1. Krishna Seunarinesingh
Speech Act Theory
Krishna Seunarinesingh

2. Today’s Focus
Speech Act Theory (Searle)

3. Reminder
Gee (1976) speaks about big D discourse and little d discourse
Big D refers to language + other nonlinguistic elements, which can help people perform an identity, and get things done in the social world. It also shapes how we think about and do things.
Little d discourse is language in interaction, such as conversation between people.

4. Language in Use: Speech Act Theory
J.L. Austin (1962) proposed that we do things with words
John Searle, his student, elaborated his ideas into a formal theory of speech acts.
He proposed FIVE major speech acts, which he said we use to transact everyday business>>>>>>
Speech act theory is not connected to script formulation, except in so far as scripts may be built up using particular speech acts.

5. Searle’s Speech Acts Assertives [taken to be true]
Commissives [promises]
Declaratives [performatives]
Directives [imperatives]
Expressives [emotives]
Jaworowska’s (n.d.) explanation
Follow the link to Jaworoska’s page for an explanation for the terms.

6. EXPLANATION Assertives Commissives Declaratives Directives Expressives
Statements speakers make which express how they think things ARE in the world. For example, “The girls in this school are angels. You can get them to do anything.” And, “My boss is a complete hog. He could only see when other people running away, but not when he pardners doing it.”
A commissive is a promise. The speaker commits him/herself to doing something. “If you apply yourself to the work, and send me your SBA drafts, I will help you work things out. Don’t despair.” And, “There is no place for bullies and bullying at this school because I will personally deal with any complaint about a child being bullied.”
Also known as performatives. Through use of these words, speakers bring something into reality, if the speakers have the authority to make the utterance. A priest says, “I now pronounce you…” The marriage comes into being because the priest is an authorized marriage officer. “You are suspended for x days.” The principal has the authority to bring the state of being suspended into being.
These are orders or requests. Speakers use these to get other persons to do something. In an unruly class: “Settle down..3,2,1..”
And, “Bring your PE uniform to school on Tuesdays when we have practical.”
And, “Can you lend me your lecture notes for EDFA5500?”
Communicate how the speaker feels about things in the world.

7. Application. For you to think about
What’s interesting is this: what kinds of assertions do you typically make about your students, colleagues etc? what does these assertions says about the quality of your work environment?
What kinds of expressives do you and your colleagues make about students, parents, and staff at your school?
Do you find yourself ever having to make negative directives to students? How regularly do these happen? And, what does this say about your environment?

8. Speech Acts in use
Make one statement (to yourself) you believe to be true about your students or school.
Which speech act is this? See answer in the slide note below.
This is an example of an assertive.

9. Speech Acts Students Hear
Let’s look at the emotional atmosphere existing at several relatively low performing schools where teacher talk is apparently very important.
As we read the transcripts, look out for the speech acts students say their teachers use.
The transcripts are in “Language Foundations Outline and are labelled, “Blackhead chicken narrative.”

10. Speech Acts & Caring Discourse
why do the students have such a positive attitude to school and teachers, though they are at a low performing school? What speech act/s are they responding to?
If I use speech act theory, it provides me with an explanatory framework for understanding how students have come to RECEIVE a specific set of messages about themselves, schooling, and their teachers.
What are these messages that the children received when the teacher called them blackhead chicken?

11. Application 2 What speech acts are most prevalent in your classrooms?
When staff meets in your school, what are the predominant speech acts in use? How do these affect the tone of meetings?
If your school is extremely efficient at what it does, and has an excellent reputation, which speech acts do you find used relatively rarely?

12. Application 3
Since speech acts are both language in use (little d discourse), as well as big D discourse, can you figure out what speech acts people tend to use when they want to
Make others feel welcome and included?
Convince others that the education system is built to promote human development, equity, etc.?
Commodify education and make skills tradable?
Answers are in the slide notes below.
Welcoming speech will probably be assertives and emotives
Convincing others typically uses assertives, as the speaker asserts things about ‘reality’.
Education is comodified primarily through assertives and commissives. For example, certification is equated with education and promises are made about people’s ability to climb the career ladder if they have particular (tradable) skills.

13. Summary
Speech acts are utterances that have both an INTENTION and an EFFECT
There are 5 major speech acts, as proposed by John Searle
Speech acts enable us to comment on our realities, and attempt to control/shape our world.

14. References
Edwards, D. (1994). Script formulations. An analysis of event descriptions in conversation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 13, [available using a Google search]
Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech Acts. An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [available from Main Library]