340012 UE Oral Communication: English (2020S)

Welcome to Our Teatro!
See. Think. Wonder.
We can all create our own performance, and I am sure you are all hungry for an edge. There are many ways … of speaking … listening … Let’s be like foxes, making “more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction” (Berry 1991) ...

In this class on f2f interaction, you will experience a challenging but cooperative, collaborative and supportive environment in which you can experiment with your own individual communicative resources (metaphor of repertoire: whatever you bring to this class—let’s play with it, strengthen it, further develop it!). Classroom cohesion will be of vital importance because it contributes to reducing the fear of embarrassment. We shall aim at group accomplishment—with regular peer reviews in and out of class.

It is important to note that peer reviewing does not aim at intervention and (immediate) change (i.e., we won’t discuss do’s and don’ts; no simple cause-effect relationships). Peer reviewing can help us to gain a more realistic assessment of our own embodied enactment (scenic/performative agency). It strengthens reflection on matters of choice, alternative, and consequence: intended (we—as performers) and experienced (we—as audience).

This class is no casting show. We won’t compare individual achievement. Students will come from various backgrounds and walks of life with highly varied communicative resources. A passing grade means that you have visibly reduced the fear of doing something inappropriate or wrong (no linguistic policing) and strengthened or even widened your individual repertoire.
Two maxims will guide our work in class: clarity & impact.

“Language [and in our case: f2f interaction] isn’t about words, or information, or things” (Cooke 2011)—it is always about us and those who are with us. You are never alone in a presentation—from vis-à-vis to in-the-world with …

The impact of interacting f2f with someone is never simply due to the performance itself (its make-up, its dynamics)—making meaning is always something mutual, never one-way. So, we need an active and reflective other ... and in our case: your peers in class!

Our classroom work will take us from reflex to reflexion: ‘Know your audience!'—is there really a way? ‘Communicate effectively!’—to whose benefit? ‘Act authentically!’—how to when you have to tell somebody else’s story?

By understanding English as a pluricentric code (Global Englishes, Lingua Franca Englishes, Translingual Englishes), this class encourages rethinking deeply entrenched notions of language as quasi-natural (and thus neutral) stable structures or entities (traceable, dissectable, measurable) that can be linked to similarly stable speech communities (with the idea of ‘native speakers’ as ‘ideal’ representatives).

Acknowledging pluricentricity immediately brings questions of language ideology, the politics of linguistics, and notions of prestige, authority, privilege, and arrogance to the fore. If we hear many accents or pronunciations but ‘receive’ (and thus accept) just one of them (Received Pronunciation), then the implication is that others should be rejected or refused (and, by the by, who received it?). Acknowledging the pluricentricity of the English language continuum opens our classroom doors to all of its speakers, with their individual or group-related ways of speaking (and listening, or writing and reading). Here, working in Englishes means entering into a continual process of variation.

Elocution. Enunciation. Expression.
Phonetics. Proxemics. Prosody.
Tone. Stress. Rhythm (rythme!).
Haptics. Vocalics. Chronemics.
Gestures. Postures. Embodiment.
Gaze. Articulation. Enactment.

Live performances and out-of-class recordings.
Individual, pair and group work.