Language in Use 209-210
This unit is concerned with the way in which we make use of linguistic clues in forming out- ideas about different groups of people in out, own community. Its aim is to show that the locality in which we meet people determines to a large extent that we expect.
[1] This session focuses upon the way in which a particular locality will influence our attitudes towards the people we find in it. Ask the class to list as many different localities as possible where people gather within their immediate surroundings. Typically, one would expect the list to include: home, street, local shops, pub, church or youth club, football ground, dance-hall, coffee-bar and so on. Each member of the class should choose one place from the list and write a short piece, containing dialogue to show whom he would expect to find and how they would behave.
[2] For this session the teacher should pick out pairs of settings in which the class expect to find a clearly differentiated group of people. Instances might include: those who watch rugger and those who watch soccer; those who use the hotel bars and those who use the local; those who would go to street markets or chip-shops or coffee-bars, and those who would not. The object of the session is to work out how these expectations have been formed, by building up as complete a picture as possible of the typical individual that the class would expect to find in each of the contrasted localities. A written record is needed of any language features the class mention.
[3] This session focuses upon the language features that the class made use of in session [2]. They need to have the list in front of them. The discussion should examine what types of clue they have most readily made use of. These might include: accent; local forms of words and phrases; forms of address; the linguistic expression of attitude towards strangers (polite/ rough, reserved/open); words and phrases that reveal attitudes, especially towards perennial topics like crime and punishment, marriage and divorce, 'them and its', the government, the newspapers.
[4] In this session, the class draws upon the work of [3] for a piece about an individual who totally misreads the setting he has found himself in. This is best done by dividing the class into small groups and asking each one to prepare a short sketch for presenting to the class.