Event

Pragmatics in a Film Corpus

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Speaker: Donna Tatsuki, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies

It is generally believed that in EFL contexts like we have in Japan, film or video is a significant source of input for our learners. But how valid are our assumptions? Hasn't there been a generally uncritical acceptance of these assumptions? What has been missing, however, are studies to see in what ways film and media materials faithfully reflect the ordinary language used in natural conversations in the "real world" and in what ways they might deviate, if ever so slightly.

This presentation will summarize some of the initial findings of a 4-year project to assemble and analyze a teacher-selected film dialogue corpus, Audience members will later participate in a variety of activities designed for classroom use by John Rylander. As part of the example lesson, audience members will be taught using a combination of video-based examples of speech acts taken from various media sources and edited for instructional purposes and a set of guided discovery worksheets to stimulate pair/group discussion and focus learner attention on the 1) pragmalinguistic forms realized within the clips, and 2) sociopragmatic elements relevant to the setting. Throughout the presentation audience members are welcome to raise questions and offer comments on any aspect of the instruction and materials.

Organization: Kagoshima Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Kagoshima JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1000 yen

Venue: Jelly Beans Kousha Building 1F Meeting, near Shinyashiki Tram Stop

Location: Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

Contact Kagoshima JALT