Faith – what an interesting word... idea... topic... theme... motive... device... to be honest, I'm not sure how to classify faith. But nonetheless, it has the power to compel people to kindness or to killing. It's because of this power that I feel it important to learn and respect the faiths of others.
So... I enjoyed the reading on the Pentecostal congregation and the interesting correlation it presented regarding faith and social science. For the members, what they say or interject is randomly dictated by the Holy Ghost. However, the data analysis shows a pattern indicating that the members are competent in the unwritten rules of their speech community.
Which is it then? (EDITED) I guess that depends on who you ask and how they reconcile the disparity between religion and science. Faith may still say that the Holy Ghost prescribes to his own speech rules – and that he just happens to be very polite.
Moving on to the discourse analysis. The Speech Event that I will focus on is our Mini-Group interactions (when we're asked to turn our chairs and interact for a brief moment with our peers sans professor).
Having gone through the acronym SPEAKING there were a couple interesting (to me) elements that I will briefly question or bring up.
First – Participants. How do we choose our groups? Do we really just randomly turn to the individuals around us or are there ulterior motives in who we wish to meet? Do we exclude/include ourselves from certain groups based on prejudices or preferences? Why do we always sit in the same seats when there is no assigned seating?
Second – Purpose. The obvious purpose is to accomplish what was assigned by the teacher. However, secondary to this, within the groups the students are able to take on speaking roles that they may otherwise not have in the conventional class setting. Additionally, these activities create a level informality, expanding our comfort zone with other students that allows for greater class participation as a whole.
In order to create a speech community we need opportunities to speak.
4 comments:
I thought it was a very interesting choice to focus on the minigroups we form in class, it was a very original idea. You raised some good questions about ulterior motives in choosing the groups and choosing where we sit.
To respond, I would wonder why it is not of much difficulty for individuals totally outside this particular faith to both follow cues for response and easily enact a general scene of this nature in the media. Theological convictions aside, I think it would be more appropriate and more respectful, especially in the context of a class, to recognize these not-so-arbitrary exclamations as simple aspects of the communal activity. Other religious communities assuredly have similar group events and behave in very nearly a similar manner, which brings me to an important point; in this society we assume that most individuals belong to a homogeneous belief of general Christianity - does everyone know explicitly about this "holy ghost"? Also, why would one feel that it is appropriate to use a classroom forum as an circuitous means of proselytizing?
RE: aeschool.
Are you serious?
I am being moderated? On a blog? A blog that just so happened to include reading on a faith based speech act? Talk about gatekeeping...
My post was not about proselytizing - only a quick attempt to show the disparity of scientifically analyzing religion. Oh... and to also show to our professor that I did in fact read the assignment.
I rather enjoyed what you had to say and this is why:
it was strucured and well written, it was easy to follow and understandable.
I too ask some of those questions that you did, why did we pare off they way we did, is there any particular reason or was it just by chance?
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