Discourse Analysis Assignment

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis
ABSTRACT Turn-taking is one of the basic mechanisms in conversation, and the convention of turntaking varies between cultures and languages; therefore, learners of a foreign language may find it difficult to take their turns naturally and properly in other tongues. This study aims to examine the turn taking features of backchannel, utterance-completions and overlaps in natural spoken discourse. An extract of conversation is chosen as material because it allows constant reference to the context as well as providing more common type of interactions that allows the pattern of turn-taking features to emerge naturally. The findings will focus on the number of occurrences among the turn taking features mentioned above and also include the analysis of each occurrence in their specific categories.
__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview
CONTENTS Page No : ABSTRACT CONTENTS PART 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is discourse? 1.2 What is discourse analysis? 1.3 Basic Concepts of Turn-Taking System 1.4 Feature of Turn-Taking PART 2. RESEARCH 2.1 Research Methodology 2.2 Data and Findings 2.3 Analysis of Statement-Form Utterances 2.3.1 Back-Channel 2.3.2 Utterance Completion 2.3.3 Overlap PART 3. DISCUSSION PART 4. CONCLUSION APPENDIX The Transcribed Data REFERENCES 1 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 15 19 22 23 24-36 37
PART 1. INTRODUCTION This study aims to discuss turn-taking in the setting of informal conversation. Turn-taking is often difficult for learners of a foreign language, due to its socio-cultural component and various turn-eliciting cues. This research exclusively looks at how participants organize themselves to take turn in a spontaneous interview and the use of specific devices of turn-taking in the listeners utterance and the speakers utterance and the number of turn-taking occurrences in a discourse-based framework. The material used in
this research is an extract of conversation between two people who had just met. Conversations allow natural interaction between participants based on the assumption of the looser the limitations on what and when participants may speak, the more naturally the turn taking emerges. While socio-cultural and gender factors should not be ignored, this paper mainly deals with the procedures of turn-taking, especially focusing on the aspects of backchannels, utterance completions and overlaps in the context of natural interaction.
1.1 What is discourse? Discourse refers to the totality of all these elements interacting (Cook, 1989). A sentence cannot be fully analyzed without referring to the physical, social, and psychological world in which it takes place. Grammatical form and its function do not always correspond, but work in harmony in discourse meaning (McCarthy, 1991:106); therefore, discourse analysis involves a close look at language association beyond the sentencelevel. Speech and written text are given fuller meaning and pragmatic coherence is
established when they are viewed as discourse. Additionally, in conversation, which is an excellent example of the interactive and interpersonal nature of communication in spoken discourse (Brown 1994), the time dimension should be taken into account for analysis, since participants jointly contribute to the context of interaction. 1.2 What is discourse analysis? Discourse analysis is the assessment of language use by members of a speech community. It involves looking at both language form and language functions and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts. It identifies linguistic features that characterize different genres as well as social and cultural factors that assist in our interpretation and understanding of different texts and types of discourse. A discourse analysis of written texts might include a study of topic development and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices, opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative structure.
1.3 Basic Concepts of Turn-Taking System Turn-taking is one of the basic elements in conversation where speakers and listeners change their roles in order to begin their speech. The turn-taking devices may actually vary between cultures and between languages (Cook, 1989). In ordinary conversation, it is very rare to see any allocation of turns in advance. The participants naturally take turns. There is a set of rules that govern the turn-taking system, which is independent of various social contexts (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974:704): (a) when the current speaker
selects the next speaker, the next speaker has the right and, at the same time, is obliged to take the next turn; (b) if the current speaker does not select the next speaker, any one of the participants has the right to become the next speaker. This could be regarded as selfselection; and (c) the current speaker may resume his/her turn if neither the current speaker selects the next speaker nor any of the participants become the next speaker. 1.4 Features of Turn-Taking
One discourse feature that is easy to study is listener response behavior, also known as backchannels. Backchannels are the brief verbal responses that a listener uses while another individual is talking, such as mm-hmm, ok, yeah, and oh wow. Listener response can also be non-verbal, for instance head nods and gestures. Culture-specific rules and procedures of turn-taking such as entering and leaving conversation, taking a turn without appearing rude, and changing the topic can be very difficult for foreign learners (Cook 1989: 57). In Malay culture for instance, the brief verbal responses are usually consist of vocalizations such as ermm, ya, oh, a ah and ek. Other discourse features that are included in this study are the utterance completions and overlaps. Utterance completions normally occurred when the listener predict the speakers utterances and complete them for them. Overlaps occur when the listener is able to predict the speakers utterances or meaning and overlap with them as they complete. White it is easy to identify the features of backchannels in spoken data; it is quite difficult to distinguish utterance completions and overlaps between one another. PART 2. RESEARCH The research looks at the occurrences of the turn-taking features mentioned earlier; backchannels, utterance completions and overlaps in natural conversation. The participants are Zati Helma bt. Zainal, a female Malay student from IIUM, Gombak and Jasbin Kaur, a female Punjabi student from UTM, Skudai who is doing her practicum at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Setapak. Jasbin Kaur was introduced to us during our action research at the school by a former acquaintance of ours. She agreed to undergo the interview and recording of the interview was done at the school. Without any dialogues
provided, we managed to record a 20-minute of conversation. Both participants proceed with the intentions of getting to know each other better. The supposition is, not every people in Malaysia can speak English fluently without any grammatical mistakes. Thus, culture and gender issues should also be taken into account when analyzing the data. The conversation was recorded using a cell phone, Sony Ericsson model K750i and in .amr file format which is the default format of the cell phones audio recorder. The recording was done by Lionel Libau and Roselizam Ismail. The audio file was then converted into .wav sound file for an easy transcription of the data.
2.1 Research Methodology 1. Decide on research question The research is specifically done to study the turn taking occurrence, namely the backchannels, utterance completions and overlaps in a natural type of spoken discourse. 2. Interview The interview is unplanned and both participants should proceed on question and answer basis and the interview was in fact more similar to a natural conversation that occurs
between two newly met acquaintances. It was then recorded to provide data for the analysis of the turn-taking occurrences in the interaction. 3. Transcribe data The recorded data is transcribed in the nature which they are recorded without any attempt on cleaning it up or editing it so as to find the turn-taking features based on the context of natural interaction between foreign or second language speakers of English language. 4. Analyze data The finding is analyzed based on the occurrence of backchannel, utterance completions and turn-taking features found in the interview and a table is produced to show the number of occurrence. The data is also analyzed based on the function of the speech and the context it happened. 5. Write Up The write up of the research is done after analyzing the data and a table is produced to show the findings.
2.2 Data and Findings Data 1 is produced based on the number of the times turn-taking occurs in the interview. Turn-taking Features a. Backchannels b. Utterance completions c. Overlaps Total no. of occurrences : Number of Occurrences 11 5 4 21 7
Data 1 __________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview
In Data 1, the turn-taking patterns that emerged from the data are categorized and recorded. From the table above, it is clear that there are the tendencies of using backchannels as responses in the interview. The number of utterance completions and overlaps that occurred in the interaction is less than the number of backchannels found in the data. Based on this data, it is assumed that both participants were eager to express themselves, seemed comfortable with each other and have an understanding even though they have just met. The analyses below will further explain these turn-taking features and their functions in the context of the conversation, taking into account the culture and gender of the participants.
2.3 Analysis of Turn-taking Functions in the Utterances The number of occurrences in the findings shows that there is the tendency of using backchannel in a natural interaction. In Malaysian context, the listener usually use backchannel responses such as, oh, mmm, ya, ok and sometimes a ah. In this 20-minute conversation, backchannel, utterance completion and overlap occurred eleven times indicating that other than eager to express themselves, both participants are not quite comfortable using English as English is their second language and both of them were perhaps not very fluent in the language. There were brief pause (1or 2 seconds) when the participants seemed searching for appropriate words to use or trying to construct sentences to clarify their speech. During these occasions, the turn taking features of
utterance completion and overlaps had occurred many times. Below are the analysis of backchannels, utterance completions and overlaps, focusing on the functions in the context they were being used.
2.3.1 Back-Channels
Occurrence 1:
A: Jalan Kuala Kangsar? Because I used to go to MPKI, Maktab Perguruan Kinta Ipoh. B: ] Oh. A: Jalan Dairy, Ipoh. I used to study there. Analysis: A used a vocalization oh to indicate that she knew the place. A was trying to show that she was listening to what B was saying. It was As approach of making the
conversation between them more interesting. In the Malaysian context, the sound Oh is a typical way to show that you are engaged in the conversation.
Occurrence 2:
A : Ok.arrr..How long have you been teaching? B: A: B: For the first time. Im just in my practicum now ] Aha.
Analysis: This part of conversation is quite similar to the first example of backchannel shown earlier. The sound Aha used by A also indicated that she was listening and understood what B was saying. It also indicated that A is somehow surprised yet, at the same time agreed with what B was saying.
Occurrence 3:
A: B: A: B: UTM Skudai. Engineering drawingSo, arr.. What course did you.. Erm.. Where did you study previously? Im from UTM... ] Aha.
Analysis: In this sample, the sound Aha used also indicated that A is listening and paying attention to the answer provided by B. It also indicated an element of shared knowledge. A was most probably knew where UTM is located even if B did not provide the answer.
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Occurrence 4:
B: A: B: for one year. Analysis: This extract is quite similar to the first example of backchannel shown earlier. The sound Aha indicated that A was paying attention and understand what B was saying. It also indicated that A gets the message that B was trying to convey. Actually.. I didnt had that ambition earlier but ] Aha. then, after I did my Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, I worked as a technician
Occurrence 5:
A: B: A: situation la, ok So, this is a more relaxing ] Ya
Analysis: In this sample, A agreed with what B was saying. The sound Ya made by B is similar to the sound made by Malaysian speakers to show agreement in a subject.
Occurrence 6:
A: And then, do you get many friends? 11
B: A: B: Here? Have a lot.
] Ya.
Analysis: This extract is also an example of backchannel by using short words as a response. In this situation, B gave simple short answers to the questions posed by the A indicating that B did not really interested in the subject and was merely answering the question.
Occurrence 7:
B: A: B: Normally like after we do our course, we always we suppose to be posting in a secondary school of ] Mm. of course I dont picture myself as primary school teacher, right?
Analysis: In this sample, the vocalization used, Mm is the typical Malaysian way of showing that we understands what the other person is saying. In this situation, A indicated that she understand Bs condition. It is another way to make the conversation goes smoothly and more interesting.
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Occurrence 8:
B: A: B: Others are doing Electrical and ] Mm. they are majoring in Electrical and other two are Civil Engineering. Since they dont have mechanical thats why I you know Lost here
Analysis: In this extract, A used Mm as an indication that she was attending to the message.
Occurrence 9:
B: A: B: I have two classes, one of my class is ok. They listen to you, one thing.. you must be strict with them lah ] Mm. But then, when you are teaching, trying to be strict lah.. Other than that, you have to be sporting lah because most teachers here are yelling the whole day. Analysis: This sample is similar with the previous sample (Occurrence 9) where vocalizations such as mm was used to indicate that A is attending to what B was saying and urged B to go on talking.
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Occurrence 10:
A: B: A: you scolded them, they will try to slash your car tire Arr.. Normally, when they say about secondary school, like me now, I getting a picture of.. students. like indiscipline students like if ] Not
Analysis: In this extract, the use of Not is to indicate that B disagreed with A during the conversation. It also showed that B was alert to what the other person was saying. This had made the situation more interesting
Occurrence 11:
A: B: You just simply cannot suppress your.. ] No,no,no
Analysis: This sample shows that the use of backchannel here is to indicate a strong disagreement of the comment. B obviously understood what A was trying to say even though A did not have the chance to finish her sentence.
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2.3.2 Utterance Completions
Occurrence 1:
A: B: Why? You dont have any boyfriend? Normally, in our community we believe in arranged marriage. I mean we dont take a risk you know and then will leave or something and then you cant go back to your parents. Thats the concept you know. So when you have a arranged marriage, you are more like secured lah.. The most important thing ] A: you are waiting for your parents to arrange your.. B: A: So, what if you dont like the person? 15 ] YaI got a lot. ] So
Analysis: In this first sample, A asked a question to B and the answer given by B is quite lengthy. Hence, A did not let B finish her next sentence perhaps because she was able to predict the end part of the sentence which was most probably is love or may be she just felt eager to get to the next question. But here, B also managed to predict the question but the response that she gave was out of the context of the question.
Occurrence 2:
A: B: A: Analysis: In this sample, A asked a question that requires a short answer and B replied to it accordingly. Yet, towards the end of her response, her tone indicated continuity for her response or in other words, she made no indication of ending her sentence and seemed like searching for the appropriate words to continue her sentence. So, A completed her sentence and predicted that maybe she is very close with her mother. Textile? Erm and are you close with your parents? Ya Sure, very close ] ] Ya, everything you say mommy.
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Occurrence 3:
B: A: B: If I go I surely must buy something.. because like, you cant be like think, think and admiring just buy lah. You cannot simply suppress your..] ] No.. No No Can not simply. Ill just have to point and my auntie will buy whatever. Analysis: In this third sample, B is answering As question and gave a comment. While A pause briefly searching for words to use in the comment, B cut in as if she knew what A was trying to say. Her response using No...no..no.. indicated a strong disagreement by what A was trying to say even though A never finish her comment. This is an example of utterance completion where B was able to predict the other persons sentence and complete it for her.
Occurrence 4:
A : Ok.. How about movie? Do you often go to] B: ] Not so often, when new movies, like nights, but most of the time not really lah Usually buy DVDs and watch it and watch at home. A : Oohh So what movies that you watched recently? I mean at the ] B: ] The last was a Hindi Movie Ha..ha..ha Analysis:
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This extract is also an example of utterance completion where B was able to predict what A is trying to ask. Even though she did not try to complete the question that A ask her, B was able to give precise answer of As question. If we look at the first question that A asked, we would know that the following question would most probably had something to do with the movie.
Occurrence 5:
B: Not that happening. Ha..haha (Laughing) As KL so and then the places, I mean town is near, you know..one place is very near because it is a small town, quite near lah Food there is cheap ] A: B: ] Ya, the food, the rent ] ] Is cheaper lah Cost of living is much more cheaper than here Analysis: In this sample, while B was talking, A cut in and tried to complete the sentence for her but B regained back her turns and completed the examples that A was trying to
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provide. This is the situation where gender is the issue. Since both participants are female, it is a well known fact that females like to chitchat with other female of the same interest. That is why both participants try to become the dominant speaker here.
2.3.3 Overlaps
Occurrence 1:
B: A: The students here? Ha..ha..ha.. (Laughing) Well.. ] ] Arr.. Normally, when they say about secondary school, like I me now, I getting a picture of students like undisciplined students like ] you know.. if you scolded them, they will try to B: B: Analysis:
] not really lah.. slash your car tire] arr.. whatever but how about the students here? ] Arr
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The interruption occurs when A needed B to answer her question according to the context she wanted. It was to restrict the answer and to avoid B from giving the different kind of answer. At that moment too, she was giving help for B to further explain her answer.
Occurrence 2:
A: B: So, you treat them like friend arr ] ] more or less like a friend lah, you dont really like to scold them. But sometimes yes.. Have to you have to if you are so lenient to them, they just. Arr ]. you know.. A: ] Ya.. They wont listen to you.
Analysis:
In this part, B overlapped with A by giving A the additional explanations and descriptions about what she thinks of her students.
Occurrence 3:
B: A: A/B : Ha..ha.. ha (Laughing) Oohh.. if already married, I then find ] another person ] Then you go back to your parents.
Analysis:
In this conversation, A overlaps by giving joke about the possible consequences of what might happen to B. This was because in Malaysian culture, interruption such as joking during an informal conversation between friends is acceptable. It was used to show that the listener was listening to what the speaker was saying and also to make the conversation more meaningful for both of them. We can assume that A tried to draw and
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attract the speakers attention so that the conversation between them would become more interesting.
Occurrence 4:
A: B: A: B: Who is your favorite among them? Favorite huh? Erm. Difficult to say lah.. because all of us are like so close and then arr ] sometimes ] No rival.rival.? No lah Sometimes we fight with each other and we become close back. So, it it is the thing lah. Hi..hihi. (Laughing)
Analysis: In this part of conversation, A overlaps with B explanation by giving some additional question in order to keep the conversation about that particular topic continues. Similar to the previous analysis in Occurrence 3, A tried to make the conversation more interesting.
PART 3. DISCUSSION In a natural conversation where the participants had known each other well, it is easy to indicate the roles of the speakers and organize the turns between the speakers. There is no awkwardness of introduction or ice-breaking, thus turn-taking can occur more smoothly and in a meaningful way, for instance; the conversation that occurs naturally between friends. In this context, although the participants have just met and barely knew each other, the fact that both of them are females has made it easier for them to relate to each other thus conversing effectively. Normally, in a natural conversation where both speakers are the native speaker of English language, turns can occur more smoothly and are more organized. However, in this conversation, there are times when B tried to be the
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dominant speaker as to portray her roles in the conversation as the one who provide answers to the question. And there are also times when the A tried to regain back her roles by neglecting the turns and speaking at her own accord. The backchannels aspects that were used in this data were mostly used to show that the listener was attentive to what the speaker was saying. The utterance completions aspects that can be found in this data shows that without restrictions on what and when to talk, speakers would just grab too many turns and eager to complete the utterances of other person in order to reclaim back their turns. The aspects of overlaps found in this data which are not many, illustrates the restrictions of Bs responses so that the purpose of the conversation would still be on its right track. The overlaps used also shows that the speaker was trying to be the dominant speaker.
PART 4. CONCLUSION An extract of natural conversation can be used as teaching aid in a language classroom. Teachers can use discourse analysis as a tool for studying interactions among students and as a teaching resource to use in the classroom. Students can benefit from using discourse analysis to explore what language is and how it is used to achieve communicative goals in different contexts. However, natural piece of data such as the conversation used in this study needs to be edited so that it is easier for students to see the smooth flow of the conversation in order to utilize it. In conclusion, discourse analysis can help to generate a second language learning environment that precisely reflects how language is used thus helping students to be proficient in the second language.
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APPENDIX The Transcribed Data Moves Utterances
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A:
What is your name? Ok, my name is Jasbin Kaur. Come again? EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis With the end Kaur. Ahaaa, where are you from? Im from Ipoh actually. From Ipoh, which part of Ipoh? Which part of Ipoh..? Jalan Kuala Kangsar. Ahaaa, Jalan Kuala Kangsar? I used to go to MPKI, Maktab Perguruan Kinta Ipoh, Jalan Dairy Ipoh. Ohhhh. I used to study there. Ok Ok.arrr..How long have you been teaching? Im just in my practicum now, for the first time. Ooooh..So, arrHow long is that practicum? That practicum is for three months. Three months ? So, arr..this is the third month? No..Next month, Ill be completing my practicum. Do you enjoy teaching? Ya. So, what is your ambition actually? Be a teacher. OoohYou want to be a teacher? Yes. What subject do you teach here? Im teaching Engineering Drawing. Engineering drawingSo, arr.. What course did you.. Erm.. Where did you
study previously? B: Im from UTM, UTM Skudai. A: What course? B: But Im doing arr.. Mechanical Engineering.. arr.. In education but in this school, they dont have mechanical erm.. I mean Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Civil. So, Im supposed to teach my option is like
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Engineering Drawing. 31 A: Does it interesting subject? 32 B: Ya., it is. 33 A: Are you married? 34 B: No.. 35 A: Ok, and how old are you? 36 B: Im twenty three 37 A: Twenty three..? Still young.. very young. 38 B: Erm..erm.. 39 A: Ok. So, arr.. emm, where are you staying? Here in KL. 40 B: Here Segambut. 41 A: In Segambut. Ok, how do you travel to your school? 42 B: Taxi. 43 A: By taxi , so, you are living with your friend? 44 B: No My auntie. 45 A: Ooh.. With your auntie. To cut down your expense of .. __________________________________________________________________ 24 46Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview B: Ya.. The 47 A: Food.. rent eherm 48 B: Erm.. erm.. Expense is only for the taxi fair. A: Ooh Ok And then erm.. Did you want to be a teacher? But do picture
REFERENCES Brown, H. D. 1994. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Third Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. Cook, G. 1989. Discourse. Oxford: OUP. McCarthy, M. 1991. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: CUP. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~emiller/conversation_paper.html http://www.spectrum.unibielefeld.de/Classes/Winter97/PhonMM/UlrichGruen/introduction.htm http://www.uni-erfurt.de/eestudies/eese/artic98/meierk/7_98.html http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/ttlecture11DA2.htm
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EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

Data 1 __________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

B: A: B: Here? Have a lot.

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

2.3.2 Utterance Completions

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

APPENDIX The Transcribed Data Moves Utterances

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

EDL 3206-Discourse Analysis

__________________________________________________________________ The Study of Turn Taking in an Informal Interview

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