SPEECH EVENT!

Speech Event is a very interesting topic, perhaps because i can relate to it easily. Just like speech acts, they are occurances in everyday lives. Examples include canteen talks, service encounters etc. Even if i do not experience such processes myself, i witness them around me, watch similar scenes on TV or even read about them.

In our second lecture-tutorial session, we understood what speech events are and even learnt to analyse them in their components. As can be concluded, there are different ways of doing things in different culture. For e.g. a chinese informal dinner invitation can be totally different from that of an american's. Patterns can be identified.

Halfway through the session i suddenly had an idea. I was thinking of the possibility of doing 'Pre-match Prep Talk' or 'Coaching Words'. I am a sports player and was trained under a few different coaches before. Each coach has different expectations for the team and will tend to say different things to his/her players right before a game or halfway through one. But ultimately the aim is to psych the players up and motivate them to put up a good fight. There are several ways to do this too: s/he may shout at you, s/he may just utter a word or two.

Hmm..how about let me just do a short analysis of this type of speech event:

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GENRE - Coach's Pre Talk

PURPOSE - To motivate the team players. To emphasize the main strategies for gameplay.

SETTING - At the respective sports game. Players clustered around Coach at bench area.

KEY - Serious. Tense.

PARTICIPANTS - Coach. Players.

MESSAGE FORM - Spoken language of their own. Non-verbal cues such as pointing and drawing.

ACT SEQUENCE - 1)Opening/Gathering 2)Explain Strategies 3)Motivational Talk 4)Closing

RULES FOR INTERACTION - It's minutes away from the start of the game, players should be attentive to the Coach. Players should ask constructive questions to clarify.

NORMS OF INTERPRETATION - Respect should be given to the Coach, someone superior, because you take orders from him/her. Clarification of gameplay is important so as not to be blur during the game.
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Yeap that's about it. Looks feasible to me. I guess more research has to be done to further confirm the feasibility. Methodology is abit hard though. Aint all that easy hunting for matches to spectate at this time and even be close enough to 'eavesdrop' on the Coaches' commands.

MELISSA KHOO