I Think So Too: Assessments and Agreements

Page No.: 
225
Writer(s): 
John Campbell-Larsen, Kyoto Women’s University

Reference Data:

Campbell-Larsen, J. (2016). I think so too: Assessments and agreements. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the learner. Tokyo: JALT.

Conversation is the primary use of language in society. Conversationalists routinely suffuse their talk with assessments of people, places, actions, and situations. The other participants respond to these assessments, most commonly by agreement (see Pomerantz, 1984). However, the manner in which assessments and agreements are done in English is far from straightforward. This paper describes 2 related aspects of assessing and agreeing with assessments that are relevant to language teaching in a Japanese context. First, the differing interactional practices of English and Japanese (namely repetition and upgrade) are described. Second, some semantic and usage aspects of assessing adjectives are investigated. The author concludes with some suggestions for practical classroom activities.

会話は社会における主な用途であり,たいてい人、場所、行動や状況などについて会話します。相手は通常内容に賛同します(Pomerantz, 1984)。しかし意見と賛同ではかけ離れており複雑です。本稿では、日本の英語教育に関連する意見と賛同の二つの側面を検討します。まず日本語と英語間の相互作用的慣行の違い(反復とより強い形容詞)を、いくつかの使用法と意味の側面を調査し記載しています。最後に授業内のアクティビティとして提案します。

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