LSA 4 Background Essay

‘Helping learners better understand the

use of discourse features of

conversations’

Edward Green

ContentsIntroduction & Scope page 2

Important features of interactive conversations pages 2 - 5

Common student problems pages 5 - 6

Teaching solutions pages 7 - 9

Conclusion page 8

Bibliography and word count page 9

Appendices pages 10 - 18

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Introduction

I have chosen to focus on spoken discourse and in particular features of

conversations because it is an area I am not very familiar with. Furthermore, as most

day-to-day spoken language is conversational and functional, learners see the

benefit in focussing on useful conversational strategies and raising-awareness of

how native-speakers interact. Many learners often measure their own linguistic

development in terms of the fluency of their discourse (Thornbury:2005:63) and a key

judge of fluency is having effective conversations with both native and non-native

speakers.

This essay will look at what features of spoken discourse help with opening,

maintaining and closing conversations and avoiding communication breakdown. It

will then look at some common student problems in these areas. Finally, it will

suggest some practical teaching ideas that deal with these student problems. It will

looking at problems and solutions for students from beginner to advanced levels.

What sort of conversation?

Conversation is informal, interactive spoken discourse between a small

number of participants (Cook:1989). Furthermore, unlike an interview, it is not

necessitated by a practical task. The idea of ‘conversation’ has traditionally been

categorised according to two ends of a spectrum those being interactive, also known

as ‘interpersonal’ (Thornbury:2005:66) (i.e. getting to know you better) and

transactional (i.e. getting business done). I agree with McCarthy who through a case

study of service encounters (transactional) conversations showed a ‘constant

tendency for customers and assistants to engage in some sort of friendly chat’

(1991:137). Therefore I have decided to focus on ‘interactive/interpersonal’

conversations typified by appendix I. By investigating the common features of this

type of discourse I aim to better prepare my students for conversations which deviate

from the script. I will not be focussing overtly on paralinguistic features and

phonology however, I will comment on them where they aid the discourse.

Important features of interactive conversation

The following features of spoken discourse are not unique to conversation;

however, they are essential tools for any proficient user of English. I have decided to

place them under the loose headings of ‘initiating and closing conversations and

maintaining conversations’, however, the interactive nature of conversational

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discourse and the shared negotiation toward an outcome mean that these very

distinctions are fluid. There is a further category of lexical discourse markers.

Initiating and closing conversations

Adjacency pairs – These are ‘two types of turn in conversation which

typically occur together’ (Cook:1989:156), Willis adds that they are almost

‘formulaic’ (2003:195). Lines 45 and 46 of appendix I indicate an adjacency

pair for saying goodbye. When someone says ‘take care’ we usually reply

with ‘you too’ or ‘thanks’.

False starts – Most speech, in particular interactive conversations are

produced with little or no thinking time (Thornbury:2005:64) A false start such

as line 2 and 5. Indicate a hesitation at word level, however a false start such

as line 22 ‘and we er... so, I can’ can involve changes at sentence level.

Intonation - In order to open a conversation we usually employ a rising

intonation. In terms of pronunciation, there is a rise for genuine questions and

a fall when the question is simply to confirm what the speaker already knows.

This is arguably one of the more reliable rules when it comes to assigning

intonation patterns to specific grammatical forms (Thornbury:2002). For

example in line 1 there is rising intonation on the phrase ‘what do you want to

talk about?’ this suggests the speaker is inviting the other person to take a

turn.

Maintaining conversations

Fillers – These are short noises, prefabricated words or phrases. These are

used principally when the speaker wants to discourse space in order to give

him/herself thinking time (Brown & Yule:1983:17). Fillers allow participants

time to consider messages and move towards a negotiated outcome

(Cook:1989:78). Native-speakers generally use a rising intonation with fillers

to show that they are pausing and thereby are not interrupted. Examples from

the text include ‘er’ (9), ‘umm’ (32) and ‘you know’ (40).

Repetition – Used the same way as fillers, repetition gives the speaker and

listener more thinking time. It can be used at both word and sentence level.

An example of it is line 2, ‘I…I’

Incomplete utterances – When someone does not finish what they were

saying. This can be when someone finishes an utterance for you for example

lines 22 and 23.

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Vague Language - Incomplete utterances can also be linked to what is

known as ‘vague language’, again this is a way of giving us thinking time, if

we cannot find the exact word (Willis:2003:197), for example line 41 ‘things to

do, people to see’. Another classic example is the suffix ‘ish’.

Backchannelling –‘Successful discourse is the responsibility of both

participants. Even someone who is simply listening to a story is expected to

take an active part’ (Richards:2005:115). Backchannelling is therefore the

‘active part’ of the listener. It can take the form of utterances such as ‘yeh’ or

‘right’, noises as in our dialogue ‘mmm’ (30), ‘mhm, mhm’ (20) or

paralinguistic features such as a nod. Backchannelling indicates we catch the

speaker’s drift (Thornbury:2005:65).

Conversational repair Learners having a conversation may need to adjust

their message, interrupt and clarify, having little or no time to do this whilst

emerging with a negotiated result. This is done either through the speaker

clarifying what they have just said using phrases such as ‘I mean’ and using

repetition to repeat the message. If the listener wants to clarify they can do

this by repeating what has just been said but with rising intonation for

example ‘Saturday…’ (line 6) or using set phrases such as ‘say again’, ‘I don’t

understand’ or ‘what was that?’

Discourse markers

Discourse markers are used to signal one’s intentions, to hold the

conversational turn, and to mark boundaries in the talk (Thornbury:2005:15).

Parrot (2002:302) gives a clear definition and states some of the different

functions and uses of discourse markers: McCarthy argues, the possible choices

of conjunction will often overlap in meaning with little overall difference,

particularly in spoken texts (1991).

1. To 'signpost' logical relationships and sequences. For example to make a

contrast ‘but’ (7,21). To add extra information, ’and’ (16). To state what

happens next ‘so’ (8).

2. To 'manage' conversations - to negotiate who speaks and when, to

monitor and express involvement in the topic. ‘well’ (44), this is used to

signal the end of a conversation.

3. To influence how the listeners or readers react. ‘you know’ (40). In this

case, the marker is used to create an atmosphere of solidarity or intimacy

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(Parrot:2002:309). Another phrase which could suggest intimacy in this

particular case would be to insert ‘I mean, I’ll just keep Robert’s present’.

4. To express our attitude to what we say and write. ‘I mean’ is also an

example of expressing a higher degree of involvement in what we are

saying. Another example of this could be the use of ‘etc’ (42) which in this

case expresses lethargy or resignation to continue with the day’s

unexciting business.

However, as Parrot goes on to state ‘the function of conversation management

discourse markers is always very dependant on context (2002:308).’

Common student problems

1. Lack of awareness of features of spoken discourse

A problem for Arabic learners is a lack of awareness of the importance of

spoken discourse and its importance in the language classroom. Learners in

Libya for example, used to grammar-translation and audio-lingualism

methodologies were sceptical of the importance of features of conversational

discourse, they saw it as incorrect as opposed to the correctness of written

English. A context where this caused real problem was in preparation for

KET, PET, FCE and CAE exams, where students are expected to ‘engage in

discussions and work towards negotiated outcomes’ (UCLES:2008:76).

Despite grammatical and lexical competence, Libyan learners often lacked

the pragmatic competence to deal with conversations because they weren’t

aware of some features of discourse for example, signalling the beginning or

end of a turn. This was a teaching problem, Willis states ‘as most spoken

language is, of its very nature, spontaneous, some aspects are very difficult to

teach’ (2003:198). Furthermore, if students believe discourse raising activities

are a waste of time, or that such activities do not fit their perceived needs this

affects motivation and may mitigate the benefits of such activities.

2. Lack of awareness of fillers

In my experience, lower level students from different contexts have struggled

with fillers. Some students leave long silences during turns, which are

considered less acceptable in English than in other languages such as

Chinese and Japanese (Burns, Joyce & Gollin:1996:36). Furthermore,

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prolonged silences can be (mis)interpreted as a cue for interruption. Some

student turns can be punctuated by so many ‘umms’ and ‘errs’ that

comprehension becomes difficult. Use of ‘umms’ and ‘errs’ can be attributed

to nervousness on the part of the speaker. However, Thornbury states that

teachers attempting to ‘tidy up’ spoken language, may be making it harder to

produce and process (2005:65). I have observed many teachers forcing a

nervous student to speak without ‘umming and ahhhing’. By focussing on

removing ‘umms’, ‘errs’ and periods of silence rather than looking at better

ways of segmenting discourse, teachers and materials writers neglect the

authentic aspect of conversation which involves awareness of fillers.

Appendix ii is an example of an interactive scripted dialogue without fillers.

3. Lack of strategies for initiating conversations

According to a colleague, Chinese students ‘have few phrases for starting

conversations’. This is because Chinese students are used to what McCarthy

describes as a ‘three-part exchange in traditional classrooms’ (1991:122).

Initiation, response and follow-up. McCarthy continues that teachers will take

the initiation and follow-up roles whilst students are restricted to the response

role. Burns continues that ‘teachers will often find students much better

versed in the use of declarative statements rather than interrogatives’

(1996:112). Whilst the problem cannot be confined to a lack of awareness of

features of discourse (it encompasses grammatical, lexical and even cultural

knowledge) it is clear that a lack of teaching focus on reversing the roles

within a classroom has left students with a paucity of options for initiating

conversation.

4. Lack of variety of clarification

Moroccan learners often use a limited range of clarifying tools. They often

translate phrases directly from French or Moroccan Arabic. Furthermore, a

rising intonation and raising of the voice when asking for clarification can

sometimes offend native speakers of English who are more used to hearing

‘excuse me?’ or ‘sorry’, rather than ‘what?’ or ‘eh?’. This problem is a case of

L1 interference and lack of awareness of the cultural specificity of speaking to

British English speakers, the ‘politeness principle’ (Cook:1989:33).

Furthermore, many teachers are unaware of strategies native speakers use to

clarify.

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Teaching solutions

1. Features of discourse

I have adapted an activity from Thornbury for the purpose of raising awareness of

aspects of spoken discourse for intermediate students studying towards the PET

exam. By comparing an authentic conversation to a scripted piece from a textbook,

learners become more aware of important features of spoken discourse and then get

to practice them. Learners listen to two dialogues (appendices iii and iv) and discuss

which was more authentic and why. Hopefully students should identify features such

as repetition, fillers and false starts. Secondly I give students a copy of the first

dialogue (iii) and students mark the features. Thirdly, students are given the second,

scripted dialogue (iv) and have to re-write it using some of the features identified.

Students rehearse and practice the second dialogue (controlled practice). Finally,

students are given a collaborative speaking task from the PET exam. A task with an

exam focus lowers the ‘affective filter’ and increases motivation.

2. Fillers

In order to raise awareness of the usefulness of fillers, teachers need to present

dialogues which highlight their use in authentic texts. One such activity which adopts

a bottom-up approach to features of conversational discourse is from Face to Face –

Pre-Intermediate. Following on from two listening exercise based on conversations

about neighbours, exercise 8 (appendix v) explains the utility of fillers in conversation

and raises-awareness of specific lexical items such as ‘well’, ‘er’, ‘you see’, ‘you

know’ and ‘um’. Students are then asked to ‘notice’ these words in the tape script

(appendix vi). Following this activity, students, in pairs, exchange ideas about their

neighbours. The students’ task is to decide which person has the worst neighbours.

This exercise is effective as the freer practice stage does not insist on students using

the fillers, rather sets out a natural context and the need to use them. A bottom-up

approach focuses students’ attention on the usefulness of fillers.

3. Initiating conversations

One activity I have adapted is taken from Reward Upper-Intermediate (appendix vii).

Students participate in an extended mingle exercise within the context of attending a

business conference party. Students first complete worksheet (appendix vii) with

details of an invented person. Following this, I write the following lexical phrases on

the board ‘allow me to introduce myself’, ‘pleased to meet you’, ‘I see you work for

Audi’, ‘Hi, let me introduce myself’, ‘well, enjoy the evening’ and ask students why we

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use the phrases. After, I drill useful intonation patterns for interrupting people, such

as the rise-fall on ‘Hi, let me introduce myself’. Students then mingle in class and

practice initiating and closing brief conversations. They have to meet as many people

as possible in 10 minutes. The idea of meeting as many people as possible

encourages task repetition which is particularly useful as learners pay less attention

to what they are saying and more attention to how they are saying it.

4. Conversation repair

An effective approach to conversation repair would be a task based approach. Lower

level students complete an information gap activity such as a spot the difference

exercise (appendix viii). Through monitoring and feedback I then highlight

deficiencies in the repair strategies and presents them on the board, I present some

clarification strategies including highlighting correct intonation patters. Following this,

students complete a similar spot the difference task. Students should ‘notice’ the

difference between their interlanguage and a more native speaker like model. This

lesson adopts a ‘top-down approach’ to discourse.

Conclusion

Having completed this assignment I am more aware of what skills students

need to initiate, maintain and close interactive conversations and how to further

exploit discourse features for other types of spoken communication such as story-

telling. I have suggested some activities to help learners with problems with spoken

discourse, focussing mainly on maintaining conversation, which from my reading has

been highlighted as a key aspect of conversation management. However, it is

important to remember the utility of teaching students ways of opening and closing

conversations. Conversations are something learners often do in their L1 so as well

as identifying transferrable skills, teachers can also raise awareness of specific

features of conversational English as well as model texts. Encouraging learners to

reflect n the strategies they use in their L1 can also have a beneficial effect for their

general communication skills.

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Bibliography

Brown, G. & Yule, G. 1983. Discourse Analysis, CUP, Cambridge.

Burns, A. Joyce, H. Gollin, S. 1996. I see what you mean. Using spoken discourse in the classroom, Macquarie University, Sydney.

Cook, G. 1989. Discourse, OUP, Oxford.

Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. 1976. Cohesion in English, Longman, London.

McCarthy, M. 1991. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers, CUP, Cambridge.

Parrot, M. 2003. Grammar for English Language Teachers, MacMillan, Harlow.

Richards, J.C. 2005. The Language Teaching Matrix, CUP, Cambridge.

Sewel, H.D. 2004. Do Students Need Critical Discourse Awareness? taken from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/Sewell_WDisc.pdf

Thornbury, S. 2002. About Language – Tasks for teacher of English, CUP, Cambridge.

Thornbury, S. 2003. How to Teach Speaking. Pearson Longman, Harlow.

Thornbury, S. 2005. Beyond the sentence: Introducing discourse analysis, Macmillan, Harlow.

UCLES. 2008. First Certificate in English; Handbook for Teachers, CUP, Cambridge.

Vurdien, R. 2011. Email Discourse, taken from Modern English Teacher. Vol 20 Number 1. pp. 62-67.

Willis, D. 2003. Rules, Patterns and Words. CUP, Cambridge.

Practical Materials

Redston, C. Clark, R. Young, A & Coward, H. 2005. face2face pre-intermediate,

CUP, Cambridge.

Riley, D. 1996. Reward Upper-Intermediate: Business Resource Pack, MacMillan,

Harlow.

Appendix viii taken from

http://www.handoutsonline.com/thumbnails2/christmas/spot_the_difference_colour.gi

f

Word Count - 2500

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Appendix I – Sample conversation

Sisters Kate and Margaret are at home.

1. M:    okay… what do you want to talk about?

2. K:    I…I don’t know!

3. M:    (hhh)

4. K:    pick a conversation!...

5. M:    (hhh) wh, wha, what do you fancy doing on Saturday?

6. K:    Saturday… I, I thought we were going to get the… the presents?

7. M:    yeah... well w- we… talked about Saturday or Sunday ... er … but Bede

8. and ... Sinners are playing on Sunday so... (hhh) wouldn’t give us much

9. time to get back for four o clock, especially if we wanted to, er, go to 10.

Browton

11. K:    mmm…

12. M:    so ... probably Saturday

13. K:    okay

14. M:    erm... but we’ve got the...

15. K:    (sniff)

16. M:    erm… Paul Norton, and his wife coming round on the, evening time [for

17. a meal

18. [oh

19. but… the only problem is I need to get, dad’s present.

20. M:    mhm mhm

21. K:    and we er... so, I can either do that on the Saturday and Sunday but... I

22. think... one of the shops might not be… [open

23. M:    [on Sunday... you you’re home

24. all we- [all

25. K:    [oh yeah

26. M:    from Monday

27. K:    oh will do yeah ...

28. M:    anyway… have you got, erm,.. any plans?

29. K:    Friday, at home

30. M:    mmm

31. K:    no... I’ve re, really got no idea what I’m doing next week...

32. M:    so, umm, presumably though you’ll be going shopping.

33. K: OH YEAH, at some point...

34. M:    how many presents have you got to buy [yet

35. K:    [I’ve just got to get ... dad’s.]

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36. M:    [yeah

37. K:    and I need to get, this… thing for Emma… and see if I can see anything

38. for Robert and, I’ll just carry on with the present that I’ve got him…[can.

39. M: [Sorry, say again?

40. K: I said, I’ll just keep Robert’s present, you know.

41. M: OK…right, anyway, I’d best be off, I’ve got things to do, people to see

42. etc…

43. K: right, we’ll speak later, OK?

44. M: OK, well then…

45. K: [take care

46. M: you too…

47. K: bye.

48. M: bye.

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Appendix iiEd and Stephen are chatting in front of the British Council.

Dialogue 2

E: Hello Stephen, how are you?

S: Fine and you?

E: Good, how was your weekend?

S: Ah, It was alright, I just went to a restaurant for dinner.

E: Did you go on your own?

S: I went with a couple of mates.

E: they were the ones from Spain, were they?

S: yeh, they just came down for a long weekend, how about yourself?

E: I was studying most of the weekend but I watched the game on Saturday night.

Raja against Asfi. Did you see it?

S: Yes, but only the first half.

E: they won four one.

S: Oh really? Are you still studying Ed?

E: Of course. I’ve got to go and study now. I’ll see you later. Have a nice day.

S: Bye Ed.

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Appendix iii

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Appendix iv

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Appendix v

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Appendix vi

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Appendix vii

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Appendix viii

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