My apologies

I forgot "K" and "I"!

K - Generally speaking the tone of the speech event was casual, but retained an appropriate level of seriousness, as was need to consider and analyze the discussion points made by the teacher and other student-participants.

I - Speaking was the dominant medium (as it commonly is) for the speech event. The variety of speech seemed to be standard to the customary student-teach dialogue model.

S-setting is our classroom
P-the participants are us the students and the teacher
E-ends, the purpose is dialogue and exchanging of ideas
A-act sequence is the introduction of a theme by the teacher followed by a response or oral discussion from the students
K- the kee is sometimes serious but i would say most of the times is relaxed
I-is oral speech
N-the norm of interaction is Q/A and also call/answer
G-classroom discussions

E-I picked this category because I like the way opinions are presented in class. Participants do it with respect and humor and that's how it should be. it is probably the most critical part because it allows the chance for everybody to expose their ideas and feeling regarding a statement(s) that were presented.

S P E A K I N G

S- Our Classroom

P-The teacher-lecturer; Students-audience

E-To learn about racial profiling by listening to different recorded voices saying the same thing.

A- Teacher playing the recorded voices beginning with number one, and the class responding as to what race they believe the person is.

K-The tone or manner is always fun and somewhat playful in this class.

I- Lots of communication back and forth through speaking but also the teacher is writing on the board what we think each race is.

N- Interaction in this class is always the same. Students listen as the teacher speaks, and responds accordingly.

G- Class discussion/ Lecture?

The main thing that stands out about this class compared to my others is how much we laugh. I enjoy having fun in classes and I really think we have an amazing class. Everyone gets along no one is obnoxious or left out of the group. I thoroughly enjoy being in Language 2030. :)

Speaking

S- Classroom
P- Teacher/Students
E- A greater understanding of Language
A- Lecture/ Discussion
K- Relaxed- Educational
I- Speaking
N- The normal Classroom rules. ie. Be polite, Let the teacher take lead ect..
G- School I guess. We usually quote from text books and such.

I think our class is a little different from other classes. It seems like we are more inclined to state our opinions, when in other classes we are inclined to state fact. To me this makes the class seem more relaxed and fun.

Pneumonic Device

I decided to do my Pneumonic Device on our class generally

S - Our classroom
P - Teacher = lecturer, students = listeners; sometimes the other way around
E - Gaining knowledge, more specifically in our classroom to gain knowledge of language
A - The lecturer gives knowledge and the students give feedback
K - Open ended conversation; laid back
I - Orally
N - Teacher speaks and poses questions, students answer questions and spark new discussions
G - College lecture

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.

Trying to Ethnographize Our Class...

I chose to analyze "lecture" as a speech event against the SPEAKING mnemonic as it tends to account for the majority of our class time.

(S)etting: A classroom in a community college; a formal academic setting.
(P)articipants: An instructor and twenty something students. The instructor is responsible for directing discussion and curricula and the students are responsible to provide the instructor a respectful, receptive environment.
(E)nds: Typically, the instructors intentions are to impart knowledge to the students. In our class specifically, the instructor's intent is not only to impart knowledge, but to help the students understand and analyze language use and its significance.
(A)cts: During the lecture, the instructor will introduce the topic of the day and the students at least appear to be listening intently (mostly).
(K)ey: The formal lecture, while inherently serious, is often broken up by light-hearted banter pertaining in one way or another to the topic at hand.
(I)ntstrumentalities: Unamplified speech
(N)orms of interaction: The students to remain quiet while the instructor in speaking until they are prompted to respond with their thoughts on a question or statement.
(G)enre: Lecture

The interaction between the students and the instructor is, I think, specific to the community college atmosphere when considering American higher education. The class size in a community college will typically be smaller than in a University, allowing for more free-flowing discussion (see "Key" above) as well as the development of closer interpersonal relationships. Sitting in a classroom with tiered seating and 200 other students, as in many university classes, tends to lead to a much more formal lecture setting that is driven principally by the instructor with little, if any, input from the students.

Lecture about linguistics

S - classroom, morning, college building
P - Teacher/lecturer: speaker, students: listeners
E - to educate the students about a topic or subject
A - explaining, alertness, response, feedback, q/a
K - sincere, serious, matter-of-fact, intellectual
I- speaking, hand gestures, body language, writing
N - being polite, not interrupting, keeping to subject, asking for clarification
G - Lecture, speech, quoting literary works

Students must be attentive and ask questions to get the most out of this lecture. The teacher must draw graphs, write terms, explain herself and also ask questions. The lecturer stands in front of the audience who sits, and essentially gives a presentation.

Class #2 Assignment

In response to question #2. I have changed the variety of my language, when I was in the Southern United States. I lived in Georgia as a LDS missionary. I started to change the variety and my dialect as I talked to people. I would begin to pick-up a Southern Drawl. It was hard not to pick-up. I would revert back to my Mountain West accent afterwards.

SPEAKING

Our class has different styles of learning. Most teachers use discussions with the class, to help gauge the knowledge of the class. I will be talking about discussing the English language. I will be using the pneumonic SPEAKER on this type of style.
S- The students in the classroom.
P- The teacher helps lead the discussion, bringing out the main ideas of the class. The students are the participate.
E- Teachers educate on the class material. Students go to be educated on the subject.
A- The audience in a classroom is the students. Students go to class to learn the material for the class.
K- Learning about different subjects helps students in their lives.
I- Using oral language as the way to present ideas.
N- Listening and contributing to the classroom discussion. The student shares his insights on the material with the class. Learning and sharing ideas from the classroom.
G- Discussion of the materials.
Posted by Matthew Barlow at 7:23 PM
Labels: Pneumonic Language

1 comments:
bethaknee said...

The Ethnography of Speaking

Hi every one!!

This ethnographic observation is based on the class we had last Thursday -- Slang.

S: Classroom
Student first facing teacher
Then students get into small groups facing each other
Teacher facing students and whiteboard

P: Teacher and Students
# of people present: 25 to 30. More males than females


E: Purpose: Education
Goal: to understand the cause and effect of lg in societies

Act S: Teacher – Instructs. Lecture and discusses of chosen subject. Elaborates and gives definitions and explanations. Poses questions. Gives tasks. Q&A
Students – Respond and comment. Q&A

Key: Tone: Relaxed, fun, shy and unsure at times, emotional.

I: Verbal interactions. Written communication on whiteboard by teacher, as well as, note taking by students.

N: Subtle “latching” between turns. Students patiently and respectfully listen to the slang that was shared.

G: Lecture and open discussion.


Love the SPEAKING grid:)

Speaking

I decided to analyze the first day of class where we had to go through and say every one's name.

S-The first day of the fall '07 term in room W372

P-The professor had control of the class, the students were absorbing the knowledge she put forth

E -To help everyone in the room know each others name and something about them, also to humiliate the last 5 people who had to quickly memorize 25 names

A-The professor instructed the class on what to do, the class then followed through

K- Calm and relaxed progressing to very nervous

I - Speaking, we learned from the activity who was form different parts of the world, and a little bit about each individual

N- For this activity everyone waited until it was their turn and then repeated the names before them

G - Classroom activity to induce stress on individuals

This activity was designed to help individuals in the class meet one another. The time spent remembering the individuals story was not as important as remembering their name. This fact shows that the most important thing in our american classroom is image, trying to look cool.

Ethonography of Class Speech Events

I decided to do thursday's class about slang words.
S - classroom
P - teacher and students
E - teach and learn
A - class discussion, lecture
K - relaxed, casual
I - speaking and writing
N - the students generally listen to teacher first and then share thoughts to provide a class discussion
G - class discussion

I thought it would be interesting to look at different types of slang words that went along with different jobs. I thought about this because many of my friends speak unfamiliar slang when they get with their co-workers. I think that social groups need to know that this takes place and become more aware of their own slang that they use.

I decided to write about the discussion in class about prescriptivists and descriptive.
S- classroom # W 372
P- all students and the instructor
E- purpsose was to make everyone realize what bugged them about speech
A- Instructor intro to discussion, students each giving expamples and discussing with instructor the different views each had.
K- very casual manner. it was not a lecture, and everyone was able to participate and not feel right or wrong for what they said.
I- channel is orally speaking.
N-allow everyone to speak first, then the floor is opened to discussion and anyone can respond after someone has finshed explaining thier point of view.
G- class discussion.

This can show us that instead of a usual lecture class, the discussion allows the professor to explain the main idea, but allow everyone to particiapte, and encourages those who do not usually talk, to express thier ideas. Everyone waits until one person has finished thier explanation, before they interject thier ideas or opinion.

Pneumonic sounds like pneumonia to me...

I decided on a very general approach to this. Mostly I'm focused on lecture and the general set-up of our classroom. I did cheat and compare our classroom to different classroom settings I have been in.
The speaking Pneumonic:
Setting: a school, an organized classroom with a focal point at the board, a desk is appointed at the front for the teacher and desks are aligned for students facing the teacher's desk
Participants: Teacher: person with "the power," generally always found at the forefront of the classroom, the one responsible for imparting knowledge (teaching!), leads direction of class/discussion
Students: the larger body of participants in the group, it's important compare the difference between our classroom and the lecture halls present in large universities
Ends: Education, students should learn something and gain more knowledge/experience that will hopefully further student in life and give said student more perspective in/to the world around him/her
Act: Generally the teacher and students meet in classroom, teacher leads the class in lecture and discussion; Students answer/ask questions; sometimes group activity will occur
Key: Formal at times highlighted with more lighthearted moments; when smaller group discussions occur among the students the tone is more casual and les restricted
Instrumentalities: oral
Norms of Interaction: students are quiet while the teacher speaks, students respond to "question cues" and generally will ask questions if something is not understood, student/teacher interaction is expected
Genre: educational lecture

I originally thought that this assignment was going to be extremely difficult, so I put it off for as long as I could. When I mentioned earlier that I cheated and compared our classroom situation to others, I wasn't fibbing. When I was a younger, I attended a Montessori-style school. A Montessori school is a school in which the children--students--study at different sections and move along at their own pace. In high school I was a student in a very small Latin program. The majority of my classes consisted of, at most, ten students and the teacher had a very different approach to teaching than any other teacher I had. Even though he--Dr. Kandel--was the one with the power to assign our grades, his classroom was run in a very relaxed matter. It was almost as if we were equals.
Getting back to the subject at hand, my "interesting point" is more of an inquiry: Does the set up of our classroom deter the education that is supposed to take place. When I compare our classroom to others, it is clearly evident that there is, in most students, a stress in the classroom to get the A and do well. I will interject here that Tiffany is a very relaxed teacher that keeps our classroom focused on actual learning, but even the best of teachers can't eliminate that feeling. A leader is needed in any type of group activity to keep everyone on topic, but the formal "classroom" atmosphere is constricting and can be at times oppressive.

I will concede that it was very hard for me to stay on the topic of our class alone, but this was all I could come up with. :)

Ms. Bethaknee

Pneumonic Device (Ethnography of speaking)

Event: Lecture of the Class on Slang

S - the classroom

P - Students and teacher
Students have the main role of listeners
The teacher has the main role of educator and speaker

E - to inform, educate and foster discussion

A - participation, being alert and attentive, dialogue, giving feedback, input

K - exciting and upbeat

I - orally

N - being respectful to others’ opinions and values and open-minded; being a good listener; paying attention; asking questions when in doubt; giving input; and engaging in discussion

G - Lecture

Jairo Toro

Ethnography of Classroom Speech Events

Hi Everyone,

So, for this week, I want you to try to use that SPEAKING mneumonic device to analyze the speech events in our classroom. The first part of the analysis will be easy-ish, but the second part, where you have to figure out something interesting, will be somewhat harder because you are a complete participant in this speech group. An observer can see the 'weirdness' of the underlying rules of a speech event, but it's harder for a participant to see. So, you'll have to try to distance yourself from the 'normalcy' of what you analyze.

First, pick one of the speech events in the speech situation that we call "class" (specifically, our class). Some to pick from might be 'lecture,' 'discussion,' 'group work,' 'question and answer' or if you have another one, use it.

Then, break it down into the SPEAKING mneumonic.

Then, look at your notes and decide what might be interesting to explore further, what have you found that shows the underlying rules, the communicative competence, that participants in our social group need to know? What does what you find say about the larger socio-cultural values or norms of our classroom, or extend it to the college, or to higher ed in America?

Do this all on the blog. It'll probably be messy, but try.

Thanks! And, I look forward to reading them.

Tiffany