Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 25
Chapter Three
Language and Psychology
In the previous chapter, we have elaborated on the need for non-native teachers to be exposed to the different varieties of language found in regional and social dialects. We have also introduced the two concepts, specification and identification, which we think are fundamental and essential for the study of speech in social usage.
The term specification’ is intended as a label for non-native teachers to cover the sense of experience and background natural to native teachers. The meaning of ‘identification’ needs to be elaborated on somewhat when applied as it is here, to non-native speakers in comparison to native speakers. To provide this sense of identification, it is necessary to analyse and apply the mechanisms and dynamic stylistic techniques that the native user of the language brings to bear on speech.
This kind of investigation and emphasis is of basic importance to non-native learners who opt to study local spoken English.
The phenomena thus viewed are ignored by conventional English text books simply because they are so basic; they come so naturally, even instinctively, to the native speaker that they never have to be considered. The dynamics and speed of social intercourse depend on this instinctive evaluation of the sort of response required and of when it is desirable to hesitate or even remain silent.
The meaningful interchanges of conversation demand much more than articulation and the manipulation of speech sounds; the hesitations and the silences are also important in conveying the correct message, as is the style in which the words are delivered. This is what makes it so difficult to make a direct and truly meaningful correlation between the written and spoken language. No
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 26

matter what the degree of sophistication of the written language, there will be times when its formality will make it appear false and artificial.
The evaluation of the speech situation is unquestionably important. Without the ability to do this there is always the danger for the non-native speaker that he/she will misrelate some word that has been heard and use it in a very formal situation where it would normally be taboo. This inevitably causes embarrassment and frustration to both speakers and listeners.
One of the great values of the suggested programme of language teaching is that it ensures an awareness of the differences between formal and informal language and so minimises the chances of this sort of unfortunate mistake being made. Knowledge of a regional or local dialect will actually help the foreign learner to know more about standard English and so make him/her more conscious of the boundaries between the two usages, standard and local, and better equipped to work out when to use one and when the other.
We hope that this helps to make clear the purpose behind our theory. We aim to provide a study of a regional variety of the language in parallel with the learning of standard English. We thus propose a unified course on the theory of oral language, the intention of which is to provide a general base and foundation for non-native learners that will enable them to accommodate themselves to the different types of language that they will encounter, to cope with this variety of usage and to identify better with the native English speaker.
Such a course represents a radical departure from the present school language syllabus, which ignores the relationship between form and function and so fails to equip students with an awareness of the more informal styles of English.
Everyone in Britain makes use at some time of an informal style of speech, which is far from being the same as ‘low status’ usage, but this fact is largely
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 27

unrecognised in the field of EFL. This handicaps the non-native speaker, making his/her speech often monotonous and stilted and sometimes so inappropriate as to be almost unintelligible.
In addition to different social and regional dialects and accents, English has different styles of speech which are used in different social situations. People use a different sort of language according to the situation in which they find themselves.
No native speakers use the same form of English or the same vocabulary on all occasions. There are also linguistic variations peculiar to particular communities or occupations. People within these groups use a specialised variation of the language within the general framework of English. This can involve a vocabulary that is specific to an area of life, such as sport or business, or to a profession, such as law. Such forms of the language are independent of dialect. It is possible to make use of the technical registers either in standard English or in non-standard local dialects.
Additionally, the style of talking can range through a continuum running from the very formal to the extremely informal. Indeed, it can go beyond informality to the point where it becomes slang. See Trudgill (1994 :11) According to the situation, speakers can shift from formality to informality, or from one style to another within the dialect.
Consider these two examples : Trudgill (1994 :11)
Formal : My friend is fatigued.
Informal : My friend is bloody knackered.
Both have the same meaning yet the informal style cannot be understood by a foreign listener simply because he/she has not been equipped to understand anything other than formal standard English.
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 28

Here it should perhaps be emphasized that our intention is not to restrict the foreigner to the use and understanding of the informal style of English, but rather to give him/her the opportunity of knowing both the formal and the informal language and by so doing broaden his/her understanding to the point where he/she had the capacity to choose which style to use.
Styles can be regarded as varieties within dialects as they occur within the individual’s speech according to social context and demonstrate characteristics of the speaker’s regional and social background. According to the situation, speakers can shift from formality to informality, or from one style within a dialect
However, this sort of language shifting is not determined solely by the social situation. Howard Cues has pointed out that speakers are not ‘sociolinguistic automata;’ they can use shifting and switching at will for their own purposes. In bilingual situations they can maintain conversations in two Languages simultaneously or can switch completely from one language to the other. By this rapid code switching they can also signal two completely different aspects of their identities.
In some language communities, dialect switching is determined by the situation. In such cases, the dialect demanded by formal situations differs from that used when the occasion is less formal. Native speakers of the lowland Scots dialect, for example, may switch in formal situations to standard English - spoken, of course, with a Scots accent.
In some other parts of the world, switching occurs on a much larger scale.
This phenomenon is known as diglossia. This term describes a situation where two distinct varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the speech community, with the one designated the High language and the other, the low,,
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 29

The former is typically the language of educated people, of formal speech and of newspaper editorials, while the Low variety is used in conversation with family, friends and so on. The high language has no native speakers and in all cases has to be learnt as a school language as for foreign learners. There is an obvious corollary here with standard English and the everyday form of the language that is used in casual conversations. The convention of high and low languages differs from the English pattern only in degree, suggesting, dare I say it, that English , in its blurring of the boundaries between the formal and the informal has evolved to a stage beyond such languages as Arabic and German, where there is such a distinct difference between the high and low forms
Now we can turn to some aspects of the psychological development of speech functions. It is necessary to explore this area in order to relate the natural development to the school curriculum and so determine at what level each new stage of development should be introduced.
Vygotsky (1956) in Markova (1979:17) pointed out the social orientation of speech responses during the birth stage, As a child’s relatively complex and rich social contact results in extremely early development of the means of communication. The emergence and development of the forms of speech depend on the expansion of communication and contact at the age of 3. By the time he reaches this stage, he is taking account of how he makes himself clear and understood by others - hence the hesitation and the elliptical structures of his utterance. (T. Slama -Kazaku 1996) in Markova AK (1979:20). At the pre-school age, As a child grows he makes differentiation of speech for oneself and speech for others.’ Vygotsky (1956:346) in Markova AK (1979:20)
During the school age period , the generalizing function of language and speech is perfected, and during the transitional period from primary to lower secondary school, at approximately the age of ten, the child becomes consciously
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 30

aware of his own social position. What is peculiar to adolescence is an increase of awareness and the acquisition of social values.
The kind of communication activity which dominates in early secondary school is characterized by a broadening of the child’s sphere of communication and the attempts to seek a different identity beyond the confines of the family and the school. During the adolescent period, the need is to develop subtly differentiated relationships with those with whom he/she speaks.
This is the stage which we think reasonable for the learning of a new variety of vernacular language. The fundamental physiological changes that occur later with the individual’s generally increased appreciation of his/her maturity as he/she leaves school and goes on to higher education or seeks employment does not necessarily favour the study of a specific locally spoken dialect, nor the adopting of a particular style model for speech.
We have therefore determined that the teaching of the function and style of a localised form of vernacular speech should be carried out in the middle school years The learners are then at the stage of development when they can most quickly and easily accommodate to the form of language with which they are presented. According to Howard Giles, see Trudgill (199 : 39), in face to face interaction, speakers accommodate to each other linguistically by reducing the dissimilarities between their speech patterns and adopting features from each other’s speech. If a speaker accommodates frequently enough to a particular accent or dialect, Trudgill suggests (1999 : 39),t hen ‘the accommodation may in time become permanent.’
This accommodation theory is obviously extremely relevant and important to EFL teaching in general and to our theory in particular. If all that the student hears is the formal standard English then his/her knowledge of the language will remain frozen in this standard which actually has no native identity and is very seldom
Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 31

used in everyday situations in Britain. The student, on the other hand, will use at all times and this will mean, inevitably, that it will often be inappropriate.
It is scarcely going too far to suggest that the present conventional way of teaching English as though there were one set form of the language in universal use at all times and in all situations, can actually inhibit the real development of the language learning process. On the whole, this form of teaching ignores the broad context of the function of the spoken language in social life and in the establishment of identity.
It has to be remembered that while sameness is a group matter, difference is individual. Evans (1988 84). The true purpose of learning and development is to enable one to become unique in a group, and this holds as true for language earning as for anything else.
The goal we have set our self - namely to foster the development of a speech community in the context of present day social life with an awareness of differing articulations and style shifting according to the needs of the situation faced and with an awareness also of the existence of regional dialects and accents - can best be attained by introducing this form of teaching to the middle school years. If these various features are not dealt with then, it will be very difficult to introduce them later.
To recapitulate, the intention is to seek a linguistic identity new to this group and to impart to schoolchildren a specific body of knowledge that adequately reflects the current state of the spoken language. By equating non-native learners with a specific group of English native speakers they will be given a label of identification
In general, this process of identification can be either narcissistic or analytic
(Freud’s term) see Evans (1988 : 84). In narcissistic identification the sense of self is enhanced by relation to what is the same, as, for example, in the case of a homosexual partner. In the analytic variety, on the other hand, the identification is

Hejazi Hana / Chapter 3/ Language and Psychology / page 32 with what is different. We suggest that our methodology inclines more to the analytic, since the aspects of the speaker language which are investigated and taught require the non-native learner to journey from the ego to the superego.