And another thing, what is with all these chavs thinking they own the place?

They re a nuisance, aren t they? Just been downtown and seriously, they are just awful. Swearing and smoking, shouting and sniggering, kind of like dog shit on legs. They no, we, need to take a stand. Ban them from town. Ban them from the Island. Banish them from existence. You, me, the rest of us, Saturday, midday, let s hav it!

Structures of speech: Conversation

Learning Objectives: 1. Know the key terms for conversation analysis 2.Be able to identify these features in texts

Starter Activity
Conversational role plays What rules can you think of that we tend to follow when in conversation?

Conversational Analysis (CA)

Provides a framework for looking at multispeaker discourse. Largely based on the concept of the conversational turn and the basic consequence of that turn, the adjacency pair, which forms an exchange structure.

Turn-taking
A: How are you? B: Fine thanks. You? A: Good yeah. Have a good hol? B: Yeah, didn t do much though. Conversations based on the principle of turn taking at which we re very skilled at knowing the rules only noticing them when people break them!

Adjacency pairs
The basic exchange mechanism! Often used to initiate conversations Two utterances by different speakers that have a natural and logical link A: What s the time? B: 10 o clock

IRF
Initiation response feedback An extension of the pair E.g. Teacher: Who wrote Macbeth? Student: Shakespeare Teacher: That s right. Well done.

Insertion Sequence
Conversations not always as simple and logical as previous examples depending on context E.g. A: [to B] Hi, how are you? A: [to C who is leaving] See you later C: OK B: Fine, thanks! You? A: Yeah pretty good

A: [to B] Hi, how are you?

Initial exchange

A: [to C who is leaving] See you later

Adjacency pair

C: OK B: Fine, thanks! You? A: Yeah pretty good

Insertion sequence

Extends exchange with feedback

Topic Management
The decision about what gets talked about Some occasions (formal meetings, interviews) the topic will be strictly managed with defined structures (agenda, Q&A) Informal conversations can still be analysed for topic management as they often have DOMINANT PARTICIPANT

Features of Topic Management

Topic shifts change to a new topic Topic shifters phrases that lead to the change of topic e.g. By the way Topic loop return to a previous topic Repair resolves or clears up misunderstandings or mistakes Feedback utterances that help maintain the topic and help the speaker to feel that he is listening

Identify the features of topic management:

A: So are you going out on Friday then? B: Yeah, probably cinema I think A: That reminds me did you ever get to see Mamma Mia? B: Yeah I went a couple of weeks ago, actually no it must be more like a month ago now. Time s flying! A: What you going to see tomorrow then?

Activity:
In pairs, consider how do conversations open? Consider: - Formal situations - Informal situations What verbal signals do we give that a conversation is finishing formal and informal situations again

Activity 2
Use the past paper texts to identify and analyse aspects of conversational structure

Role play task!

Choose one of the situations on the sheet or choose your own with permission from me!