3.1.4. Principle III during stage II: getting to know the people who speak the language you are learning

Most of the activities discussed so far contribute to your getting to know the people who speak the language you are learning. Take the Series Method. On one occasion I wanted a Pakistani man to demonstrate the Series Method to a group of people, using his village language, which we had all been learning for a few days. In order to give him the basic idea of the Series Method, I ran through a series in Urdu. It involved making tea, and I had all of the ingredients and the pot there with me to use as props as I spoke. After I had gone through all of the steps in making tea, describing what I was doing right as I did it, I asked this man if he would now do the same thing using his village language. To my chagrin, he responded, “Is it O.K. if I make the tea the way we do it here in Pakistan?” I then saw the steps I should have followed. Thus the Series Method led me into sharing this area of human experience with Pakistanis in general.

Or consider the use of familiar stories like Little Red Riding Hood. These may not tell you a lot about how local people think. However, after hearing the version which you already know, you might ask the speaker to retell the story in a localized version, as though the events of the story had occurred in that part of the world, within that culture. This may be necessary even at the first telling in some cases. For example, I found the story of the three little pigs in a published Urdu booklet, but the pigs had been changed to rabbits, since most Muslims are uncomfortable talking about pigs. (The pictures were still pictures of pigs, but in the written story they were always referred to as rabbits!)

As your LRP or friends tell you of familiar recent events, or of activities you have shared together, you will begin learning to see local events through local eyes. And as you relate your past life experiences to the life experiences of your LRP and friends, or discuss topics such as child care, or whatever, you will be expanding your awareness of the world in which your new language is used. Role-play will further contribute to your learning the language as a vehicle of local thought and life, rooted in local experience.

Subsections

3.1.4.1 Focusing on Social Skills

3.1.4.2 Conversational-interactional skills

3.1.4.1 Focusing on Social Skills

During your daily journal writing or at other times of reflection, you will be making note of times when you experienced interpersonal tension, discomfort, or conflict. These are part of a universal phenomenon among language learners who are living in the second language community: culture shock. Furnham and Bochner (1986) are leading experts on this topic. They observe that culture shock is often discussed as if it were some sort of mental illness, or, in their words, an intrapsychic pathology. They argue that the source of culture shock is not inside the individual. Rather it lies in what happens between people. It is not intrapsychic in origin, but interpersonal. The key to overcoming it, in their view, is to discover the interpersonal causes. The interpersonal causes of culture shock can be understood in terms of specific social skills which you need for functioning in the new society, but have not yet acquired. Social skills are the skills you need for behaving appropriately in interpersonal interactions. Furnham and Bochner believe that to some extent, social skills can be consciously learned and practiced.

For example, there may be specific social skills related to warding off flirtatious advances. You lack these skills, since you did not grow up in this culture. But you can learn them through role-play. In reflecting on times of interpersonal tension, discomfort or conflict, you want to be especially concerned with recurring causes of interpersonal stress. The fact that a problem frequently recurs is a dead giveaway to the fact that you are lacking a social skill. You can learn a lot about the problem area simply by discussing it with a variety of people and learning their perspective on the situation. But you can also work on developing the specific skill through role-play. In this application of role-play, you might perform in a given role in the manner you typically do in real life. Your LRP can thus see how you approach it. Then your LRP can show you how she would handle the situation. Finally, you can perform the role-play using the LRP's approach. Bear in mind that in any culture, different individuals have different levels of social skills. At this point, however, even people with relatively poor social skills probably have better ones in that society than you do.

3.1.4.2 Conversational-interactional skills

There are certain social skills which are involved in carrying on a conversation. These differ from one culture to the next. For example, in an English conversation, there are a variety of ways the current speaker can continue to “hold the floor”, and a variety of ways the current speaker can give up the floor. To use a simple example, if the speaker says, “Do you know what happened next?” it means that s/he will continue to hold the floor, though you may insert a quick “Mm-hmm”, or some other appropriate word or phrase, while earnestly shaking your head. On the other hand, if the speaker says, “What would you have done in that situation?” the effect is to relinquish the floor to the listener, who then becomes the speaker. One way to give up the floor is to simply fall silent. But how long does the speaker need to remain silent before the listener is free to start talking? That depends entirely on the language and the culture. And there will be some way to hold the floor while you grope for words. Languages have what are called hesitation devices, such as the ubiquitous English “uh”. These can be most helpful to the language learner! Languages and cultures will differ with regard to the acceptability of interrupting, or talking while the other person is still talking, and each language and culture will have its own ways of interrupting. You will notice that the listeners in a conversation follow social rules. Rather than sit there looking dead, the listeners will respond in various ways, either with words or other vocal sounds, or with non-verbal communication such as head movement and facial expressions, or with both verbal and non-verbal communication. An example occurred above when the listener said, “Mm-hmm.”

Like other aspects of language and culture, you can learn a certain amount about the rules for conversational interaction by careful observation. However, again as with other aspects of language and culture, you will acquire a large amount subconsciously through massive exposure to people who are conducting conversational interactions.