University of Eastern Philippines

University Town, Northern Samar

GRADUATE STUDIES
LangLit 808 - The Teaching of Literature
1st Semester SY 2015-2016
Mel T. Saluib
MALL

Dr. Leonila A.
Longcop
Subject Professor

TEACHING DRAMA
Drama is not made of words alone, but of
sights and sounds, stillness and motion,
noise and silence, relationships and
responses. (Styan, 1975)
Drama Activities and Performing a
Literary Work
The text of any play is in fact at least two
texts:
- text of literature
- text for performance
- David Birch (1991)
A play could be regarded primarily
referentially as a vehicle for ideas, and so
a source of topics for discussion; as a
means of improving spoken language
through the use of scripted dialogue or by
situation-related improvisations and role
play; or as an interactional text, encoding
relationships in language. (Davies, et al)
Problems:
Reading plays is for most people
difficult and unfamiliar task.
There seems to be a little value in
simply having students read aloud
unprepared texts in class
Inexperienced readers of plays have
a problem in visualizing the stage
and what is going on there.
Discuss on:
kind of stage to be used;
general style to be attempted;

appropriate costumes;
props, scenery and music
movement, positioning and use of
voice
pacing and timing of action and
speech
loudness
a whole range of phonological
devices
Ways of Reading Plays: Linguistic
Paradigms
-

Hymes ethnography of speech

events
ethnomethodology
Gricean pragmatics
notion of speech acts

The Ethnography of Speech Events

eth-nog-ra-phy
- the scientific description of the
customs of individual peoples and
cultures
(www.google.com)
The value of the ethnographic framework
is that it requires the observers to pay
attention to a range of features in the
event.
S - Settings
P - Participants
E - Ends (or purposes)
A - Act Sequences
K - Keys
I - Instrumentalities

N - Norms
G - Genres
-

adapted from Dell Hymes, 1972

Settings
actual physical setting
conventional or psychological
orientations of the setting
Participants
speaker/reader/addresser
hearer/receiver/addressee
Ends
o What are the goals of any
interaction, or what do participants
hope or expect from what is going
on?
o What are the outcomes of any
event, i.e. what actually results from
whatever is going on?
Acts
form of the message
content of the message
Key
-

the tone or attitudinal and emotional

aspects of an event
corresponds to the modality among
grammatical categories

Instrumentalities
- applies to the forms of speech that
are used, e.g. a particular register or
dialect.
o What additional channels are
employed (e.g. gesture, mime,
positioning of groups)?
Norms
o What are the ordinary ways of
conducting these interactions? And,
how many of these norms may be
disturbed or violated?
o What are the norms of
interpretation?
Genres
In a play, genre references may function as
a type of intertextuality, e.g. a play-withina-play.

Ethnomethodology
eth-no-meth-od-ol-o-gy
- a method of sociological analysis
that examines how individuals use
everyday conversation and gestures
to construct a common-sense view
of the world.
(www.google.com)
The value of ethnomethodology is that it
describes the taken-for-granted and largely
unnoticed norms of ordinary interaction.
Rules to Follow in a Conversation between
Two People
(adapted from Sacks, et al, 1974)
1. For a conversation to happen at all,
speaker change has to occur.
2. Almost always, only one person talks
at a time.
3. Overlaps occur quite frequently but
are generally very brief.
4. The majority of transitions from one
speaker to the other occur
without/with a very short gap or
overlap
5. Length of turn may vary
considerably.
6. Length of conversation is variable,
not fixed in advance.
7. Topic can change in the course of
conversation.
Turn-Allocation Rules (More Than Two
Speakers)

The current speaker may by word or

gesture select the next speaker.
A speaker may self-select by starting
to speak at a suitable point without
interrupting the the previous
speaker.

Pragmatics: the Co-operative

Principles
say just as much as you need
to say; neither
too much
or . Grice,
- adapted
from H.P
Quantity:
too little
1974
be truthful - Leech, 1983
Quality:be relevant
Relation:
avoid obscurity
be polite

Manner:

an intentional resistance

Speech Acts
VIOLATION
- any accidental failure to observe
these maxims
FLOUTING

This requires distinctions between

declaratives, directives and
commisives, and acknowledgements
interrogatives
effectives and verdictives