Accommodation Theory Essay

Audio recordings, the way we speak and our writings, show us how we see and hear language. (Gee & Hayes, 2011). If we look at the accommodation theory (Giles & Coupland, 1973) we can see that people often move together or move away from each other when they speak. They can also use a different register when talking or maintain their own register. (Giles & Coupland, 1973). According to Halliday (1975) there are seven purposes that language has for children. He states further that children are driven to develop their language because it serves some purpose for them, for example physical, psychological and social needs. (Halliday, 1975). By observing people, we are able to see and hear language.

English is diverse in the sense that even in the

(Green, 2006). Language means different things in different contexts. (Emmitt, 2010). Language does not stay the same over time, but it constantly evolves. (Emmitt, 2010). Depending on the relationship between people, language is used informally or formally. (Gee, 2010). Gee, 2010, further states that content is sometimes more important than the people who are interacting. Language provides power. (Green, 2006). It is clear that it is not just about what people say, but it is also about how people say it, who they say it to and what the context

Language allows an older child to belong to a group. (Emmitt, 2010). Halliday, 1975, described field, tenor and mode. The term field refers to the content. In other words, what they are talking about. (Halliday, 1975). The term tenor describes which people make the exchange, what their social status, role, power and purpose for communicating is. (Halliday, 1975). Mode describes how the message gets delivered, for example through a text message or face-to-face. (Halliday, 1975). Older children will need to know about the various fields, tenors and modes through school life, so that they can critically evaluate the information they receive and to make sense of the world they live in. They would, typically, for example, have the field as the lesson for the day, the tenor would be the teacher and the students and the mode would be face-to-face and written text (text-book). They are a wide variety of examples that could take place in a school setting. Another example would be where the field is a discussion on Year 12 dresses for the formal, the tenor would be the group of girls and the mode would be a face-to-face