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6:02 a.m., Saturday morning. It’s early but my eyes crack open slightly and I roll underneath my covers. I stretch my arms and legs, making loud groans as my body twists and turns. Half awake, my legs drag me to the window and I pull up the shades. Blinded by the morning light, my fingers feel for the window locks and unlock them. As I pull open the window the cold, winter air fills my room. I shiver, hugging myself to hold in the warmth. My eyes finally adjust and a smile creeps across my face. Winter’s first snow has arrived. I take one last whiff of the morning air and shut my window gently. Everyone is still sleeping, enjoying the comforting warmth of their beds. However, I am wide awake and excited. Slowly, I strip off my pajamas and pull on a first layer of clothing. Heading to the kitchen, I start my parents’ coffee and slide a tray of biscuits into the oven. It won’t be long before everyone is awake. Lightly tiptoeing to the closet and opening the door soundlessly, I rummage through the mess. At last I spot the bag. All the way in the back closet it sits and has been sitting since last winter. I notice my mother as usual, has clearly labeled the outside â€Å"Winter Stuff† and folded all the contents. With a bit of excitement, I tip the bag upside down letting the insides pile onto the floor. Sorting through the items one by one, I separate them into each family member’s belongings. The smell of biscuits has filled the kitchen and is slowly making its way to the bedrooms. It won’t be much longer now. A rustling sounds from my parents’ room and then a creak from the bed. A single grunt escapes my dad’s mouth and his footsteps begin. Scratching his head, he enters the kitchen. He notices the biscuits and the mess I’ve made on the floor. He chuckles softly and smiles at me. One by one they wake up and enter the kitchen looking slightly dazed and confused. They catch a glimpse of what I have started and they all smile immediately. This isn’t just my favorite family tradition. My little brother and sister run towards the window and stare out in awe. They giggle excitedly and high-five each other. After eating our breakfast, each of us grab our pile of â€Å"Winter Stuff† and head to our rooms to change. My dad hollers, â€Å"Are you guys ready yet?† and we all sprint as fast as we can

Teaching Pragmatics

Teaching Pragmatics explores the teaching of pragmatics through lessons and activities created by teachers of English as a second and foreign language. This book is written for teachers by teachers. Our teacher-contributors teach in seven different countries and are both native-speakers and nonnative speakers of English. Activities reflect ESL and EFL classroom settings. The chapters included here allow teachers to see how other teachers approach the teaching of pragmatics and to appreciate the diversity and creativity of their endeavors. Taken together, the activities constitute a spectrum of possibilities for teaching pragmatics. Each submission provides novel insight into the ESL/EFL classroom and demonstrates that there is no single approach to the teaching of pragmatics. The variety of approaches means that pragmatics can be integrated easily into any classroom, whether traditional or communicative. What is pragmatics? The study of pragmatics explores the ability of language users to match utterances with contexts in which they are appropriate; in Stalnaker's words, pragmatics is â€Å"the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed† (1972, p. 383). The teaching of pragmatics aims to facilitate the learners' ability to find socially appropriate language for the situations they encounter. Within second language studies and teaching, pragmatics encompasses speech acts, conversational structure, conversational implicature, conversational management, discourse organization, and sociolinguistic aspects of language use, such as choice of address forms. These areas of language and language use have not traditionally been addressed in language teaching curricula, leading one of our students to ask if we could teach him â€Å"the secret rules of English. Pragmatic rules for language use are often subconscious, and even native speakers are often unaware of pragmatic rules until they are broken (and feelings are hurt, offense is taken, or things just seem a bit odd). Neither does pragmatics receive the attention in language teacher education programs that other areas of language do. Nevertheless, rules of language use do not have to be â€Å"secret rules† for learners or teachers. A growing number of studies describe language use in a variety of English-speaking communities, and these studies have yielded important information for teaching. From the teacher's perspective, the observation of how speakers do things with words has demystified the pragmatic process at least to the point where we can provide responsible, concrete lessons and activities to language learners. We are in the position to give assurance that they can learn pragmatics in their second or foreign language and be â€Å"in the club† of English speakers. Teachers can successfully decode the apparently secret rules for classroom learners. Why teach pragmatics in language classes? We advocate teaching pragmatics because, quite simply, observation of language learners shows there is a demonstrated need for it, and instruction in pragmatics can be successful. Learners show significant differences from native speakers in language use; the execution and comprehension of certain speech acts; conversational functions, such as greetings and leave takings; and conversational management, such as back channeling and short responses. (See, for example, Bardovi-Harlig, 1996, 1999, 2001; Kasper & Schmidt, 1996; Kasper & Rose, 1999. Without instruction, differences in pragmatics show up in the English of learners regardless of their first language background or language proficiency. That is to say, a learner of high grammatical proficiency will not necessarily show equivalent pragmatic development. As a result, learners at the higher levels of grammatical proficiency often show a wide range of pragmatic competence. Thus, we find that even advanced nonnative speakers are neither uniformly successful, nor uniformly unsuccessful, but the range is quite wide. The consequences of pragmatic differences, unlike the case of grammatical errors, are often interpreted on a social or personal level rather than as a result of the language learning process. Being outside the range of language use allowed in a language or making a pragmatic mistake may have various consequences. As the teachers contributing to this volume point out, a pragmatic error may hinder good communication between speakers (Takenoya), may make the speaker appear abrupt or brusque in social interactions (Lee), or may make the speaker appear rude or uncaring (Yates). Gallow points out that maintaining a conversation in English requires underlying knowledge of responses that prompt a speaker to continue, show understanding, give support, indicate agreement, show strong emotional response, add or correct a speaker's information, or ask for more information. Berry discusses the importance of learning how to take turns and demonstrates that listening behaviors that are polite in one language may not be polite or recognizable in another. Unintentional insult to interlocutors (Mach & Ridder) and denial of requests (Weasenforth) have been identified as other potential pragmatic hazards. Left to their own devices with respect to contact with the target language in and out of the classroom, the majority of learners apparently do not acquire the pragmatics of the target language on their own (Bouton, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper, 2001). What makes pragmatics â€Å"secret† seems to be in some cases insufficient specific input and in others insufficient interpretation of language use. Language classrooms are especially well suited to provide input and interpretation. Instruction addresses the input problem by making language available to learners for observation. Some speech acts, such as invitations, refusals, and apologies often take place between individuals, so learners might not have the opportunity to observe such language without being directly involved in the conversation. Some speech events, such as office hours and advising sessions, are generally not observed by a third party, but closed events need not be as private as going to the doctor, as one of our graduate students pointed out: A person might want to know the conventions for talking to a hair stylist in a second language, something equally difficult to observe! The second problem of input that instruction addresses is salience. Some necessary features of language and language use are quite subtle and not immediately noticeable by learners, such as the turns that occur before speakers actually say â€Å"goodbye† and the noises they make when encouraging other speakers to continue their turns. Differences in making requests, such as by saying â€Å"Can I? † (speaker-oriented) instead of â€Å"Can you? † (hearer-oriented) might not be immediately salient to learners. By highlighting features of language and language use, instruction can inform the learner. Finally, the classroom is the ideal place in which to help learners interpret language use. Instruction can help learners understand when and why certain linguistic practices take place. It can help learners to better comprehend what they hear (â€Å"What does this formula mean? â€Å") and to better interpret it (â€Å"How is this used? † â€Å"What does a speaker who says this hope to accomplish? â€Å"). A classroom discussion of pragmatics is also a good place to explore prior impressions of speakers. For example, Americans are often thought of as being very direct. As Howard reports, her learners often tell her that â€Å"you don't have to be polite in English. † Instruction provides the opportunity to discuss the absence of some types of politeness markers in English and the presence and function of others that may not be immediately recognizable to learners. As discussed above, the need for pragmatics instruction is fairly easy to document. Recent studies suggest instruction benefits pragmatic development, both in production and comprehension. (For overviews see Kasper, 1997a, and 2001. For a collection of studies see Rose & Kasper, 2001. For individual studies see Bouton, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994). What are the goals of teaching pragmatics? What are the ultimate benefits to learners? The chief goal of instruction in pragmatics is to raise learners' pragmatic awareness and give them choices about their interactions in the target language. The goal of instruction in pragmatics is not to insist on conformity to a particular target-language norm, but rather to help learners become familiar with the range of pragmatic devices and practices in the target language. With such instruction, learners can maintain their own cultural identities (Kondo), participate more fully in target language communication, and gain control of the force and outcome of their contributions. Kondo notes that â€Å"successful communication is a result of optimal rather than total convergence† (Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991). Expanding upon this view, the authors included in this volume point out that exposing learners to pragmatics in their second or foreign language helps the learners to expand their perception of the target language and those who speak it.. The classroom provides a safe place within which learners can try out new forms and patterns of communication in an accepting environment. They can experiment with unfamiliar forms of address, attempt shorter conversational openings or closings than they are used to, or try longer openings or closings that initially might feel too drawn out-just to get the feel of it. The instructor and other student participants can provide feedback. Instruction should allow students to choose how much of the pragmatic norms of the culture they would like to include in their own repertoire. As a result of the activities suggested in this book they will be better able to interpret the speech of others and, therefore, to decide what they feel comfortable adopting. They will also enjoy greater insights into the target culture. Equally important, we believe that students genuinely enjoy learning about pragmatics because it is like being let into a secret! How can pragmatics be taught? We emphasize that there is not a single best way to teach pragmatics. The teaching activities we have included here represent a wide range of teaching styles and approaches. Regardless of method, however, the activities share some important pedagogical practices. Readers will find that 1) awareness activities generally begin the units described in the chapters, 2) authentic language samples are used as examples or models, and 3) input precedes interpretation by learners or production activities. Instruction in pragmatics may utilize the learners' first language as well as the target language. Awareness raising activities can profitably involve demonstrations in the L1 or L1 language samples. Demonstrations may include the use of space, such as where people stand in a line, or nonverbal gestures that accompany certain types of talk, such as shaking hands during greetings or introductions. In Berry's lesson on listening behaviors, students demonstrate active listening behavior in their own language(s) before observing native speakers. L1 language samples can serve to introduce learners to ideas in pragmatics in a context in which they have native control of the language. The samples can also serve as the basis of L1-L2 comparisons, as in Howard's lesson on politeness in which L1 and L2 business letters are compared. All languages have pragmatic systems, and with a little encouragement all learners will recognize that their L1s also have â€Å"secret rules. † Pragmatics is an area of language instruction in which teachers and students can learn together. The use of authentic language samples in this volume is important because, as Wolfson (1988) points out, in contrast to intuitions about language form or grammar, the intuitions of native speakers regarding language use are notoriously poor. Moreover, the use of authentic language included herein makes possible the teaching of pragmatics by nonnative speakers of English. Throughout this volume, the teacher-authors demonstrate many ways to collect authentic language samples on which to base lessons, including -to name just a few- tape recording messages on answering machines, using internationally broadcast English language talk shows, showing educational films, exploring appropriate world wide web sites; and saving letters and correspondence. The presentation of authentic language samples generally precedes interpretation or production activities, thus giving learners something to build on. It is important to take into account the fact that, just as teachers cannot rely on their intuition in teaching pragmatics, neither can learners do so in their second/foreign language prior to instruction. Pragmatics can be integrated into the English-language curriculum at the earliest levels: There is no reason to wait to introduce learners to the pragmatics of a second language. In fact, the imbalance between grammatical and pragmatic development may be ameliorated by early attention to pragmatics in instruction. Kontra's lesson shows how pragmatics can be introduced to learners even at beginning levels. Contents and organization Each chapter has five main sections: description of the activity, procedure, rationale, alternatives or caveats, and additional pedagogical resources. The chapters specify the level of the learners for whom the lesson was designed, the time required to conduct the lesson, resources needed, and the goal of the activity. The chapters open with a description of the activity, followed by the step-by-step procedure for implementing it with language learners. In the rationale sections, teacher-authors review the reasons behind the development of the activities. Applications of the activities to other learners, settings, modes, or areas of pragmatics; ways to expand or elaborate the activities; and caveats associated with the activities are all included. Examples appear throughout the chapters, with worksheets and overheads following the chapters. This book is organized into five main sections. The chapters in each section are ordered according to the level of the learners for whom the lesson was designed, beginning with activities for the lowest level learners and progressing to advanced learners. The first section, Awareness, presents teaching activities that focus on raising learners' awareness of pragmatic differences between languages. The sections following Awareness offer production activities. The activities that focus on production are organized by the area of pragmatics they address: conversational management, conversational openings and closings, requests, and daily life. Conversational Management includes activities that address the mechanics of conversation, such as turn taking, active listening, relevant short responses, and using hesitation markers. Conversational Openings and Closings deals with the boundaries of conversations: how to begin and end conversations both in person and on the telephone. Requests deals with the specific speech act of asking someone to do something. Finally, Assorted Speech Acts presents a variety of speech acts, including complaining during service encounters, turning down invitations, complimenting, and responding to compliments. Finally, the book has an index designed to help teachers find activities appropriate for their students. To make this easier, the index is organized around major features, such as level of learners, type and content of activity, computer use, and nonverbal communication.

Essay on Different Types of Organized Crime in Canada

Different Types of Organized Crime in Canada Organized crime in Canada has many faces. The people who engage in organized crime are as varied as the types of organized crimes they engage in. There are essentially four categories of organized crime in Canada. These four categories are: (A) Aboriginal organized crime groups, (B) Outlaw motorcycle gangs, (C) Traditional Italian Mafia crime groups, ethnic groups such as Asian Triads and Vietnamese gangs, (D) Colombian cartels and emerging crime groups from Russia and Nigeria (Beare 1996: 75). Any of these groups could potentially be linked to such illegal activity as: the trafficking of narcotics, extortion, loan-sharking, various types of frauds, smuggling of cigarettes, alcohol,†¦show more content†¦Many Aboriginal groups have begun to make ties with Asian criminal groups and the more traditional organized crime groups (Mafia). One example of this is within the Vietnamese community in Edmonton cocaine traffickers were using smuggled cigarettes as a medium of exchange for cocaine. 200,000 dollars worth of cigarettes was worth 1.1 kilograms of cocaine (Linquist 1994: 34). Aboriginal crimes tend to be crimes of opportunity. That is to say that Aboriginal groups do not go out and look for illegal ways to make money, they just sort of stumble into them. However once a successful smuggling route is established, this route is quickly taken advantage of by other criminal groups. One good or perhaps it should be considered a bad example of this is a gun smuggling operation. The operation was originally begun as a way to support the military activities of a small number of Mohawk communities. This operations clients now include a Jamaican street gang, the Montreal West Gang, and motorcycle gangs (Beare 1996: 77). The next group of interest to us is outlaw motorcycle gangs. In the old days members of this type of organized crime group were used mainly as hit men by the more sophisticated groups. Over the years however these groups have begun to take part in the more sophisticated dealings of the groups they had previously worked for. It has gotten to the point where now these motorcycle gangs are the ones hiring people to do the work that the Mafia used to hire them toShow MoreRelatedNational Intelligence Analysis1531 Words   |  7 Pagesdrugs in Canada (NIA et al., 2010). Asian, Latin American, and West African organized crime groups, functioning in Canada as well as in foreign countries, remained to be participants in smuggling and transporting heroin in Canada (NIA et al., 2010). That is not to say that Canadian organized crime groups were not participants in the heroin market; Canadian organized crime groups took part in the heroin trade as well (NIA et al., 2010). Heroin importation, h owever, Canada through different kinds ofRead More Organized Crime Essay1035 Words   |  5 Pages Organized crime is often described similarily by groups like government, the press and popular opinion. This similar definition is described through the knowledge people have gained from pop-culture movies, television shows, magazines, novels and stories from newspaper articles. Often these newspaper articles are written by authors who have little more knowledge on the structure of organized crime then what their favorite Sopranos episode dictates. It is extremely rare in todays society thatRead MoreControlling Organized Crime1363 Words   |  6 PagesControlling Organized Crime CJA384 Controlling Organized Crime Since the 1990’s, organized crime has become a problem among U.S. citizens. The Mafia was the earliest group to show its strengths of power and manipulation among citizens and business of New York City. From the time of the Mafia’s rise, other criminal organizations have surfaced using their power to corrupt personal within business for the gain of finance and political strength. In today society, one of the main question whenRead MoreOrganized Crime1084 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Organized crime can be a number of different types of things. According to Lyman Potter, (2007), â€Å"The NCIS describes organized crime as having four salient attributes: An organized crime group contains at least three people; The criminal activity the group engages in is ongoing and indefinite in duration; The group is motivated by a desire for profit or power; and, The group commits serious criminal offenses†(p.15). The group we chose is the American Mafia families of New YorkRead MoreThe Uniform Crime Report1333 Words   |  6 PagesIt is unfortunate that crime exists in our daily lives. There really is no way to stopping crime completely, no matter how many laws or punishment are present, people will continue to keep breaking rules. There are many theories of why that may be the case, for example, Caesar Lombroso and his â€Å"atavistic† theory with the Positivist School theory and how people were â€Å"born criminals†, or the Rational Choice Theo ry, devised by Cornish and Clarke, described that people could think rationally and howRead MoreThe Impact Of Violence, Crime And Drugs On Poverty978 Words   |  4 PagesVIOLENCE, CRIME AND DRUGS ON POVERTY IN KINGSTON JAMAICA I. Introduction A. Background Poverty serves as a motivation to commit crimes and crime has been a substantial contributing factor to poverty in Jamaica. †¢ In Kingston, Jamaica the violence that takes place is directed at the citizens of the island. According to the Jamaica Crime and Safety Report in 2014, almost 1200 murders took place in 2013. †¢ Jamaican on Jamaican violence is a very common type of violence in Kingston, although crimes rarelyRead MoreImproving Law Enforcements Approach to Combating Organized Crime1302 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Organized crime involves a group of people made up of several ethnicities and international unions, who coordinate as well as work in unison, apart, or in line with legal enterprises alongside political realms. Many analysts have concurred that organized crime is both an impediment to academic projects and a realistic social issue that obligates urgent solution. Strategies implemented to limit organized crime often tend to be inclined towards one form of the two approaches. One of theRead MoreThe Legal System Of The Law1559 Words   |  7 Pagesimpact on every individual. There are many types of laws such as laws that deal with crimes and laws that govern activities within the community; there are also specific laws in certain portions of the legal system. Laws are made in order to give us rules of conduct that protect everyone’s individual rights (Canada Department of Justice). How law is dealt with is seen to vary throughout different countries for the reason that each cou ntry contains different laws that are based to fit their cultureRead MoreOrganized Crime Essay1658 Words   |  7 Pagesthat happens right in front of our noses and we never know it. Organized crime is the one thing that we don’t know about that happens right out in the open. That pizza joint you go to that’s been around for years, and then burns down when it starts to go under; or those people that look all innocent and then go and do something a little suspicious. Those are both small things that happen that involve organized crime. Organized crime is all around us and has a huge effect on how society runs andRead MoreTrends In Ala Essay1708 Words   |  7 Pageseach year, is organized crime and gang activity. The needs that are created because of this are to implement more ALERT teams. These ALERT teams are made up of many different enforcement teams, intelligence units, and specialized units. This is put into place to help reduce organized criminal activity a nd ensure safety within communities throughout Alberta. Traditional Policing Traditional policing is a reactive way of policing, as it requires responding to calls after the crime has already occurred