Language Exploration Project

Situated in my research ofAffinity Spaces

Inter-retail CommunicationConsidering these individuals do coexist in the same affinity space, in which furniture language plays a very important role, they are expected to share that knowledge when communicating. For example, later that day, when Dave informed James and Jeff that they needed to pick up a “split box spring” from the warehouse for a customer to pick up at four o’clock that afternoon, it mattered very much that the boys understood precisely what Dave was asking of them. If the boys lacked the content-specific information, they would not succeed very well in their jobs and it took a lot of situated learning in this context for James and Jeff to acquire the appropriate language skills.

Conclusion

Specialist Language Varieties“There are many different varieties of English. Some of these are different dialects spoken in different regions of the country or by different sociocultural groups. Some of them are different varieties of language used by different occupations for example, the language of bookies, lawyers, or video game players” (Gee p. 16).

The SettingThe location of the store is in Sennett; a very small, rural town in Central New York. The staff consists of the owner, Dave, who takes care of the paperwork, finances, and communications with vendors, but is also a versatile hand whenever he is needed on the sales floor or warehouse/delivery functions. There is also a salesman, Brian, a deliveryman, Jeff, and another young man, James, who specializes in sales, delivery, and acts as manager. Along with studying this crew’s interactions, I also witnessed the dialogue between customers,as well as the conversations between both groups of people.

I went into my research inquiring, “How can everyday varieties of language, like the ones I’ll witness in the furniture store, inform my theories of language learning in the classroom?” What I’ve come to find is that the communication skills that are needed in school are the same ones that we need outside of school: 1) We need to learn language in context; knowing what a word means does not contain much relevance to our lives unless we use it. 2) The sharing of ideas is essential to learning in any environment, especially language because that’s how we communicate ideas; if our students do not learn how to share their thoughts, try to understand different perspectives, and learn from each other, it is likely they will not be willing to learn from others in different contexts. 3) Academic language varieties are not everything; many people will survive in the “real world” without using correct grammar or following the rules of proper English. Focus just as much on the language that goes on around you every day--that is where you should situate your learning.

Language Exploration Project LAI 537Research in RetailLocation: Furniture Store

If we start by talking about spaces rather than "communities," we can then go on and ask to what extent the people interacting within a space, or some subgroup of them, do or do not actually form a community. The answer will be different in different cases. Even if the people interacting within a space do not constitute a community in any real sense, they still may get a good deal from their interactions with others and share a good deal with them" (Gee, p. 79).

Employees act in affinity spaces.They share common knowledge, use context-specific language and worktogether to reach a common goal.

I detected many circumstances of perspective-taking in this atmosphere; it occurred most commonly in writing, and between employees and the intended consumer. It was also the most obvious use of language that I could find when exploring my research location. It is not uncommon for businesses to foresee questions that consumers will have when shopping. And if sales associates are not readily available or if the customer does not want to seek one out, we would hope that we might find some sort of information to help us figure it out ourselves. “piece in missing bits of information, check on your understandings, solve a particular problem, or answer a particular question you have” (Gee, 44). This was the case for various signs and signals that I viewed and photographed around the furniture store. Check out video to your left!

Perspective-taking

For a full report of my Language Exploration Project, please click on the attachment symbol located in the top right corner of this Glog!

VideoWritten Communication

All of these written cues count as language use and quite frankly, I’m noticing that they are more and more prevalent in retail locations. Not that retail businesses are the only places where written communication is becoming the norm…. Regardless, written communication can be a very effective medium for learning and I found quite often that it succeeded in informing customers of pertinent information. The written messages I studied from employees to customers, as well as from employees to each other, were no less important than the spoken interfaces.