Interactional Sociolinguistics

Activities

Week 1

In-class Activity

1. Your instructor will play you a video clip. After the clip, discuss the following questions with your classmates.

What 'front' are each of the participants maintaining?
What 'sign-equipment' do they make use of in maintaining these fronts?
What 'routines' make up the performance?
What 'line' are each of the participants taking?
Do the other participants 'buy' the 'line'?
What are the 'teams' involved? How do team members support/direct one another?
Is there a 'back-stage' which is visible to us? What goes on there? How is it different from the 'front'?
Do team members communicate secretly on-stage (byplay)? How do they do this?
Are there any 'incidents' or disturbances to the performance (faus pax, gaffs, offenses or 'scenes')?
How do participants manage these 'incidents'? Are they successful?
How would you evaluate/characterize their performances?
Can you suggest other ways they might have performed the same scene?

Now discuss the same questions regarding this situation >>>  watch the video

2. Discuss a time in your life when you have failed to give an adequate performance. What were the reasons for the unsuccessful performance and how did you deal with it?

3. Compare the way you act with your parents and the way you act with your friends. What different kinds of fronts do you use? What different kinds of routines do you perform? What different kinds of lines do you advance?

4. If you have done your fieldwork before the tutorial, discuss what you observed.

Fieldwork (include this in your field journal)

Do this activity in pairs.

Find a site of engagement where you can observe people interacting together for a period of time without being conspicuous. Observe the people as if you were watching a play and fill out the following form. For each of the characters, try to work out the different elements of their 'front' and what 'line' they are trying to uphold. Then write down the different routines they are doing together (or separately), the different regions involved in the interaction, how the characters were divided into teams and if any incidents occurred and how the characters dealt with them?

Reflection (include this in your field journal)

Think back on the day and reflect how it has been like a play. Think about how you prepared for your performance in the morning, the different fronts you made use of and the different lines that you advanced during the day, the teams that you worked with and how you worked with them, and any 'incidents' that might have occurred and how you and others managed them.