View Content #26321

Last week's Activity of the Week focused on different components of an invitation sequence. This week's Activity of the Week also deals with pragmatic considerations of invitations, but focuses especially on power and social distance.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to…

1. Analyze invitation exchanges between people of different relationships (power and social closeness).
2. Identify elements that are the same and different when relationships vary.
3. Present pragmatically appropriate invitation exchanges for a variety of relationships.

Modes: Interpretive, Interpersonal, Presentational

Materials Needed: Power and Closeness Reflection handout, Invitation Handout, YouTube videos of invitations

Procedure:

1. Reflect: Distribute the Power and Closeness Reflection handout. Have students work in pairs or small groups to discuss and answer the questions, then share their observations with the whole class.
2. Observe:
   1. Have students watch several YouTube videos that present examples of how to extend an invitation to people of distinct power differentials and levels of social distance, or closeness (i.e. extending an invitation to a friend, a sibling, an elder relative, a stranger, a coworker, etc.). Ideally, these differing power relationships and degrees of social distance will yield distinct strategic and linguistic approaches to successfully extending an invitation. For example, if the target language uses an honorifics system, then you would want to select examples that illustrate how to extend an invitation to people of several different honorific statuses.
   2. While they watch, student should take notes on the Invitation Handout about the language and strategies used.
3. Analyze
   1. Once finished with the videos, students should use the Invitation Handout to analyze their observations and think about what similarities and differences exist between the different invitation strategies they viewed. Direct them to consider the relationship between speakers based on familiarity, age, status, etc.
4. Extend
   1. In pairs, students will create two skits in which they extend invitations to people of distinct power relationships and levels of social distance using the language and strategies they have just learned.
   2. Pairs will circulate and, in groups of four, each pair will present its favorite skit to the other pair. Allow time for several repetitions.
   3. Once students are back in their seats, ask for consensus on a skit that people found most interesting in terms of power and social distance. Ask that pair to perform the skit once more, and have the rest of the class take notes on their Invitation Handout.