CRITICAL THINKING

COURSE CODE OCC INNOVATIVE THINKING

EMPATHY
COURSE TITLE Oral Communication in Context RESILIENCE
TEAMWORK
COMMUNICATION
SEMESTER 1st SCHOOL YEAR 2020-21

PERIOD WEEK 2: Oct. 12-16, 2020 MODULE NO. 8

INTRODUCTION 2
Hi everyone! 
This week marks the final week before your midterm examination. We are now down to our last topic for this
term. For this week, I will be giving you an activity which culminates all the topics covered from week 1 to
week 8.
In the previous module, you learned about the different speech styles. Can you still remember them? If yes,
then that’s good. In this module, we will be tackling about the different speech acts. What is a Speech Act?
Are you familiar what is this? Let us try to find out what is.  Please visit Ref. 2 in the references below. I want
you to find out the following questions - What greeting is used by the call center agent? What of personal
identification is used by the agent? What pre-closing signal is used by agent? What closing is used by the
agent? If you are done watching the video, read through the lessons and contemplate on the activity assigned
to you.

Intended Learning Outcomes (Learning Competencies)

Intended Learning Outcomes 1. Define speech acts.
Intended Learning Outcomes 2. Distinguish types of speech acts.
Intended Learning Outcomes 3. Recognize that communicative competence requires understanding of speech
acts.
Intended Learning Outcomes 4. Demonstrate effective use of communicative strategy in a variety of speech
situations.

Activity 1: Self-Audit 1

Do the self-audit activity first before you start reading the discussions. Please
log in to our google classroom and see the Self-Audit activity assigned to you.
The link automatically locks or cannot be accessed within given period. Make
sure to accomplish it not later than October 16, 2020.
 TOPIC 1: SPEECH ACTS

A speech act is an utterance that a speaker makes to achieve an intended effect. Some of the functions
which are carried out using speech acts are offering an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation,
compliment, or refusal. A speech act might contain just one word or several words or sentences. For example,
“Thanks” and “Thank you for always being there for me. I really appreciate it” both show appreciation
regardless of the length of the statement.
Accordingly, a speech act is a type of act that can be performed by speaker meaning that one is doing so. This
conception still counts resigning, promising, asserting and asking as speech acts, while ruling out convincing,
insulting and whispering. This definition leaves open the possibility of speech acts being performed wordlessly,
as well as speech acts being performed without saying that you are doing so. Our characterization of speech
acts captures this fact in emphasizing speaker meaning rather than the uttering of any words.
Moreover, almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, distinguished by different
aspects of the speaker's intention: there is the act of saying something, what one does in saying it, such as
requesting or promising, and how one is trying to affect one's audience.

TOPIC 2: Three Types of Speech Acts

According to J. L. Austin (1962), a philosopher of language and the developer of the Speech Act Theory, there
are three types of acts in every utterance, given the right circumstances or context. These are:
Locutionary act is the actual act of uttering.

“Please do the dishes.”

Illocutionary act is the social function of what is said.

By uttering the locution “Please do the dishes,” the speaker requests the
addressee to wash the dishes.

Perlocutionary act is the resulting act of what is said. This effect is based on the particular context in
which the speech act was mentioned.

“Please do the dishes” would lead to the addressee washing the dishes.

There are also indirect speech acts which occur when there is no direct connection between the form of the
utterance and the intended meaning. They are different in force (i.e., intention) from the inferred speech act.
For example, read the following utterance. “Can you pass the rice?”
Inferred speech act: Do you have the ability to hand over the rice?
Indirect speech act: Please pass the rice.

So while the utterance literally asks the addressee if he or she has the ability to hand a plate of rice, it actually
indirectly requests the addressee to pass the rice to the speaker.

Performatives
Austin also introduced the concept of performative utterances: statements which enable the speaker to
perform something just by stating it. In this manner, verbs that execute the speech act that they intend to
effect are called performatives. A performative utterance said by the right person under the right
circumstances results in a change in the world. Note that certain conditions have to be met when making a
performative utterance.
For example, the phrase “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” when uttered by an authorized person
such as a judge will have the actual effect of binding a couple in marriage. However, if the same statement is
uttered to the same couple in the same place by someone who is not authorized to marry them—as in the
case of the accompanying picture, a robot—then there is no effect whatsoever because a condition was not
met.

Topic 3 : Searle’s Classifications of Speech Act

As a response to Austin’s Speech Act Theory, John Searle (1976), a professor from the University of California,
Berkeley, classified illocutionary acts into five distinct categories.

Assertive – a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses belief about the truth of a proposition.
Some examples of an assertive act are suggesting, putting forward, swearing, boasting, and concluding.

Example:
No one makes better pancakes than I do.

Directive – a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker tries to make the addressee perform an action.
Some examples of a directive act are asking, ordering, requesting, inviting, advising, and begging.

Example:
Please close the door.
Commissive – a type of illocutionary act which commits the speaker to doing something in the future.
Examples of a commissive act are promising, planning, vowing, and betting.

Example:
From now on, I will participate in our group activity.

Expressive – a type of illocutionary act in which the speaker expresses his/her feelings or emotional reactions.
Some examples of an expressive act are thanking, apologizing, welcoming, and deploring.

Example:
I am so sorry for not helping out in our group projects and letting you do all the work.

Declaration – a type of illocutionary act which brings a change in the external situation. Simply put,
declarations bring into existence or cause the state of affairs which they refer to. Some examples of
declarations are blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, passing a sentence, and excommunicating.

Example:
You are fired!
By saying that someone is fired, an employer causes or brings about the person’s
unemployment, thus changing his external situation.

Always keep in mind that speech acts include concrete life interactions that require the appropriate use of
language within a given culture. Communicative competence (i.e., the ability to use linguistic knowledge to
effectively communicate with others) is essential for a speaker to be able to use and understand speech acts.
Idioms and other nuances in a certain language might be lost or misunderstood by someone who does not
fully grasp the language yet.

Exercise :
Can you remember the video I have asked you to watch earlier in the module ? This time, I want you to watch
Ref. 3 in the references below. I want you to compare the greetings, pre-closing, and closing of Video 1 and
Video 2. How are they similar or different ? Can you site any speech acts used in the videos ? Your thoughts
here matters and might be included in the exam. Make sure you have watched both videos. 
 Activity 2. Creative Skit

1. I will be posting the groupings in our facebook page. There will be 5-6 members per
group.
2. Prepare a four to eight minutes creative skit which shows at least five examples of
Searle’s speech act classifications. The skit will no longer be dramatized. Instead, it will
be in a form of recorded chat. Please see Ref. 5 for your reference how the ‘chat-skit’
should be presented.
3. Make sure in the ‘chat-skit ‘ you use your own photo and real names.
4. Be creative in your skit-writing. Content is very important. The topic of your skit will be
up to the group. I want you to draw creative and imaginative situations where you can
apply the different speech acts.
5. The skit must be uploaded in our Facebook page not later than the deadline.
6. Please know that this activity is 40% of your midterm exam. 60% of which will be from
the written exam.
7. Give your best shot in this activity.

VGE GE SE LE N
Criteria
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)

1. Presentation is organized.

2. Message is expressed clearly.

3. Choice of words is appropriate for the audience.

4. Biases are avoided.

5. Ideas are communicated vividly and meaningfully.

6. Creativity.

TOTAL

GRAND TOTAL /30

Legend: Total Score
VGE To a very great extent; 25–30
GE To a great extent; 19–24
SE To some extent; 13–18
LE To a little extent; 7–12
N Not at all; 6

Expected Output – 1. Creative “Chat Skit”

Deadline will be on October 30, 2020. You have a very long time-frame to prepare for this activity.
Extra credit of 5 points will be given to those who can submit on or before 10.23.2020 . Please make sure
to submit an exceptional output.  Please give time to all the members to reach out to the group
members so that no one will be left behind. Also, give your maximum consideration to those who
cannot comply right-away to the groups’ needs and demands. However, I am encouraging all of
you to give enough time for this activity to be complied as soon as possible.

Remember 

“We’re capable of much more than mediocrity, much more than merely getting by in this world.”
― Sharon Salzberg
 REFERENCES
Ref. 1 Sipacio, Philippe John Fresnillo and Balgos, Anne Richie Garcia (2016). Oral Communication
in Context For Senior High School. C&E Publishing, Inc.
Ref. 2 Video 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpZFJctBUHQ

Ref. 3 Video 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2EwBB5McJo

Ref. 4 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/speech-acts/
Ref. 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuSuiqCp2Mg&t=60s