1、 So waltzing is, in fact, the joint action that emerges as the two dancers do their individual steps in coordination, as a couple. Similarly, doing things with language is also different from the sum of the speaker speaking and the listener listening. It is the joint action that emerges when speaker
2、s and listeners, or writers and readers, perform their individual actions in coordination, as ensembles. Therefore, we can say that language use incorporates both individual and social processes. Speakers and listeners, writers and readers, must carry out actions as individuals, if they are to succe
3、ed in their use of language. But they must also work together as participants in the social units I have called ensembles. In the example I mentioned just now, the two dancers perform both individual actions, moving their bodies, arms, and legs, and joint actions, coordinating these movements, as th
4、ey create the waltz. In the past, language use has been studied as if it were entirely an individual process. And it has also been studied as if it were entirely a social process. For me, I suggest that it belongs to both. We cannot hope to understand language use without viewing it as joint actions
5、 built on individual actions. In order to explain how all these actions work, Id like to review briefly settings of language use. By settings, I mean the scene in which language use takes place, plus the medium - which refers to whether language use is spoken or written. And in this talk, Ill focus
6、on spoken settings. The spoken setting mentioned most often is conversation - either face to face, or on the telephone. Conversations may be devoted to gossip, business transactions or scientific matters, but theyre all characterized by the free exchange of terms among the two participants. Ill call
7、 these personal settings. Then we have what I would call nonpersonal settings. A typical example is the monologue. In monologues, one person speaks with little or no opportunity for interruption, or turns by members of the audience. Monologues come in many varieties too, as a professor lectures to a
8、 class, or a student giving a presentation to a seminar. These people speak for themselves, uttering words they formulated themselves for the audience before them, and the audience isnt expected to interrupt. In another kind of setting which are called institutional settings, the participants engage
9、 in speech exchanges that look like ordinary conversation, but they are limited by institutional rules. As examples, we can think of a government official holding a news conference, a lawyer cross id is more or less spontaneous, even though turns at speaking are allocated by a leader, or are restric
10、ted in other ways. The person speaking isnt always the one whose intentions are being expressed. We have the clearest examples in fictional settings. Vivian Leigh plays Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind, Frank Sinatra sings a love song in front of a live audience, the speakers are each vocalizing
11、 words composed by someone else - for instance a playwright or a composer - and are openly pretending to be expressing opinions that arent necessarily their own. Finally there are private settings when people speak for themselves without actually addressing anyone else, for example, I might explain
12、silently to myself, or talk to myself about solving a research problem, or rehearsing what Im about to say in a seminar tomorrow. What I say isnt intended to be recognized by other people, it is only of use to myself. These are the features of private settings. SECTION B TALK W: Good evening, Im Nan
13、cy Johnson. The guest on our radio talk this evening is Professor Wang Gongwu. Hello, Professor Wang.M: Hello. Professor Wang, youre now professor emeritus of Australia National University, and in your long academic career, youve worn many hats as tutor, lecturer, department head, dean, professor, a
14、nd vice chancellor. However, as I know, youre still very fond of your university days as a student. Thats right. That was in 1949. The university that I went to was a brand How did the students like you, for example, study then? We didnt study very hard, because we didnt have to. We didnt have all t
15、his fantastic competition that you have today. Mmm. We were always made to feel that getting a first degree in the Arts faculty was not preparation for a profession. It was a general education. We were not under any pressure to decide on our careers, and we had such a good time. We were left very mu
16、ch on our own, and we were encouraged to make things happen. What do you see as the most striking difference in university education since then? University education has changed dramatically since those days. Things are very specialized today. Yes, definitely so. And, in your subsequent career exper
17、ience as an educator and later administrator in various institutions of higher education in Asia and elsewhere, Professor Wang, you have repeatedly noted that one has to look at the development of education in one particular country in a broad context. What do you mean by that? Well, the whole world
18、 has moved away from elite education in universities to meet the needs of mass education, and entering universities is no longer a privilege for the few. And universities today are more concerned with providing jobs for their graduates in a way that universities in our time never had to be bothered
19、about. Therefore, the emphasis of university programs today is now on the practical and the utilitarian, rather than on a general education or on personal development. Do you think that is a welcome development? Well, I personally regret this development. But the basic bachelors education now has to
20、 cater to people who really need a piece of paper to find a decent job. So youre concerned about this development. Yes, Im very concerned. With technical changes, many of the things that you learn are technical skills, which dont require you to become very well educated. Yet, if you can master those
21、 skills, you can get very good jobs. So the technical institutions are going to be increasingly popular at the expense of traditional universitites. Professor Wang, lets look at a different issue. How do you comment on the current phenomenon because of the fees they pay? Well, once you accept studen
22、ts on financial grounds, one wonders whether you have to pass them as well. But this is the development in education that we have to contend with. Yet, if we are concerned about maintaining standards, what we can do is to concentrate on improving the quality of education. Yes, youre right. A univers
23、ity is judged by the quality of education it offers. Professor Wang, lets turn to the future. What type of graduates, in your view, to universities of the future need to produce, if they are to remain relevant? I think their graduates must be able to shift from one profession to another, because the
24、y are trained in a very independent way. If you can do that, you raise the level of the flexibility of the mind. Todays rapid changes in technology demand this adaptability. And you see the best universities in the world are already trying to guarantee that their students will not only be technicall
25、y trained, but will be the kind of people that can adapt to any changing situation. I guess many people would agree with you on that point. University education should focus on both personal and professional development of students. But still some might believe there is a definite place for educatio
26、n in a broader sense - that is, in personal intellectual development. No doubt about that. We need people who will think about the future, about the past, and also people who will think about society. If a society doesnt have philosophers, or people who think about the value of life, its a very sad
27、society indeed. Professor Wang, my last question: do you see any common ground in education between your generation and the young generation now? Adapting to new challenges is perhaps the true cornerstone of our generations legacy to education. And the future of education in a country rests not so m
28、uch on the construction of better buildings, labs, etc., but in the development of an ever s true. The essence of education is the education of the mind. Okay, thank you very much, Professor Wang, for talking to us on the show about the changing trends in education. Youre welcome SECTION C A new dat
29、a shows that the global AIDS pandemic will cause a sharp drop in life expectancy in dozens of countries, in some cases, declines of three decades. Several nations are losing a centurys progress in extending the length of life. Nations in every part of the world, 51 in all, are suffering declining life expectancies because of an increasing prevalence of HIV infection. The increase is occurring in Asia, Latin America, and the Carribbean, but is greatest in sub Africa, a region with on
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