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F U R T H E R I S S U E S I N L E A R N I N G , T E A C H I N G , A N D A S S E S S M E N T
too long for you (since you start working early in the morning), and you know
from experience that it is difficult to cut out early. How do you decline the
invitation?
(b) Your colleague asks you to edit an article for him/her in English for publication 
in your school’s electronic bulletin. Not only is your time very limited, but also 
you know s/he is a weak writer both conceptually and in terms of language
proficiency. You absolutely need to turn this one down without offending
him/her. How do you do it?
Find someone who is a competent speaker of the language in that speech community
and gather information from this person about refusals. Check with this informant as to
some acceptable ways to perform each of the two refusals above, depending on who
you are (age, status, gender, role in the relationship, and personal consequences of
refusing) and who the recipient is.
Activity 12.2 Strategies for performing speech acts
Objectives
1
You will be able to identify the strategies that you use in performing a speech act.
2
You will be able to identify the strategies that others use for learning and
performing speech acts.
Suggested time:
45 minutes.
Materials:
■
Task sheet, “Performing speech acts,” with speech acts vignettes;
■
the “Strategies for Performing Speech Acts” section from the Taxonomy of
Learner Strategies for Acquiring Speech Acts in this chapter.
Directions
1
Select one of the compliment or refusal vignettes provided on the Task sheet and
perform it in the L2 with a competent L2 speaking partner.
2
While in the data collection phase, have the “Strategies for Performing Speech
Acts” section of the Taxonomy of Learner Strategies handy and select strategies
from it to assist you in completing the task. For example, see if you are able to 
use one or more monitoring strategies to determine how well you performed the
speech act.

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S T R A T E G I E S F O R L E A R N I N G A N D P E R F O R M I N G S P E E C H A C T S
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3
As you perform the speech act, pay attention to the strategies that you use to
select and perform the act appropriately.
4
Also pay attention to the strategies that your partner uses.
5
When the speech acts interaction comes to a natural conclusion, share insights 
with each other regarding the interaction. Pay attention to what you might have
learned about the interaction which you could pass on to your students regarding
their efforts to use speech act material.
Discussion/wrap-up
Review the processes you went through in this activity. Consider the extent to which
this exercise helped you to sharpen your understanding of the strategies involved in
performing a speech act effectively. Also identify any challenges you encountered. How
might you encourage your students to use these strategies in their future language
learning?
Task sheet: Performing speech acts
Apologizing in an L2
(a) You need to report back to a friend about a limited edition of a book on the
history of jazz in New Orleans that he lent you last week. It accidentally slipped
out of your bag on the bus, and when you called the Lost and Found, they said 
no one had turned it in.
(b) You really enjoyed the meal that your colleague cooked for you and your spouse
on Saturday night. It wasn’t until the end of the next week that you remembered
you hadn’t thanked her properly for the evening. You come to her office to
apologize for that oversight.
Complaining in an L2
(a) You go to a friend’s party but are having difficulty staying there because there is
so much smoking. The music is also a problem for you since you are sensitive to
loud noise. You could just cut out but decide instead to stay because you like this
friend, but you feel the need to complain to her about the excessive smoking and
the decibel level of the music.
(b) You and your date have been waiting over 45 minutes for your meal to be served
at a fancy downtown restaurant. You usually enjoy a leisurely meal, but this
evening you have theater tickets and the show is going to start in less than an
hour. You specifically chose this restaurant because the last time that you ate
there, your meal came promptly. You feel the need to complain to the waiter
about the excessive delay.

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