Part of what makes a great communicator is knowing how to interact with people according to the specific situation. In this video, I walk you through the mnemonic SPEAKING, a framework that the sociolinguist Dell Hymes created. This easy-to-remember acronym will help you determine how to speak to anyone across various cultures and social situations!
Our communication – the way we convey a message to an interlocutor – will differ according to a number of things.
Hymes created framework using the acronym SPEAKING to demonstrate that language needs to be studied within the appropriate cultural context.
The sociolinguist Dell Hymes created a framework using the acronym SPEAKING to demonstrate that language needs to be studied within the appropriate cultural context.
There is no one-size-fits-all for communication.
How to Speak up in any Situation using the SPEAKING Model from Dell Hymes
S – scene and setting – physical location of the speech
P – participants – people who are speaking
E – ends – the purpose or reason of the speaking
A – act sequence – speech acts and the order they are presented in
K – key – the way the speaking is performed (tone, manner, delivery)
I – instrumentalities – the mode of communication used
N – norms of interaction – the social rules of what is proper in conversation
G – genre – the type of speech act or event (gossip, jokes, conversations) within the culture
The elements of the framework are all culturally dependent, which illustrates that learning a language is also about learning the culture.
Happy Explearning 🌠
