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Contextualizing linguistic input 213
health and the prosperity it signified. Recalling the incident, Berns says: “In the context of a greeting in Zambia, where a healthy, ro- bust appearance is valued more highly than a lean, slender figure, my friend’s observation would have been recognized as appropriate to the situation by other Zambians. However, when said to an American unfamiliar with Zambian norms of the greeting situation and with the cultural values reflected in these norms, miscommu- nication and a clash of conventional patterns resulted” (Berns, 1990, pp. 35–6).
Norms of interpretation vary so much across speech communi- ties that what is considered a compliment in one cultural context can be a cause for complaint in another. A study of extrasituational con- texts governing communication, therefore, can provide a rich source of information. Understanding the role of the extrasituational con- text will help L2 learners use the target language in a manner that is consistent with the conventions of its speech community and thus minimize potential misinterpretation.
Reflective task 9.5
The way someone is complimented for his or her good appearance varies from context to context, culture to culture. Conduct a quick, informal survey among people of different backgrounds in terms of language, culture, age, and gender and find out how they would compliment someone for his or her good looks. Think about how you would sensitize your L2 learners to pos- sible variations (and misinterpretations) in the realization of this speech act.
To sum up the discussion so far, successful language communi- cation is a matter of realities coming together that make up lin- guistic, extralinguistic, situational, and extrasituational contexts. The above discussion, along with the illustrative examples, show that lin- guistic and extralinguistic features are largely structural devices that signal semantic relationships that are, in turn, governed by situa- tional and extrasituational factors. Using language for effective com- munication integrates contextual factors, and, therefore, teaching it for effective learning must invoke contextualization of linguistic input.