Our fabulous team, including Lynne, David, Nicole, and myself chose to observe a local mall food court for our literacy dig project. While it was, at times, harder to be stealth in our observations because we were indoors and didn't want to appear creepy, we did manage to come up with a wealth of information that helped us draw conclusions about literacy in this place.
I was in charge of observing the actual people, what they looked like, how they were acting, etc. While I did observe a few people walking around and ordering food at various restaurants, I focused mainly on those people sitting at the food court for various reasons. At 5:30 on a Tuesday evening, the food court wasn't packed, but did have plenty of people to tactfully observe...key word being tactfully ;)
The first people to capture my attention were a young couple...I'm guessing mid to late twenties. They were nearing the end of their meal of pizza and coke, and looked exhausted. They were married, at least I assumed because both were wearing rings. They didn't exchange much in the way of conversation, but their facial expressions read extremely tired. When they stood up to leave, I noticed the wife was pregnant. Now that explains a lot!
The second crew of people I noticed was a group of three college-age girls. They were all blonde, with shopping bags and were munching on Auntie Anne's pretzels. They finished the meal, but stayed for awhile after to discuss issues of shoplifting and such...I'm guessing some of them had worked in a retail setting before. They were boisterous and excited to chat and spend time with one another. Verbal conversation seemed important to this group.
The next group of people I noticed were two Asian women. Both looked to be about thirty. One was holding a baby, and the other was speaking quickly and using lots of hand motions. While I couldn't understand the language they were speaking, one woman appeared to be telling an animated story or discussing a serious issue, and the other woman took on the role as the intent listener. This conversation told me a lot about what you can observe from simply body language and hand gestures, even when you do not understand the actual words being spoken.
The last group of people I chose to focus on were two middle-aged women, who appeared to be doing some sort of interview. Upon closer examination, I realized the women were participating in an evaluation. One of the women had her laptop out, was typing, and would occasionally turn the laptop and show the other woman information. They were engaged in conversation about the woman's progress at her job, and it was evident that the boss was pleased with her employee's progress.
While not all of my observations involved literacy directly in the form of reading and writing, I did find literacy to play a large role in the goings-on at the food court. The aforementioned people were simply the people I chose to focus on, but the entire time I was observing, people were coming and going to each restaurant, reading the menus, ordering food, signing receipts, etc. Even non-English speakers could order food with the help of the large pictures on each restaurant's menu. Literacy seemed to be crucial to the success of this particular place as people spoke to one another at counters and then also once they sat down. Even through non-verbal communication, people were finding ways to talk to others.
During my observations, I made several assumptions about people because it was easier to make sense of the situations. For example, I observed the young husband and pregnant wife. Although they did not say they were tired, it was evident from their body language and the way they spoke to each other. I couldn't jump into their minds to see what they were thinking, but I made assumptions due to what I witnessed. The customers and employees did the same thing. While food court workers did not always know what the customers wanted, they understood that it was their job when a customer walked up, to ask them what they needed. These kinds of spoken communication seem to be imperative to the success of our society; we rely on other people to pick up on social cues and body language to help us with what we need, and literacy is no exception.
I like how you expressed that picking up on one anothers'body language is important. Specifically, facial expressions and proximity. You are right in that much of our communication with one another is nonverbal. You were able to assertain a lot of information from what you saw. Impressive! You also noticed that verbal communication was, at least in this instance, more important to some groups than others. I hadn't thought of that but now that makes a lot of sense. Good Work!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you perceived the pregnant women with her husband as being tired without directly hearing them say those words. I was able to get a vibe from the older couple that sat near us at the beginning. I felt as though they were the most comfortable together out of all the other groups I saw. The way they gazed at each other and used their hands as the spoke so nonchalantly made it look as though they'd been married for years.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought -- it would be great to be able to go back and get in a child's head to see what they're thinking while writing. Definitely makes me see the benefit of having children read back what they've written as soon as they've written it!
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