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Wanting Zhu   1150311
Zhan Zhao      1064114
Zijing Jia         1153750
Xiaoyan Li      1024647
Yaxuan Yin    1287194

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In these short clips, three storylines also shaped the couple into three different position changes. In the first half of the video, she expected her daughter (Juanita) to be considered to join the private school so she could stop teaching her daughter by herself. She was told they are not the first choice by the school there also some kids will be considered before her daughter, she will be considered first because of her Mexican background. Here is the conversation base on this background.

Looking into Carlos's usage of paralinguistic elements in this conversation, the tone in this conversation, both couples are trying to deny their Mexican identity. He has confirmed the headmaster’s information that they have Mexican background, then he uses the word “but” to shift the master’s attention from their background to other information. They believe they already hold the power of advantage as a Mexican. This is their first position, and base on the couple’s non-Mexican identity position, they bought the house into a community that is far from the Latino but full of white people. In this conservation, they are denied their position as a Mexican. However, Juanita’s questioned of her identity as a Mexican has shifted the conversation moved to the next storyline.

Gaby was afraid that Juanita will be refused by the school if they lost their Mexican background, she started to let her daughter speak in Spanish. Also in the conversation, she was questioning:

"I don't understand, how could u just don't know we are Mexicans? We eat Mexican food all the time".

In this conversation,  she starts to confirm her position as a Mexican. So she starts to let Juanita inform her sister, that “she is also a Mexican”. Since there is a conflict that might influence their daughter to join the private school, the couple chose their second position which is to confirm their identity as Mexican.

However, Gaby and Carlos's position was shifted again once they received the notice that Juanita is accepted by the private school. Gaby is happy with the result and she believes she was holding the power back. Therefore, she does not need to shift her position and she could back to her first position choice which she does not understand Spanish and live with the only white community. In this case, she is no longer talking about being a Mexican, and back to her regular life by making Mexican food but not believe herself as a Mexican. Carlos starts to question his current position which he made calls to other public schools and starts to question his wife’s position correctness. The different positions also being the conflict between the couples.

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In conclusion, we discovered all the concepts can be understood under the positioning theory and all the concepts are closely interrelated to each other.

Kayı-Aydar (2019) points out that the positioning theory “offers a triangle which consists of positions, storylines, and act interpretations”. His idea is consistent with Harré (2012) which those three elements are mutually determined, influence, and shape each other.  One element changed will also influence other elements changed. Debray and Spencer-Oatey (2019) state that people believe they have both rights and obligations regarding other people, and this is how people shift their power over others. Therefore, Harré (2012) the position as a "Cluster of short-term disputable rights, obligations, and duties".  The positioning is also relational, so there is a first-, second-, and third-order positioning (Kayı-Aydar, 2019). In this case, what is being said also leads to action (to what they have done or accomplished).

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Face strategy: involvement and independence

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Face strategy: involvement and independence

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“We heard and we’re so excited everyone knows that this is the best private school in town”.

According to (Scollon et al., 2012), "involvement is shown by such discourse strategies as paying attention to others, showing a strong interest in their affairs, pointing out common in-group membership or points of view with them, or using first names". At the very beginning, the father replied to the principal with this sentence, which can show their high approval of the school's reputation and their interest in entering this best private school. Actually, this should be regarded as a positive face since they need to be involved with the school and to show the principal their involvement.

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seminar2group2poster - Google Chrome 2021_10_1 18_03_55

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Arce, C., Murgia, E., & Frisbie, W. (1987). Phenotype and the life chances among Chicanos. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 9(1), 19–32.

Bowe, Heather, Kylie Martin, and Howard Manns. 2014. ‘Positioning the Other’. In Communication across Cultures: Mutual Understanding in a Global World, 155–61. Cambridge University Press.

Debray, Carolin, and Helen Spencer-Oatey. 2019. ‘“On the Same Page?” Marginalisation and Positioning Practices in Intercultural Teams’. Journal of Pragmatics 144 (January): 15–28.

Harré, R. (2012). Positioning theory: Moral dimensions of social-cultural psychology. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 191–206). New York: Oxford University.

Kayı-Aydar, H. (2019). Positioning theory in applied linguistics : research design and applications. Palgrave Macmillan.

Relethford, J. H., Stern, M. P., Gaskill, S. P., & Hazuda, H. P. (1983). Social class, admixture, and skin color variation in Mexican‐Americans and Anglo‐Americans living in San Antonio, Texas. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 61(1), 97-102.

Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W., & Jones, R. H. (2012). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

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One study has found that deeper skin colors predict the existence of a lower social member and inner society (Relethford et al., 1983).  Mexican American’s education, occupation, and income provide evidence that lighter skin colors have better chances of living (Arce, Murgia, & Frisbie, 1987).

In the scenario, phenotype variations, including differences in physique and skin color, have not only been considered by Native Americans but also include the race itself being evaluated. Wealth accumulation also plays a sorting role: in high-end communities, wealthy businessmen use the notion of meritocracy to explain their choices in the education of children like where they are sending their children to school. The inheritance of a hierarchical role is reflected here as private school education will make this idea deeply rooted.

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The Script of the couple's conversation:

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The Script of the couple's conversation:

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Man: There are a lot of Latino families that live in that area.
Woman: So what? We have a much better school right here in our backyard, a much sloughing way over there, just so she can be with those people.
M: Those people? Don’t you mean our people?
W: Our people are the rich private school people.
M: Oh my god, I know exactly what is going on here. You are ashamed of being Mexican.
W: That’s insane.
M: That totally makes sense. All of our friends are white. You didn’t want me to teach the girl Spanish. And when we bought this house I said we will be the only Mexican in the neighborhood. Do you remember what you said? You said “fine by me”.

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Introduction & Motivation

Face strategy：involvement & independence

Floating Identity

Hierarchical role

Positioning Theory

Critical thinking

Questions

References

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Face strategy: involvement and independence

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Face strategy: involvement and independence

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"The independence aspect emphasizes the individuality of the participants. It emphasizes their right not to be completely dominated by group or social values, and to be free from the impositions of others" (Scollon et al., 2012, pp.48) . From the conversation between the couple, the mother called the Latino families "those people" instead of "our people", which means that the woman has a strong desire of being independent of other Mexicans although she is a Mexican. Besides, according to the father, all of their friends are white, they are the only Mexican in the neighborhood. It can be easily observed that the woman would like to be involved with the white community but showed independence with the Mexican community. Therefore, just as Scollon et al. said, "the most important concept to remember about face is that it is paradoxical, which means involvement and independence must be projected simultaneously in any communication" (2012, pp.49). The father showed more involvement but less independence when communicating with the principal of the private school. On the contrary, the mother showed less involvement desire but more independence desire when mentioning the Mexican community.

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1. In the video, the woman showed strong independence. Although she herself was a Mexican, she actively got involved in the community of the White people. So for you,  when entering a new community, how would you balance the relationship between involvement and independence?

2. Have you ever experienced a position shift in your real-life experience? And how did you manage your position?

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The girl's expression located indigenous Mexicans as the street vendors. Obviously, she did not believe that Mexicans are wealthy and high social status members, on the contrary, ordinary or even humble rural people.

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Although her mother was also Mexican, she still insisted that the teaching quality of private schools was far better than that of public schools living with other Mexicans.  They could afford private schools full of rich offspring but stay away from families who cannot afford private school tuition.

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Here is the girl's speech.

"I am Mexican?"

When the girl heard that she was Mexican, she repeated the question and raised her tone. Both her facial expression and voice show her incredulous attitudes towards her Mexican identity.

“Since when I thought we were American.”

It indicates that the girl used to think of herself as an American not Mexican before her father told her this Mexican identity. She never suspected that she was an American in the past and she was shocked by her Mexican origin.

“Adios, Senor”

It means  Goodbye Sir in Spanish. The girl reluctantly accepted her Mexican identity. Then she spoke Spanish to the dean to demonstrate her identity.

Indexicality is the process of creating meaningful links between linguistic forms such as words, address terms, and ways of speaking. In this clip, the most frequently used indexicals for the girl are personal pronouns  I and WE, which refer to herself and her family. Plus the auxiliary such as Am and Was also demonstrate the time positioning. She positioned herself as American in the past and she was confused about Mexican identity when she realized it for the first time. Roles on the other hand come with expected ways of speaking and on the other are constructed through particular ways of speaking (Bowe et al.,2014) The girl finally chose to speak Spanish as Mexicans should do this.

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This video is telling a story about a Mexican family. In this video, the Mexican parents took their daughter to go for an interview for a private school. During the interview, their daughter was surprised at the utterance that she was a Mexican. The family lived among white people and their social circle was surrounded by white people, making the Mexican girl a misconception that she was an American. When the parents were talking about this fact, the hostess seemed to be ashamed of her identity as a Mexican. This is similar to the reaction of their daughter. They were both prejudiced against their identity as Mexicans.
The expressions, discourse strategies, and the position shift in this video arouse our interest. Here is the full video and  we have conducted a further analysis based on several clips and the discourses.