Conversation Analysis of Verbal Feedback in Daily Communication

【Abstract】Verbal feedback is an indispensable part in communication and it has a great influence on interaction. Focusing on verbal feedback research in daily communication， the present paper intends to explore the relationship between the various linguistic forms of verbal feedback and their functions.

【Key words】verbal feedback； daily communication； conversation analysis

【作者簡介】劉暢（1988-），男，漢族，陜西西安人，西安歐亞學(xué)院通識教育學(xué)院外國語言課程中心，助教，外國語言學(xué)及應(yīng)用語言學(xué)碩士，研究方向：英語教學(xué)法。

1. Introduction

In process of communication， participants play their roles as speakers or listeners. When participants interact with each other， listeners choose different responses， verbal or non-verbal， to show they are engaged in on-going communication. The research is based on conversation analysis originating itself in mid 1960s through the cooperative work of Sacks and other analysts like Schegloff and Sudnow.

2. Research Methodology

The data in this thesis is composed of causal talking among the writer and his foreign English teacher. The data is collected using MP3. As for the settings of the data， quiet settings are chosen for the convenience of collection. The recordings can not be used directly as the data. These recordings should be transcribed. Transcription of recorded data is vital for conversation analysts， because they are prompted to notice more details in the process of transcription， since they must transcribe the recordings before analysis.

3. Relationship Between Linguistic Forms of Verbal Feedback and Their Functions

3.1 Passive Participation

In this thesis， passive participation is the low level of involvement. For instance.

6 A how many minutes was there ↓already

7 C 22

8 （0.3）

9 C [heh heh

10 A [ah

Here in response to C’ word “22”， A provide a backchannel “ah” to show that he is listening and aware of the time. The backchannel “ah” here serves as an acknowledgement token. It can be shown clearly that backchannel used by A display low level of participation.

3.2 Neutral Participation

33 A what kind of science

34 C um inorganic （mental）non-metallic materials=

35 A =ah>right right right< we had the conversation before=

36 C heh heh

In turn 35， speaker A produce a combination of backchannel “ah” and reactive expressions “right right right”. The backchannel suggests he is listening while the reactive expression suggests he becomes aware of fact that they had this conversation before and now he can recalls it. This point can also be demonstrated by the following utterance “we had the conversation before”. Apparently， compared to backchannel， reactive expression suggests a higher level of participation， which is neutral participation.

3.3 Active Participation

104 C any member from the girl’s family yeah and they came in and they have to（.） To to Pick up the bride but um but first the bride doesn’t wear wear shoes and they they=

105 A =I think you were going to say the bride doesn’t wear anything [hah hah

106 C [hah hah they hide the

In turn 105， speaker A gives an assessment （a sentence） to C’s turn to show that he is not only listening， but in a higher level of participation， that is， he is engaged in the topic by thinking and imagining the wedding scene. Moreover， he wants to display his humor to A. Subsequently， both the speaker and the listener begin to laugh. Laughers can be treated as verbal feedback to not only show the recipient’s engagement in the topic but also can further display the recipient is in line with the speaker. However， it shows a lower level of participation compared to the assessment in the above fragment. So， obviously， assessment is an indicator of active participation.

4. Conclusions

Verbal feedback is a sophisticated objective to study. This thesis mainly centered on the use of verbal feedback in daily communication. Second， relationship between forms of verbal feedback and levels of participation is given. It seems that apparent that recipient can display hierarchical levels of participation through various choices of verbal feedback in daily communication.

References：

[1]Heritage，J.（ed.）.Structures of Social Action[M].Cambridge，UK. Cambridge University Press，1984.