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Describing spoken English From research to classroom materials

Describing spoken English From research to classroom materials. Ronald Carter University of Nottingham. Textbook Dialogue. Fergus: What did you do last weekend ? Eliot: I went shopping. Fergus: Who did you go shopping with? Eliot: I went shopping with my friend

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Describing spoken English From research to classroom materials

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  1. Describing spoken English From research to classroom materials Ronald Carter University of Nottingham

  2. Textbook Dialogue Fergus: What did you do last weekend ? Eliot: I went shopping. Fergus: Who did you go shopping with? Eliot: I went shopping with my friend Fergus: What did you buy? Eliot : I bought some clothes

  3. Real English Hi Jim Alright? What did you get up to last weekend? I went to Leeds actually. Oh yeah Umm. Just for an overnight. Stayed with friends Uh huh And, er, just sat around and chatted and ate. Nice. We went to see the football. Really. Good was it? Definitely. 3-1. Yeah. So, what about yourself? I was in Brighton. Right.

  4. From Words to Collocations to Chunks • Single words • Collocations (lean meat; *strong car) • Idioms and phrases (having forty winks) • Formulaic language (Have a nice day) • Formulaic language: how fixed is fixed?

  5. Top 20 2-word chunks (spoken)

  6. Top 5 6-word chunks (spoken)

  7. Seven and beyond? • Chunks bigger than six or seven words are rare – the magic number 7 • Bigger chunks are ‘learned texts’, e.g. quotations, proverbs, etc.

  8. Words v. Chunks

  9. Two Main Types of Chunk

  10. Functions of Chunks discourse marking you know I mean and then but I mean do you know what I mean at the end of the day if you see what I mean

  11. Politeness prefaces do you think do you want (me) (to) I don’t know if/whether what do you think I was going to ask you

  12. Hedging, boostingand vagueness I think sort of/kind of a bit (of a)/a couple of I don’t know/I don’t think to be honest with you as a matter of fact and stuff like that (and) all this sort of thing or something like that

  13. Some Linguistic Features of Conversation • Ellipsis – [‘Are you] going out?’ • Discourse markers- Well, I’m not sure about that’ • Vague language –‘sort of./kind of..’ etc • Backchannel -‘Mmm’ ‘Yeah’ etc • Simple conjunctions-mainly ‘and’, ‘but’ • Hesitation –‘Err’ , ‘Umm’ • Repetition – Í went to, went to England’ • Non-sequiturs or slips–‘I went to, I’m going to Leeds • Word clusters Heads –‘My brother, he lives in London’ • Tails – ‘He lives in London, my brother’

  14. Teaching Implications:Linguistic and Social Perspectives: Whose Reality? • Use vague language to describe difficult things to other e.g. Japanese food • Take words out of model conversation (add ellipsis) , memorise and practice • Backchannels can be taught as part of active listening- give Ss language on strips to make them use it during speaking practice • Compare ‘tidied up’ conversation with a real recording on the same topic. Give Ss tapescript and ask them to underline differences Ss add a feature of natural conversation to a tidied up textbook dialogue • Ask ss to translate a piece of natural spoken discourse, then translate it back into English from L1, then notice the differences between their final translation and the original. • Intercultural Learning: Personal Narratives, Learner Diaries etc: the impossibility of talk

  15. Conclusions • Chunks show how conversation is primarily about the speaker and listener • Chunks are part of our vocabulary and grammar • Using chunks contributes to fluency

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