VERBAL AND NON VERBAL ISSUES

V

ERBAL AND NON

-

VERBAL ISSUES IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

THE QUESTION OF FLUENCY

• Can you define ‘fluency’? • Fillimore :

– The ability to talk at length, at speed with few pauses – The ability to talk in coherent, semantically dense

sentences

– The ability to have appropriate things to say in a wide variety of conversational contexts

– The ability to use a wide range of ‘formulaic’

T

HE GAP

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32tVFPelmWQ

IDIOMATICITY

…

USEFUL?

Colourful idioms

• That really takes the biscuit

• She kicked the bucket

Metaphors:

• Take the bull by the horns

Similes

• As cool as a cucumber

I

DIOMS

 A Bitter Pill To Swallow

"Spending a week in the rehab clinic was a bitter pill to swallow, but Jake really needed to do it."

A Blessing In Disguise

"When I first lost that job, I was upset. But it turned

out to be a blessing in disguise.“

 A Last Ditch Effort

"I thought for sure we would lose but we made one last ditch effort and drew the game."

 A Foregone Conclusion

"I knew they would lose from the start. It was a foregone conclusion."

 Back To Square One

 Be The Spitting Image Of Someone

"People say I am the spitting image of my mother."

Call A Spade A Spade

"You can call him a nice guy if you want to but I am

calling a spade a spade; that guy is a jerk.

 Come In Handy

 Dropping A Brick

"The boss came in and dropped a real brick. He said they are planning to close our office."

 Losing Streak

"We are on a five game losing streak." Reply: "Have we lost five games without a win? That is not good."

 Coming To The Crunch

C

OMMON IDIOMS

 You Can Lead A Horse To Water But You Can't Make It Drink

"I told her exactly what to do, but she didn't listen to me." Reply: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

"I have been trying to teach my dad to use the computer, but he is

never going to get it." Reply: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

You Have To Take The Good With The Bad

"I love living in this city, but it is rather polluted." Reply: "You have to take the good with the bad."

You Need That Like You Need A hole In The Head

"Would you like to buy my old truck?" Reply: "I need that like a whole in the head."

You Scratch My Back And I’ll Scratch Yours

If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It

"Do you think Tiger Woods should change his golf swing?" Reply: "Are you kidding? If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

If You Can't Beat Them Join Them

"When did you change teams?" Reply: "Hey: If you can't beat them, join them."

If You Can't Stand The Heat Get Out Of The Kitchen

"I wanted this job at first, but now I don't know if I can

=

CULTURALLY LOADED LANGUAGE

 Accessible only to ‘in-group’ with shared knowledge and exposure to language

 Likely to be misunderstood by many

 Idioms establish a “territorial imperative” indicating

membership in a particular speech community (Pitzl 2009: 300).

 ‘Territorial’ function is relevant for native speakers but not

inapplicable to an ELF context - may create problems for mutual understanding

 From:

P

OTENTIALLY MORE USEFUL TO YOU

 Pragmatic phrases: you know, I mean, sort of

 Clusters and bundles: a lot of, a bit of a,

 Discourse markers: first of all, what’s more  Vague markers: sort of, or whatever

 Prepositional phrases: at the end, in the long term

REAL COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH

• Ability to create and maintain relationships with a wide range of speakers from different backgrounds

• Use of ‘pragmatic’ communication strategies such

as negotiation of meaning

• Issues of directness/indirectness,

politeness/impoliteness (these concepts always

SPECIFIC ELF COMPETENCES

 Sensitivity to language used with other speaker

 Ability to negotiate meaning through

C

OMPETENT SPEAKERS

…?

SO

‘

ENGLISHES

’

IS GRAMMATICALLY POSSIBLE

 …and they represent the reality today

 http://english.cntv.cn/program/bizasia/20131119/10 5442.shtml

 http://www.newsx.com/

T

HE BOOT

REALLY IS ON THE OTHER FOOT

NOW

…

 Sky report today

CEFR

AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

 ‘The ability to bring the culture of origin and the

foreign culture into relation with each other’

 ‘The capacity to fulfil the role of ‘cultural

intermediary’ between one’s own culture and the foreign culture’

 ‘The ability to deal effectively with intercultural

‘misunderstandings’ and ‘conflict situations’

SO NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS

…

 are a very small minority

 often claim ownership of English

 this is more and more contested by proponents of ELF

 risk becoming ‘outsiders’ by using a ‘difficult

-to-understand’ variant of English

‘E

NGLISH

-

KNOWING

’

BILINGUALISM OR MULTILINGUALISM

 Important role in prevention of ‘language death’  The ‘norm’ apart from monolingual Inner Circle

English speakers

 – Need to become multilingual

S

O REMEMBER

…

F

ALSE FRIENDS

–

A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF INTERCULTURAL MISCOMMUNICATION

 Joint:

 BE - piece of meat for carving *

T

RANSLATE INTO

I

TALIAN

 college

 confidence

 actually

 lecture

 patent

 morbid

 eventually

 sensible

 to license

 to apprehend

 università

 fiducia

 in relatà

 intervento (conferenza)

 brevetto

 morboso

 alla fine

 sensato

 dare in licenza

S

O HOW DO YOU SAY

….?

 boarding school

 intimacy/closeness

 currently

 reading

 driving licence

 soft

 possibly/maybe

 sensitive

 to sack

 to learn

 collegio

 confidenza

 attualmente

 lettura

 patente

 morbido

 eventualmente

 sensibile

 licenziare

M

ATCH

 retribution

 a notice

 presumption

 mess

 warn

 news

 mass

 insulation

 gracious

 injury

 sunstroke

 conceit

 avert

 avvertire

 avviso

 infortunio

 pasticcio

 presunzione

 isolamento

 castigo

 insolazione

 evitare

 notizia

 messa

 clemente

M

ATCH

 retribution

 a notice

 presumption

 mess

 warn

 news

 mass

 insulation

 gracious

 injury

 sunstroke

 conceit

 avert

 castigo

 avviso

 supposizione

 pasticcio

 avvertire

 notizia

 messa

 isolamento

 clemente

 infortunio

 insolazione

 presunzione

S

OME OTHER ASPECTS TO BEAR IN MIND WHEN

A

PART FROM FROM GESTURES

…

P

ROXEMICS AND OTHERS

REVIEW OF MAIN CONCEPTS

CULTURE

 How do you think it can be best defined?

C

ULTURAL ORIENTATIONS

STEREOTYPES

 What are common stereotypes about your ‘national’

culture?

 What are ‘essentializing’ and ‘othering’ and why are

ELF

N

ON

-

VERBAL COMMUNICATION