LG424-7-SP: INTERCULTURAL PRAGMATICS
Year: 2013/14
Department: Language and Linguistics
Essex credit: 15
ECTS credit: 7.5
Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students: No Comments: None
| Module is taught during the following terms |
| Autumn |  | Spring |  | Summer | |
Module Description
The aim of this module is to promote understanding of intercultural competence by focusing on theoretical and applied pragmatics research in a bilingual context. It provides insights into the relationship between linguistic, social/situational and cognitive dimensions of intercultural communication. The module will have a focus on speech acts.
Students will first be introduced to existing approaches to Intercultural Pragmatics and general issues in the field, with a view to defining the area. An investigation of pragmatic features encoded by linguistic forms will follow. In this context we will examine illocutionary force, indirect speech acts and politeness theory.
We will then discuss analyses of the socio/situational context of speech acts in intercultural contexts where the role of social distance, power, status, occupation etc. will be examined as cultural variables. The question here is how cultural norms and values influence linguistic choices.
The third part of the module will be concerned with the cognitive-linguistics dimensions of Intercultural Pragmatics. The focus will be on pragmatic development in a second language, including theories, methods and applications.
Finally, linguistic, social and cognitive dimensions of Intercultural Pragmatics will be brought together in a discussion of how they interact in both the learning of pragmatic abilities in a second language and in on-line conversational interaction in intercultural encounters.
Learning outcomes
This module introduces students to existing approaches and develops advanced understanding of salient issues in Intercultural Pragmatics. Students will become familiar with concepts in the theories of pragmatics which will enable them to critically examine concrete case studies in Intercultural Pragmatics. Discussion of relevant research methods will provide students with the tools to analyse data concerned with intercultural communication and enable them to explain both successful and 'unsuccessful' communication in terms of its linguistic and cognitive dimensions.
Learning & Teaching Methods
2 hour lecturer/seminar per week for the duration of 10 weeks.
Seminars will involve group work (discussions of issues associated with module readings; follow-up tasks) as well as class presentations.
Assessment
100 per cent Coursework Mark
Other details:
100% module work mark (3.000 word essay). Due on the 23rd of April.
Exam Duration and Period
Bibliography
- Bialystock, E. (1993). "Symbolic Representation and Attentional Control in Pragmatic Competence" in: Kasper, G. and Blum-Kulka, S. (eds). Interlanguage Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 43-57.
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Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., and Kasper, J. eds. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
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Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Gass, S.M. and Neu, J. eds. (1996). Speech Acts across Cultures: Challenges to communication in a Second Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Grundy, Peter. (2000). Doing pragmatics. London: Arnold.
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Kasper, G. and Dahl, M. (1991). "Research methods in interlanguage pragmatics" in
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13: 215-247.
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Moeschler, J. (2004). "Intercultural Pragmatics: a cognitive approach" in: Intercultural Pragmatics, 1, 1: 49-70.
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Schmidt, R. (1993). "Consciousness, learning and interlanguage pragmatics" in Kaspar, G. and Blum-Kulka, S., (eds) Interlanguage Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 21-42.
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Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction. An Introduction to Pragmatics. London: Longman.
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Wilson D and Sperber D (2004) "Relevance Theory" in Horn, L. and Ward, G. (eds.) Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford, Blackwell, 607-632.