Analyse an Authentic Spoken Text from the Viewpoint of Conversation Analysis

張自云

Transcription of Herman and Bretts Conversation （Authentic Materials）

Text： （H = Herman， B = Brett）

1. B： Yah= =erm（.） let gonna try to （0.2）avoid the：：（0.4） Ring of red

（0.8）

2. H： Avoid the ring of fire：：：

（0.6）

3. B： Its good hmm（.）man？

（0.3）

4. H： Think？

5. B： Yah.yah（0.1）Its not that hot

（0.5）

6. H： Hmm

（1.8）

7. B： Hmm

（0.2）

8. H：I guess youre right

（2.5）

9. B： Cant wait to get down to Nan Ning（.） man…

（0.1）

10. H： Yah？

（0.1）

11. B： Yah yah：：

12. H： HeHh heHh heHh ：：：Whats Nan Ning？

（0.2）

13. B： The：： er. temperature is-s-w- warmer Hh （.）I want some “l(fā)ike” 14.tropical weather（.） you know

15. H： HeHh heHh heHh heHh（.） Is there surfing there？

16. B： I dont think so（.） I（.）Ill have to go to==er（.） Hong Kong？

17. H： Oh

18. B： Catch some wave//s？

19. H： Are you sure Hong Kong has wa//ves？

20. B： Ya ya the（.）well：： 21. （.）I dont know. I went on the ：：Internet ？and 21. er：： to a chat site（0.2）

22. // to* a：：sk like== people？who would：： （0.2） if anyone had surfed

23. H： //Hum Hum

24. B： in //China*？

（0.1）

25. H： //Hum

26. and they said that （.）in China（0.1） its just like pretty rare？ But in 27.Taiwan：： （.） and Hong Kong（.） theres good //surfing

28. H： Em Huh Huh Huh I remember 29. the water being very gro：：ss //But

30. B： Ya ya I heard //that too （.）*I heard the

31. waters pretty nasty so

（0.3）

32. H： Huh Huh Huh

34. H： So I dont know：： HOMEBOY：：：

（0.3）

35. B： Hm：：

（0.1）

36. H： Oh （0.2） and theres SHARKS too

（0.3）

37. B： Yeah （0.3） Yeah （0.2） Well （.） I dont know how much time I have 38. anyways（.） But

（0.9）

39. H： Hum

40. B： Cuz I spend ah：： （.） Ill probably go：： （0.2） 2 weeks of （ 0.1） in a 41.hospital in Nan Ning？

（0.1）

42. H： Hum

（0.1）

43. B： study maybe Herbology？ （.）

44. H： Hmm：：

45. B： and ah ：：Classics（0.1） you know？

46. H： Hmm：： （1.0）thats good stuff（0.3） Ill tell you WHAT（0.2）when I 47. go back to Canada：： （1.8） summer：： （.） 2006（0.2）you gotta take me 48.man：：？

（0.2）

49. B： Yeah //yeah

50. H： Well go to that special place you were talkin ab//ou：：t

51. B： In Sombrio

（ 0.3）

52. H： Yah？

53. B： Yeah //yeah.

54. H： Im down for sure

（0.1）

55. B： Very nice（.） li：：ke uh（.） pointbreak

（1.5）

56. H： Then== we come back to：： （.） we might come like， come back 57.back to He Fei together （stitters…）

58. B： Maybe？ Maybe Hh maybe Hh

（0.8）

59. H： Hm//m：：：

60. B： Hefei gets a little cold //though *（ 0.2） I dont like THAT （0.1）

61. H： Uhm：：

62. H： Huh Huh：：

（0.2）

63. H： Hey （0.2） Hefei I lo//ve

64. B： YOU can pick Beij Beijing too OK？ （.） but （0.3）

65. Beijings colder.

66. H： COLDER：：yah（.）I heard（0.5）Super har：：d core

Analyse the transcript （Canadian text）

Background to the text Face-to-face conversation involving two men recorded as authentic spoken language data for the analysis. The conversation happens over lunch in a small restaurant by two Canadians， Herman and Brett， whose native language is English. They are classmates and roommates studying in An Hui Chinese Traditional Medicine College in He Fei City， An Hui Province， China， and invited by the writer， Bianca， to have lunch together and agree to be recorded simultaneously for the essay. The type of interaction is interpersonal， casual face-to-face conversation.

General comments In the text， two speakers are talking about the food. Then one speaker talks about his opinions on the traveling places in China. The third person， a Chinese lady and the lunch inviter， no speeches during the recorded part but as a listener. So the Canadians speak a little slowly with less slang to try to be understood by her. As they are eating， there are more and longer pauses in the conversation and the speech speed is slowing down more. Note the formality and careful structure， well-formed sentences and careful grammatical choices at the beginning. As they begin to warm， there is more noticeable overlapping， backchannelling， repetition and hesitation， more natural. Before the passage of conversation， there is in fact another part clipped off， given by Herman and Brett to express the slang of “the ring of fire” to the Chinese lady who can speak and understand quite proper English. To be understood， they in fact spoke less slang， as they told her later. Besides “ the ring of fire”， there are still some other slang in the text， for example， “man”， “l(fā)ike”， “homeboy”， “gotta”， “hard core” and “cuz”， whose appearances or usages usually occur in spoken language instead of in proper written language. For foreigners， many are hard to access to and understand. The lexis is not the point discussed， though， influences the conversation characteristics， so just mentioned a little here.

Introduction of conversation analysis

Conversation Most everyday speech is conversation. The number of participants is quite small. Most everyday conversation is spontaneous， unplanned and unrehearsed. It takes place in real time so we need to think on our feet. （Cornbleet， 2001， p. 20） Turns are quite short. To give ourselves time to think， we often pause， repetition and hesitation. The nature of everyday conversation is interpersonal with the purpose of communication for maintaining a relationship.

Types of conversation Conversation has the types of story-telling， opinions， gossip and chat， etc. Some types have a typical structure such as narrative. Talk can be seen as a continuum ranging from formal discourse on the one hand and chat on the other. This would include genres such as narratives， gossip etc. （ Bruns and Joyce， 1997， p.27）

Conversation analysis Conversation analysis is to analyze natural conversations to discover what the non-linguistic characteristics of conversation are and how conversation is used in daily life. （Richards， Platt， and Platt， 1992） Based on empirical inductive study， it studies the sequential structure and coherence of conversations， examining recordings of real conversations to establish what properties are used in a systematic way when people linguistically interact.（Crystal， 1985） By very complex transcription conversation， a branch of linguistics investigating the structure and social significance of patterns within conversational data， conversation analysis includes the aspects of adjacency pairs， sequences， turn taking， repairs and openings and closings.（Hughes， R， 2002， p.44）

Adjacency pairs A pair is made up of two turns made by two different speakers. It has been referred to as an adjacency pair. （Tsui， 2000， p. 7） An adjacency pair is a pair of a question and answer. Conversation contains frequent found patterns， such as question – answer. Other examples are as invitation/acceptance， request/compliance， greeting/greeting， violation-rude， etc. In the sample text， we can get the adjacency pairs examples of line 4-5， line 10-11， line 12-13，14， line 15-16， line 19-20，21，22 as the following：

10. H： Yah？ （question for confirmation）

（0.1）

11. B： Yah yah：： （ confirmation）

12. H： HeHh heHh heHh ：：：→Whats Nan Ning （question）

（0.2）

13. B： The：： er. temperature is-s-w- warmer Hh （.）I want some“l(fā)ike”

14.tropical weather（.） you know （answer and explanation）

In the adjacency pairs there are preferred and dispreferred responses. Preferred responses refer to expected answer， acceptance and agreement. For example， preferred answer examples as：

29. the water being very gro：：ss //But

30. B： Ya ya I heard //that too （.）*I heard the

31. waters pretty nasty so

35. H： Oh （0.2） and theres SHARKS too

（0.3）

36. B： Yeah （0.3） Yeah （0.2）

45. H： Hmm：： （1.0）thats good stuff（0.3） Ill tell you WHAT（0.2）when I 46. go back to Canada：： （1.8） summer：： （.） 2006（0.2）you gotta take me 47.man：：？

（0.2）

48. B： Yeah //yeah

Dispreferred responses refer to disagreements and refusals. For example：

8. H：I guess youre right

（2.5）

9. B： Cant wait to get down to Nan Ning（.） man…

15. H： HeHh heHh heHh heHh（.） Is there surfing there？

16. B： I dont think so（.） I（.）Ill have to go to==er（.） Hong Kong？

26. and they said that （.）in China（0.1） its just like pretty rare？ But in 27.Taiwan：： （.） and Hong Kong（.） theres good //surfing

28. H： Em Huh Huh Huh I remember

29. the water being very gro：：ss //But

Sequences “A sequence is made up of more than one turn. For example， a pair embedded inside another pair is lablled an insertion sequence.”（Tsui， 2000， p. 7） For example：

3. B： Its good hmm（.）man？

（0.3）

4. H： Think？

5. B： Yah.yah（0.1）Its not that hot

（0.5）

6. H： Hmm

Here in line 4， Herman does not give his answer directly. Instead， he gives a question to ask the opinion of Bretts. After get the positive answer from the asker， he then gives his positive answer. So maybe he is not very sure about the answer or maybe he will not give opposite opinion to the asker. So he used insertion sequence in this speaking part.

Turn taking A turn is seen as everything one speaker says before another begins to speak. Conversation is interactive， so you need more than one person in it， which involves turn-taking， a normal part of human interaction， usually taking as the form of A-B-A-B-A-B. It is cooperate in speaking， and rarely overlaps， also rarely pauses in conversation， which may mean surprising， but it depends on context as well as culture. Turn-taking is a basic， simple principle， an unconscious part of normal conversations. We take turns to say something in a conversation to exchange ideas. A speaks first， then B responds， then A speaks on. The flow of conversation usually turns smoothly. （Cornbleet， Sandra， 2001， p. 20） In the sample， Herman says first then Brett responds， then Herman comes back. Then Brett gets the turn again. The conversation turns move on. Sometimes there are overlaps， a hold on to the turn by lengthening well and hesitates， for example， lo：ve， but B interrupts for example with a increasing volume YOU and stresses very and first vowel in letter. Speakers use overlap when wanting to take the turns with strong will or to hold the floor. We can see overlaps in Line 18，19，22，23，24，25，27，29，30，49，50，53，59，60，63 with the overlap marker //. At the beginning of the conversation， a little formality and uneasiness is in it， almost no overlap. But as the conversation goes on， their attention is paid to the topic of the conversation. Since they are very familiar classmates and roommates， youngsters full of energy， there is no formal politeness between them. They want to take turns to express their opinions first， thus gradually overlapping more， especially in their interesting part. In conversation， the speakers offer contributions at appropriate moments， with no undue gaps or everyone talking over each other. （Cornbleet， Sandra， 2001， p. 20） In the text， there are more frequent and longer gaps and pauses than usual conversation in English， for example， lines between 1 and 2， 6 and 7， 8 and 9. The appropriate time length depends on the context， for they are having lunch. They have to take meals and dishes， which distract their attention from the conversation and even speaking with food in their mouth or chewing and swallowing as theyre speaking. So here longer gaps and pauses are appropriate and understood， not surprising.

End of turn There are several ways to end a turn： completion of syntactic unit followed by pause， falling intonation， mm， anyway， direct question， eye contact， position of body， low pitch， etc.

Holding the floor As to holding the floor， there are many techniques for doing this and some people are more skillful at it， either naturally or from training. Its difficult to interrupt someone whos speaking very fast， or who keeps the intonation raised， signaling theyre continuing， rather than let it fall.（ Cornbleet， 2001， p. 21） In the text， turn taking is unequal， with Brett taking most of the turns. From line 4 by Herman “think？”， we see Herman uses insertion sequence trying to get the opinion of Brett， then he gives his own opinion the same as the Bretts， which based the floor held by Brett in the following conversation， for Herman seems to have no strong will to show his own opinions and he is maybe a good listener than a talker. This can be confirmed in later parts said by him. In all the turns taken by Herman he takes at most 28 turns， of which 7 are direct question with rising tone to end his turn， 10 of which are just backchanelling of “Hum”， “Huh”， “Oh”， etc. He also use completion of syntactic unit followed by pause and falling intonation or low pitch to end his turn. Herman wants to continue his words only in line 28， 56 and 62， but after being overlapped by Breff， he gives up these turns. In contrast， Brett has the strong will to hold the floor and he manages it by means of not pausing long， or pauses in middle of utterance rather than at the end， and also by overlap and increasing volume.

Repairs Repairs have two kinds as self repair and other repair. The following from the text is other repair：

1. B： Yah= =erm（.） let gonna try to （0.2）avoid the：：（0.4） Ring of red

（0.8）

2. H： Avoid the ring of fire：：：

The following is self repair.

3. B： Its good hmm（.）man？

（0.3）

4. H： Think？

5. B： Yah.yah（0.1）Its not that hot

（0.5）

6. H： Hmm

Classroom implications Through analyzing the conversation we can teach students knowing how to signal wanting to keep a turn and recognizing right moments to speak. Teach them how to use turn properly and not to lose it. Through the conversation analysis， students will be aware of the need to be able to recognize others intention to speak， to know how to let someone else have a turn， and its natural to have hesitation， repetition， explanation， etc. They will have more knowledge， skills and confidence in oral English.

References：

[1]Amy B.M.Tsui.（2000）.English Conversation.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[2]Anne Burns & Helen Joyce & Sandra Gollin.（1996）.‘I see what you meanUsing spoken discourse in the classroom：a handbook for teachers.Macquarie University.

[3]Cornbleet，Sandra.（2001）.Language of speech and writing/Sanddraa Cornbleet and Ronald Carter.London：Routledge.In EDPJ 5015 Teaching Oral English.

[4]Hughes，R.（2002）.Teaching and researching speaking.London：Longman（Chapter 1）.

[5]He Zhaoxiong.（Eds.）.（2003）.Selected Readings for Pragmatics.Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.