The discursive accomplishment of normality: On “lingua franca” English and conversation analysis
TL;DR: The authors explored a range of issues surrounding the applicability of conversation analytic methodology to lingua franca talk-data and discussed the various methods through which participants do international and discursive work to imbue talk with an orderly and "normal" appearance, in the face of extraordinary, deviant, and sometimes "abnormal" linguistic behaviour.
About: This article is published in Journal of Pragmatics.The article was published on 1996-08-01. It has received 909 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: English as a lingua franca & Conversation analysis.
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1,510 citations
Cites background from "The discursive accomplishment of no..."
...…accounted for not by incompetence but by the notion of recipient design, that is, speakers purposively designing their talk in anomalous ways in response to their specific, local circumstances, for this coparticipant, at this particular sequential moment (Sacks, [1970]1992, p. 230ff.; Firth, 1996)....
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...For example, although L's pronunciation of "historie" is marked, the interlocutor, NS, is able to make sense of the utterance-as-pronounced (see Firth, 1996)....
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...By reacting in this way, by "searching for a normal form" (Cicourel, 1973), NS has made the abnormal, anomalous form "normal" (see Firth, 1996, pp. 245-247)....
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...Yet as both Rampton (1987) and Firth (1996) show, NNSs' marked or deviant forms are not of necessity fossilizations of IL, nor can they on each and every occasion be accounted for by interference or a reduced L2 competence....
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TL;DR: The authors argued that SLA research requires a significantly enhanced awareness of the contextual and interactional dimensions of language use, an increased "emic" (i.e., participant-relevant) sensitivity towards fundamental concepts, and the broadening of the traditional SLA data base.
Abstract: This article argues for a reconceptualization of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research that would enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the field. We claim that methodologies, theories, and foci within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual orientations to language, the former orientation being unquestionably in the ascendancy. This has resulted in a skewed perspective on discourse and communication, which conceives of the foreign language speaker as a deficient communicator struggling to overcome an underdeveloped L2 competence, striving to reach the “target” competence of an idealized native speaker (NS). We contend that SLA research requires a significantly enhanced awareness of the contextual and interactional dimensions of language use, an increased “emic” (i.e., participant-relevant) sensitivity towards fundamental concepts, and the broadening of the traditional SLA data base. With such changes in place, the field of SLA has the capacity to become a theoretically and methodologically richer, more robust enterprise, better able to explicate the processes of second or foreign language (S/FL) acquisition, and better situated to engage with and contribute to research commonly perceived to reside outside its boundaries.
1,445 citations
23 Mar 2005
TL;DR: This chapter discusses methods and Curricula in Second Language Teaching and Learning, and a model of Academic Literacy for Integrated Language and Content Instruction based on the work of R.A. Snow and S.L. McKay.
Abstract: Contents: Introduction. Part I: Important Social Contexts in Research on Second Language Teaching and Learning. Introduction. M.E. Brisk, Bilingual Education. M.R. Hawkins, ESL in Elementary Education. P.A. Duff, ESL in Secondary Schools: Programs, Problematics, and Possibilities. D.E. Murray, ESL in Adult Education. S. Carkin, English for Academic Purposes. P. Master, English for Specific Purposes. C. Roberts, English in the Workplace. B. Tomlinson, English as a Foreign Language: Matching Procedures to the Context of Learning. Y. Kachru, Teaching and Learning of World Englishes. Part II: Methods in Second Language Research. Introduction. L. Harklau, Ethnography and Ethnographic Research on Second Language Teaching and Learning. L. van Lier, Case Study. A. Lazaraton, Quantitative Research Methods. D. Nunan, Classroom Research. A. Burns, Action Research. Part III: Applied Linguistics and Second Language Research. Introduction. T. Pica, Second Language Acquisition Research and Applied Linguistics. S.L. McKay, Sociolinguistics and Second Language Learning. J. Zuengler, K.M. Cole, Language Socialization and Second Language Learning. G. Kasper, C. Roever, Pragmatics in Second Language Learning. J.P. Lantolf, Sociocultural and Second Language Learning Research: An Exegesis. N. Markee, Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition. R.B. Kaplan, Contrastive Rhetoric. S. Conrad, Corpus Linguistics and L2 Teaching. Part IV: Second Language Processes and Development. Introduction. G. Ioup, Age in Second Language Development. R. DeKeyser, A. Juffs, Cognitive Considerations in L2 Learning. Z. Han, L. Selinker, Fossilization in L2 Learners. M. Swain, The Output Hypothesis: Theory and Research. E. Tarone, Speaking in a Second Language. M. Rost, L2 Listening. T.G. Wiley, Second Language Literacy and Biliteracy. P. Byrd, Instructed Grammar. D.E. Eskey, Reading in a Second Language. I.S.P. Nation, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. J.S. Hedgcock, Taking Stock of Research and Pedagogy in L2 Writing. E. Hinkel, Analyses of Second Language Text and What Can Be Learned From Them. Part V: Methods and Curricula in Second Language Teaching. Introduction. S.J. Savignon, Communicative Language Teaching: Strategies and Goals. S. Fotos, Traditional and Grammar Translation Methods for Second Language Teaching. J. Williams, Form-Focused Instruction. M.A. Snow, A Model of Academic Literacy for Integrated Language and Content Instruction. R. Ellis, Instructed Language Learning and Task-Based Teaching. M. Celce-Murcia, E. Olshtain, Discourse-Based Approaches: A New Framework for Second Language Teaching and Learning. C.A. Chapelle, Computer-Assisted Language Learning. N.J. Anderson, L2 Learning Strategies. Part VI: Second Language Testing and Assessment. T. McNamara, Introduction. A.J. Kunnan, Language Assessment From a Wider Context. A. Davies, C. Elder, Validity and Validation in Language Testing. M. Chalhoub-Deville, C. Deville, A Look Back at and Forward to What Language Testers Measure. T. Lumley, A. Brown, Research Methods in Language Testing. D. Douglas, Testing Languages for Specific Purposes. C. Leung, Classroom Teacher Assessment of Second Language Development: Construct as Practice. Part VII: Identity, Culture, and Critical Pedagogy in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Introduction. T. Ricento, Considerations of Identity in L2 Learning. M. Byram, A. Feng, Teaching and Researching Intercultural Competence. S. Canagarajah, Critical Pedagogy in L2 Learning and Teaching. Part VIII: Language Planning and Policy and Language Rights. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., Introduction. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., Language Planning and Policy Research: An Overview. T. van Els, Status Planning for Learning and Teaching. A.J. Liddicoat, Corpus Planning: Syllabus and Materials Development. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., R.B. Kaplan, Language-in-Education Planning. D.E. Ager, Prestige and Image Planning. S. May, Language Planning and Minority Language Rights.
1,196 citations
Cites background from "The discursive accomplishment of no..."
...(Firth 1996, p. 244) Notice in this exchange that speaker B assumes H knows the meaning of the term blowing ; since H is not familiar with this term, he directly asks “What is this, too big or what?”...
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...This is evident in the following exchange collected by Firth (1996), in which management personnel are using English as a lingua franca....
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...Firth (1996) contends that as long as interlocutors in an intercultural exchange achieve a certain level of understanding, they seem to adopt a let-it-pass principle , acting as if they understand one another even when they don’t....
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TL;DR: English as a lingua franca (ELF) has emerged as a way of referring to communication in English between speakers with different first languages as discussed by the authors, and most ELF interactions take place among non-native speakers of English.
Abstract: In recent years, the term ‘English as a lingua franca’ (ELF) has emerged as a way of referring to communication in English between speakers with different first languages. Since roughly only one out of every four users of English in the world is a native speaker of the language (Crystal 2003), most ELF interactions take place among ‘non-native’ speakers of English. Although this does not preclude the participation of English native speakers in ELF interaction, what is distinctive about ELF is that, in most cases, it is ‘a ‘contact language’ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication’ (Firth 1996: 240).
934 citations
Cites background from "The discursive accomplishment of no..."
...…native speakers in ELF interaction, what is distinctive about ELF is that, in most cases, it is ‘a ‘contact language’ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication’ (Firth 1996: 240)....
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TL;DR: The authors argue that although this orientation is often recognized as inappropriate and counter-productive, it persists because discussions about global English on the meta-level have not been accompanied by a necessary reorientation in linguistic research: very little empirical work has so far been done on the most extensive contemporary use of English worldwide, namely English as a lingua franca.
Abstract: Despite momentous developments in the sociopolitics of the teaching of English worldwide, targets have generally remained tied to nativespeaker norms. This paper argues that although this orientation is often recognized as inappropriate and counter-productive, it persists because discussions about ‘global English’ on the meta-level have not been accompanied by a necessary reorientation in linguistic research: very little empirical work has so far been done on the most extensive contemporary use of English worldwide, namely English as a lingua franca, largely among ‘non-native’ speakers. The paper seeks to demonstrate that this lack of a descriptive reality precludes us from conceiving of speakers of lingua franca English as language users in their own right and thus makes it difficult to counteract the reproduction of native English dominance. To remedy this situation, a research agenda is proposed which accords lingua franca English a central place in description alongside English as a native language, and a new corpus project is described which constitutes a first step in this process. The paper concludes with a consideration of the potentially very significant impact that the availability of an alternative model for the teaching of English as a lingua franca would have for pedagogy and teacher education.
915 citations
Cites background from "The discursive accomplishment of no..."
...…noted to adopt a ‘Let-it-Pass’ principle, that is to say, interactants tend to gloss over utterances which cause difficulty rather than trying to sort them out explicitly, a phenomenon Firth (1996) terms “the discursive accomplishment of normality” (cf. also Meierkord 1996; Wagner & Firth 1997)....
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...…2001 description of the phonology of English as an international language (Jenkins 2000) is now available, and important work on the pragmatics of ‘non-native– non-native’ communication in English has been, and is being, conducted (e.g. Firth 1996; Meierkord 1996; House 1999; Lesznyak forthc.)....
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References
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TL;DR: Methodological preliminaries of generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammar; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning.
12,586 citations
Book•
01 May 1965
TL;DR: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence as discussed by the authors have been used as a theory of performance for language learning. But they have not yet been applied to the problem of language modeling.
Abstract: : Contents: Methodological preliminaries: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammars; formal and substantive grammars; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning; generative capacity and its linguistic relevance Categories and relations in syntactic theory: Scope of the base; aspects of deep structure; illustrative fragment of the base component; types of base rules Deep structures and grammatical transformations Residual problems: Boundaries of syntax and semantics; structure of the lexicon
12,225 citations
TL;DR: Turn-taking is used for the ordering of moves in games, for allocating political office, for regulating traffic at intersections, for the servicing of customers at business establishments, and for talking in interviews, meetings, debates, ceremonies, conversations.
Abstract: Publisher Summary Turn taking is used for the ordering of moves in games, for allocating political office, for regulating traffic at intersections, for the servicing of customers at business establishments, and for talking in interviews, meetings, debates, ceremonies, conversations. This chapter discusses the turn-taking system for conversation. On the basis of research using audio recordings of naturally occurring conversations, the chapter highlights the organization of turn taking for conversation and extracts some of the interest that organization has. The turn-taking system for conversation can be described in terms of two components and a set of rules. These two components are turn-constructional component and turn-constructional component. Turn-allocational techniques are distributed into two groups: (1) those in which next turn is allocated by current speaker selecting a next speaker and (2) those in which next turn is allocated by self-selection. The turn-taking rule-set provides for the localization of gap and overlap possibilities at transition-relevance places and their immediate environment, cleansing the rest of a turn's space of systematic bases for their possibility.
10,944 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a distinction is drawn between self-correction and other-correction, i.e., correction by the speaker of that which is being corrected vs. correction by some "other".
Abstract: An "organization of repair' operates in conversation, addressed to recurrent problems in speaking, hearing, and understanding. Several features of that organization are introduced to explicate the mechanism which produces a strong empirical skewing in which self-repair predominates over other-repair, and to show the operation of a preference for self-repair in the organization of repair. Several consequences of the preference for self-repair for conversational interaction are sketched.* 1. SELF- AND OTHER-CORRECTION. Among linguists and others who have at all concerned themselves with the phenomenon of'correction' (or, as we shall refer to it, 'repair'; cf. below, ?2.1), a distinction is commonly drawn between 'selfcorrection' and 'other-correction', i.e. correction by the speaker of that which is being corrected vs. correction by some 'other'.l Sociologists take an interest in such a distinction; its terms-'self' and 'other'-have long been understood as central to the study of social organization and social interaction.2 For our concerns in this paper, 'self' and 'other' are two classes of participants in interactive social
3,925 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present some of the ways that have been developed for dealing with closings in conversation, and they make an attempt to specify the domain for which the closing problems as they have been posed seem apposite.
Abstract: : The paper presents some of the ways that have been developed for dealing with closings in conversation. Earlier work on conversation formulations of several problems that have been employed to cut into aspects of the data. One may derive an initial problem from a consideration of the most basic features of conversation that are now known of. A partial solution is developed. Problematic aspects of that solution lead to the derivation of another problem which permits the further illumination of the data about closings. After relating the two problems, the paper closes with an attempt to specify the domain for which the closing problems, as they have been posed seem apposite. (Author)
3,831 citations