Slowly sinking in (or, A new doc student sees the light)

Sometimes on the steep learning of becoming a doc student, there are things that don't quite fit in yet with your thinking. Things you haven't connected to other things yet. Terms you've heard but barely understood. I know you've been there, too, right?

Doing my reading at 2 a.m. on Friday night (like only a crazy doc student would), I had one of those a-ha! moments. Alas, the term "ethnography of communication" suddenly started to make sense...

The wheels in my brain starting turning as I find myself highlighting with abandon in Godly & Carpenter, and Werner's (2007) description of the methods they used to explore the classroom routine of Daily Oral Language ("I'll speak in in proper slang": Language ideologies in a daily editing activity," RRQ). Generally, this was an ethnography of how teachers and students understand language in this classroom. But, more specifically, it was concerned with describing pattern of language use that is considered appropriate communication in this particular context. For this reason, the authors consider this an "ethnography of communication." [I know you more experienced grad students might be laughing at me for not having figured this out sooner. Like, duh, right?] It's ethnography and discourse analysis all in one!

Who else is having flashbacks to sociolinguistics last semester? We did some reading in that course about "ethnography of communication." This brings me back to my first point. I didn't really having anything to connect that term when I first heard it, and I felt like it went over my head. So now, dragging out my binder, here's a review of what I didn't fully understand the first time around about:

* Dell Hymes extended sociolinguistics (what he called "ethnography of communication") to include the notion of communicative competence. He endeavored to understand the rules of speaking within a community. Thus, his analysis of speech communication analyzed speech situations, acts , and events. This was a really different methodology than the Chomsky-inspired linguistics that looked at isolated sentences. (see Jaworksi & Couplan, 1999)

* According to Hymes, ethnography of communication must investigate the use of language in the context of the situation. It must take as its context a community and investigate its communicative activities. Key ideas: look at ways of speaking, fluent speaker, speech situation, speech act, components of speech events and acts, rules of speaking, and functions of speech (see Hymes, 1994).

* This all has to do with how groups of speakers using language in socially and culturally appropriate ways (for their group).

Having at last read some ethnographies, it suddenly makes a lot more sense what "ethnography of communication" means. Neat.

But it gets better. Godley, Carpenter, & Werner (2007) also pull on Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the macrolevel context (social, cultural, historical). They say that combining ethnography of communication with examination of ideologies is a "recent trend." Wow. Talk about smart.

Other "ethnography of communication" pieces that I'm enamored with lately:

* Diane Downer Anderson's (2008) "The elementary persuasive letter: Two cases of situated competence, strategy, and agency." Research in the Teaching of English, 42(3), 270-314). This one also takes a sort of critical perspective. I'm still processing it all... Fantastic.

* Debbie Rowe's (1989) "Author/audience interaction in the preschool." This one documents social interaction around the preschool writing table and indicates what students learn about the roles of author and audience. Brilliant.

Can I grow up to be as smart as Debbie Rowe?
Will I ever be smart enough to do an "ethnography of communication"?

For now, I'll settle for understanding what it is. Let is slowly sink it...
For later, I'd like to figure out how to do it!