Abstract: This workshop will examine the ties between culture and the use of communication strategies in L1 and will look at the extent to which communication strategies employed in a learner L1 transfer naturally to English. It will then look at the two broad categories of communication strategies, affective strategies and management strategies. Participants will be asked to consider the possibility that students from different cultural backgrounds may differ in their need to be introduced to communication strategies. The use of affective strategies may differ between speakers from different cultures and how the use of management strategies may be affected by cultural differences in the employment of politeness strategies. Finally, the workshop will examine whether or not learners of English within an Asian context benefit from the explicit teaching of communication strategies and if so how these strategies might be introduced to learners.
Biography: Alastair Graham-Marr, M. Appl. Ling., has been teaching in Japan for over 20 years. He has presented at conferences in Thailand, the UAE, the US, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil and is a frequent presenter in Japan. For the past five years he has been an instructor on the David English House / OUP Certificate in Teaching Japanese Students course. Alastair is also author of Communication Spotlight: Speaking Strategies & Listening Skills, a series of textbooks for Oral Communication classes for high-school and college level students and is a full time teacher at Tokai University in Kanagawa.
