How to do things with words: Speech acts in education

Abstract

Originating from philosophy and science, many different ideas have made their way into educational policies. Educational policies often take such ideas completely out of context, and enforce them as general norms to every aspect of education; even opposing ideals make their way into school's curricula, teaching techniques, assignments, and procedures. Meanwhile, inside the actual classrooms, teachers and students are left in limbo, trying to comply with, techniques, evaluation forms and a growing technical educational vocabulary. Here I would like to propose an antidote to this absurdity by reminding us what teachers and students already know. Such an antidote can be found in J. L. Austin's speech act theory. In this paper, I propose we revisit speech act theory and treat it as an educational theory. That might help us dismantle false dichotomies troubling education for decades. The point is not that the discussion over educational policies and priorities should stop, but that it should be kept in appropriate perspective. A modified speech act theory can help us facilitate such a perspective.

Teacher Talk in Scientific Approach in EFL Classroom: A Speech Acts Perspective

“…Therefore, communication between teacher and students in the classroom should be noteworthy since it has significant role in language learning. Gasparatou (2018) believes that speech act theory should be relevant to whole types of human communication, especially in the classroom. Furthermore, Gasparatou (2018) argues that all dimensions of speech act theory can be provided in education:…”

Exploring Teachers' Practical Decision Making in Terms of Teaching Procedures

“…According to Gasparatou (2018), speech actions theory must be applicable to all forms of interpersonal communication, particularly in the classroom. It is evident from observation that the teacher frequently automatically comments "excellent work" when children succeed in learning, demonstrating how the teacher's reflex on what the teacher sees is quite clear.…”

Akty mowy — rozwój teorii w XXI wieku (rozpoznanie interdyscyplinarne)

“…W piśmiennictwie anglojęzycznym również obecne są liczne prace dotyczące wykorzystywania aktów mowy w pedagogice. W tych badaniach dostrzec można zarówno perspektywę deskryptywną, na przykład w Speech Acts of Classroom Interaction (Azhari 2018), Directive Speech Acts in Academic Discourse: Ethnography of Communication from Gen-der Perspective in Higher Education (Fatma et al 2020), jak i preskryptywną, obecną na przykład w pracach Reni Gasparatou: Emotional Speech Acts and the Educational Perlocutions of Speech (Gasparatou 2016) czy How to do things with words: Speech acts in education (Gasparatou 2018). Gasparatou koncentruje się między innymi na tym, w jaki sposób emocje nauczyciela modyfikują efekt perlokucyjny komunikacji.…”