Unit 8 Application Question

I chose the first conversation.

#1  A good school?

(Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Rashid are both parents of students in the district where Mrs. Thomas also teaches.)
Mrs. Thomas: Johnny has Mr. Smith as a teacher next year. I hear he is an excellent teacher.
Mrs. Rashid: He’s very nice.
Mrs. T: Are you happy with the school district?
Mrs. Rashid: There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.

The miscommunication occurs in the way that Mrs. Rashid responded to each of Mrs. Thomas’ questions/statements.  Both of her responses violate the Maxim of relevance because the information she gave in response the question was not relevant.  Mrs. Thomas stated that Mr. Smith was an excellent teacher.  She is expecting Mrs. Rashid to give her opinion or what she’d heard from others about Mr. Smith’s teaching.  Instead, she says he is nice.  This gives her opinion of his personality and does not express her opinion of his effectiveness as a teacher.  When Mrs. Thomas asks Mrs. Rashid the specific question about her satisfaction with the school district, Mrs. Rashid responds with a comment about her neighborhood.  Mrs. Thomas’ question remains unanswered because Mrs. Rashid responded with information that is irrelevant to the questions she was asked.

Perhaps Mrs. Rashid had heard negative things about Mr. Smith and politely tried to avoid contributing to this topic.  Perhaps for the second question, Mrs. Rashid is having difficulty differentiating between her neighborhood community and the school district.  Mrs. Rashid is commenting specifically about the people, not her pleasure or displeasure with the way the school district conducts business.  Both of Mrs. Rashid’s responses reflect how she feels about people.  She may not recognize that Mrs. Thomas is asking about the way Mr. Smith teachers and the way the district serves students and parents.