Understanding Errors Made by Arabic Speaking ELL's

Understanding the errors of arabic speaking ell’s

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Chapter 9 Fisherman Story

John would have become a farmer if he could have, but he has never had the money to buy land.

His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful. When he was feeling down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You’re always fishing for compliments.”

If John had had more energy, he might have argued with his brother, but instead, he began making more nets, with the hopes of increasing his catch the next day.

                                                       THE TRANSFORMATION 

John wanted to be a farmer but he did not have the money to buy land.

His brother bought land last winter, but he sold it to a neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves to fish but he wishes he was more successful. When he felt down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters”, blue and shined it up.  John asked his brother what he thought of the new look.  He brother laughed and said “you’re always wishing for compliments”.

John did not argue with his brother.  He made more nets instead.  He hoped to increase his future catch.

ANALYSIS: I think that this story sounds awkward even from the perspective of a native speaker.  The conditional and future tense are used often where a simple present tense would suffice.  I don’t think that the “you’re always fishing for compliments” line would be well understood by an ELL either.  The statement involves a pun that is obvious to a native speaker but is likely too subtle for an ELL to detect, thus the statement taken out of context does not make sense.  The word catch in the final sentence is also likely to cause confusion because it is being used as a noun instead of a verb.  Students are likely most familiar with the verb “to catch” and not the noun which symbolize the quantity of the fish that a fisherman caught on a particular day.

Chapter 8 Application Questions

#1        A good school? (Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Rashid are both parents of students in the district where Mrs. Thomas also teaches.)
Mrs. Thomas: Johnny has Mr. Smith as a teacher next year. I hear he is an excellent teacher.
Mrs. Rashid: He's very nice.
Mrs. T: Are you happy with the school district?
Mrs. Rashid: There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.

 Choose one dialog. Identify where the miscommunication occurs. Explain what each speaker might be thinking. 

 Explain what cultural factors may contribute to the miscommunication in the conversation.

The miscommunication in this dialog occurs when Mrs. Rashid responds to the question about the school district by saying “there are many lovely people in the neighborhood”.  It appears as if she is violating the Maxim of Relevance but upon closer observation of the statement, you can see that she is in fact responding “correctly” to the question.  The word “district” is defined as “a region or locality” according to www.dictionary.com.  When you take the definition of district into consideration than Mrs. Rashid’s statement makes much more sense. She is commenting on the school district as if Mrs. Thompson were referring to the physical locality of the school district itself.  However, social conjecture in America alludes to the fact that Mrs.Thompson is not referring to the neighborhood where the school is located, rather the quality of the school/s, the teachers and the school community. In America, the statement “Are you happy with the school district?” has a different connotation than what it literally translates to and this is an obvious cause of confusion for someone who is unaware of this social convention.

Grice's Conversational Maxims

Grice’s Conversational Maxims

Maxim of Relevance- Be relevant

Conversation: A group of friends and I were talking about work and another friend joined our conversation.  Obviously the newest edition to the group was unaware of the pervious conversation that had taken place, so in mid conversation our newest friend contributed: “Did you watch Big Bang Theory Last night?” to which I responded “Do you know why the sky is blue?” ::with sarcasm::.  Obviously I asked an irrelevant question to poke fun at our friend whose contribution was extremely off-topic.  This would be an example of a violation of the Maxim of Relevance because both contributions to the conversation were irrelevant to the subject at hand.

Maxim of Quality – Try to make your contribution true

Conversation: A conversation that I have witnessed between husband and wife is always a good example of the Maxim of Quality.  When the wife is getting dressed and she asks her husband “how do I look?” or “does this make me look fat?” the husband will often revert to the generic answer “yes of course honey, you look wonderful” .  Even if the statement is not necessarily trye Why? Well first of all it is always the smartest answer for a husband and second of all because in this instance the husband feels that violating the Maxim of Quality will preserve his wife’s feelings.

Maxim of Quantity- Do not make your contribution more or less informative than required

Conversation:  My father is often in violation of the Maxim of Quantity.  When you confront him with a problem in which you are seeking a relatively simple solution you always get an extremely lengthy answer. For example, “Dad my car won’t start.  I’m pretty sure that it is the battery, how can I check to see if my battery is dead?”  His response starts with “the battery? Well are you sure? What type of noise did the car make? Did the lights turn on? Etc”  So this far into the conversation my father still has not answered the initial question which was: How do I check to see if my battery is dead?”  This would be an example of a violation of the Maxim of Quantity because he asking for information that is more informative than required.

Maxim of Manner- avoid ambiguity and obscurity; be brief and orderly

Conversation: I often intentionally violate this maxim to elude a message to someone subtly.  For example, we are working in the teacher workroom and another teacher approaches me about a student who is having problems in their class:  “Allyson did you have _________________________ in your class last year?” to which I would respond “yes”.  “Well did he/she have any behavioral issues in your room?” to which I would respond “do you mean did I have to write him/her up 3 times for being late for class, once for cheating on a test and a third time for screaming profanities to a student in the hallway? No, of course not.  He/she is an upstanding student”.  I think in this case the maxim is violated to place emphasis on the fact that the student is not only a behavioral problem but a significant one.  Sarcasm can often communicate an idea further than an outright statement like, “yes I had behavioral issues with the student”.  However, it is easy to see why violation of this maxim using sarcasm would cause considerable confusion for an ELL who might take the statement literally or be confused by the conflicting ideas in it.