122220 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper (2017W)

This course focuses on speech acts in English as a lingua franca (ELF). Contextualizing speech act theory within the broader framework of pragmatics, we will explore how research in pragmatics has moved from examining L1 use to the study of cross-cultural and intercultural communication. Focusing on speech acts, we will engage with pragmatic processes in interactions among multilingual speakers who use English as a lingua franca (ELF). The overall questions we will seek to address throughout the semester are:
In how far do groups of ELF speakers develop their own pragmatic conventions for performing particular speech acts (e.g. requests, apologies, promises, compliments)?
How do groups of ELF speakers use certain performative verbs and other lexical elements that are conventionally linked with particular types of speech acts?

To engage with these questions, students will work in small groups and collect and transcribe their own samples of naturally-occurring spoken ELF interactions during the first weeks of term (data collection and transcription assignments). The finished transcripts will be shared with the whole seminar group. They will be used by students independently in the second half of term for an individual research project. For this project, each student will analyze how a particular type or category of speech acts is performed among ELF speakers in the data collected in the seminar. The outcomes of this research project will be presented orally at the seminar conference (presentation) and in written form (term paper).

AIMS
After this course, you will be familiar with research on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), especially with regard to spoken interaction. You will have engaged with pragmatic theory and different approaches to the study of pragmatics (such as cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics) and will have gained a more thorough understanding of speech act theory. You will be able to identify speech acts in samples of naturally-occurring ELF interactions and to carry out a focused, more detailed analysis of a particular aspect in your own data set. You should be able to formulate an appropriate and concise research question and to present theoretical concepts and insights from your data analysis in oral and written form. Furthermore, you will have experience in linguistic field work and be familiar with practical and theoretical issues involved in data collection and transcription.

N.B. The semester schedule for this course includes a seminar conference on Friday January 12 (14.00-20.00) & Saturday January 13 (9.00-14.00). In exchange for time spent at the seminar conference a number of regular seminar sessions, particularly in January, will not be held. Important: Attendance during the entire seminar conference is mandatory for course completion. Please ONLY REGISTER for this course if you have time to attend the entire seminar conference on January 12 & 13.