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CANCUN JOBS:
Here are two MORE job possibilities

In the last article we talked about language schools and institutes. This article features Bi-lingual schools, Pre-Schools, Primary, Secondary and university-prep schools which heavily accent English in their programs and are earnestly seeking native-speaking English teachers for English and other classes. There are a considerable number of them due to the influence of tourism as the principal area industry. So, polish up your resume, apostil your diplomas and dive right in.

Colegio J. Lancaster
Avenida Palenque No. 20 S.M. 27 Canc

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In my previous article “How to Add Drama to an EFL Class or Start a Drama Group” some interesting ways in which you could initiate Drama into an EFL class or new drama group we suggested. If you’re a foreign language student, sooner or later you’ll start becoming “tired” or “bored” with the more conventionally used teaching approaches. This is especially true if you attend (or teach) a class that must follow a standard curriculum or course book series. To crank out more speaking and develop more vocabulary and language use in context, try some of these additional drama-based activities to spice things up a bit.

Do Improvised Dialogues

Another popular technique is to “improvise” scenes based on specific character sets in different situations like a Mother - Daughter, Father - Son, Teacher - Student, Boss - Worker, Robber - Bank Teller, Waiter - Customer, or a multitude of other possible combinations of two, three or even more characters. Give each character set a scenario in which to work like a son with bad grades who wants to borrow Dad’s car. A Mother who needs help around the house with a daughter giving excuses so she can talk on the phone with her friends.

Have a student answer the phone and have a chat with the “wrong number” who wants to talk anyway.

Interview a famous person

Simulate an interview with a famous person or historic figure or even create a fictitious scene involving a famous person or historic figure. You can get an extensive list of famous people / historic figures the students are familiar with and use these as a basis for constructing scenes and dialogues. You can even have famous people “Talk” to each other who couldn’t literally have done so. What would Jesus or Mohammed say to Adolph Hitler? What would George Washington say to Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson or JFK? What might Chairman Moa and Idi Amin or Augustus Pinochet have talked about? How about a chat between Princess Diana and Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette? The possibilities are endless. Some wonderful ideas, dialogues, scenes and scripts could come out of a little swapping and brainstorming in this manner.

Schizophrenic Dialogues

These fun dialogues will erase any timidness the learners may have in speaking in front of others. Start with your most uninhibited learners at first until others from the group “get up their nerve” to do this activity. In this dramatic speaking practice activity the person “talks” to themselves taking on multiple roles in a dialogue, asking themselves a question and then answering themselves too. The schizophrenic person could also argue pros and cons of a decision or situation aloud. They are often hilarious and loads of fun once the students get the hang of it. A man can discus / argue the pros and cons of going out with woman A or woman B. Betty or Nicole? A woman learner can do the reverse. Tom or Jerry? Other sample themes are; Which friend to tell a secret? Which car to buy? Which vacation to take? The fun almost never ends.

To continue to get even more mileage from these activities and materials, record and use them for listening comprehension, error-correction exercises, pronunciation, language use or grammar practice activities in another class. Teachers and students, I hope some of these ideas help with starting material. I’ll send you some more specific suggestions if you’ll tell me specific areas you’d like more information on. Please let me know about your progress and experiences. Good luck.

Prof Larry M. Lynch is a certified English language teacher / trainer, bi-lingual copywriter, expert author and photographer specializing in business, travel, food and education-related writing in South America. His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News and Brazil magazines. He teaches at a university in Cali, Colombia. To read more or get additional original, exclusive language education based articles and content for your newsletter, blog or website contact him at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com.

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With well over 600 000 words, English has a larger vocabulary than any other language and its speakers adjust their language used in different situations.
They may vary the style in the use of English or in other cases,
switch between English and other languages. In a discourse community,
members always share common linguistic variables and exhibit common
directions of style shifting or code switching.

Spoken English is subject to more variations than written English
since the standard forms of English that have been codified tend to
come from written English. Therefore, I will focus on the discussion
of the variation of spoken English in this essay.

Speakers shift styles in English according to different occasions.
Styles differ in several dimensions: pronunciation, choice of words
and grammatical features. Style shifting is caused by the change in
audience, format, setting, and topic. Other factors such as the
identity, feeling of speakers also influence the speakers’ choice.

Several studies show that audience has significant influence on the
style of language a speaker selects. Allan Bell’s audience
design theory suggests whom you are speaking to have the greatest
influence on the type of language you use. In 1970s, Bell studied the
varieties of English used by newsreaders on New Zealand radio
stations. She found that their pronunciation differed on different
stations. Bell discovered that the more ‘formal’ [t] pronunciation was
used frequently on a station with a mainly ‘educated’ or
‘professional’ audience, but obviously less on ‘general audience ‘
stations, and extremely least on rock music stations. Bell claims that
it is the different audiences for each station that affect
newsreaders’ speech. It tells that speakers used more ‘prestige’ or
“high-status” language when talking to people of higher social
status.

The format of interaction also plays an important role in style
shifting. In 1986, Viv Edward’s study found that format as well as
audience affects people’s speech. In the study, speakers varied their
style not only among audiences, but also when speaking to the same
audience in a different format. Far less Patois features appeared in a
formal interview when compared with an informal conversation. As a
result, Patois features occurred least in the formal interview with
the white researcher and they occurred most in the informal
conversation with only black fieldworker.

Another study by Jenny Cheshire’s looked at the influence of setting.
A group of students was observed at school and out of school. Fewer
vernacular features were used at school than in a local playground.
However, other factors such as their feeling about the school,
familiarity with school and knowledge of school conventions also
influence style choice. Therefore, students who liked school or
identified with school culture were more likely to use standard forms
than students who did not like or identify with school.

Style shifting is also related to the topic of discussion. Michael
Huspek analyzed a group of lumber workers in north-west USA. He found
that in a single conversation, speakers switched from an informal
pronunciation-in to a more formal pronunciation”-ing” when a
scientific topic was discussed. Therefore, speakers are found to shift
styles within a single conversation as different topics are
introduced. More formal language features are used when talking about
formal topics. Huspek also suggests that feelings about people and
events also influence the language spoken. The”-ing” may be used when
talking to someone respected by the speaker.

The desire to identify with, or distinguish oneself from, particular
social groups is another reason to shift styles. It is suggested by
R.B. Page and Andree Tabouret-Keller who carried out a study in
multilingual communities. Based on these ideas, Trudgill found
that British rock and pop singers in the 1950s modified their
pronunciations in songs to make them sound more American. On the
other hand, folk singers adopted rural accents and reggae singers
sounded more Jamaican. In USA, singers also modified their accents to
imitate South Americans and the Blacks whom the origin of popular
music comes from. In the 1970s, punk music was associated with urban
working class life. So punk-rock singers adopted certain low-prestige
southern English features in their songs.

In fact, the speaker’s choice is not caused by a single reason and it
is always a mixture of several different motives. Therefore, the
styles a speaker chooses for particular audiences, formats, settings,
and topics are subject to change.

Code switching

In this part of the essay, let’s discuss why and how do speakers
switch between English and other languages in different contexts.

Myers-Scotton’s markedness model points out those different codes
are associated with different contexts. Code switching can maintain or
negotiate certain type of social identity. Therefore, there are
different reasons for code switching. Firstly, code-switching between
languages allows speakers simultaneous access to right and obligations
associated with different social identities. Secondly, switching may
operate to initiate a change to relationships. Thirdly, switching may
negotiate identities in relation to others when it is uncertain about
relationships. Fourthly, switching may fulfill specific functions in an
interaction.

Myers-Scotton suggests that there are two different types of
code switching based on the notion of ‘markedness’. An ‘unmarked’
choice is an expected choice that is related to the interaction
between the speaker and the interlocutor. The other type is a ‘marked’
choice that is an attempt to redefine a relationship.

In Quebec, French has been the language of work since 1970. In this
case codeswitching allows Anglophones some claim on the rights and
obligations associated with French. For example, in an official interaction as department meetings, if francophones only speak French, they will arouse hostility among Anglophones.
However, if the francophones speak only English, their legitimacy is
undermined. In order to reduce social distance and build a harmonic
interpersonal relationship, the francophones switch between French in
English.

She also suggests that in Kenya, English can encode both social
distance and solidarity, depending on the context (1988). One of her
researches in ‘unmarked switching’ found out those speakers switched
from Kenya and Zimbabwe. In this case, speakers balanced different
aspects of their identity by switching between an African language and
English.

Seba found that young British black speakers switched
routinely between Creole and London English. It is also related to
different aspects of a speaker’s identity. In a Creole conversation, a
switch to English may be used for an aside. However, if a speaker
switches from English to Creole, he will expect the interlocutor to
give response. Besides, Creole reflects the intimate relationship
between the two parties. Their conversation is talking about something
close to the ‘heart and mind’.

When speakers code switch, it involves the mixture of two or more
languages. According to Shana Poplack, a switch from one
language to another would occur at points where the surface structure
of the two languages maps on to each other. For example, in the switch
from French to English, the whole clauses are switched. English
grammar is observed within the switched text. In the Hindu/English
example, single words from English are switched.

On the other hand, Myers-Scotton’s matrix language frame model
suggests that within any stretch of code switching, one language
prevails the other and becomes the matrix language. It provides the
framework and affects the form of code switching. Embeds the other
language. When single words from another language are embedded, the
matrix language order applies, and the matrix language also supplies
syntactically relevant morphemes.

Code-switching is commonly found in Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong
switch between English and Cantonese in their speech ranging from
tutorial discussion in tertiary institutions, formal and informal
conversational, television and radio broadcasting. A common pattern in
Cantonese-English is a single English words surrounded by other
Cantonese constituents.

Cantonese is the mother tongue of most of the people in Hong Kong,
whereas, English is their second language. In fact, both languages
have distinctive functions. English is the official language for years
and is widely used in business sector. Besides, its use is encouraged
throughout the education system. All these aim at retaining Hong
Kong’s place as a world trade center and an international city. The
use of Chinese is an important marker of Chinese identity. Besides,
Cantonese is the mother tongue of most of our student and teachers.
Even though students and teachers admit that having English as a
medium of instruction may improve their English proficiency and career
prospects, the reality is that most of the time, code-mix of English
and Chinese, or code switches from English to Chinese always happen in
teaching. Therefore, students will be able to gain access in Cantonese
to whatever information they need to know. For handling students with behavior problem, code-mix of English and Chinese, or code switch from English to Chinese is used
as a medium of instruction also help reduce distance between teachers
and students.

If we compare the difference between style shifting and code switching,
it is clear that monolinguals style shift, but bilinguals can do more
than style shift; they can code-switch. Speakers can adopt styles and
codes to communicate social meanings and negotiate relationships.
Actually, speakers of both types are very creative. Sometimes, they
even create the kind of language they need to suit the environment.
They can even adapt according to different situation to take on
particular identities.

The use of the languages varies from time to time. Style-shifting and
code switching serve multi-purposes. They help us to define
relationship, seek for personal identity, improve interpersonal
relationship. Most important of all, they enable us to adjust and
adapt to the environment we are in.

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