Some Pedagogical Implications of Speech Act Theory: The Interpersonal Function in the First Six Weeks of Elementary German

Abstract

Recent issues of The Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, and Die Unterrichtspraxis have brought to a large audience of practicing language teachers cogent definitions of the goals of communicative language teaching and provocative descriptions of techniques and methods.' Yet, one wonders whether this audience has found answers to the most frequent questions at seminars on the subject: is all very well and good for advanced classes, but what do you do at the beginning stages? and How do you plan a syllabus to assure that will be included? This article will attempt to provide a partial answer to these questions and to illustrate one aspect of functional in the context of a first-year course in German at the university level. Without going deeply into the debate over the role of grammar in a communicative syllabus, we submit that to advocate the abandonment of in the communicative syllabus is to display a basic misunderstanding of the nature of language. Regardless of the specific context of situation, any verbal attempt to communicate meaning necessarily involves language and therefore entails grammar of one kind or another. If communicative goals and proficiency are to be achieved in any meaningful way, the grammar or linguistic basis of new materials and syllabi will have to be much more sophisticated than that reflected by most present-day textbooks.