Exploring The Power Of Social Talk In A Foreign Language

This book examines the fundamental interactional dimension to foreign language communication, including the establishment, development, consolidation and maintenance of interpersonal relations. It argues that interpersonal language use such as small talk, casual conversation and gossipy talk is not only key to meaningful and productive communication but that it is an essential dimension with respect to successful foreign language interaction and that engaging in interpersonal language is communicatively valuable and worthwhile in its own right. Crucially, it explores how teaching and learning can utilize the role of social talk and relational engagement in helping interactants to express, voice and convey their own values, attitudes and beliefs. Finally, it develops a critical relational pedagogy focused on language speakers’ needs, objectives and desires. Redressing the imbalance between transactional and interactional language teaching, and stressing the importance of phatic and relational language use in helping language users achieve their communicative goals, it will appeal to researchers, postgraduates, and scholars in the fields of education and linguistics.

"This book examines the fundamental interactional dimension to foreign language communication, including the establishment, development, consolidation and maintenance of interpersonal relations. It argues that interpersonal language use such as small talk, casual conversation and gossipy talk is not only key to meaningful and productive communication but that it is an essential dimension with respect to successful foreign language interaction and that engaging in interpersonal language is communicatively valuable and worthwhile in its own right. Crucially, it explores how teaching and learning can utilise the role of social talk and relational engagement in helping interactants to express, voice and convey their own values, attitudes and beliefs. Finally, it develops a critical relational pedagogy focused on language speakers' needs, objectives and desires. Redressing the imbalance between transactional and interactional language teaching, and stressing the importance of phatic and relational language use in helping language users achieve their communicative goals, it will appeal to researchers, postgraduates, and scholars in the fields of education and linguistics"--

Exploring Politeness in Business Emails explores the contextual complexities of workplace emails by comparing British English and Peninsular Spanish directive speech events and systematically assessing the impact of contextual factors. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis, and the inclusion of metapragmatic insights in the interpretation of the results, the book offers an innovative approach to the study of politeness. The book partially contradicts previous assumptions about English and Spanish directives and provides new insights into the role of politeness in the workplace. By offering a meticulous account of the linguistic choices made by the English and Spanish first language users and the contextual factors influencing these choices, the book suggests far-reaching implications for future research in cross-cultural pragmatics and business discourse, as well as practical implications relevant for academics, postgraduate students and practitioners interested in these fields.

Language is integral to the construction of personal, socio-cultural and socio-political identities. Language, Identity and Symbolic Culture closely investigates the relationship between language and identities, offering a comprehensive yet progressive view of how linguistics relates to development and education, both in theoretical and real world applications. Progressing from a theoretical core examining the connection between language and individual identity, this book moves on to look at the wider socio-political discourse involving the marginalization and resistance of communities in the world. Beginning with the philosophical paradigms of language, Evans questions whether language shapes personal identities in its daily use or whether language is simply a tool for describing, rather than creating, the world. Extrapolating on this, the contributors utilise case studies from across the globe to see how these linguistic perspectives are played out in the real world, considering the role of language in issues surrounding power, colonization, marginalization and education. Language, Identity and Symbolic Culture offers a view of language identity conflicts around the world and an understanding of the opportunities of political and cultural emancipation created through language and open discourse.

This book explores key areas of modern society in which language is used to form power and social relations. These are presented in five sections:Language and the MediaLanguage and OrganisationsLanguage and GenderLanguage and YouthMultilingualism, Identity and EthnicityWith a unique combination of selected readings and student-centred tasks in a single volume, the book covers contemporary issues in language and power, ranging from the global to the interpersonal. Each area - and each reading chosen to explore it - is substantially contextualised and discussed through a detailed introduction and then followed up with related activities.Each section comprises:*a substantial, specific introduction which draws students' attention to key themes and issues relevant to its topic; *a set of four or five selected readings which encourages students to locate critically these issues in context; *a task, or set of tasks, obliging students to undertake 'hands-on' linguistic analysis of data and engage in more sophisticated discussion of pertinent issues.*In-depth exploration of a variety of approaches to the study of language and power*Unique combination of advanced readings, student-centred tasks and editorial guidance*Hands-on activities at the end of each chapter

This volume investigates ideological and hegemonic practices in globally and locally written English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks, and explores whether these textbooks reflect the values, beliefs and norms of the native-speaker society by examining their ideological components and the hegemonic practices by means of which the source society or state seeks to influence learners of the language. It also attempts to clarify EFL teachers’ and students’ views on the underlying ideology and hegemonic practices in globally and locally written EFL textbooks. Studies on the relationship between ideology, hegemony and textbooks in applied linguistics have become more prevalent in recent decades, as the emergence of critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical thinking skills from the 1920s onwards has led scholars to adopt a more critical perspective towards EFL textbooks, especially with regard to elements of ideology and hegemony. These two terms encompass a plethora of components, ranging from nationalism to religion. At the same time, the importance of metanarratives originating from the tenets of modernism has declined from the 1960s onwards, the assumption being that the world has entered a new age called postmodernism and post-structuralism that emphasizes the role of individuals and rejects efforts to reinforce post-colonialism, the effects of which can be seen in EFL textbooks. Accordingly, taking the elements of ideology and hegemony into account remains a vital aspect in the analysis of EFL textbooks.

Status and Power in Verbal Interaction is a sociolinguistic study of conversation in a social context. Using an ethnographic methodology and a network analysis of the social roles and relationships in a particular language community, the book explores how speakers negotiate status, relationship, and ultimately contest power through discourse. Of chief concern to the study is how speakers manage to negotiate relationship roles — which here consists of institutional status as well as the more variable social standing — using conversation. Discourse is seen to be not only what people say, but how they say it — how speakers take the floor, bring new topic to the floor, interrupt each other, and become a resource person in a conversation. The study revolves around the idea that power, while intricately tied to social standing and institutional status, is more than the sum of one's institutional standing, age, education, race and gender. Though these factors convey rank, conversants nonetheless use discourse to jockey for position and contest their relational role vis-a-vis their discourse partners. While institutional standing may be more or less fixed, power of relational roles fluctuates greatly because, as the study shows, power is accorded through a process of ratifying the positive self-image of a speaker. Thus, one's standing in a group is a community negotiation. By investigating power in community at a micro-level of analysis, this study adds a new dimension to existing understandings of power.

Christopher J. Jenks thoroughly analyses the interactional effects of technology, and explores in detail the social and linguistic implications of communicating in second language chat rooms.