Diane Yuzhu Qian and Haley Berl Sociolinguistics Professor De Costa Variation Project March 18, 2013

Coffee Order, Gender, Age and Time

Introduction

behind various linguistic behaviors as well. It studies the way language is affected by people with their desired social image. In other words, it relates closely to how peoples differences in social class, region, gender, etc., yet it also inextricably links

not only about analyzing language itself, but it deals with all kinds of social factors

Sociolinguistics is one of the most complex subjects in the linguistic field. It is

context in which the language is being used. How does language use vary across different social factors? During the process of exploring language and its surrounding social factors, we are able to attain a more complete picture about

deeper understanding of the subject, it is necessary for us to step into the real social

people use language in their daily life as a social being. Therefore, in order to gain a

classroom.

sociolinguistics in real life on the basis of the knowledge that we learned in the There were many topics that sparked our interest at first. But from our

would be more possibilities to acquire valuable results concerning a particular issue instead of just briefly drawing general conclusions. We finally chose coffee ordering

was better to narrow the topics down and focus on a certain one. In this way, there

experience of reading the research done by different scholars, we decided that it

as our topic because first of all, we could collect our data only by listening and taking notes without involving ourselves in the interaction, which allowed us to note down of time. Secondly, we thought that it was a quite simple topic that enabled us to pay exactly what was heard and to collect a greater number of tokens in the same period as much attention as possible to the different social factors that would reveal

everyday life, our potential students can learn from the results of our study how to place orders appropriately and independently when learning the language. Procedure

themselves. And in terms of application, since coffee ordering happens frequently in

Monterey Institute. Originally, we had hoped to conduct our research at Starbucks.

We collected our data at a coffee shop called Plumes near the campus of the

But after being reminded by one of our classmates that we could hardly hear people conduct our study at Plumes. It is a relatively small place with about 6 tables and ordering at Starbucks because it is always crowded there, we changed our minds to

quite relaxed and hospitable, and obviously much quieter than Starbucks.

It is not a chain or fast-food store, so the atmosphere in the shop can be described as To start, we chose to observe between 8:00 and 9:00 am because several days

several window seats that can accommodate around 15 customers at the same time.

before the data were collected, we asked one of the employees at that coffee shop when the busiest hours usually were, and he responded that they were between

typical variants during a typical period of time in a day. And secondly, as Plumes

7:00 and 9:00 am. We chose the busiest hours because firstly, we hoped to find the

because we intended to find out the differences between weekends and weekdays. We collected the data on Sunday and Monday using the same process. We

Monday) from 8:00 to 9:00 am collecting all the data. We chose Sunday and Monday

enough data. We spent two hours in total on two mornings (Sunday and the next

after the busiest hours in the morning, so it could have taken us hours to collect

was not a very busy place, there were not many customers during the rest of the day

walked into the coffee shop as customers. After ordering, we sat at the table located closest to the counter in order to hear the interaction between the employee(s) and the customers more clearly. We took continuous notes throughout the hour. One of us (Diane) sat facing the counter and had a good view of the employee and all the

The other (Haley) who sat in the opposite direction but closer to the counter and could hear the interaction more clearly took down the actual words that the customers uttered while ordering, and the responses of the employees. Also, we

using body language after ordering, and whether they required the receipt or not.

also paid attention to whether they said thank you or expressed a similar meaning

customers, so she took down the gender and approximate age of each customer. She

noticed that most of the customers took their orders to go and only a few stayed in the shop to finish their food and drinks. To make it easier to keep track of things afterwards, we both numbered each of the customers according to the order in

observed during that particular hour. Still, there were a few families with both of the parents making the order, and never any children who spoke directly to the

with one person ordering, which was the case for most of the families that we

which they went into the coffee shop. Here, we counted only once for the families

employees. In addition to that, we compared our notes from time to time to make

sure that we were on the same number, which was a necessary step. We each took get the complete information of a certain person when we analyzed our data. We

down part of the information of the same customer, and then compiled our notes to also wrote down the time when it was 8:30 am, 8:45 am, and 9:00 am. In this way,

we were able to estimate the amount of customers during a given period of time. There were several times (each lasted for less than a minute) when no customer decoration and the atmosphere of the coffee shop.

was ordering at the counter, and it provided us with an opportunity to observe the After collecting and briefly analyzing all our data, we found that the manner in

which people ordered fell into several categories. We first divided them into

approximately 8 categories, which did not work to be concise enough for further analysis. After the discussion in class, we took some of the suggestions from the professor and the classmates and finally developed 4 categories. Having figured out

what the variants were, we then decided to include customers gender, their age, and time and date as the social factors, though our data had more elements than those three items.

across gender, variant use across age and the frequency based on time and date. The tables are shown below.

about to analyze. We made separate tables for the 4 variants of ordering, variant use

Our next step was making the tables that would reflect the data that we were

Table 1: Variant Frequency Chart Variant Type Number 1 Greeting + order 25 2 Intro words + order 32 3 Simple order 13 4 Miscellaneous (regulars) 9 (total number = 79)

Percentage 32% 41% 16% 11%

There were 79 total samples taken, and the above table demonstrates the categories into which they fall. We then divided the observed number of variants by the total number of samples, and came up with the percentage for each variant. Table 1.1: Examples of Variant 1 Good morning + [order] Hi + [order] Hi. Can I//May I//Could I + [order] How are you doing? (interaction with employee) + [order]

Table 1.1 shows the different ways that Variant 1 was observed. For the purposes of our research we have defined this variant as the customer saying some greeting 1.1) can be characterized as polite, because they demonstrate the customers awareness of the employee. Table 1.2: Examples of Variant 2 (Intro words + order) Can I get//have//do [order]? I want//Id like [order] Im gonna get//grab [order] Just [order]//Ill just get[order]//Could I just get[order]? words before placing their order. These introductory words (listed above in Table

Table 1.2 shows the assortment of orders that can be characterized as Variant 2. the customer. These interactions were typically much shorter, as the depth of

These orders consisted of intro words that expressed want or need on the part of interaction was established by the customer. That is to say the employee may have

inferred from the customers intro words that he or she was in a rush, and wanted to limit the time of interface with the employee. Whether or not this is the case, it those of Variant 1. can be generalized that orders of the Variant 2 category were typically shorter than Table 1.3: Variant 3 (Simple order) [order] + please [order]

Variant 3, as shown in Table 1.3, was the interaction of the least amount of time,

because the customers choice to limit the interaction with the employee was very by simply getting to the point.

clear. There was no depth of interaction, as the customer set the tone for the order Details of Miscellaneous orders (Variant 4): There were only four orders that fell into Variant 4 one was inaudible, and is therefore not able to be categorized. One was an inquiry about a product, and another was a greeting from a regular. Finally, a customer discussed the weather

with an employee, and the employee already knew his order. Because this person be a miscellaneous token. For these reasons, we did not include a table that

acknowledged the employee, but did not verbally place the order, it is considered to represented these categories.

the data, even though it may not have been explicitly stated. By this, we wanted to see if there were any differences between the ways in which females placed their

The following category of sex was one that we thought had a lot of bearing on

orders in comparison to how males placed their orders. Through noting the gender

of each token and recording the variants that were employed, we were able to come up with figures for both categories. See Tables 2.1 and 2.2. Table 2.1: Variant Use Across Females Female Number Observed = 24 Variant 1 9 Variant 2 8 Variant 3 4 Variant 4 3

Table 2.1 shows the total number of females that went to Plumes over the two days. To find the percentage of females that used each type of variant, the observed Table 2.2: Variant Use Across Males Male Number Observed = 55 Variant 1 16 Variant 2 24 Variant 3 9 Variant 4 6 number of female tokens was divided by the total number of female tokens (24). Percentage of Total 30% 44% 16% 11%

Percentage of Total 38 % 33% 17% 13%

Table 2.2 displays the total number of male customers that ordered coffee over the two days of data collection. Their percentages of variants were calculated in the the total number (55). same ways as the females by dividing the number that used each type of variant by Another social factor that we concentrated on was that of age. Our idea

behind this was that we wanted to see if customers of different ages employed

different variants, and if any telling evidence could be found. Because we didnt ask ages to assign the tokens. The totals for each age group can be found by following the last row (Total) in the table all the way across. Out of each age group, we each customer how old they were, we (the researchers) agreed upon approximate

variants (per age group) by the total number of tokens in that age group. A observed age group.

identified the type of variant category. We then divided the number of observed

comprehensive table is shown below, which accounts for each variant in each Table 3: Variant Use Across Age 20s Variant 1 5 (42%) Variant 2 3 (25%) Variant 3 3 (25%) Variant 4 1 (8%) Total 12

30s-40s 14 (35%) 17 (43%) 6 (15%) 3 (8%) 40

40s-50s 3 (21%) 5 (36%) 4 (29%) 2 (14%) 14

50s-60s 3 (23%) 7 (54%) 0 3 (31%) 13

Finally, the last social factor we attended to was the time and date. Our rationale for this category was to determine the frequency of each type of variant based on the tokens observed per time slot by the daily total of tokens. The percentages are represented for each slot. Likewise, on Monday, 2/18, there were 34 observed The data are represented in Table 4. time of day. On Sunday, 2/17, there were 45 total tokens. We divided the number of

tokens. The total number of tokens per time slot was again divided by the daily total.

Table 4: Frequency Based on Time and Date Number of Participants and Percentage of Days Total 23 (51%) 12 (27%) 10 (22%) 13 (38%) 13 (38%) 8 (24%) Time of Day 8:00-8:30 8:30-8:45 8:45-9:00 8:00-8:30 8:30-8:45 8:45-9:00 Date Sunday 2/17 Monday 2/18

Gender

Analysis

Concerning the variant of gender, we were surprised to see that the majority of

tokens were male, as the environment of Plumes seems welcoming to both males which most customers were between 30 and 40 years old). In addition, both on

and females. Thirty percent of overall tokens were female, and 70% were male (of Sunday and Monday, the employees were male (one, the manager, appeared to be in note that females employed all types of variants, but were overall less likely to greet the employee, as they were to just place their order with (or without) some introductory words. his early 40s and both other employees were in their early to mid-20s). One can

It is interesting to note that Variant 2 is the most (overall) frequently employed

structure for placing coffee orders in this study (introductory words + [order]) (see Table 1.2). These introductory words were typically I statements, and seemed male customers began with I need. This degree of necessity in speech was not which a customer decided to use this introductory phrase, as compared to the fairly typical for the setting. One further variation concerning Variant 2 was that two something that we had accounted for, and it is difficult to speculate the reasons for others listed (that appear less dramatic and slightly more polite). Variant 2 was also the most frequented by males (see Table 2.2) and the second most frequented by females. Variant 1 was the second most employed by males (Table 2.2), and the first

most employed by females (Table 2.1). The likely reason for which Variant 2 was so

equally time efficient.

popularly used is because it is slightly more polite than Variant 3, and about as

gender of the employees affected the types of variants that the customers employed over the course of these two mornings. In one interaction on Monday, a blonde the younger male employee. To specify, this customer made sure to greet the flirtatious and attentive (obviously her intentions were not known, but these woman in her 20s had what can be described as a very friendly conversation with employee, and began an in-depth conversation with him. Her manner was very conclusions are drawn based on body language, the amount of giggling and the more opportunity to observe a friendlier interaction, say, between a male

For both categories, Variant 4 was the least employed overall. It is possible that the

length of interaction). Perhaps if a female had been working, there would have been

more inclined to ask a customer how they were doing, to which the customer

customer and female employee. Lastly, the Monday employee in his early 20s was

replied before saying their variant. The Sunday employee in his early 20s was more inclined to say thank you after taking an order. Customers tended to respond accordingly. Age

Variant 2 was overall the most frequently used by all ages, except for customers in the employee was around their age, or simply because they thought it would be more polite. As noted, Variant 4 was seldom used, except in the cases of regular

their 20s. This age group was more inclined to use a greeting. This could be because

customers and customer product inquiries. As for the other three age groups, the

use of all variants is notably diverse, particularly the lack of Variant 3 by persons (2002) would call a marked choice, meaning, speakers choose specific phrases or patterns of speech in order to convey a particular message. They are related to frequency, in that marked choices are less frequent, and unmarked choices are more observation that these marked choices are a way through which people frequent (and have more to do with the flow of speech). Given Myers-Scottons between the age of 50 and 60. It is likely that this was what Carol Myers-Scotton

demonstrate self-expression, we can venture to say that coffee orders are usually marked choices, because customers have a chance to think about what they are saying (Myers-Scotton, 2002). Therefore, Variant 3 is considered to be a little more contrasts with the subliminal relaxed atmosphere (as portrayed by the prevalent 1970s/Rock n Roll theme throughout the store). Time and Date rude in a context such as Plumes (which isnt a chain or fast-food store), because it

It is fair to say that most of our data were different from what we had originally

This is because one of us (Haley) had previously worked at a coffee shop, and knew that Monday mornings are generally the busiest. However, from our data represented in Table 4, it is clear to see that the number of tokens was not

expected. We had supposed that most of our participants would come on Monday.

substantially larger on Monday (34 tokens) as compared to Sunday (45 tokens) at was Presidents Day. So, the majority of the people must have come in before 8:00

our specified time. One of our confounding variables is that this particular Monday am (in order to go to work), or not at all (because they had to go to work or because

they were sleeping in). One can note that the busiest overall time between the two

days was on Sunday between 8:00 and 9:00 am (29% of overall tokens, 51% of that

days total). In the cases of both data, the busiest times were between 8 and 8:30 am, which demonstrates that rush hour overlaps between the previous hour, and then dies out by 9:00 am. Future Research

serves the role of offering us a taste of conducting research. If we were more experienced and were given more time, we would like to explore as well the following topics.

offer some useful findings. However, to some extent, it is only a beginning, which

Generally speaking, our study is a very simple and basic one, though it does

the gender and age of the employees contribute to the variants. To be more specific, for example, we can observe whether a female employee will raise friendlier interactions with the customers as mentioned in the analysis, or we can try to find two-way interaction between the employee and the customer, both of them play an important role in the course of the interaction. out whether a younger employee tends to greet customers more. As ordering is a

Besides the gender and age of the customers, we are also interested in whether

customers ordering be different from a relatively cozy place like Plumes? What are

behaviors in this type of coffee shops are subjects of curiosity. How will the

down all the exact words at chain stores such as Starbucks, peoples linguistic

ordering in other coffee shops. Although there may be some difficulties in taking

Also, we are curious about whether there will be some differences in the way of

the social factors behind those differences? To what degree does the environment such as these would contribute to a much more sound research.

influence on peoples language use? A comparison with data collected for questions Whats more, ordering food in places other than coffee shops such as the school

cafeteria, fast-food restaurants, etc. is also worth considering. It would likely places and then compare the findings.

generate inspiring ideas if we were to conduct individual studies at several different

useful in the classroom setting. The obvious reason is that students will be able to take what they have learned from coffee order vocabulary and apply it to other situations in which they will need to place an order. Various specifications

This section will explore the reasons for which these (analyzed) data are

Pedagogical Implications

pertaining to vocabulary would be 1) how the employee is addressed, 2) the degree sketch in which students take on the roles of the employee and the client. The of formality (register), and 3) general politeness. A potential lesson could include a

instructor could make the most out of the learning opportunity by asking students that could come from this research is that it can be replicated by student

what they notice about the dialogue between the characters. Another learning tool researchers . Students would observe native English speakers in their natural

environment, with the focus of placing orders. This would be a great example of

what Kumaravadivelu (2003) calls maximizing learning opportunities. They could also choose to look at the exploratory function of some greetings or orders, asking

themselves, What variants are in place that made the interaction go in this

direction? Could it have gone in another direction? Conducting a study like this interaction with the client, and identify the function of a particular variant.

would mean that students need to infer exactly what the customer wanted from the

Moreover, requiring students to conduct a similar study breaks them away from the students traditionally learn that the standard way of ordering is I would like [order] to helps students think practically about their classroom learning (Hudley & please. Exposure to non-standardized English features of food orders would serve normal textbook style method of language learning. For example, perhaps

Mallinson, 2011). Through observing natural interactions, students will acquire a which is appropriate to use in an employee-client relationship (Mesthrie et. al, 2009). The platform of customer-client interaction is a practical scenario that

more diverse repertoire of interaction styles, particularly consultative style that

students will need to know how to operate, as this topic can apply to other areas (i.e., at the hair stylist, at the post office, at a restaurant, etc.). Conducting a study such as this helps students scaffold the language variation in their own L1 in this subject area, making connections with what it is like in their L2. Conclusion This small-scale research project provided us with the opportunity to see

upon the participants (who is speaking and who is being addressed), the setting, the topic, and the function. These four items also comprise the context of an in

sociolinguistics in action. Holmes (2008) says that our choice of language depends

interaction, which is unarguably, the most important factor in drawing any

conclusion in the field of sociolinguistics. From our data, it is clear that more people went to Plumes on Sunday than on Monday (either due to the holiday or the fact they will use a minimal level of politeness when placing their order. Given the that they were at work). Most people who go to Plumes are middle-aged males, and context of the coffee shop (including the atmosphere) and the time of day, these

shop. We look forward to helping our future students notice the variations around them, and select their identity in their L2 based on their knowledge. With the context of a global classroom. example of a study like this, students will realize the power of language in the

factors seem fitting and are now (at least in our minds) characteristics of this coffee

Hudley, A.H.C. & Mallinson, C. (2011). Understanding English variation in U.S. schools. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. Mesthrie, R., J. Swann, A. Deumert & W. Leap (Eds.) (2009). Introducing sociolinguistics (2nd ed). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Myers-Scotton, C. (2002). Frequency and intentionality in (un)marked choices in codeswitching: "This is a 24-hour country". International Journal Of Bilingualism, 6(2), 205-219. New Haven: Yale University Press. New York: Teachers College Press.

Holmes, J. (2008). An introduction to sociolinguistics. (3rd ed.). London: Longman.

References