Being Lucky-Virtual Performative Speech Acts

Abstract Learner conversations within a web-based adult online learning community for trainee London (UK) cabbies were studied and here are broadly categorised into three main conversational themes: content, process, and affect. The third theme, affect, includes learner interactions that operate in a register of mutual support and well-wishing. This paper utilises speech act theory to help understand the function(s) of emotion-based online conversations. It posits the existence of an affective channel of interaction that acts as a performative field of interpersonal exchange, one that gives normally atomised learners a venue in which they can leverage their agency and forge peer relationships. Introduction and Objectives London licensed taxi drivers are among the best-trained professionals in the world. They spend several years committing 25,000 streets, more than 100,000 points of interest, traffic routes and rush-hour patterns--collectively called 'The Knowledge'--to memory, and submit to an intensive battery of 15 or more written and oral examinations. Typically, Knowledge Boys and Girls are asked to recite, without the aid of a map, the most efficient route from one public place in Greater London to any other public point, making explicit reference to each road, ram, construction zone, and roundabout along the way. Questions such as, "Take me street-by-street from Cromwell Hospital to the Bleeding Heart Restaurant," and "How would you get from the Earl's Court YMCA to the Bank of Cyprus during rush hour?" test very fine-grained understanding of city geography as well as accurate and efficient navigational ability. Despite the daunting volume of information to be learned, these learners, who call themselves Knowledge Boys and Girls (KB/KGs), most often undertake this course of study entirely on their own, without the backing of formal educational institutions, and wind up spending years studying alone. The only chances many KB/KGs have to meet one another are at examinations and their initial orientation session. The potential for isolation in this endeavour is therefore quite staggering, and moreover, unusual for such a rigorous programme of training. As a response to the solitary nature of their studies, KB/KG's have spontaneously begun to create virtual communities for themselves on the Internet during the past five years. Through web-based message boards, sample examination questions, and chat rooms, they have established online venues for meeting and interacting with other KB/KGs who are also struggling with the difficult work of completing 'The Knowledge'. The presence of this online space prompts some important questions about the way these 'wired' Knowledge Boys/Girls train themselves. The broader question that guides this research is one of benefit. That is, what advantages accrue to learners who participate in these sorts of ad hoc online learning communities (OLCs)? This paper separates out one element of the electronic interaction that occurs among learners--affective exchange--and enlists speech act theory to postulate how emotion-based conversations might operate in the complex social field of a learning community in cyberspace, and ultimately, what beneficial effects these interactions might have for adult learners. Perspectives and Theoretical Framework Understanding language as more than verifiable or metaphysical utterances is the foundation of speech act theory. Developed by J.L. Austin (1975) and elaborated by John Searle (1969, 1979), speech act theory holds that entire classes of speech/writing are not used within any received framework of truth or falsehood; rather, they operate more as doing something than as saying something. For example, 'I hereby leave my estate to Jane', or 'I bet you five dollars that he has a hat' are statements that cannot be classed as true or false in any verifiable sense. Moreover, their very production contains the kernel of their executio--saying these things is doing, in a very real way. …