English Language as a Social Tool - Case Study Example

No question about it. English is one of the common languages today used as a social tool especially in ordinary conversation, as it is the world’s most widely spoken language (Owen, 2013, p.5). That is why as complex as it is, it requires critical investigation, especially in its usage and particularly in its words and sounds (North, 2012, p.7). Aside from this, English language is commonly used to communicate or convey experiences and one important case of this is found in the transcribed video of the post-graduate students involving Torri Wang, Ewa Berniacka, Guozhi Cai, Jenny McMullan, Stephen Pihlaja and Genevoix Nana with Barabara Mayor of the U214 team. The actual transcription particularly somewhere in the part of 00:04:29 to 00:05:31 of the video is shown in Appendix A. In this part of the video, the conversation is focused on Genevoix’s and Jenny’s parenting experiences, which is also supplemented by Stephen’s idea of how he handles his time between his job and Phd. By using the conversation in this span of time, the work at hand also illustrates the ways in which people use English as a social tool in ordinary conversation. Experience and English Language as a Social Tool English language is commonly used in ordinary conversations, even if by people who are non-native speakers. What these people normally do is to find ways on how they can express themselves just as in the case of Genevoix Nana. He just speaks the language without any consideration of how his actual intonation and accent might sound. It is obvious that he is not a native speaker of the English language, a claim that is clearly identifiable through his accent, but he tries to express himself freely due to his drive to let his opinion be heard, and not only that, to express his actual point of view on the subject. On the other hand, his actual perspective on the issue is something Jenny can positively relate with, because of her associated experiences with it too. This makes the conversation to flow smoothly as Jenny started to explicate the truth based on her experiences like what can be said behind what Genevoix has just started. Based on the above scenario, it is therefore obvious that the people who are engaged in a conversation that has become smooth flowing due to active sharing of point of views are the ones who truly have an experience or experiences on the subject under discussion. English can therefore be used as a tool to share experiences. Based on the conversation depicted in the video, Genevoix Nana expresses himself and shares his experiences by using the English language. His experience has become the basis of his idea allowing him to say that “there is no perfect time for having children and if it comes, it comes”. In a conversation like this, experience has to be a significant foundation in order to create spontaneity of thoughts, and the natural response and reaction of the listeners. This idea created a remarkable response on the part of Jenny, which allows her to utter a remarkable response right after Genevoix’s point of view. Jenny on her part is also able to contribute to the conversation, because the idea or topic is clearly suited to her actual experience. With this, Jenny provides a spontaneous response, allowing it to give a remarkable cue to stop Genevoix from sharing his ultimate point. For this reason, the conversation continued to flow. The actual conversation therefore turned out to be a dialogic one. There are many reasons why a conversation might turn out a dialogic talk. First, there is a remarkable interest on the topic that someone might be able to relate with or create a meaningful response, because of the associated experience with it. In the actual conversation in the given video, it is clear that the individuals who are actively involved in the conversation are trying to share their experiences in order to prove each of their point. A dialogic talk is eventually a form of dialogue between two parties, speakers and listeners that can motivate or encourage the participants to be engaged in a critical thinking activity and inquiry through the process of consent and dissent to achieve a consensus (Allington and Mayor, p.8). The three individuals in the video, Genevoix, Jenny and Stephen achieved the consensus in terms of justifying the point of view of Genevoix. Although the manifestation of contradictory views were not present in the conversation among Genevoix and his company, on the other hand, there is an initiated consensus, and this is made possible because of the ability of each involved active speaker to expound or elaborate more of the topic discussed within the group. However, it is clear that the presence of dialogic talk can be made possible in the first place, because of the presence of the actual shared experiences. After all, past shared experiences can influence the use and interpretation of particular words and phrases (Allington and Mayor, p.6). However, it is also possible that the dialogic talk is present at this point, because according to Mikhail Bakhtin, everyday talk is dialogic, which means each person’s contribution is oriented towards other speakers (Allington and Mayor, p.8). Based on the case illustrated in the video, the experiences of Jenny, Genevoix and Stephen allow them to contribute to the conversation using English language as their means to communicate and understand each other. Jenny responded to Genevoix’s point based on her actual experience, and it is clear that there was no institutional rule involved during their actual conversation. This eventually tries to suggest a meaningful agreement to Schegloff’s point. According to Emanuel Schegloff, the conversation is a spoken interaction not organised by institutional rules (Allington and Mayor, p.7). However, even if there is no institutional rule involved in a conversation, especially the one that is normally instituted daily, it is argued that there is still procedural rule in the actual conversation. Procedural rules are what people follow when a person addresses the other, leading to adjacency pairs that sooner will either result to exchanges of either preferred or dispreferred responses (Allington and Mayor, p.10). The actual point of Genevoix creates an adjacency pairs on the point that Jenny’s experiences are related with what he also experienced. In this regard, Jenny remarkably started to initiate a conversation regarding this point by starting with the line, “I think there is some truth”. Here, Jenny is remarkably trying to show a preferred response to what Genevoix has pointed out. However, at some point, there is also a hint of dispreferred response at some point on the ground that Jenny has something more to be emphasised or does not want to generalise the issue, but limit it just within the level of her experience. In this case, Jenny is eventually trying to deal with both information and social relationships. At some point, she might have made it effective, to the point that almost everyone is trying to agree with her through nodding gestures as she deliberately is keeping eye to eye to everybody in the group while she speaks. In this case, her speech or words are able to deal with information and social relationships at some point, due to her ability to balance the issue and uncover what is necessary to be considered as words that will make sense in the actual conversation and create meaningful response. This proves the idea that speech events take place to deal with information and social relationships (Allington and Mayor, p.8). As already stated, the used words are entirely linked to the kind of experiences a person has. This means that in the presence of experience and using it effectively in a conversation will eventually result to forming of social relationships and dealing with information, because people can either effectively showcase a preferred or dispreferred response as ignited by adjacency pairs. The Purpose of Talk and English Language as a Social Tool Aside from the issue of experience that may eventually lead a person to use the English language as a social tool, the purpose of talk is another reason. As noticed in the video, there are only three people who are at least so vocal to present their views. The rest are just trying to listen and nod, at some point in the actual conversation. There is a remarkable idea concerning this. Tannen remarkably highlights the differences among speakers in terms of their expectations about the appropriateness of what to talk about, management of turn talking, degree of directness in questions, use of intonation and voice quality, willingness to enter ironic routines or story rounds (Allington and Mayor, p.21). Therefore, the reason why there are speakers in the conversation who eagerly butt in and while others passively engage at some point is because of the varying expectations they have that may be relevant to the purpose of their actual engagement in the conversation. Therefore, with the presence of any relevant purposes for the talk, English language can be effective as a social tool for this matter. Thus, this at some point tries to agree with the claim that when people are bound together, and established an interactional framework for the encounter, they are said to be influenced by the purpose of talk called ‘phatic communion’, an idea proposed by Bronislaw Malinowski (Allington and Mayor, p.8). The purpose of talk therefore might also be the reason why a conversation might be so as organised just as in the case of turn taking. Turn taking, an organised structure of a conversation which occurs when one person typically spoke at a time and overlap is kept to a minimum (Allington and Mayor, p.13). Jenny eventually has a clear purpose for her talk. That is why she tries to butt in right away right after Genevoix has presented his point. In the same way, Genevoix interrupted Stephen between his lines because he has corresponding purpose too, and that is to show his preferred response. Thus, there is a remarkable consensus in the conversation as a product of effective social interactions via the use of English language as a social tool. After all, though everybody might have known each other quite well or just mere acquaintances, the justification that they agree with each other’s point is evident in the nodding gestures and acceptance of informative point just as in the case of Torri Wang while agreeing to Jenny’s point, for the reason that Jenny has substantially created her self-image via his actual points in the conversation. Therefore, it is evident that the social interactions through talk, according to Erving Goffman can be successful if a good public self-image particularly of the speaker exists (Allington and Mayor, p.16). However, it is argued that the social interaction is driven by gender too. Most of the women where silent in the conversation particularly on the issue that Genevoix started. Based on the theory, women tend to be cooperative than men in a conversation as they tend to encourage others to talk as they also show face-saving politeness strategies in the process (Allington and Mayor, p.23). This is perhaps the reason why two of the men were able to talk and express their points while the rest of the women in the conversation remain silent. Conclusion In a nutshell, unless a person does not open himself to the possibility of engaging in a conversation, a dialogic talk cannot occur. By being open to engage in a conversation, a person is opening the possibility to be part of the dialogic talk. English language is often used in the dialogic talk even with certain degree of difficulty especially on the part of the non-native speakers. In ordinary conversation, words associated with the English language are used, but these words mean a remarkable connection to the openness of the person to utter them. In the first place, a certain speaker will have to consider first the meaning of the word, prior to remarkable response that may either ignite or suppress the conversation. References Allington, D., and Mayor, B. (2012). Communicating in English: Talk, Text, Technology. Milton Keynes: Routledge. North, S. (2012) English: A Linguistic Toolkit. Milton Keynes: The Open University Walton Hall. Owen, A. (2013) Study Guide 2. 2nd ed. Milton Keynes: The Open University Walton Hall. Appendix A. Transcription Genevoix Nana: 1. [accent obviously not as a native English speaker] so so you need to be very careful and then consider some of those issues but you could still umm…I mean there is not a perfect time for a having children and … if it comes it comes. [all laughing] Jenny McMullan: 2. And I think there is some truth, some told me once that when you have kids you…you be termed that you do have to study it through research. You become very focused and (you got destructed) I think there’s some truth in that for me as well [while scratching her eyes, then initiating eye contact to everyone while speaking]. [almost everyone nodding in agreement to what Jenny says] Torri Wang: 3. [nodding] uh… Jenny McMullan: 4. so.. so I need before I start it that I had to budget in full-time job care, or I couldn’t do it so I’ve negotiated that with my husband and then I know that kind of nine from nine until five every day I have to be focused as possible. Sometimes it’s through lunch sometimes you know in a coffee break reading or [pause/brief laugh]..but you just try you try anyway, I’m sure you’ll know it. Stephen Pihlaja: 5. Yeah. I was gonna say to that for ah.. even if you say there’s a lot of pressure during your Phd, but even if you got a job you’ll be under a lot [words unclear due to interruption]. Genevoix Nana: 6. [interrupting] yeah.. it works for me the same thing. It’s the same thing. Jenny McMullan: 7. yeah Barbara Mayor: 8. [nodding] umm.. Stephen Pihlaja: 7. it’s not like when you have a job you cannot show up [all laughing, except Ewa Berniacka and Guozhi Cai whose attentions were clearly diverted away from the conversation starting from Stephen’s line] Read More