methods

Methods of Investigation

To learn how to participate in conversation, you will have to observe it, ba a part of it, think about it, and learn from your experiences. Interaction is different than other types of things you learn in English, such as grammar or writing skills, because there is a limit to how much a teacher can teach you in the classroom. The question "How do people interact in English?" has no definite answer. It varies from person to person, situation to situation. Therefore, you must learn from experience in your own environment to find what's most useful for you. This means forming your own questions and pursuing the answer yourself--the most successful language learners are careful observers. This also means changing your habits in order to apply what you learn. Only when you can do these things will you get the result that you want.

Investigation Procedure
These methods are similar to those used by anthropologists to investigate new cultures. They are also useful for uncovering patterns of language use. Let's look at an example and take it through the five basic steps:

For example, have you ever noticed that Americans seem to give a lot of compliments to each other? Why do they do this? Do they really mean it? Who should you give them to? Here is an example of how to pursue an answer to these questions:

1. Predict: What do you believe you know about this type of speech behavior? What do you expect
expect to find? Discuss your prediction with your classmates or teacher.

Maybe you think that, for Americans, giving compliments is just a habit, like saying "Hello" and they don't really mean it. Also, you get the feeling women give compliments to each other more often than men.

2. Plan: Where do you think you can observe this behavior or find this information? You can use
observation or your own experience, interviews of native speakers to find out what they would say or
react, or you can use resources like books or the Internet.

To try to find out if your impressions are true, you need a plan. Maybe you could go to a women's' clothing store at the mall and listen. Or you could prepare a list of questions about complimenting behaviors and ask different native speakers. You could even get an example on tape and ask native speakers how they feel about it from a cultural point of view. Remember, there are many different ways to look at any question. What different ways can you think of?

3. Collect Data: Go out and get your information, from different sources if you can.

This is where you go out and follow your plan. See the Warning below. Remember, you may have to change your plan or try it more than once for it to work.

4. Analyze: What did you find out? What do you think you learned? Did you
uncover any patterns? In this step, be ready to report your insights to your classmates and teacher.
Get their feedback to help you develop your own ideas.

Look carefully at the data you collected. What do you see? Are there any patterns? Did you uncover anything you didn't already know? Also, consider why you think the ideas you formed are true. How did you arrive at your conclusions? If you're having trouble at this point, you may want to ask your teacher or another native speaker.

5. Reformulate: This is especially important. How is what you've learned useful for you? How
can you reformulate your own behavior in interaction to make it more appropriate?

So now you've uncovered some interesting and useful information. How can you or other students use it? What should you do? How can this help you improve your conversational skills?

Warning: This process may not be as easy as these five steps make it seem. Remember, however, that the answers are there if you learn how to look. Some helpful advice I can give you is:

"Right" and "wrong" answers may not be clear. Different native speakers have different ways of doing the same thing.
You may need to investigate the same speech behavior more than once and from more than one source to get a good idea.
Collaborate with your classmates and check with your teacher often. This will help you gather more ideas form better guesses about what you are investigating.
Think about how you are looking at or investigating a question. Is there a better way? Can you look at the same question from another point of view? This may help you find what you are looking for.

Additional Reading

Check out Discovering Characteristics of Another Culture for more advice on finding what you're looking for.

How can you make contact with native speakers? Try joining a club. A listing of all of the clubs and student organizations at UF can be found at Student Clubs and Organizations.

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