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Speech Acts Bibliography:
Giving Gifts
DuFon, M. (2003). Gift giving in Indonesian: A model
for teaching pragmatic routines in the foreign language classroom of
the less commonly taught languages. In A. Martínez Flor, E. Usó
Juan, & A. Fernández Guerra (Eds.), Pragmatic competence
and foreign language teaching (pp. 109-131). Castelló de
la Plana, Spain: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I.
Data from group discussions and dialog journals
are used to identify points of confusion that lead learners of Indonesian
to question the meanings associated with particular expressions and
actions used in gift-giving such that this routine might need to be
taught in the classroom. Among teaching techniques she includes frame
analysis, critical incidents, and interviewing native speakers. She
notes that teachers of Indonesian may not be natives and their intuitions
may be inaccurate -- hence, the need not to set themselves up as authorities
but as learners as well. In this instance, the data are from a six-month
study abroad experience in Indonesia. She reports on the experiences
of six learners, 4 native speakers of English and two of Japanese. They
kept diaries which contributed to discussion in identifying "rich points"
in sorting out the problematic aspects of a routine such as gift giving.
They would look at critical incidents and use a frame analysis. Such
activities would provide learners with strategies for dealing with other
"rich points" they might encounter. Frame analysis entails making a
list of what happened in chronological order, so as to see the structure
of the routine or the sequence of frames, the presence or absence of
frames, the content of frames, and so forth. What was the occasion?
What was the gift? Was it wrapped in gift paper? Was it opened in the
giver's presence? What was the relationship of the participants?
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