SPEAKING: The Ethnography of Speech

The speech event I chose was our group discussion of prescriptivism vs. descriptivism.

S - Of course, as with all of our speech event examples, it took place in our classroom. However, to be more specific, it occurred towards the end of class, as a culmination (so to speak) of thoughts and smaller discussions surrounding the subject.

P - The participants involved played rather interesting roles - for example, the traditional model of students being instructed by the teacher was "deconstructed" and the "playing field was leveled"; the teacher became more of a moderator of a room full of voices. Additionally, the room appeared to be divided between the two camps - "de- and pre-" - although it seemed that the prescriptivists were few in numbers.

E - It appeared to me that the intended end of this speech event was to produce erudition amongst the participants, sufficient to create a critical thought concerning rules and correct usage of language in the minds of those who may have never before considered such a question.

A - The acts involved in this event appeared to be foremost a "call-and-response" order, where the teacher would introduce a thought or question to effect a response of sharing one's thoughts or opinions, or attempting to answer the question. Additionally, the formality of raising one's hand to acquire permission before speaking was observed to be a necessary sub-act when wishing to participate in the "call-and-response" dialogue act.

N - As indicated above, an accepted norm (across all of the American education system, it would seem) is to raise one's hand to participate in language and dialogue acts. Additionally, an appeal to authority seems to be an accepted norm; that is, when one is unsure, or when other individual challenges the statement of their peer, both parties defer to the teacher, regardless of any consideration of the teacher's qualifications, specific to the circumstance or generally. While this notation is not meant to demean the teacher in any degree, it is meant to illustrate the normative behaivor of assuming and assigning a role which the teacher may not (wish to) fill.

G - In this particular speech event, it seemed that the participants drew most often upon popular culture for examples, both for the prescriptivist and descriptivist contentions. This was found to be humorous by the participants, and was also viewed in an insightful light, as it was evidence familiar to everyone involved.

As an aside, I found the ethnography of speaking to be one of our most fascinating readings to date.