How to use …

Ethnography of Communication
Dell Hymes
…to plan Second Language Instruction
Ethnography of Communication
-is a type of discourse analysis
-can be used to analyze discourse in any language
-discourse means any language use for meaningful
communication
-academic tasks in school are discourse; therefore,
they can be analyzed and broken down into
teachable sub-tasks
Speech Community: a group of people who use
the same variety of a language and who share specific rules
for speaking and for interpreting speech.

Each speech community has its own codes,

language forms, and norms for communicating:
-examples include, the language of the street,
basketball courts, teenagers, religious groups, truck
drivers, doctors, and public schools.
-the culturally shared and socially expected
language variety of schools includes academic
discourse
Speech Events are specific communicative
situations, such as ordering a cup of coffee in a restaurant,
communicating at a birthday party, participating in a funeral,
writing an email to a friend, having a business meeting, and
doing academic tasks at school, such as writing an essay.

Each speech event has its own culturally

shared and socially expected forms of
participation and communication.
Specific …

Speech Acts
…are influenced by …
S = Setting and Scene
P = Participants
E = Ends
A = Act Sequence
K = Key
I = Instrumentalities
N = Norms of Communication
G = Genre

The SPEAKING Model

By Dell Hymes
S = Setting and Scene:
Where, when, and social setting.
P = Participants:
Who is communicating with whom.
E = Ends:
What the expected outcomes and purpose of communicating are.
e.g., Phatic communication has social cohesion as its goal.
A = Act Sequence:
The order of communicating; e.g., initiating, reacting, counteracting, etc.
K = Key:
The tone of the communicative event; e.g., funeral, birthday party, business meeting.
I = Instrumentalities:
The form of communicating: Spoken, written, signals, drums, the Internet
N = Norms of Communication:
Expected socially acceptable behavior in communicating
G = Genre:
The kind communication; e.g., business letter vs. letter to a friend, poem, novel, report

Depending on the specific SPEECH COMMUNITY and the SPEECH

EVENT, the SPEECH ACT will include a range of culturally shared
and socially acceptable language and performance variables.
Academic Tasks in Schools are well have
culturally shared and socially expected
performance variables that can be taught to
second language learners.
Vocabulary
Language functions
Language forms
Content
Concepts
Organization
Style/Rhetoric
How it is done
Examples of Academic Tasks Requiring
Formal, Academic Language
Paragraphs (descriptive, informative, persuasive, cause-effect, comparison, reactions, etc.)
Summaries: (plot summaries, poem summaries, articles, reports, cartoons, maps, graphs, etc.)
Report: (Biographies, book reports, author reports, etc.)
Letters (business, friendly, complaints, inquiries, etc.)
Lab reports: (Science, etc.)
Essay writing (Subject areas)
Reactions/Responses (Literary response, reacting to a work of art, expressing an opinion, etc.)
Observations and Noticing (Descriptive writing, describing people, places, things, ideas, etc.)
Reading analysis: (Poems, stories, articles, chapters, etc.)
Research projects: (reports, presentations, etc.)
And many other genres of reading analysis and writing.

The above tasks all requires specific language forms (conventions, structures,
language functions, vocabulary, style, organization, and how to do it declarative
and procedural knowledge and skills that can be taught using an EOC approach
and scaffolding.
Culturally Shared and Socially Expected
Forms are Teachable to Second Language
Learners through Various Techniques and
Scaffolding Strategies.
Modeling: What does it look like?
Writing Templates: A framework for completing the task.
Breaking larger tasks down into manageable sub-tasks
Teaching language functions, vocabulary, concepts, etc.
 How to teach writing a plot summary
and reaction to a short story
Vocabulary of short story analysis: title, author, setting, point of view,
characters, conflict, resolution, theme
Language functions: “The story is about …”
Language Forms: Specific conventions and structures in the story
Content: Ideas that come up in the story
Concepts: Theme, imagery, literary elements
Organization: Give title and author first, the a brief description of the
theme or plot…
Style/Rhetoric: Formal language, pragmatics knowledge, don’t use the
words guys, wanna, gonna, informal language in a formal writing.
How it is done: See writing template, model, or sentence starters,…
Also, be aware of spelling, paragraphing conventions, punctuation,
etc., … and any other specifics of the task.
WRITING TEMPLATE
Plot Summary WRITING TEMPLATE

“ _______________________________________” by _____________________

is about ______________________________________________________________. The

story takes place ______________________________________________________. The

characters in the story are ________________________, __________________________,

and _________________________. The problem in the story is _____________________

________________________________________________________. It turns out that

_______________________________________________________________. This story

shows us that ____________________________________________________. I like/don’t

like the story because ____________________________________________________. I

think ___________________________________________________________________.
 Literary element Sentence Starter

Setting The story takes place …………..

Mood The feeling in the story is ………………..
Character(s) The main character in the story is ……………… He is ………………….
Conflict The problem is the story is that ………………………..
Plot The story is about ...... ( a man who ……..)
Climax The highpoint (or, turning point) in the story is when ………..
Resolution It turns out that the man ………..
The ending At the end, ……….
Theme
The story teaches us about ………………………………….
It shows us this through ………………….

Connection The story reminds me of …………………..

Personal Reaction Something I can relate to in this story is …………………………..
(Response)
I (don’t) like the story because ………………
Use EOC and the SPEAKING Model
to Analyze an Academic Task
Project: Think of a specific academic task
 Task Description Using the SPEAKING Model
S What class or subject area in school in which the task is to be used?
P Target group age, language proficiency, grade, etc. Who will read or assess it?
E What is the purpose of the task (to inform, persuade, entertain, report, etc.)?
A How is the task to be organized (Parts, sections, paragraphs)?
K What is the tone of the task (creative, analytical, responsive, academic, etc.)?
I How is the task to be done (written, presented, visual aids, PowerPoint, etc.)?
N What are the procedures for accomplishing the task (step-by-step subtasks, how they are done)?
G What is the specific type of task (a poem, short story, Lab report, cause-effect paragraph, etc.)?
Analysis of the Task: What can/should be taught to
second language students for successful completion of the task

Concepts (Connections, associations, what it is and looks like)

Vocabulary (Words, expressions, idioms needed to do the task )
Content (Specific details, who, what, when, where, etc.)
Organization (Sequence of presentation, what goes where)
Language functions (Procedural or How-to language)
Language forms (Conventions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.)
Style/Rhetoric (Registers, stylistic or sophisticated forms, pragmatics)
How it is done (Step-by-step directions to accomplish the task)
Learning Activities: Graphic organizers, writing templates, sentence
starters, visual and aural aids, mini-lessons to teach sub-tasks and various
learning and communication strategies related to the task can/should be
developed to address each skill area identified using the SPEAKING Model in
analyzing the task.

Scaffolding: After students have been exposed to clear models of successful

performance that (clearly point out each element of the SPEAKING Model goals and) are
appropriate to their age, proficiency, and developmental levels; and after they have had
sufficient guided practice in all parts of the task; they should be given opportunities to do
the task independently as well as to extend the task to other meaningful activities. Finally,
they need meaningful feedback on their performance of the task.

Assessment: A rubric or other task performance assessment instrument (formal,

informal, or alternative) can/should be developed to give meaningful feedback to students
on the whole tasks and/or the specific areas developed using the SPEAKING Model.