Dear colleagues,

Having read all your posts, I totally agree with you all about the story of the comic. First, as all of
you have mentioned before; it is a tourist and since he is not from there it seems like he does not
know the language, so he tries to interpret and uses what he sees during his walking. Second, as
Monawar Ahmad highlights, he thinks the “hat-off” is a nice way of greeting so he starts using it
as he considers as a part of the culture and he seems pretty satisfied since everybody is smiling
and “greeting” him back. Just a sign of it makes him think he is doing fine, even if he does not
understand their language, he considers that there is an existence between the sign and the users
of the language within a context (Alcatraz, 1990); clearly, he uses the “hat-off” as a way of
communication. Following with your ideas, once he gets to the hotel, he gets confused because
the guy who is there is upset and, according to the bubble speech, seems like is the same as the
people he was passing by were saying, then he realizes that the meaning of it is not what he
thinks it is. Based on Belén Esperanza Cid Zamora’s reflection, it tends to happens that a word
can have different meanings even in the same country but, due to the region and the culture, it
can change depending on the context. Actually I would like you (Belén Esperanza Cid Zamora)
think if it has happened to you before, if so, I would like you to tell me about it.

2) What is the connection between the story, negotiation of meanings and

communicative competence?

As we see in the strip, we are facing a native and non-native interaction and he mainly
constructs input as a result of the first interaction he has (hat-off) and as he does not know
the language, he feels in need to negotiate meaning but at the end he is not capable to reach
a clear understanding as Belén Esperanza Cid Zamora implies. Also, Monawar Ahmad
clarifies that negotiation of meaning is a process that speakers go through to reach an
understanding and clearly there is not connection between the story and the negotiation of
meanings. But, if we analyze the communicative competence, he uses the intuitive
knowledge that he possesses and, interprets it and is able to produce a simple performance
as Ellis (1985:41) states he “perceives need to communicate in the L2” as the “culture is the
everyday lifestyle of people who use the language. There are certain aspects of it that are
especially important to communication- the use of nonverbal behavior” Larsen-Freeman
(2000:131)

References

Arzamendi, J., Ball, P., and Gassó (2016). Second Language acquisition. The Learning of a
Second Language, Funiber, Barcelona.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (2nd Edition),

Teaching, Oxford University Press.

Sources

British Council BBC (2009). Negotiation of meaning. Teaching English, in

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/negotiation-meaning

Dear Belén Esperanza Cid Zamora,

As I mentioned you on my post and based on your reflection, it is very common to find a
word which can have many meanings depending on the culture. For example, where I
come from (Colombia) we have differente accents and dialects depending on the region
and it tends to happend that when you travel to other city you find yourself lost as we use
different meanings according to the city we come from. Even if we all are Spanish
speakers, we also get confused, like what happends in the story of the strip comic. I think it
also happens where you live, isn't it?