S.

The first letter ("S") designates Situation, which includes both the
scene and the setting. This is where the activities are talking place and the
overall scene in which they are a part.

P. The second refers to the Participants involved. This area includes the
people present and the roles they play, or the relationships they have with
other participants.

E. Next, the Ends or goals of communication can be studied.

A. Acts, or speech acts include both form and content. That is, any action
can be considered a communicative action if it conveys meaning to the
participants.

K. One can also choose to focus upon the Key or tone of speech. How the
speech sounds or was delivered.

I. Instrumentality or the channel through which communication flows can

be examined.

N. The Norms of communication or the rules guiding talk and its

interpretation can reveal meaning.

G. Finally, one can look at cultural or traditional speech Genres, such as

proverbs, apologies, prayers, small talk, problem talk, etc.

By using these tools (S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G.) to analyze one unit, such as

particular speech community, a researcher can come to learn more about
how people communicate and how that communication is often patterned.

Applying S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G.

Hymes' speaking model is significant for students and others who find
themselves interacting with people from other cultures because of the way
it helps people understand the ways that communication differs in different
cultural situations.

For example, if you are a non-Chinese person from the U.S. and were
applying this model in a casual kind of way and found yourself in China,
you would not just assume that there are the same types of speech
communities as in the United States. You would first recognize that you are
among a particular group of people. Then, you might begin by paying close
attention to how they address one another (P).
If you were interested in finding out more about the Participants in order to
get along well, you would find answers to the following in order to act
appropriately:

 Do they use first names only, as one might in the United States, or do
they use a title and last name, like Mr. Chu?
 Do they use the same form of address for everyone, or are some
people more likely to be called something special. For instance, you
may call someone, Dr. Francis if you were the patient. However, if
you were her grandchild or young person, you may call her
Grandmother.

Using this ethnography of communication perspective, when you find

yourself in another culture or community, you would look to the situations
that call for speaking and those that do not (S). For instance, if you are a
student in class are you supposed to be speaking, or is that only reserved
for the instructor?

Another example is encountering people from a different socio-economic

class or gender than you. For instance, in a community referred to
by Philipsen (1975/1992) as Teamsterville, “the street” is a setting for
speech, particularly for men, whereas the living room is not.

In whatever cross-cultural setting you find yourself, you would also try to
find out why people communicate with each other (E). Do they
communicate to get something, or to just get along with everyone?

You would also try to figure out the different behaviors that count as
communication (A). Does everything count as communication, from blinking
your eye to saying "come to my house." Or, is communication used to
describe certain things, like using email or the telephone?

When you discover the communication acts, you would think about how
people said things (K). Did they get all excited whenever they were
speaking to you? Or, were they more reserved and quiet in their speech?

You would also think about how people communicate (I). Do they prefer
talking in person or by sending letters? Is one way more personal and
another way more public or formal?

When you find yourself in another culture, it is often jarring to discover

different rules or norms for communicating (N). Is it o.k. to look at someone
who is speaking to you or not? What are the consequences of breaking a
norm? For example, if you broke a communication norm in a particular
organization (with its own culture) would it mean promotion or demotion?
And, finally, when you come to expect certain behaviors to happen and for
them to go a certain way, you’ve likely stumbled upon a genre (G). Does a
new person that you’ve met not engage in small talk correctly? Are they
telling you too many intimate details about themselves too soon? These
differences help you to recognize that you have certain expectations for
how to communicate in a certain way and not everyone shares that
knowledge or that way.

A Sample Study Using the S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. Model

Here is an example of one study that was conducted at a Puerto Rican

Center (PRC) that was based on Hymes’ model (Milburn, 1998).

Within one communicative event, PRC board meetings there were:

Setting: The setting was an old Victorian-type building, third floor, in the
Director’s office. A table was in the front of the room with folding chairs
around it. Further in the room was the Director’s desk. Pictures and
plaques covered the walls and there was a clock on the wall near the door.
The scene was the first Thursday of every month, the board of Directors of
this non-profit cultural center were assembled to meet for one hour in the
early morning to discuss and, when necessary, to vote on matters of
importance to the functioning of the Center.

Participants: The potential participants for these meetings were the 13

board members, the staff, consultants, special invited guests and the public
at large. The actual participants at each meeting varied depending upon
who showed up or asked to be present. The frequent labels used to
address were "board members" and "staff persons." In addition, the
President of the Board was addressed as "Mr. President." Other board
members, including the Director, were likely to be addressed by first name
only. A subset of the board members, the "Executive Committee," was also
addressed as such and had special rights and responsibilities.
Ends: Conversations were officially undertaken in order to conduct the
business of the Center. However, usually people spoke so as to get along
with the others present and be counted as a member of the community.

Act: The speech acts at the meeting were most frequently referred to as
"taking a vote," or "discussion." An unlabeled speech act was the small talk
or joking that occurred at the beginning of meetings as "quorum" another
communicative act, was being "waited for." That is, the meeting could not
officially begin until at least 8 of the 13 board members were present
(quorum).

Key: There were two keys in which most conversation was conducted. The
business key was official and by the rules (Roberts Rules of Order). The
joking parts were light and friendly.

Instrument: We met face to face. Notes of the meeting were taken by the
recording secretary and would be referred to in subsequent meetings as
minutes. An agenda was also used.

Norms: There were many norms within these board meetings. One stated
norm was to "be on time." However, there was a competing norm that
people within this community engage in activities on what they call, "Puerto
Rican time." This sense of time is more fluid and could be any time within a
larger range. These competing norms both seemed to be used by different
participants and it sometimes made conducting official business difficult.
For example, when someone arrived at a meeting late, the other
participants would account for this action by saying, "she's on Puerto Rican
time."

Genre: There was a genre that’s called relajo in Spanish. It’s a form of
joking that plays with the idea of respect (or respeto). For example, one
time a couple of board members were joking about calling the President of
the board, your highness or "oh great one." This type of joking was making
fun of the very real role distinctions that are made between participants and
that one role is deserving of more respect.

Usefulness of S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. analysis

Once all of these areas have been discovered, you will be more likely to be
able to communicate appropriately in a cross-cultural situation. For
instance, in a board meeting you might not fault individuals for being late if
you knew they were operating on "Puerto Rican time." Likewise, by
knowing that the use of titles is expected, you would not fall into the trap of
being disrespectful by calling everyone by first name.

Now that you have learned Hymes' S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. model, and have read
one example, you should be able to apply it to a situation.