Short Essay 2: SPEAKING

Write up a brief (1-2 page or 500-1,000 word) description of an interaction (one that involves language in a significant way) using Dell Hymes’s SPEAKING framework (discussed in the brief Monaghan reading and in Tuesday’s lecture). Think about what relevant features of the setting you need to describe in order for a reader to make sense of this interaction; what relevant information you need to give about the participants, etc. Not all information that could be given about each aspect of the situation will be equally relevant, so be concise and selective about what information you choose to convey. 

You may make some “jottings” or quick, on-the-spot notes in order to record relevant features of the interaction to help your memory, but you don’t need to turn these in– what you turn in should be more like what Monaghan calls “fieldnotes.”