2015-08-21
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Match the “phrases” and the “responses” in the following mini-dialogues. What language features have you noticed in the “responses”?
| Phrases | Responses |
| 1. … you will have seen a lot of changes if you’ve lived in Edinburgh | A. Terrible! |
| 2. … there was no electricity and there were trees and everything all over the road … it was quite frightening | B. hmm … |
| 3. … the next day they went round people’s houses … | C. … well …yes … ah …really …most of them not very nice actually …a few quite nice ones … |
(Adapted from Brown, G., and G. Yule. 1997. Teaching the Spoken Language. CUP. P.28-31)
Exploratory task 2.15
A typical feature of interactional language is “short turns” in conversation, i.e. short stretches of utterance with a lot of elliptical structures. Supply the “phrases” to the “responses” producing mini-dialogues. Some phrases have been done for you
| Phrase | Responses (short turns) |
| A/ - - - Could you give me a hand? - - - B/ - This diet does look very healthy - - C/ - - - Do you know I’ve won a lottery? D/ - - Manchester United has lost a game! E/ Here’s a Christmas present for you - | a) Yes, of course Right Right, I will Sure, of course Sorry, I can’t I really can’t manage it, sorry I’m afraid not b) Yes, it is (does) Yes, that’s right Of course it is (does) Quite, absolutely true c) Well, not really Not quite, no Not as bad as that Oh, I didn’t know d) Really? Is that so? You sure? e) Lovely! Quite nice |
Interest in the naturally occurring conversations is that this language is different from “scripted dialogues” made purposefully for the English language course books. Scripted dialogues may only sound “authentic like” but they have some conventions that can be immediately recognised by the native speakers as “artificially made” language.
