Effective Tutor- Tutee Interaction: The Ethnography of Communication in a Tutorial Class

Effective Tutor- Tutee Interaction: The Ethnography of

Communication in a Tutorial Class

by

Lablynn Yvette F. Bautista

 A major paper submitted to Prof. Jerry R. Yapo of

University of the Philippines Los Banos

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

COMA 202: Discourse Analysis in Communication

Los Banos, Laguna

October 12, 2012

I.                   Context and Significance

       As our second language, English has become a very important aspect for every Filipinos lives. We use our English communication skills to get jobs in call centers or apply as an English tutor for foreigners who come in the country to seek guidance in learning English as their second language. For those who can’t come personally here, there are online Filipino tutors too.

      Tutoring is generally understood as instruction beyond what is provided in a normal school day. Tutoring may occur during non-instructional periods of the school day, before or after school, or during weekends. Today, tutoring can also mean as instruction for any individual who seeks for assistance on extended learning like second language learning. In this paper, using Ethnography of Communication, I will analyze the effectiveness of the Tutor- Tutee Interaction inside the tutorial class. The recorded conversation is a part of a tutorial lesson of the Instant Reader and English Proficiency Program (IREPP) Tutorial Center. The English tutor is a Filipina, while the tutee is a Korean.

      The ethnography of communication (or speaking, as it was first called) stems from the work of anthropological linguists Dell Hymes and John Gumperz (1964, 1972). Hymes, in particular, was concerned about the growing schism between studies of language structure and language use.

      The subject matter of the ethnography of communication is best illustrated in the argument of Hymes, That the study of language must concern with describing and analyzing the ability of the native speakers to use language for communication in real situations (communicative competence) rather than limiting itself to describing the potential ability of ideal speaker/listener to produce grammatically correct sentences (linguistic competence).

      For the field of applied linguistics, one of the most significant contributions made by the ethnography of communication is the identification of what a second language learner must know in order to communicate appropriately in various contexts in that language, and what the sanctions may be for any violations or omissions. There are also important applications for contrasting whole communicative systems in cross-cultural interaction and translation, and for recognizing and analyzing communicative misunderstandings (Saville-Troike, 2003).

      In this paper, I am going to concentrate on the communicative competence or the rules of speaking between the tutor and the tutee during their lesson/conversation. Since both the tutor and the tutee here are second language speaker of English, I would like to dig deeper how this fact affect their communicative competence.

II.                Problematique and Objectives

      Discussing the ethnography of communication in a tutorial class, focusing in the tutor-tutee interaction during tutorial lesson will be of great help to identify additional factors in relation to providing effective tutoring. With two different cultural backgrounds yet both are second language speaker.

      Specifically, this paper hopes to achieve the following objectives:

1.      To identify the different elements of ethnography of communication in this study.  

2.      To analyze the communicative and linguistic competence of the tutor and the tutee.

3.      To determine the factors (in relation to ethnography of communication) affecting the effective interaction between the tutor and the tutee.

III.             Theoretical Framework

                The theoretical framework that guides this study is ethnography of communication. By using competing perspectives, I am able to develop uncharted perspectives in identifying its elements in the study, to dig deeper on the communicative and linguistic competence of the tutor and the tutee which shows the factors that may affect effective tutoring.

IV.             Analysis and Interpretation

Tutorial Class 1: The first four minutes of the lesson as recorded:

Tutorial Class 2: The first two minutes of the lesson as recorded:

This is a part of the Listening and Comprehension Drills of the student. Tutor: Singing “The Impossible Dream”. Student: It’s good. Tutor: Yes. Thank you, but women have a different pitch but these are for the men. Usually men sing it, it’s too high for a woman but you can use it. So the one I sent you is the same one, the file. If you are able to download it, then good, if not no problem I can just copy and just transfer it to your computer. So now tell me the meaning? Explain to me the meaning. What is the song all about? What do you think is the meaning of the song? What is your understanding from the lyrics? Student: Very quiet (not very audible since the student is a Korean, sometimes he still have difficulty with pronouncing English word) Tutor: Ok, what else? Student: ______ (not audible). Honor all. Teacher: You mean honor. It’s all about honor. It’s all about justice. What else? It’s all about a man who wants to dream of a peaceful life. Student: This one is life of Don Quixote? Tutor: Maybe. Don Quixote de Lamantia is his full name. I think this is about his life. That’s why the title is impossible. If you notice, impossible, unbeatable, unbearable, these are the things that are not possible, but a man like Don Quixote would do it, in order for justice and honor to will. So, it’s like a man which or desire to have a good life. And then, whatever happens to him, he will do it. So it’s like. How do we call it? A song of inspiration. Student: Yeah. Very. Tutor: If you sing it especially with all your heart and you sing it very well the message is really like a… It brings goose (bumps) especially Elvis Presley when you listen to him sing. It’s like you feel the, especially when he was, he died, and before he died he had a, a like that. _______ (not audible). Also Frank Sinatra, a very very famous American singer also died. Ok, there. So this is your copy (lyrics of the song). Student: Ok, thank you. Tutor: And then ah, I think you’re suggestion is good and every, what do you like, every week, every month you have a song or what’s your plan? Student: Every two weeks Tutor: Every two weeks? Yeah but before I give you a new song you have to sing first. Student: Why? Tutor: Because you have to sing it first. How do I know if it’s ok? Alright? So when are you planning to sing?  Student: (Face not sure) Tutor: Ahahaha (laughs). After having a copy of that? Ok. It’s a good song, you like it? Student: (Nodded) Tutor: I like it too.

They were talking about an event that the student attended. This is a part of the Conversation Drills of the student. Tutor: But the women are very good? Student: The women are very good. Very good Tutor: But have you seen some male speakers who are good speaker? Were there male? Student: Its talk about topic is man. (The student means the one who talks in front) He is a scientist in IRRI , his pronunciation is like eh, Filipino. Tutor: Filipino? Ahahaha, Philippine English? Student: Yeah. Philippine English. Tutor: I see. Ok but ah.. What about the social networking? (The one who discuss it) Student: A woman. Maybe she is from India. Tutor: Oh really, so there are also other foreigners? Student: Yeah. Of course. Tutor: That’s good, you saw lot of foreigners. Student: She speak, her voice is very modulated. Her form of speaking, very modulated. Tutor: Ok Student: Some are Americans. A woman from America. She check, corrected grammar. Tutor: Yeah. That’s how they are. Were you sad? Student: No. Tutor: It’s ok? It’s a good thing. That’s great. It’s fine with you. That’s why it scary because if you’re a first timer and you talk in front of them they will comment. Student: I want to challenge her. Tutor: Why not?

The following are the key terms in this paper:

            Speech Community: Instant Reader and English Proficiency Program (IREPP)                                                   Tutorial Center.

            Speech Situation: Tutorial Class

            Speech Event: Tutorial Lesson: Listening and Conversation Drills

            Speech Act: Questions and Answers

            The mnemonic device: SPEAKING encodes the different elements needed for an adequate ethnography of communication. Each letter of the word SPEAKING represents an element. Below is an analysis of the speech events of this study.

Elements	Tutorial Class 1 & 2
Setting	Private, usually formal situation but can also be informal since its a one on one tutorial class
Participant	At least two, the tutor and a tutee
Ends	English language learning
Acts	Based on the lesson, since the lesson is about listening and conversation, question and answers about the topic
Key	Serious but can also be casual, depending on the flow of the conversation
Instrumentalities	Oral speech
Norms	Interpreted as knowledgeable
Genres	Song, storytelling (sharing about what happened in the event)

      Based on the recorded conversation, we can see that the linguistic competence of the tutor is very far in terms of grammar rules than the tutee. However, their communicative competence is almost the same. On the first recording, the tutee has minimal response, but in the second recording he is more active in answering the questions of his tutor. Even though tutee’s responses are almost all grammatically wrong, his tutor still understands him.

e.g. Tutorial Class 1

      Student: ______ (not audible). Honor all.

      Teacher: You mean honor. It’s all about honor. It’s all about justice. What else?

      Tutorial Class 2

      Student: Its talk about topic is man. (The student means the one who talks in front) He is a scientist in IRRI , his pronunciation is like eh, Filipino.

      Tutor: Filipino? Ahahaha, Philippine English?

Student: Yeah. Philippine English.

      I guess one important factor which causes this tutorial class to be effective is because the tutor and the tutee are both second language speaker. Even though, the tutor has a better linguistic competence, she was still able to understand the tutee even though his grammar and pronunciation is incorrect and even not audible at times. Another factor too is their age bracket and professional status, with the song Impossible Dream, they both appreciate it and since the tutee is already a professional, even though he is at times very critical like when he somewhat criticize the Filipino with a different accent in speaking English. In a situation like this, we can see that communicative competence is much needed for the tutor to understand her student. To be able to correct his mistakes, the tutor need to give her full attention to each word and sentence the student will utter.

V.  Summary and Conclusions

      To understand someone better, sometimes we need to see ourselves in his/her situation. I would like to believe that beside our English communication skills and cheaper tuition fee here, another reason why foreigners chose to study under a Filipino tutor is because of our patience and great understanding. For me, based on my observation for the last two months and own experience too when talking to foreigners, they appreciate that we understand them, we don’t laugh at their mistakes in speaking the English language and instead correct it immediately.

      Even though, we have a different culture from them, being a second language speaker ourselves, we understand them. We also start in school not knowing how to speak and write in English (well, I guess for those who used our local language since we were born not until we have our formal education). Honestly, even native speakers themselves commit mistakes in using any language, how much more the second language user. Language learning as unending process too, since language evolves.

      To have an effective tutor-tutee interaction, beside the tutor’s readiness and the student’s participation, communicative competence is also very important.

VI.             Implications and Recommendations

      The ethnography of communication has had substantial impact in education and delivery of other social services (Saville-Troike, 2003). All of us have different level of communicative competence and it can help us to understand each other better. However, it doesn’t mean that we don’t need our linguistic competence anymore. I still believe we need to improve it if needed for important purposes (e.g. formal writing).

      A further study regarding the following subjects can be made:

1.       Other speech events that can be found inside a tutorial class and be analyzed further using ethnography of communication.

2.      Problems that occur if the tutor or the tutee has low communicative competence.

3.      Other factors (in relation to ethnography of communication) that were not discuss in this paper which affect tutor-tutee interaction.

VII.          References:

Cameron, D. (2001). Working with Spoken Discourse. London, California, New Delhi. SAGE Publications

Saville-Troike, M. (2003). The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction. USA, UK, Australia, Germany. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to Discourse Analysis. Massachusetts. Blakwell Punlishers