The pragmatics and epistemics of emotion in language: A sample class discussion activity inspired by an original Chasing Time English drama series
Mia Tarau
In any language, the words we say mean so much more. That is why teaching pragmatics is so difficult – the words themselves never contain linguistic information alone, and always have a certain goal or implication that may be hard to grasp for foreign or second language learners without full awareness of the context around them. If we add emotion into the mix, in addition to the implication, things get even more complicated – but emotion is always contained in and by our words. Classroom teaching rarely focuses on teaching learners about the emotions embedded in words and sentences, on its goals, or on its meaning. As someone who has had to learn many languages, some in a formal, sterile classroom context, this is something I now understand I have really missed out on when learning a language in school. Therefore, in my classroom practice as a language teacher, I tend to focus on things that would have enriched my language learning journey.
In line with that philosophy, in today’s blog post I want to look at emotions as both pragmatic and epistemic actions. My inspiration for this activity came from Wilutzky (2015, p. 1), who asserted that
emotions are often aimed at achieving certain goals within a social context, so that they resemble pragmatic actions; and in other cases emotions can be plausibly construed as acts of probing the social environment so as to extract or uncover important information, thus complying with the functions of epistemic actions (cf. Kirsh and Maglio, 1994).
The classroom task in this post comes ‘Skippers Pass: Homecoming’. Episode 4 of this series contains a scene that perfectly illustrates this dual function of emotions that Wilutzky (2015) so aptly summed up in their article. In the scene selected as the basis for this task, we can see emotion used both with the goal of eliciting a reaction, and as a means to probe the environment surrounding Emma’s discussion with Montrose. Students who have gone through the learning content for this series would know the story by now: Emma is investigating Sophie’s mysterious death; her investigation over the past three episodes has brought her to one of the suspects, Montrose. The scene in focus is the final confrontation between them, and the moment Emma hopes to find out the truth.
Emma does not hide her emotions in this scene; on the contrary, she uses them to achieve both goals in Wilutzky (2015): achieving her goal of accusing Montrose of playing a significant part in Sophie’s death, and her goal of getting his full confession. However, at the start of the scene, she uses emotion to ‘test’ the waters and find out how firm she should be in this endeavour, based on his reactions. It will be the students’ job to pinpoint some moments in the scene that match both these goals, so let’s dive right into a sample learning task designed to help them do just that.
SCENE: Skippers Pass Homecoming, Episode 4 https://vimeo.com/841735558/70e97d9d43
Level: Upper Intermediate (B2 CEFR)
Aims:
-to analyse the language involved in a character’s emotions
-to discuss how the emotion in that language can help a character understand the boundaries and limits of a conversation (epistemic actions)
-to discuss how the emotion contained in that language can be used as goals
-to identify those goals (pragmatic actions)
TASK:
Divide the class into two groups. Instruct all students to watch the same scene carefully, TWICE; subtitles may be used, if needed.
Group 1 focus: Emotion as epistemic action – probing the social situation by using emotion and language
Instructions for group 1: Watch Emma carefully. Make notes on the following:
1. What are the moments in which Emma shows the strongest emotions? Write down what she says.
2. What is she trying to understand about the situation in those emotional moments? (Answer expected from this group: she is trying to understand how far Montrose would let her push him, and how much he would tell her about his history with Sophie)
3. What other elements accompany her emotional words in each of your examples? Think about her body language, her breathing.
4. Focus on Emma’s words and the emotion contained in the way she said them. (How) have her emotions helped her understand the limits to which she can push Montrose to?
Teacher: give students some time to familiarize themselves with these questions once you have introduced the task. Only start playing the scene once the group has discussed these questions and is ready to watch.
Group 2 focus: Emotion as pragmatic action – Achieving a goal by using emotion and language
1. What are the moments in which Emma shows the strongest emotions? Write down what she says.
2. What is she trying to achieve through her words in those emotional moments? (Answer expected from this group: she aims to get a confession from Montrose, revealing his involvement in Sophie’s death)
3. What other elements accompany her emotional words in each of your examples? Think about her body language, her breathing.
4. Focus on Emma’s words and the emotion contained in the way she said them. (How) have her emotions helped her achieve her goal in her discussion with Montrose?
Teacher: give students some time to familiarize themselves with these questions once you have introduced the task. Only start playing the scene once the group has discussed these questions and is ready to watch.
Follow-up task 1: Group discussion
In their groups, students discuss their observations and share their notes on the link between language and emotion in that scene. Monitor and guide the group discussions as needed.
Follow-up task 2: Sharing
Pair up students from the two groups. Get them to share their observations. Monitor and guide the pair discussions as needed.
If you have already tried something like this, do tell us about it in the comments!
Reference:
Wilutzky, W. (2015). Emotions as pragmatic and epistemic actions. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1593. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01593