The Tennis Ball

A Class Activity About Language Use

Many metaphors exist to describe language and its use, but I want to explore a classroom activity that gets across one view about language--the tennis ball.

Activity:
Bring a tennis ball to class.
Start throwing it to students and having them throw it back to you or to each other.

What does this show or do? How is this a metaphor for language?

Throwing a tennis ball is a metaphor for what has been called the "transmission" model of communication. Another metaphor I have used is th UPS model of communication. Thought gets packaged and shipped from sender to receiver. The tennis ball is the thought which is sent between sender and receiver. The idea is that the thought is somehow static and real--it is a thing itself. It is an encapsulated form of reality. We wrap it in good language and then send it as clearly as we can. In this case how we throw the ball refers to how well we wrap this thought in language. Errors would equate to a mis-throw. The receiver or reader's job is to unpack or catch the ball. By catching the ball they are receiving that packaged ball of thought and reality. It is a one-to-one interchange ideally. The ball is unchanged and the reader/receiver's job is to catch it. They have to learn to be good catchers (close readers), though it is also the job of the writer/thrower to throw the ball well.

What is the relationship between reality and thought?
What is the relationship between thought or knowledge of reality and language?

To a large extent, we operate upon this Proficiency model of communication. This myth of immediacy, this transmission model. It rests on the idea that reality is out there as an objective presence AND that our language can capture this or equate to this reality. The alternative view, I think, is found in this one line: "Man is the measure of all things."

Next--an alternative metaphor for communication.