Speech Acts Bibliography:
Giving Gifts
DuFon, M. (2003). Gift giving in Indonesian: A model for teaching pragmatic routines in the foreign language classroom of the less commonly taught languages. In A. Martínez Flor, E. Usó Juan, & A. Fernández Guerra (Eds.), Pragmatic competence and foreign language teaching (pp. 109-131). Castelló de la Plana, Spain: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I.
Data from group discussions and dialog journals are used to identify points of confusion that lead learners of Indonesian to question the meanings associated with particular expressions and actions used in gift-giving such that this routine might need to be taught in the classroom. Among teaching techniques she includes frame analysis, critical incidents, and interviewing native speakers. She notes that teachers of Indonesian may not be natives and their intuitions may be inaccurate -- hence, the need not to set themselves up as authorities but as learners as well. In this instance, the data are from a six-month study abroad experience in Indonesia. She reports on the experiences of six learners, 4 native speakers of English and two of Japanese. They kept diaries which contributed to discussion in identifying "rich points" in sorting out the problematic aspects of a routine such as gift giving. They would look at critical incidents and use a frame analysis. Such activities would provide learners with strategies for dealing with other "rich points" they might encounter. Frame analysis entails making a list of what happened in chronological order, so as to see the structure of the routine or the sequence of frames, the presence or absence of frames, the content of frames, and so forth. What was the occasion? What was the gift? Was it wrapped in gift paper? Was it opened in the giver's presence? What was the relationship of the participants?