Pragmatic and linguistic politeness issues in CRM
Pragmatic and linguistic politeness issues in CRM VICKI HOLLETT ESP English for Specific Purposes A hangar flyer Understanding intentions ATC: "Cessna G-‐ABCD. What are your inten6ons? " Cessna: "To get my Commercial Pilots Licence and Instrument Ra6ng. ATC: "I meant in the next five minutes not years." Pragmatics The study of invisible meaning – George Yule Meanings from context Tower: "November 2115L, are you a Cessna?" 2115L: "No, sir... I am a male Hispanic." Meanings change with context Cessna: "Jones tower, Cessna 12345, student pilot, I am out of fuel." Tower: "Roger Cessna 12345, reduce airspeed to best glide!! Do you have the airfield in sight?!?!!" Cessna: "Uh...tower, I am on the south ramp; I just want to know where the fuel truck is." Linguistic politeness + POSITIVE POLITENESS Showing approval, warmth, friendliness, openness, solidarity… -‐ NEGATIVE POLITENESS Not imposing, not judging, not intruding… Pragmatics The study of invisible meaning – George Yule The study of how we don’t say what we mean -‐ Anon Opening or attention getter Address the individual. "Captain Smith," or "Jim," - use whatever name or title will get the person's attention. State your concern directly and with the appropriate emotion Express your analysis of the situation in a direct manner while owning your emotions about it. "I'm concerned that we may not have enough fuel to fly around this storm system." + urgency, frustration, casualness Require a response Don’t let other person off hook till you’ve got a response State a solution if you have one "Let's divert to another airport and refuel." Obtain agreement "Does that sound good to you, Captain?" United Airline Flight 232 – Sioux City Crash, 1989 DC 10 -‐ 296 people on board, 111 died in the accident, 185 survived Clear and direct communication First officer: “What’s the hydraulic quan6ty?" Flight Engineer: “We’re down to zero" First officer: “On all of them?" Flight Engineer: “All of them" Extract 1 First officer: “Wonder about the outboard ailerons. If we put some flaps out, you think that would give us li]?" Flight Engineer: “God, I hate to do anything." First officer: “Well, we’re going to have to do something.” ‘No’ is a dispreferred response Disagreeme nts Disagreements are characterized by: ◦ hesitancy ◦ claims of parWal agreement ◦ challenging quesWons Challenging / Checking Captain: “We don’t have any brakes" First officer: “No brakes?" Captain: “Well, we have some brakes [but not much]" Extract 2 Captain: “See what you can see back there [in the cabin], will ya?“ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ (and later) -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ Captain: “Ah, start dumping fuel, will ya? Just hit the quick dump. Let’s get the weight down as low as [we] can…" Minimize the imposiWon Requests Characterized by: ◦ miWgaWon ◦ pre-‐moves ◦ whimperaWves (in anglo Englishes) Pre-move Training Pilot: “When you get the chance, ask them [Sioux City Approach] how far out we are“ Captain: [to approach] “How far are we from the airport…now?" Lots of imperatives Captain: “Unlock the door” -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ First Officer: “Don’t pull the throcles off” -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ Jumpseat captain: “Get this thing down” Whimperatives Start dumping fuel, will you? Can you start dumping fuel? Could you possibly start dumping fuel? Would you mind starting to dump fuel? Extract 3 Flight engineer: “Do you want this seat?“ Training pilot: “Yes, do you mind?” Flight engineer: “I don’t mind.” Extract 4 Captain: “Goca put some flaps and see if it’ll help.” First Officer: “You want them now?” Captain: “What the hell. Let’s do it. We can’t get any worse than we are.” Commands, suggestions, requests “Put the flaps out.” Order/InstrucWon “Shall we put the flaps out?” SuggesWon “Can you put the flaps out?” Request Other alternatives “Flaps 15” “We want to extend the flaps” “Don’t forget to put the flaps out” “I can’t reach the flap handle” “Are the flaps out?” “See what that handle does” But is this always true? Or is it that there’s a Wme for both? Directness = good Ambiguity = bad Extract 4 (again) Captain: “Goca put some flaps and see if it’ll help.” First Officer: “You want them now?” Captain: “What the hell. Let’s do it. We can’t get any worse than we are.” Extract 5 Captain: “We’re not gonna make the runway fellas. We’re gonna have to ditch this son of a bitch and hope for the best.” Social niceties Captain: “My name’s Al Haynes.” Training pilot: “Hi All. Denny Fitch.” Captain: “How do you do, Denny?” Training pilot: “I’ll tell you what, we’ll have a beer when this is done.” Captain: “Well, I don’t drink but I’ll sure as hell have one.” Jokes Captain: [Laughs]“We didn’t do this thing on my last [performance check in a simulator].” Cockpit sound: [Laughter] The sterile cockpit A Wme and a place…. Callibrating for competence Packaging meanings differently for different people Picture source: hep://www.flickr.com/photos/vitorcasWllo/2994723741/ WWW.VICKIHOLLETT.COM LEARNING TO SPEAK 'MERICAN Callibrating for competence AdjusEng to the caller’s: -‐ technical competence -‐ emoWonal state -‐ linguisWc competence -‐extraneous circumstances Picture source: hep://www.flickr.com/photos/sundazed/1450391397/ / WWW.VICKIHOLLETT.COM LEARNING TO SPEAK 'MERICAN Callibrating for competence How abstract Pace How much checking How much reassurance Picture source: hep://www.flickr.com/photos/sundazed/1450391397/ / WWW.VICKIHOLLETT.COM LEARNING TO SPEAK 'MERICAN Callibrating for competence The sequence “Select ‘pictures’ from the start menu” “Click ‘start’ and select ‘pictures’’. Picture source: hep://www.flickr.com/photos/sundazed/1450391397/ / WWW.VICKIHOLLETT.COM LEARNING TO SPEAK 'MERICAN Accommodation Same task – different contexts How would you describe the problem to: 1. an American colleague who knows a lot about the issue 2. someone whose English isn’t as good as yours but who knows a lot about the issue. 3. Someone who doesn’t know much about the issue WWW.VICKIHOLLETT.COM LEARNING TO SPEAK 'MERICAN Teach language in context My favourite tool for teaching language in context Video Asking for suggestions Captain: “What we need is elevator control and I don’t know how to get it” -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Captain: “Anybody have any ideas about [what to do about the landing gear]?” -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Captain: “Anybody got any idea about puing the gear down right now?” Checking understanding Captain: “Brace will be the signal; it’ll be over the PA system – Brace, brace, brace.” Flight AQendant: “And that will be to evacuate?” Captain: “No that’ll be to brace for landing.” Flight AQendant: “Uhuh” Checking understanding Captain: “And then if you have to evacuate, you’ll get the command signal to evacuate, but I really have my doubts you’ll see us standing up, honey. Good luck, sweetheart.” Flight AQendant: “ Thank you too.” The bulge Wolfson
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