Text I is a transcript of a speech spoken by a head
teacher who is addressing the parents of pupils who are due to start at her
secondary school in the coming academic year. The type of speech is personal
and the power being shown is influential. She is not attempting to be
instructive or instrumental, but is influencing the parents and persuading them
that they made the right decision in making their child attend that school.
In terms of agenda setting, the head teacher has the
control and although the text just displays the beginning of her speech, we can
assume that she opens and closes the speaking – this represents her authority.
There are no interruptions which show that she has constant power throughout
the speech and no one attempts to speak so she has the only turn. She uses many
of Grice’s Maxims throughout speaking. For example, she uses the Maxim of
quantity so she informs the audience, “there’s something called Fischer Family
Trust and that is a measure which is set by the Government.” She also uses genuine
facts and statistics so uses the Maxim of quality, as well as the Maxim of
relevance. When considering Brown and Levinson’s Face Theory, she has a
positive face because she wants to be liked by the parents and by doing so she
is ensuring them their children will achieve their best at the school.
The speaker uses lots of pronouns which is suitable for
representing her personal power and establishes a union with the audience by
using words such as “we”. The head teacher appears confident and displays this
through repetition, “we’re all ready for them and we’re ready for them to come
back.” She often highlights the popularity of the school with facts such as “we
had two hundred and eighty five people applied to us as their first choice.”
However there are some errors in her speech, for instance the quotation just
shown. She sometimes misses out certain words and uses fillers such as “er” and
“erm”. Although fillers are a natural display of spontaneous speech, she may be
slightly nervous about giving her speech and therefore her amount of power
decreases. Another factor that undermines her power is the mention of the
council and government which reminds the audience that she isn’t the highest
person in power and she is under the control of additional parties.
Her main reason for giving the speech is to encourage the
parents that their children will succeed at her school, and attempts to
encourage them in a friendly manner by using an anecdote where she mentions she
is a mother which gives more evidence for the parents. Her formal style of
speaking is essential for establishing power, as well as her developed English
which makes her seem intelligent.
