Having a deeper look into the internal messages (Investigation #4) and the after-class conversation (Investigation #8) of the language centre that I am working in, I find a clearer picture of the power relationships among participants and in the broader social order.
After considering the eight key principles of CDA by Fairclough and Wodak, I found a few common features that my investigation site shared with the principles. Firstly, power within this company is negotiated in the company discourse. People in different positions are given various titles which signal the level of power they have among the staff. For instance, there is a Headmaster, school principal, academic manager, academic panels, senior lecturers and part time tutors etc. All these titles help constitute a clear power relationship between the staff. However, all of these are made sense based on the presupposition the members have for the power level of these titles.
As shown in the after-class conversation, subordinates tend to respect the higher power by showing willingness to involve and giving preferred responses. In most of the circumstances, only those with higher power dare interrupt in a conversation. We can see that the social assumption of the need for the junior to respect the senior is reinforced. The ideology of higher power gets more respect is then enforced.
The word use in the internal message also signifies the power relationship between the employer and the employees. From the message regarding the bulleting intranet website, phrases like ‘we will use the bulletin board to inform you… please check and reply… everyday to get yourself updated’ reveal the assumption that the employer tries to pass on to the employees. Part time staff who are supposed to work only on weekends are expected to be responsible for job duties beyond their working hour. It is also the employees’ responsibilities to ‘get themselves updated’ with the company’s latest condition. By replying the message, employees have agreed on the identities and responsibilities that the higher power have imposed on them.
Although most of the members tend to accept and act on assumptions and ideologies come with the power relationships, there are two kinds of people who resist following these insider ‘rules’. The first group is the foreign native speakers; they express their ideas freely without pay much attention to the hierarchy. Nevertheless, they are not seen as being impolite or uncooperative since most of the senior staff are well-aware of the cultural difference Asians and Westerners have. Another group is those local staff who have bargaining power, for instance , the law students. They are seen to be more favourable for company’s reputation as the society carries an assumption that law students are more brilliant and out-standing. Therefore, these law-major part time staff do not always follow the ‘rules’ associated with the power relationship.
From the analysis done based on the context of my investigation site, the power relationship in the broader social order is also reflected. The titles given to different positions constitute a distinctive hierarchy and hence, a clearer power relationship among the members. Ideologies and social assumptions are reinforced. Subordinates mostly respect the higher power and use the independence face strategies to show their respect to them. People who have higher bargaining power could resist this; just like when you were Stanley Ho having so much influencing power, you would not care much about what title the others have and be restricted by the power relationship.
Friday, 30 April 2010
Investigation #8 Analyzing a conversation
Note: There is something wrong with the spacing of this blog site. The conversation transcription may be quite hard to read without proper spacing.
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Here is a transcription of an after-class conversation between the Academic Manager and me in the staff room of the language learning centre that I work in.
Transcription convention: C=Chritine (the Academic Manager);J=Joey (Myself);K=Miss K (Senior lecturer);= = simultaneous speech;//=interruption;(.)= pause; ()=non-verbal communication
1 C: Hey Joey! (smile)How was the class today?
2 J: Oh.. it went well! (smile)
3 C: How was the 12H class?
4 Did Victor behave himself?
5 J: Haha. He still talked to me with his mean language
6 saying it was my bad to find someone else
7 to talk to him about his misbehaviour
8 rather than directly talking to him by myself.
9 Haha, I guess he is scared of your talk//last time.
10 K: //Which Victor?
11 Did I teach him before?
12 What's his chinese name?
13 J: Victor Chau Yiu Bong
14 C: =Oh.. I'm sure you didn't.(smile)
15 K: HAHAHA (laugh)
16 Yes, if I did then I'm sure
17 he wil know what is discipline!
18 J: Yes, I wish he knew.
19 He is trying to act like those rebellious big brother.
20 (sigh)
21 C: Haha.
22 But from the way he talked
23 I think he is trying to be friendly to you.
24 J: Maybe he just needs to protect his face
25 in front of his friends. Haha.
26C: Haha yea.. (.)
27 Hope he won't make too much disturbance.
28J: Yea haha.
29C: Yea yea(.) (smile)
30J: (smile)
31C: (Turning away)Okay.
32 Thank you. Thank you.(smile)
33J: Thank you. Thank you Christine.(smile)
For a normal conversation between the manager (or the lecturers) and the part time tutors, the one with higher power, that is the manager or the lecturers, ritually summons the conversation. As shown in the conversation transcription, the higher power starts off by asking "how was the class today" (line 1). This is a usual opening for most of the conversations of my investigation site and the meaning of the utterance is equivalent to the greeting "have you eaten yet". The adjacency pair of sommon-answer (line 1-2) habitually takes place at the beginning of the conversation.
As for the topic of the conversation, it is usually initiated by the higher power. The manager starts the topic after greeting; Subordinates then tend to stick to the topic and give relevant response. In the above conversation, the manager raises the question-the discipline matter of a certain class, and then the part time tutor answers to the questions with details (line 3-9). It takes the adjacency pair of answer-question.
In line 10, we can see that the senior lecturer interrupts and asks if she knows that student. From the response of the two participants of the conversation, it is shown that they are used to the interruption made and they simply let her take the turn to speak. However, this kind of interruption is only 'appropriate' for the more senior staff who have relatively higher power over the participants of the conversation.
The closing of the conversation often includes some ritualistic expressions, for instance, 'yea','okay'. Towards the end of the conversation (line 26-27), the manager says 'yea','okay'and also pauses to signal invitation or willingness to pass the turn. In this company, it is not unusual for the senior to say something like 'hope the situation will improve' (line 27)in the pre-closing of the conversation. And to end the conversation, there is a strong institutional culture for the staff, regardless of the seniority, to say thank you for more than once at the end of the conversation. People who do not follow this ritual would be considered impolite or uncooperative.
Throughout the whole conversation, it can be noticed that participants often say 'haha'. It might be a way for them to show their willingness to take the turn; it might also be a positive face strategy to show friendliness and involvement in the conversation. As for the senior, by saying 'haha' might help reduce the weight of imposition of the conversation; it creates a more casual atmosphere for the conversation to go on with the subordinates.
Other than circumstances such as the junior making queries to the senior, the above identification of the 'procedural rule' can be applied to most of the before or after-class conversation between the senior and the part time staff. Even for the dialogues in the bulletin intranet of the company, it is ritually the higher power ones start off the conversation and initiate a topic and then the junior will take the turn to give preferred response. Interruption would mainly be made by the senior lecturers. They sometimes interrupt by leaving comments and making jokes, but that is not a normal approach for the junior to follow.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a transcription of an after-class conversation between the Academic Manager and me in the staff room of the language learning centre that I work in.
Transcription convention: C=Chritine (the Academic Manager);J=Joey (Myself);K=Miss K (Senior lecturer);= = simultaneous speech;//=interruption;(.)= pause; ()=non-verbal communication
1 C: Hey Joey! (smile)How was the class today?
2 J: Oh.. it went well! (smile)
3 C: How was the 12H class?
4 Did Victor behave himself?
5 J: Haha. He still talked to me with his mean language
6 saying it was my bad to find someone else
7 to talk to him about his misbehaviour
8 rather than directly talking to him by myself.
9 Haha, I guess he is scared of your talk//last time.
10 K: //Which Victor?
11 Did I teach him before?
12 What's his chinese name?
13 J: Victor Chau Yiu Bong
14 C: =Oh.. I'm sure you didn't.(smile)
15 K: HAHAHA (laugh)
16 Yes, if I did then I'm sure
17 he wil know what is discipline!
18 J: Yes, I wish he knew.
19 He is trying to act like those rebellious big brother.
20 (sigh)
21 C: Haha.
22 But from the way he talked
23 I think he is trying to be friendly to you.
24 J: Maybe he just needs to protect his face
25 in front of his friends. Haha.
26C: Haha yea.. (.)
27 Hope he won't make too much disturbance.
28J: Yea haha.
29C: Yea yea(.) (smile)
30J: (smile)
31C: (Turning away)Okay.
32 Thank you. Thank you.(smile)
33J: Thank you. Thank you Christine.(smile)
For a normal conversation between the manager (or the lecturers) and the part time tutors, the one with higher power, that is the manager or the lecturers, ritually summons the conversation. As shown in the conversation transcription, the higher power starts off by asking "how was the class today" (line 1). This is a usual opening for most of the conversations of my investigation site and the meaning of the utterance is equivalent to the greeting "have you eaten yet". The adjacency pair of sommon-answer (line 1-2) habitually takes place at the beginning of the conversation.
As for the topic of the conversation, it is usually initiated by the higher power. The manager starts the topic after greeting; Subordinates then tend to stick to the topic and give relevant response. In the above conversation, the manager raises the question-the discipline matter of a certain class, and then the part time tutor answers to the questions with details (line 3-9). It takes the adjacency pair of answer-question.
In line 10, we can see that the senior lecturer interrupts and asks if she knows that student. From the response of the two participants of the conversation, it is shown that they are used to the interruption made and they simply let her take the turn to speak. However, this kind of interruption is only 'appropriate' for the more senior staff who have relatively higher power over the participants of the conversation.
The closing of the conversation often includes some ritualistic expressions, for instance, 'yea','okay'. Towards the end of the conversation (line 26-27), the manager says 'yea','okay'and also pauses to signal invitation or willingness to pass the turn. In this company, it is not unusual for the senior to say something like 'hope the situation will improve' (line 27)in the pre-closing of the conversation. And to end the conversation, there is a strong institutional culture for the staff, regardless of the seniority, to say thank you for more than once at the end of the conversation. People who do not follow this ritual would be considered impolite or uncooperative.
Throughout the whole conversation, it can be noticed that participants often say 'haha'. It might be a way for them to show their willingness to take the turn; it might also be a positive face strategy to show friendliness and involvement in the conversation. As for the senior, by saying 'haha' might help reduce the weight of imposition of the conversation; it creates a more casual atmosphere for the conversation to go on with the subordinates.
Other than circumstances such as the junior making queries to the senior, the above identification of the 'procedural rule' can be applied to most of the before or after-class conversation between the senior and the part time staff. Even for the dialogues in the bulletin intranet of the company, it is ritually the higher power ones start off the conversation and initiate a topic and then the junior will take the turn to give preferred response. Interruption would mainly be made by the senior lecturers. They sometimes interrupt by leaving comments and making jokes, but that is not a normal approach for the junior to follow.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Investigation #7 Analyzing politeness
Here is a conversation of my two workmates- a senior lecturer (Miss K) and a part-time tutor (Nicola):
1 Miss K: Hey Nicola, I just checked the marked paper,
2 there seems to be some miscalculation for Jeremy and Jasmine's
3 papers.
4 Nicola: Oh really? I'm sorry for that.
5 Should I double-check the paper all over again?
6 Miss K: Nah.. it's alright. I've made correction for both of them.
7 By the way, know the calculation can be quite complicated.
8 Maybe you can pay more attention to the mark different parts
9 carry,it makes my head ache.
10 Nicola: Sure,sure! You're right.
11 I misread that all the questions of partB carries 4 marks each,
12 just like partA.
13 I should go double-check the whole pile.
14 I will be more careful.
15 Thanks for your reminder.
16 Miss K: Haha, work hard together!
17 All teachers here are bombarred by numbers instead of
18 alphabets...
As shown in the above conversation, the central message that Miss K tried to convey is to criticize the accuracy of Nicola's marking; which is a face threatening act to Nicola. There might be a greater desire for Miss K to maintain face for both of them than to be efficient or urgent, therefore, she tried to minimize the FTA by using the following politeness strategies.
In order not to threaten the positive face of Nicola, Miss K did the criticism 'with redressive action'. First of all, she used certain negative politeness strategies. In line 2, she pointed out the mistake made by Nicola indirectly. Instead of accusing her of deducting extra mark from the students, she avoided personalized words such as 'I' or 'you' and said 'there seems to be...'
To reduce the weight of imposition of the fault to Nicola, Miss K also used a number of positive politeness strategies. As shown in line 7-9, we can see that Miss K tried to portray herself as one of the victims under the complicated marking system and then indirectly drew Nicola's attention to the point that Nicola mistook every part carries the same mark of the paper. At the end of the conversation (line 16-8), she encouraged Nicola to work hard together with all the staff and stressed that everyone was under the same harsh condition. This can help Miss K show her understanding and sympathy, as well as to create an in-group identity for Nicola.
As for Nicola, her apology (line 4) might threaten her positive face; and in her later conversation, she adopted some positive politeness strategies. She first approved what Miss K said was right (line 10) and gave reason for her mistake (line 11-2). Other than offering to do something to make up for her fault (line 13), she also promised that she would be more careful (line 14).
This is not a rare situation in my investigation site. Whenever the junior staff make a mistake, the senior will use this approach to clarify the issue. With greater power and with the existence of social distance, senior staff tend to use negative politeness strategies to respect the junior and avoid threatening their face without redress. They sometimes use positive politeness strategies to get the junior involved in the group; it might also be a way for them to prevent themselves from creating an overt power distance. As for the junior staff, they often use the positive politeness strategies to show that they have common ground with the senior- to work their best for the students.
1 Miss K: Hey Nicola, I just checked the marked paper,
2 there seems to be some miscalculation for Jeremy and Jasmine's
3 papers.
4 Nicola: Oh really? I'm sorry for that.
5 Should I double-check the paper all over again?
6 Miss K: Nah.. it's alright. I've made correction for both of them.
7 By the way, know the calculation can be quite complicated.
8 Maybe you can pay more attention to the mark different parts
9 carry,it makes my head ache.
10 Nicola: Sure,sure! You're right.
11 I misread that all the questions of partB carries 4 marks each,
12 just like partA.
13 I should go double-check the whole pile.
14 I will be more careful.
15 Thanks for your reminder.
16 Miss K: Haha, work hard together!
17 All teachers here are bombarred by numbers instead of
18 alphabets...
As shown in the above conversation, the central message that Miss K tried to convey is to criticize the accuracy of Nicola's marking; which is a face threatening act to Nicola. There might be a greater desire for Miss K to maintain face for both of them than to be efficient or urgent, therefore, she tried to minimize the FTA by using the following politeness strategies.
In order not to threaten the positive face of Nicola, Miss K did the criticism 'with redressive action'. First of all, she used certain negative politeness strategies. In line 2, she pointed out the mistake made by Nicola indirectly. Instead of accusing her of deducting extra mark from the students, she avoided personalized words such as 'I' or 'you' and said 'there seems to be...'
To reduce the weight of imposition of the fault to Nicola, Miss K also used a number of positive politeness strategies. As shown in line 7-9, we can see that Miss K tried to portray herself as one of the victims under the complicated marking system and then indirectly drew Nicola's attention to the point that Nicola mistook every part carries the same mark of the paper. At the end of the conversation (line 16-8), she encouraged Nicola to work hard together with all the staff and stressed that everyone was under the same harsh condition. This can help Miss K show her understanding and sympathy, as well as to create an in-group identity for Nicola.
As for Nicola, her apology (line 4) might threaten her positive face; and in her later conversation, she adopted some positive politeness strategies. She first approved what Miss K said was right (line 10) and gave reason for her mistake (line 11-2). Other than offering to do something to make up for her fault (line 13), she also promised that she would be more careful (line 14).
This is not a rare situation in my investigation site. Whenever the junior staff make a mistake, the senior will use this approach to clarify the issue. With greater power and with the existence of social distance, senior staff tend to use negative politeness strategies to respect the junior and avoid threatening their face without redress. They sometimes use positive politeness strategies to get the junior involved in the group; it might also be a way for them to prevent themselves from creating an overt power distance. As for the junior staff, they often use the positive politeness strategies to show that they have common ground with the senior- to work their best for the students.
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