Language use in selected national television talk shows

Abstract

When people scan the national channels in the Philippine television today, they will see that dominating the tube are serial dramas aired in the two major networks in the country. Other programs are documentaries in Tagalog and comedy sitcoms. The government national TV stations air talk shows but in English-Tagalog language. Gone are the days when viewers can watch popular TV talk shows in English like `Tell the People' by Julie Yap Daza, 'Firing Line' by the late Teddy Benigno, 'Viewpoint' by Dong Puno and others. One channel though that airs talk shows in English is ABS-CBN News Channel or ANC. Straight Talk, Talk Back, Strictly Politics, and Online are some of the English talk show programs of ANC. Alex Magno in his column entitled, "Critical" in Philippine Star, on Nov. 20, 2004 succinctly stated that the quality of Philippine education ranks among the lowest. Because of some warped understanding of nationalism that persisted for decades especially in publicly subsidized campuses, the English competence of the students is moribund. This study aims to show the importance of the television in promoting the use of the English language. If today dominat' 1.X the tube in the United States are Reality TV shows, aT in the Philippines, Soap Operas, chances are the taste of viewers will change only if television networks start educating their viewers about more quality programs in English like talk shows that will impart positive social values especially the use of appropriate language in any given situation. The study was conducted to 1) determine how form and function are shown in the language used by talk show hosts, 2) show how biases are reflected in utterances of talk show hosts, and 3) identify positive values depicted by anchors in their talk shows. This study is a qualitative, corpus-based research and is descriptive in nature which involved describing, recording, analyzing, and interpreting gathered data. Four talk shows in English: Straight Talk, Talk Back, Strictly Politics, and Online aired at ABS-CBN News Channel were analyzed. These Talk shows were tape recorded and transcribed for systematic and sequential analysis. Language use on the program episodes were identified in terms of language form and function. Language forms and functions of sentential and sub-sentential utterances of anchors of some selected excerpts were analyzed. The biases were identified using the Politically Correct Dictionary by Beard and Cerf (1993) as a guide. These biases were grouped according to the following categories: sexism, ageism, ethnocentrism, lookism, colorism, heightism, and ableism. Media biases were identified based on the standards of journalism while the positive social values of the talk shows also identified based on the topics, issues and themes of the programs. Based on the research problems the following are the findings of the researcher: 1. Results revealed that utterances of talk show hosts were in sentential and sub-sentential forms. Sentential utterances were generally in the interrogative, followed by declarative, imperative, and exclamative forms. Sub-sentential utterances were in clauses, phrases, and words which were a result of ellipsis. Single word items or lexical items, and non-lexical items known as vocalizations or phonological cues were also used. Function of sentential utterances were predominantly asking/eliciting, commenting, informing, requesting, complimenting, introducing, greeting, and leave taking. As a result of ellipsis, functions of sub-sentential utterances also included informing, eliciting/asking, correcting, and leave taking. Discourse markers prefaced introductions, greetings, and leave takings, anticipation of an utterance that follows, sudden realization or unexpected utterance, surprise, nominating, topic shifting, clarifying/rephrasing, back-channel, repair, and pause fillers. 2. Politically incorrect terms and media biases were reflected in the talk show programs. These politically incorrect terms used were ageism, sexism, and status as categorized by Cerf and Beard. Results also revealed that media biases of talk show hosts were seen in the programs which were political in nature that included bias in favor of or against a particular political party, or policy. 3. Positive social values reflected in the talk shows emotional state and common positive attitude, positive affect, appraisal, gratitude, respect/courtesy/politeness like the use of honorifics/ kinship terms and use of professional terms/titles, patriotism and nationalism, Optimism, durability, resiliency, faith in God (pananalig), faithfulness (katapatan), and courage (tibay ng loob). The following conclusions were drawn based on the findings of the study: 1. Oral language as exemplified in talk shows is studded with sentential, sub-sentential, and a lot of pauses. Functions of these language forms are based on context or situation for which these are used. 2. Politically incorrect terms and media biases permeate national television talk shows. 3. Filipino social values are reflected in the language of both the hosts and guests of the national television talk shows regardless of topics tackled in the talk show. In view of the findings and conclusions of the study, the following suggestions are recommended for classroom teaching in English as a Second Language or ESL classes: 1a. It is still observed that a focus on grammatical competence is a standard procedure in most ESL learning environment which does not lead to the communicative competence of students. Moreover, students' speech often deviates significantly from native speakers' norms and may be the result of negative transfer or interference from the students' native language. Also pragmatic development has been observed to lag behind grammatical development. This may result to a very slow acquisition and learning of pragmatic competence unless it is explicitly taught in English and Mass Communication classes. It is therefore, recommended that curriculum designers and language teachers incorporate pragmatics in the language curriculum. 1b. In teaching pragmatics, teachers should include materials that present a plethora of different linguistic realizations to guide learners on how to choose a linguistic strategy to express speech acts appropriately. 1c. Moreover, practice materials involving current issues would provide students in English and Mass Communication classes communicative scenarios or situations through role plays. Carefully sequenced activities that move from controlled to less controlled situations are suggested to provide students with structured and authentic input. 1d. It is also recommended that instruction should also include activities that address the mechanics of conversation such as the use of appropriate terms of address, turn taking, active listening, relevant short responses or formulaic expressions that build the learners repertoire of meaningful responses that keep communication going and promote interaction. Maintaining conversation requires knowledge of responses that prompt, give support, indicate agreement, show strong emotional response, correct speaker's response, and ask for more information in an appropriate or polite manner. 1a. In addition, the contrastive intonation in English Is an important feature in oral language. It is worthwhile to explicitly point out the role of intonation in contrast an teaching pragmatics. In view of the above, the classroom is a rich environment to provide learners with a range of pragmatic devices and practices in the target language. 2a. There is a need for language learners to know politically correct or incorrect terms to be presented to students to enrich their vocabulary. These are categorized as ageism, ethnocentrism, colorism, sexism, heightism, and others. Knowledge of these terms promote wholesome interaction or verbal exchanges between and among interlocutors. Thus, panel or small group discussions in the class should consist of various issues where students become aware or conscious in the use of words that offend, discriminate, or prejudice speakers. 2b. Media bias permeate talk shows especially on political issues. It is suggested that teachers present contrasting excerpts of conversations to students not only to hone their critical thinking but also to create awareness of the appropriate and social meaning of language; that is, to use acceptable forms to obviously avoid offending the other party; hence the importance of mitigating devices. 2c. In addition, discussions in language and social sciences classes should include working on topics like values and journalistic ethics. This way it inculcates to the minds of students their moral responsibility in things they express in private as well as in public. 3. It has been shown in the language of talk show hosts that positive Filipino values are reflected in their utterances. However, the key word in every conversation or verbal exchanges is politeness. It is suggested that language teachers provide activities for students to learn how to be polite in appropriate situations. The activities to be introduced to the students will consist a range of mitigating devices to soften requests/directives, asking of questions, giving information, correcting information, complaining, refusals, and other speech acts. These are realizations associated with formal politeness and those that signal social closeness or solidarity appropriate to a particular context and culture. 4. For further research, it is suggested that discourse analysis include a comparative analysis of giving and responding to compliments in different ethnic groups in the Cordilleras, or in Northern Luzon including their forms and functions. 5. Another interesting topic for study is the forms and functions of parentheticals in English discourse especially in oral discourse. 6. A study on the comparison between TV talk shows and showbiz talk as regards form and functions of language used by talk show hosts and guest may be conducted.