Page 101 - Beyond Methods

Minimizing perceptual mismatches 89 Episode 4.10
S3 Thisis...
S4 Large.
S3 Big size.
T2 Too big? Too large? OK, same thing . . .
S3 Bigforher...anduh...
S4 Theprice...
S3 A little costly.
T2 Too expensive.
S3 No...not...alittlecostly.
T2 OK, so you won’t choose that because it is too expensive . . . S3 I think it’s costly.
T2 Yeah, in English we say too expensive.
S3 I can’t say costly?
T2 Well . . . (long pause). Costly is OK, yeah, but more often . . . prob- ably we say expensive.
S3 OK, you are my teacher . . . (laughs)
T2 No, you don’t have to agree with me . . . S3 I don’t have to?
This episode shows a fairly extended exchange on what the par- ticipants consider to be “standard” English. The learner has learned a particular variety of English (which, of course, is “stan- dard” in his country) where costly is considered an appropriate usage in the given context. The teacher, a native speaker of Eng- lish, spends some time trying to get the learner to accept and repeat what she considers to be the “standard” usage: expensive. What is crucial in this discourse is the fact that the learner, fi- nally, gives up his stand invoking a norm that is largely accepted in classroom culture: the teacher is the authority figure. The teacher’s generous remark on the learner’s right to disagree only triggers an almost derisive response from the learner. In this episode, the mismatch relates to one’s attitude toward a particu- lar variety of English; however, there can be various types of at- titudinal mismatches arising out of preconceived notions about factors such as participant expectations, classroom management, learning strategies and cultural stereotypes.