9/28/15
Activity
Understanding our Own Discourse Patterns
GENDERED SPEECH PATTERNS:
Women, Lakoff identified 9 speech patterns:
a. specialized vocab for homemaking and caregiving
a. mild forms of expletives
b. adjectives that convey emotional reactions
c. tag comments- midway between questions and comments
d. exaggerated expressiveness
e. super polite forms
f. hedges or qualifiers
g. hypercorrect grammar
h. little use of humor
European women vs. men:
a. more affiliative, accommodative, and socially bonding language mechanisms,
women’s stories include women and men engaged in supportive relationships
focused on community building
b. while males are more directive, managing, controlling, task-focused, and action
oriented, men’s stories about conquests where individuals acted alone
c. girls: speak more politely and tentatively, less forceful words, less confrontational,
less intrusive when entering a conversation
d. boys: interrupt more, use more commands, threats, boasts of authority, give
information more often
Black women and men
a. talk is imbued with intimacy, deep caring, intuitiveness, candor, pride, strength, inner
convictions, intensity, wisdom, assertiveness, fortitude, forthrightness, sincerity,
seriousness, and confidence; also coping with racism and sexism
b. also enacted “shifting” or “code shifting”- process of shifting style of expression and
content to accommodate social and behavioral codes of White middle-class
America- feel they are being sized up, and prejudices can ensue.
c. code shifting entails; censoring speech, editing dialogue internally and externally, -young black girls learn this from early on and develop communicative devices early
in life. Play mental gymnastics and this impacts their emotionality- this is established
well before 3rd grade.
d. gendered styles of communication are problematic and patterns tend to be well
established before 3rd grade
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We see these discourse patterns at odds: Topic associative is troubling to many conventional teacherswhy? Quite oppositional to each other.
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****Problem solving: moving from whole to parts, the pattern and principle (engaging cultural norms)
 Highly contextual- setting the stage or setting prior to performance; this involves establishing
personal connection with others who will participate as prelude; activating cultural socialization
(works better in a group)
 Collaborative/negotiated problem solving: Many Asians do consensus building and proceed
congenially; use advocacy or adversarial positions, seek out compromise positions, factually rich
descriptions, use “hedges” and “starts and stops” in conversation and use “apologetic nuances”
 Consider this: schools are not set up typically for non-White discourse types of learning and so
students of color are disadvantaged and must learn to adjust to different ways of performing….
Constantly mediating between home and school!
 Pedagogical needs must account for cultural differences
STOP: DO NOT TURN
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Issues with “Articulate”
Americans are socialized to link articulateness with intelligence and whiteness
White people are automatically assumed to be articulate and others use and style of language are compared
to that of Whites or “EWC.”
Articulate is connected to deeper enduring politicized, non-neutral, views, that is loaded with a
sociohistorical, sociocultural, cultural-linguistic hegemony that imposes itself on a people, and praises them
for covering up their own language varieties;
Articulate is used by members of the dominant culture to describe the speech of those on the linguistic
margins
When someone praises another for being articulate, i.e. how well they speak English, it engages in
paternalism and infantilizes Black (or others) intelligence and morality (i.e., moral failings). Implication is that
most Black people don’t have the capacity to engage in articulate speech when White people are
automatically assumed to be articulate. They are deficient (not). Yet celebrates Black movement toward
White mainstream and away from cultural separatism. “Compliments” can perpetuate racist ideas.
Subtextual racism: When a Black person is given a compliment for being articulate with other adjectives
like, “handsome,” “clean,” “good,”… it is a backhanded complimentBlack people can call the lie- they know they are being praised for abiding by white Norms
If an adult Black person is given the same compliment, do you think it is read the same as a Black youth?
One who is 5? 10? 15?
Brings to the fore related issues of racial segregation, cultural assimilation, assimilation, and linguistic
policing- that in order for a Black person to “make it” in America, he or she must be an exception to the racist
view of Black deficiency and must prove it by not speaking like other Blacks.
Language has symbolic power (how we distinguish ourselves from others)
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Query: Does it matter who is making the comment about articulate? Explain
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Critical Conversation Group (CCG)
These groups set their own agenda around a topic that is salient for the day. Groups can use the essential questions
as a jumping off point to discuss their personal and professional opinions of the material. For this exercise, students
will audiotape themselves, transcribe the discussion and then apply the discourse analysis tools as a means to reflect
with some depth and personal reflection, your personal response to the topic. Please draw from the readings this week
and last week.
You will draw from:
 Linguistic microaggresssions
 Discourse patterns, conventions, routines
 Gendered discourse
 Cultural discourse patterns- notes were given 9/14
 What you know of your dialect and world English
Directions: As a group- do now
Task 1: Select any topic you want to discuss. I mean any topic.
Task 2: Find a quiet place to talk and go there
Task 3: Situate yourselves and get comfortable
Task 4: Ensure that everyone has a recording device or you can share your audio somehow after
Task 5: Test the audio
Task 6: Choose someone to set a timer for 10 mins
Task 6: Discussion start
Come back together to show how to annotate (give handouts)
For next week, please do the following1. Transcribe verbatim the conversation (submit the transcript with line numbers)
2. Mark the transcript with the transcript analysis tools
3. Look closely at the kinds of questions you ask, at your interruption patterns, at gendered speech, your general
speech patterns, any enactment of microaggressions, the pacing of your speech, themes you readily engaged in
or shied away from, drawing on funds of knowledge, cultural discourse patterns, or anything else you find
interesting
4. Write a two-three page analysis that most accurately describes your speech patterns, and possible biases,
microaggressions, and what you learned about them thematically, and try to understand what causes/impacts
breaks in manners and principles and consider how this assignment might serve you/your students/others in
future conversations: be sure to draw from the transcript and the coding sheet to illustrate your points and
draw upon course readings as relevant to your analysis. THESE MUST BE CITED PROPERLY
5. Submit your transcript with your paper
6. Write in APA
7. Submit attached assessment on next page with transcript and write up
Name:
CCG Write up
/12
Transcription
Marking Transcription with
Tools
Analysis
Formatting
3
Audiotape is transcribed
and submitted with line
numbers
Transcription includes
discourse analysis tools
where appropriate
Analysis masterfully
describes speech patterns,
possible biases, what one
learned about them, and
understands what
causes/impacts breaks in
manners and principles;
deeply considers how
assignment might serve
one in future
conversations: with great
insight, draws from the
transcript and course
readings to illustrate
points
Paper is written and
formatted in APA with
proper in-text citations,
diagrams, and a works
cited (if needed)
2
0
Audiotape is not
transcribed nor submitted
Transcription includes
some discourse analysis
tools where appropriate
Analysis somewhat
describes speech patterns
and biases, what one
learned about them, and
somewhat understands
what causes/impacts
breaks in manners and
principles; moderately
considers how assignment
might serve one in future
conversations: with some
insight, draws from the
transcript and course
readings to illustrate
points
Transcription does not
include discourse analysis
With some errors present,
paper is written and
formatted in APA with
adequate use of in-text
citations, diagrams, and a
works cited (if needed)
With many errors present,
paper is written and
formatted (sorta) in APA
with poor use of in-text
citations, diagrams, and
works cited (if needed)
N/A
Analysis thinly describes
speech patterns and
biases, what one learned
about them, and thinly
understands what
causes/impacts breaks in
manners and principles;
thinly considers how
assignment might serve
one in future
conversations: with little
insight, draws from the
transcript and course
readings to illustrate
points