| Body | This activity guides learners through deciphering whether their target language tends to have more of a speaker-orientation or a hearer-orientation for requests and apologies. It was written for intermediate or advanced learners. Modifications for novice learners are included in the Notes section.
Learning outcomes:
Learners will be able to:
- Name two examples of target language requests or apologies
- Identify whether example requests/apologies demonstrate hearer or speaker orientation
- Give evidence for why examples are hearer- or speaker-oriented
Mode(s): Interpersonal, Interpretive
Materials: Speaker and Hearer Orientation: Recognizing Patterns Video, Which Orientation Is It? Handout, examples of requests and/or apologies in the target language (learner-selected, 2 per learner)
Procedure:
- In the whole group, ask learners to define the word “orientation.” What does it mean in general? Learners may answer things like “facing towards or away from something,” or “a direction.” Write answers on the board or a digital document for all to see.
- Then ask learners to think about what “orientation” might mean in a communicative context. How are people who are communicating oriented to each other? This could include ideas like “how they stand,” “where they face,” “what they are thinking about.” Add their thoughts to the brainstorm from step 1. Then introduce the terms “speaker orientation” and “hearer orientation.” Tie these two terms back to learners’ brainstormed ideas if appropriate (especially if learners have volunteered ideas about the feelings or actions of people when communicating), but do not yet give full definitions of the terms.
- Next, show learners the Speaker and Hearer Orientation: Recognizing Patterns Video. After watching the video, ask the group to define “speaker orientation” and “hearer orientation.” based on what learners remember from the video. These definitions should be something along the lines of “speaker orientation centers the speaker's feelings, hearer orientation centers the hearer’s action/response.” Add these definitions to the board or digital document for learners to reference.
- Ask learners to think about why orientation might matter for situations like apologies and requests, as was mentioned in the video. What about orientation could cause miscommunication or confusion for apologies and requests? Learners’ answers may include ideas like “the other person won’t know you’re asking for something,” or “the person doesn’t know you are apologizing and thinks you’re rude,” etc. If learners do not volunteer ideas, replay the apology in Spanish example (“dicúlpame/lo siento) or the “Hey, I need a pen” example from video and ask them to break down what is happening to cause miscommunication in these examples.
- Then have learners take out the examples of apologies and requests they brought in to work with. These could be audio, video, digital or printed materials, depending on learner interests. They will work with one apology or request phrase said or written by the speaker/writer from each of two examples.
- Give learners the Which Orientation Is It? Handout, and allow adequate time for learners to fill it out for at least one of their examples, if not both. On the worksheet they will write down the apology or request phrase or sentence, check off whether it is an apology or request, choose whether the example is speaker-oriented or hearer-oriented, and give evidence for which orientation they think it is. Encourage learners to be specific about the evidence they give- whose feelings or thoughts are the subject of the interaction? What, if any, action is expected from the hearer/reader? How do they know?
- Reconvene the whole group, and ask for volunteers to explain, show/play (for audio or digital media) or reenact their example. Learners may do this individually if they are comfortable doing so, or can work in pairs to present. If learners prefer to work in pairs, give the whole group a few minutes to plan for how to present their example prior to presenting.
- Once the presenter(s) has explained, shown or reenacted the example, have all learners vote on whether they think each example is hearer- or speaker-oriented. This can be done in any number of ways, including:
- by pointing to their mouth for speaker-oriented and to their ear for hearer-oriented
- by using a digital poll where learners choose one or the other
- by having learners get up and move to one end of the classroom for speaker-oriented and the other end for hearer-oriented
- by having learners move icons in a digital document to one side or the other, or make/draw marks on one side or the other
Choose the way that best fits your context and learner needs or preferences.
- Then have the learner who presented the example give their vote and explain their evidence. Do they agree or disagree with the group’s assessment? Why or why not?
- When examples occur where learners do not agree on orientation, remind them of when the video said that languages tend towards one orientation or the other, but that this does not mean that every language, and every person who speaks that language, will do so using the same orientation.
- Then ask learners to think about the orientation in their L1s and how it compares to the examples in the video and that they brought in. Ask for a show of hands for how many learners think their L1 tends to be speaker-oriented? How many tend to be hearer-oriented? Why do they think so/what evidence from their L1 use can they provide to support this?
- Finally, ask learners to think about the differences in orientation, if any, between their L1(s) and the L2. Will knowing the orientation affect how they think they will make requests or apologize in the L2?
- Alternatively, the discussion questions in step numbers 11 and 12 could be a journaling prompt instead of (or in addition to) a class discussion, if time is short and/or learners would benefit from more time to reflect before answering.
Notes: Modifications for novice learners
For novice learners, provide pre-selected examples of requests or apologies. These can be from textbooks or other texts or digital content learners have already used in class, so that they are familiar with the content beforehand. The video can be played multiple times, or its content restated in simplified terms by the teacher if needed. Learners may benefit from reenacting and then discussing one of the example scenarios from the video as practice for filling out the handout. They can also fill out the handout together as a whole group, facilitated by the teacher, instead of filling it out individually. In this case, learners could volunteer to present or reenact each example before the group fills the worksheet out, instead of steps 7-9 above. The evidence given can be simplified as much as needed (for example, evidence for speaker orientation could be “speaker feelings” or “what I feel”, vs. “hearer action” or “what you do” for hearer orientation).
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