Project 14 - Tackling Talk in Government Departments/Agencies
What language functions are needed to talk to people in government departments or agencies?
Do you need some extra information on functions of language, language for learning or social interaction? Interactions with service agencies are successful because the conversants follow a set of rules for facilitating communcation. These are described in the section on looking at language pragmatically. In this project you are able to observe how familiar your students are with these rules of interaction.
Research Questions:
1. What language functions are needed when talking to people in a government departments (eg. Centrelink, HomesWest, etc.)?
2. Do your students currently have control of these functions?
3. What additional functions do your students still need to be able to communicate successfully in this type of speech environment?
Method:
- Review the range of language functions you observed in this environment (e.g., answering questions, explaining situations, etc)
- Note in your DWP your students' current abilities with these language functions.
- Note how you would normally record your assessment of these functions, e.g., would you:
- note them as anecdotes,
- record them in a portfolio,
- conduct a formal test,
- note them in your DWP, or
- not normally assess or record them.