DOCUMENT RESUME FL 024 678 ED 409 738 Kubota, Mitsuo AUTHOR Appropriacy Planning: Speech Acts Studies and Planning TITLE Appropriate Models for ESL Learners. PUB DATE 97 20p.; For serial issue as a whole, see FL 024 674. NOTE -- Journal Articles (080) Information Analyses (070) PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative (142) Working Papers in Educational Linguistics; v12 n2 p53-70 JOURNAL CIT Fall 1996. MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Educational Strategies; *English (Second Language); DESCRIPTORS *Language Patterns; *Language Planning; *Language Research; Language Usage; *Pragmatics; Second Language Instruction; *Speech Acts ABSTRACT Since the emergence of the concept of communicative competence, the language teaching field has focused on teaching appropriate language use in addition to general linguistic elements. Speech act studies have contributed to providing appropriate models for second and foreign language learners. In this paper, the effort toward the creation and use of appropriate models for learners in relation to the theoretical framework of planning in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is examined. The resulting construct, "appropriacy planning," is viewed as a process of corpus intervention for ESL learners consisting of four stages: selection of speech norms; codification; implementation; and evaluation or feedback. The contribution of speech act research to each of these stages, and perceived problems in research methodology and results, are discussed. Several problems in the research and, by extension, in appropriacy planning are identified: poor definition of targeted speech communities; insufficient communication between researchers and ESL teachers, resulting in teachers' continued reliance on native-speaker intuition in determining language appropriateness; and results that may be inappr6priate for some contexts and audiences of ESL instruction. Areas for future research are noted. Contains 61 references. (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Appropriacy Planning: 00 Speech Acts Studies and Planning Appropriate Models for ESL Learners 0 Mitsuo Kubota "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY '....:1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Chabl Donne Ilc) Office of Educational Research and Improvement i NI EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) X This document has been reproduced as r received from the person or organization ST COPY AVAILABLE originating it. V.7..) o Lk.. Minor changes have been made to TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES I improve reproduction quality. 2 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Appropriacy Planning: Speech Acts Studies and Planning Appropriate Models for ESL Learners Mitsuo Kubota Since the emergence of the concept of communicative competence (Hymes 1972a; 1972b), the language teaching field has focused on teach- ing appropriate language use in addition to general linguistic elements. Speech act studies have contributed to providing appropriate models for second and foreign language learners. In this paper, the effort toward the creation and use of appropriate models for learners in relation to the theo- refical framework of planning in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is examined. Based on the findings of the examination and recent criticisms of the attitudes towards teaching ap- propriateness, directions for future research on communicative compe- tence are proposed. Although the intent of a series of speech act studies has never been referred to in language policy and planning literature as an aspect of lan- guage planning before, the underlying goal of the process, to plan socially appropriate speech models for ESL learners, shares some characteristics with the process of language planning. Thus, in this paper this process will be referred to as "appropriacy planning." Appropriacy planning shares the following three characteristics with the common definitions of general language planning theories: First, one motivation for conducting speech act studies was to proVide models to teach socially appropriate speech be- havior to ESL learners (e.g., Billmyer 1989). This resembles one aspect of language planning defined as discovering solution to language problems (e.g. Fishman 1971 cited in Karam 1974: 105; Bamgbose 1989: 26; jemudd & Das Gupta 1971 cited in Fishman 1973: 24). Second, the information from speech acts studies has been used with the intention of changing ESL learners' language behavior (Cohen 1996) through a process involving de- liberate intervention in language change (Cooper 1989: 45; Tollefson 1991: 16). Finally, as Saville-Troike (1996: 353) stated, the goal of the stud- ies has been to discover and formulate prescriptive rules of appropriate language use. This is also one of the common characteristics of language planning which deals with the nature of normative or prescriptive linguis- tics (Haugen 1966: 51-52; Haugen 1969: 287 cited in Karam 1974: 105; 3 WORKING PAPERS IN EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS Bamgbose 1989: 26). The emphasis on appropriate language use in the field of language teach- ing has its origin in the concept of communicative competence (Hymes 1972a, 1972b; Savignon 1972 cited in Savignon 19830 . As opposed to Chomsky (1965), who was solely interested in examining the hypothetical ideal speaker-hearer's speech to theorize competence, Hymes (1972b) em- phasized the importance of integrating a speech community's rules for appropriate language use in a given social context with the notion of com- petence. This concept had a tremendous impact on the field of language teaching. Researchers started to seek pedagogical applications of this no- tion (e.g. Paulston 1974; Canale and Swain 1980; Canale 1983 cited in Savignon 1983). Among these researchers' interpretations of Hymes's con- cept, Canale and Swain's isolation of three, and later four, theoretical com- ponents2 provided a clear guideline for language teachers, and has been widely accepted as a useful interpretation of communicative competence. In spite of the need to teach rules of speaking, sufficient and adequate descriptions of sociocultural rules of appropriateness were lacking (Wolfson 1989:79). Formulating explicit rules for non-native speakers to understand unfamiliar culture-specific speech patterns came to be one of the goals in the field of language teaching (Savignon 1983: 37). The Cross-Cultural Speech Acts Realization Project (CCSARP) was promoted to uncover the cross-cultural differences in two specific speech acts: requests and apolo- gies (see Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper 1989 for a detailed description of this project). This project not only provided an ample source of data for speech acts, but also produced useful instruments for data collection and schema for coding the data (Cohen 1996: 387). Since then many research- ers have started to conduct studies of speech acts3 largely with the inten- tion of contributing to materials development and language teaching. Language planning theory includes several components in its frame- work. As described above, appropriacy planning is a process of corpus intervention for ESL learners. Thus, I will discuss the case of appropriacy planning in relation to corpus cultivation in the integrative framework cre- ated by Homberger (1994)' with the specific focus on the following four stages identified by a number of researchers (e.g., Fishman 1979; Haugen 1983; Rubin 1977)3: 1. It seems that both Hymes and Savignon came up with the concept of communicative com- petence at the same time period. However, the discussion for this paper is primarily based on Hymes' proposal. 2. grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence 3. These researchers and studies will be introduced in the section on "Selection of norm/Fact finding." 4. Hornbergeres framework is based on the following scholars() works: Ferguson, 1968; !Goss, 1968; Stewart, 1%8; Neustupny 1974; Haugen, 1983; Nahir, 1984; Cooper 1989. 5. Fishman (1979) includes decision making stage, elaboration stage and evaluation stage. Haugen (1983) includes selection of norm, codification of norm, implementation of function and elaboration of function. Rubin (1977:284) includes fact finding, establishing goals, strat- egies and outcomes, implementation and feedback. 54 4 APPROPRIACY PLANNING (1) Selection of norms (2) Codification (3) Implementation (4) Evaluation/Feedback The discussion of the selection of norms will reveal problems in the process for finding norms of interaction for ESL learners. Specifically, the following two questions will be examined: How did the researchers un- cover norms of interaction? Who was chosen to represent the norms of the culture? In order to answer these two questions, the studies introduced in Cohen (1996: 397-407), and Wolfson (1989: 79-108) will be reviewed since the combination of these studies introduced in these two reviews will pro- vide a comprehensive view of empirically based speech act studies (Cohen 1996: 398). Concerning codification of norms, the question of how the find- ings were codified, that is, how ESL textbooks were written based on the findings of the studies, will be discussed. For implementation, how the findings were incorporated into instruction will be discussed based on re- search that examined the impact of formal instruction on the development of sociolinguistic competence. Finally, how the TESOL field has reacted to the process of appropriacy planning will be discussed in the section of evalu- ation. Selection of Norms Before empirical findings of speech acts studies were available, ESL teachers had to rely on their native-speaker intuition to teach rules of speak- ing. Wolfson (1989: 37), however, questioned the a iequacy of the use of native-speakers' intuition for teaching because of the unconscious nature of rules of speaking and norms of interaction. She stated that "native speak- ers' opinions about what is right and wrong, good and bad, are reflections of community norms or attitudes and have little to do with the actual use of the individual who expresses them "(Wolfson 1989: 40). Because of the inadequacy of the use of native-speakers' intuition, Wolfson (1989: 48) emphasized the necessity of collecting information on sociolinguistic rules for textbook writers and ESL teachers. Empirical re- search that attempts to identify and define speech acts has been conducted since the 1960s. As a result, a growing body of empirically-based informa- tion on the strategies for performing speech acts has become available. Consequently, the approach for teaching rules of speaking has changed from being based on intuition and anecdote, to empirical evidence, in the last fifteen years (Cohen 1996: 385). Among the voluminous number of studies covered in reviews by Wolfson (1989) and Cohen (1996), 23 were selected based on the following 55 5 WORKING PAPERS IN EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS Table 1 Methods for collecting speech acts data N Naturally occurring data 26.1 6 Experimentally elicited data 60.9 14 Natural + experimental data 13.0 3 Total 23 100.0 criteria in order to examine the questions addressed above6: (1) the studies must be empirically based (2) the studies must look at American English (3) the studies must look at adults (4) the studies must be published after 1980 The rationale for setting criteria (1), (2), and (3) are solely based on the researcher's interest in applications of empirical findings in American En- glish for adult learners. Criterion (4) was set because the studies after 1980 have played the most influential role in accumulating speech acts data sources for the TESOL field (Cohen 1996: 385). Only published studies were included for accessibility and availability reasons. Two distinctive methods have been widely used for collecting speech acts data. One is to observe naturally occurring speech acts, often described as an ethnographic approach, and the other is to elicit speech acts experi- mentally through methods such as the discourse completion test (DCT) and role play situations. First used by CCSARP, DCT has been widely used in this field to collect speech act data, because of its effectiveness for gathering a large amount of data quickly. As seen in Table 1, a large num- ber of studies were conducted using experimental elicitation techniques. Examining the validity of these methods for collecting data has been a hot issue, and is currently debated in the literature (e.g. Beebe & Takahashi 6. The following 23 studies were included for this examination: Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 1991; Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 1993; Beebe & Cununing, 1996;Beebe & Takahashi, 1989(a); Beebe & Takahashi, 1989(b); Beebe & Takahashi, 1990; Benander, 1990; Blum-Kulka, 1982; Blum-Kulkit, 1989; Boxer, 1989; Clark & French, 1981; Cohen & Olshtain, 1981; Creese, 1991; Eisenstein & Bodman, 1986; Goldschmidt, 1989; Kipers, 1986; Linnell & Porter, et al., 1992; Olshtain, 1983; Olshtain & Cohen, 1983; Owen, 1980; Takahashi & Beebe, 1993; Wolfson, 1981; Wolfson, 1983. One of the articles includes two studies. Detailed information appears in thebibliography. Under the time constraint and unavailability of materials, I was not able to collect all materials introduced in Cohen (1996) and Wolfson (1989). 56 APPROPRIACY PLANNING 1989; Beebe & Cumming 1996; Varghese & Billmyer 1996). This issue is beyond the scope of this paper, it will therefore not be discussed further. As stated above, most of the researchers of speech act studies have in- tended to provide useful information for textbook writers and language teachers. Therefore, selection of subjects is a crucial issue because it deter- mines the type of data that will be used as a base for creating appropriate models for learners. Researchers that employed naturally occurring data have tended to collect data indiscriminately. These researchers attempted to collect data that represents American norms of interaction, avoiding a biased repre- sentation. The following statement made in one of the studies conducted by Wolfson (1981: 9) represents the nature and philosophy of this type of research: The data ... were gathered through observation and participation in a great variety of spontaneously occurring speech situations. Although no claim is made that the analyses of speech patterns presented here is representa- tive of all speakers of American English, every effort was made to sample the speech of people from as broad a range of occupational and educational backgrounds as possible. Although researchers of these studies have claimed that they collected data widely enough to represent American speech norms, the information they provide concerning their subjects is vague, and therefore readers of the studies are not able to have a clear idea of exactly who the subjects were. The reliability of this type of research in providing an accurate as- sessment of the norms of interaction for American English is questionable. However, as Saville-Troike (1996: 366) states, "the selection of regional va- riety and register becomes an important issue when curricular priorities are established." Thus, if the population of the studies cannot be dearly distinguished, it is difficult to actually apply the research to textbook writ- ing or teaching, particularly when learners have specific goals for study- ing English, or a specific speech community that they intend to join. As opposed to studies that employ natural observations, experimental studies tend to provide more detailed information on subjects. Gender, age, occupations, and regional variety of subjects of the 14 experimental studies will be examined to see who was chosen for an appropriate model for learners. Gender There are 213 subjects included in the 14 studies. Based on my experi- ence as an ESL student and a teacher prior to this examination, I had an intuitive feeling that speech act models that appear in ESL textbooks, and the examples that teachers provide in a classroom, are heavily based on 7 57 WORKING PAPERS IN EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS Table 2 Gender of the subjects N Male 31 14.6 Female 78 36.6 Unspecified 104 48.8 213 Total 100.0 female speech norms. Thus, I , as a male, have not always been comfort- able incorporating those models into my repertoire. The result of this ex- amination supports my intuition to some extent (see Table 2). More than twice as many females, 36.6% of the subjects, were specified for the studies compared to males, 14.6% of the subjects. Moreover, the gender of a sur- prisingly large number of the subjects was unspecified, 48.8% of the sub- jects. This reveals one of the problematic aspects of the speech act studies. If these studies have been conducted to uncover norms of interaction in American English, researchers should have been more sensitive to vari- ables such as gender. As Freeman and McElhinny (1996: 220-221) note, culturally contextualized activities, such as various speech acts produc- tions, are structured by ideologies, or cultural values and beliefs. These ideologies may function to constrain people's language use about gender identities and relationships, and are reflected in English. Freeman and McElhinny also stress the importance for ESL teachers to discuss the way gender interacts with culture in the United States to describe social varia- tion to their students (247). In this sense, if the studies do not provide information on the gender of research subjects, teachers have no way to access the findings of the studies for use in their classrooms. Age In addition to gender, age is one of the other variables that influences people's choices of speech style (Labov 1968, 1972a, 1972b). Seven studies sis not provide any age information, four studies provided a mean age of the subjects, and 3 studies provided a range of age of the subjects. The mean age and the range of age provide an approximate idea of the sub- jects' age for readers. The intention of selecting a wide range of subjects in terms of age may have been the researchers' attempt to represent the Ameri- can norms of interaction. This type of information is useful to furnish stu- dents with general norms of interaction in American culture, however, it may be less useful if students have a specific target group to which they would like to assimilate. In addition, half of the studies did not provide information about age. In considering the influence of age on speech pro- ductions, the missing information on age, just as with gender, may create problems when textbook writers and teachers attempt to incorporate these studies' findings. 58 APPROPRIACY PLANNING Table 3 Occupations of the subjects 40.8 87 Academic 59.2 126 Unspecified 100.0 213 Total Occupation Occupation is one of the crucial variables in determining what "speech community" the subjects belong to. Within a speech community, people share rules of speaking and interpretation of speech performance (Hymes 1972a: 34-35). Because of this, it is essential for the speech act studies to specify the subjects' occupations. As seen in Table 3, many of the subjects were chosen from the field of higher education. This includes students, professors, and secretaries who work for universities. The preponderance of subjects from the academic field may be due to the accessibility of such subjects since most of the researchers are affiliated with a university. Pre- sumably many adult ESL students in the US may be intending to go to a university. Thus, information based on these people in the academic field may be useful for these students. However, it may not be as useful for students whose target community is business or industry instead. Again, a large portion of subjects, 59.2%, is still unspecified, and this may create problems in applying the findings to material development and classroom instruction. Regional variety In terms of the regional variety of the subjects' speech, none of the stud- ies specified this information. Some of the studies reveal general idea of regional variety in the descriptions of research, such as "the research was conducted in the Philadelphia area", or "urban New York". However, this information does not ensure a specific variety. First, it is difficult to iden- tify and specify a speaker's speech variety. In addition, because many of the studies are conducted in urban areas which experience fluctuations in population make-up, people in one area do not necessarily exhibit the char- acteristics of that regional variety. Codification of norms As mentioned before, one of the goals of CCSARP was to contribute to materials developers, particularly textbook writers (Blum-Kulka, House & Kasper 1989: 27). Similarly, most researchers who conduct speech acts stud- ies have indicated their intention to provide useful information for the cre- ation of lively and interesting ESL textbooks (e.g. Wolfson 1989: 79; Beebe, personal communication, February 28,1996). However, as compared with the relatively large body of studies on various speech acts, and in spite of the researchers stressing the possible contributions for material develop- 59 9 WORKING PAPERS IN EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS merit, there is surprisingly little research available that examines how the research findings are being utilized in creating teaching materials. One of the few such studies was conducted by Billmyer et al. in 1989. Although it has been seven years since the study was presented, ESL text- books that focus on acquiring the use of various speech acts have not been published much after the 1990s, so that the textbooks examined in this study are still widely used for teaching various speech acts formulas. In this study, the researchers examined ten ESL textbooks (see Appen- dix) that claim to teach the rules of language use. They selected those that were published, mostly in the late in 1980s, a period ESL textbook writers were more likely to have a chance to incorporate empirical findings of speech acts studies since a great deal of empirically-based information of speech act studies had became available at this time (Billmyer et al. 1989: 2- 3). The researchers had two foci in examining textbooks: the pedagogical organization of the textbooks and the relationship between the content and the research findings. In terms of the organization of the textbooks, the researchers isolated the most typical categories found such as presentational or illustrative dia- logues, lists of phrases, and oral production exercises. These categories introduce a variety of prescribed speech act formulas, and students are asked to produce them. The researchers warned of the danger of simply practicing the formulas stating that students could end up parroting phrases without reflecting the appropriate social contexts (Billmyer et al. 1989: 5). They emphasized the importance of including categories such as exercises that require students to recognize and interpret a speech act in context, and discussion and analysis activities' of a speech act activities that few textbooks included. In examining how empirical findings of speech act studies were incor- porated into ESL textbooks, the researchers found that content did not re- flect empirical research findings. According to the study, only two out of ten textbooks cited empirical research. Based on their examinations, three of the textbooks reflected empirical investigations to some extent, although the books did not explicitly provide the source of the research. They judged that five of the books included extremely limited information from empiri- cal research (Billmyer et al. 1989: 13-18). Their findings reveal the negative aspects of the materials, such as the lack of activities that require students to reflect upon the social context, and the failure to incorporate empirical findings. However, in light of the previous discussion, the question arises as to whether the empirical re- search really provided useful information for textbook writers or not. As described in the section on selection of norm, the researchers did not pro- vide enough information about the subjects' background. This may have precluded the textbook writers from incorporating the information. Or the discrepancy between the native-speakers' intuitions and the reality as seen by the textbook writers may have caused them to normalize the re- 60 1 0