Exploring Language, Culture, and Identity in Everyday Interactions

October 15, 2008 agenda

Some of our topics • LSP Ch6: language and ethnicity • IDC Gumperz, Interethnic comm. • Singh, Multilingual comm. • Lab 2: Grad review 5 articles from bibliog. to Kasper article; UG review 2. Comparative analysis; grading rubric will be provided

Majak • As a teacher, I participate in talk-in interaction every day. Every lesson that I teach, I must give directions, teach-by-showing, and model behaviors. Similar to how the pilots in the article have an "approach briefing" to outline the tasks they must accomplish, I must have an agenda for each lesson which makes my students aware of the objectives I wish to accomplish.

DeCoulaz • While I was teaching in Korea, i was always happy when their holiday seasons came around. The Korean women usually wear the culture's traditional clothing; the colorful Han-bok.The women always looked so graceful. When we returned toAmerica the first time in 2000, my sister and her husband hosted a large Christmas party. Though I had seen my wife in her Han-bok a few times, i had never seen the ordeal of getting into it. There were so many layers.

Mcadams v. Kaylor and… • M--Clothing also dictates speech patterns: a corset doesn't just make one move daintily, it also restricts airflow, assuring that the wearer will speak softly; it would be too physically taxing to yell. • K--When I worked at Harpers Ferry people would come up to me all the time and ask, are you uncomfortable? I would simply answer, no, I actually preferred to be in my period clothing, corset and all. The corset for the Civil War time period was never meant to be too tight where it effects how you talk, but you are restricted, in a sense, yes.

Rand • For example, the corsets, hoop skirts, and the Han-bok ceremonial dress mentioned above are examples of asymmetrical discourse because they are referring to traditional female dress. No examples of male dress are mentioned. This could be since Meghan is female and referring to an event where she wore a particular type of clothing designed for women, and Mike is speaking about his wife, but could it more than that? Lori responded to her example and discussed how clothing is tied to speech and behavior--are clothing choices affected by social identity, and does clothing affect social identity? Do clothing choices reflect prescribed gender roles in our culture? Do we each have a repertoire of clothing identities (i.e. what is appropriate to wear to a wedding, or to work, or to a funeral)?

Eluhu • Sometimes with my girlfriend, we used to have arguments and it was a total misunderstanding in the language. I mean sometimes, we have different understanding of certain words. One day, after finish arguing, I asked my girlfriend a favor, if I remember it was to go get my clothes at the dry cleaner. And her response was "whatever". I always think it's a disrespectful word to say. But she confronted me by telling me that it's a way to say yes. But I had hard time to understand it. In France, saying 'whatever' to someone doesn't sound right in any sense. Once again, I would say that the age or language variety or ethnicity is also a part of context for pragmatic usage.

O’Gorman • My husband never says "your welcome"; he always says "it's a pleasure". Maybe its just me, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that his words seem more authentic. When you hear someone say "its a pleasure", it seems as though they are saying "I am very happy to make you happy". The phrase my husband uses is popular in South Africa, but regardless the context seems to exemplify a selflessness whereas my phrase "thanks someone for thanking them" seems more selfish.

Cisneros • In Spanish when someone says –Gracias (thanks) you usually reply –De nada, and in Italian to the statement –Grazie (thanks) you usually reply - Prego. Well, when I was in secondary school I had to take English, and I had my first basic lesson of English from a British English professor. My Italian at the time was very good; I know that because it was messing me up with the English I was learning. Therefore I needed it to come up with some strategies to remember things such as what to respond when someone says –Thank you.

Wedgworth • I feel conflict with the communities of practice I am involved in. I agree with Eckert and McConnell-Ginet when they argue that individuals "participate in multiple communities of practice and their individual identity is based on the multiplicity of this participation ( 1992a, 93)." I know that I am living in at least three CofP's, the most comfortable one being the environment of this university campus. I am always amazed at how calm and happy I feel when I park and start walking to class. I do not know very many people, but there is a sense of belonging that warms me as I enter each building. This is interesting to me because I am much older than most of the students, but that doesn't seem to matter to those people I encounter

Lab 2 Bibliographic citations Compare on the basis of what they SHARE Then discuss specific contribution of each

Hot-button topics • Negative ethnic labelling • Ethnicity v. race • Which ethnicity? • Who You? Who We? Who Us?

Press kit, world conf. on racism • Although no country has a perfect record on minority rights, a country like Finland for example has worked hard to implement legislation in order to promote good ethnic relations among its population. The Swedish-speaking Finns are the largest minority in Finland at 5.71 per cent of the population. The status of the Swedish-speaking Finns is exceptional compared to that of other national minorities, due to the fact that Swedish is, in addition to Finnish, an official language of Finland. In recent years, the Government has redoubled its efforts to settle the question of land ownership by the Sami, the indigenous people of Finland. Finnish, Swedish or the Sami language is taught as the mother tongue of the student, and under the new legislation, children who reside in Finland permanently, thus including immigrant children, have both the duty and the right to go to comprehensive school.

Translating Racial/Ethnic Membership Categorizing in the Talk of Health Encounters Charlene A. Pope Assistant Research Professor, MUSC And Associate Nurse Executive for Research Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center Charleston, South Carolina

How do we identify “Category Display” in health talk? • OVERT: NP: White Anglo female nurse practitioner “So…what do::: you people eat?” PT: Puerto Rican female pregnant teenager “What? …You mean teenagers?”

Membership Categorization as Sequence Construction • Open-Ended questions and the construction of shared narrative with plural pronouns to explore White experience with illness • Close-ended yes-no questions that categorize Black patient as a host of symptoms

Co-construction of Silence • Physicians who use predominantly Yes-No questions with Hispanics when interpreters are present = Narrow conversational floor • Patients acculturated to not interrupt or question the physician, as stigmatized or rude behavior = Low participation • Narrow conversational floor + Low levels of participation = Less information shared and less shared decision making

J Bush • a) Definition: Ethnolinguistic Identity is the relationship between ones ethnicity to ones speech. b) Ethno linguistic Identity in the reading is used to describe those who consider themselves to be bicultural and what language they speak. For example, the textbook discusses how black Cubans or black Puerto Ricans use Spanish as their preferred language as a way of denouncing their African background. By speaking a specific language they are defining their ethnicity. c) Ex.: Because Barak Obama uses “standard English” when he talks; there are some critics that will say his lack of AAVE means he is not in touch with black people. While one can argue whether their dialect affects their knowledge of their own culture, the fact that McCain uses the same “standard English” and is not questioned in the same manner further defines the validity of Ethno- linguistic identity.

C Bisanar • A phenotype is any of the outward, observable characteristics of an individual. A phenotype is influenced by both genetics and environment. A phenotype-based racialization occurs when a judgment or opinion is formed based on the outward appearance/behavior of an individual. This term was used in the article exploring speech patterns in Dominican Americans. It was used to refer specifically to the fact that Dominican Americans are usually phenotypically indistinguishable from African Americans. Thereby, people usually perceive them as African American even though they do not identify with the race. Dominicans consider themselves more Spanish than anything. The article explores their use of different languages in different situations, including English, Spanish, and the AAV form of English.

S Madding Ethnolinguistic identity then relates to identity that one creates within a group based on their culture and language and the reciprocal relationship between these two concepts. I see examples of this in my second grade classroom, in which I often speak Spanish to my students. More than 80% of my students are Hispanic and my knowledge of the language has created an environment where the students embrace their culture and their identity as Hispanic students. My students are proud to be Spanish, proud to speak Spanish, and want to help other students to learn their language and culture. Their culture becomes clearer and more evident as their language is accepted and their identity as both American and Hispanic is accepted in my classroom.

Related links • http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/index.htm • The Orphan Train http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/ Teacher Unit on Orphan Train http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/profdev030.shtml • Displaced children, UN http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_displacedchildren.html

Exploring Language, Culture, and Identity in Everyday Interactions