Discourse Analysis

Entry on conversation analysis

This entry attempts to analyze a conversation between a teacher and two students in the classroom. The key issue will be discussed is turn-taking, especially overlap and interruption when speakers take turns.

The following episode was chosen from a textbook which is now used for discourse analysis. The conversation was produced by a lecture and two students in a university tutorial. The lecturer asked student Kylie and Tadashi about certain topics which were discussed in class. Tadashi was quite poor in academic learning and did not speak very much in class, thus the lecturer tended to ask her questions. However, Kylie wanted to take turns and she sometimes used overlap language to do this.

1. Lecturer: OK, let’s move on. Tadashi and Kylie can you,
2. (1.0)
3. Lecturer: The last eleven, what is a profession. (0.3) What distinguishes profession
4. from trade, (0.2)
5. What does it mean to be a professional? (0.4)
6. Affect the way you dress speak behave towards others at work?

Below, I am going to analyze turn-taking in the conversation. The lecturer took turn by saying “OK, let’s moving on. Tadashi and Kylie can you” (line 1). The lecturer selected those two students and opened the floor to them. However, students did not take the turn. Therefore, there was a one-second pause afterwards (see line 2). Then, the lecturer continued his speech. This is one of the features in turn-taking: people take turns when they are selected or nominated by the current speaker. If no one takes the turn, the person who is currently speaking may continue (McCarthy, 1991). The same feature appeared on line 5, when the lecturer asked students “What does it mean to be a professional”. This time, the lecturer does not select which student to answer. His question was followed by no responds again. Thus, after a short pause, the lecturer continued his speech, which is reflected on line 6.

9. Lecturer: There are hundred and forty-nine HSC courses, how many languages
10. Cour[ses].
11. Tylie: [thi]rty ei[ght]?

17. Kylie: Ah [that’s right. Yeah that’s right yeah]
18. Lecturer: [many languages ha[ve mo]re than one]
19. Tadashi: [uh]
20. Kylie: [that’s]
21. Lecturer: [course.]

Another issue in turn-taking is the use of overlap and interruption (according to line 9 to 11, and line 17 to 21), especially when the utterances are produced between the lecturer and Tylie. Tylie played a very active role in class, and she sometimes predicted other’s utterances and completed them (McCarthy, 1991).When the lecturer asked “how many language courses” (line 9 and 10). Kylie answered immediately and said “thirty eight?” (line 11). Also, when Kylie said “Ah, that right. Yeah that’s right yeah” (line 17), the lecturer said “many languages have more than one” (line 18). So the lecturer overlapped and took his turn back. Kylie and the lecturer also used interruption to take turns to speak. After the lecturer said “many languages have more than one” (line 18), Kylie interrupted him and said “that’s” (line 20). However, the lecturer did not want to be interrupted. Thus, he immediately interrupted her and took the turn by saying “course” (line 21). While Kylie used overlap and interruptions, Tadashi used many back-channels, such as “Ah”, “uh” in class (line 12, 16 and 19).

12. Tadashi: [uh]
13. Lecturer: No there are thirty eight langu[gaes],
14. Tadashi: [lan]guage
15. Lecturer: But each language is more than one [cour]se.
16. Tadashi: [yeah]
17. Kylie: Ah [that’s right. Yeah that’s right yeah]

The lecturer also used boundary markers in the conversation. To begin with, the lecturer used boundary marker “OK” to draw student attention and started the class (line 1). Similarly, when he ended the class, he said “All right” and “Okay” (line 24 and 26). These boundary markers indicate boundary between different topics, and signal what has been done and what to follow in class.

24. Lecturer: All right? Do you remember?
25. Tadashi: I don’t remember.
26. Lecturer: No? Okay.

From line 1 to line 6, there were many pauses when the lecturer made the speech. Silence between turns creates a problem and participants fell that a silence is attributable, usually to some intended next speaker (Couthard, 1985). Therefore, although the lecturer used boundary marker “OK” as an initiation, he failed to let students take turns successfully. Furthermore, Tadashi, who seemed quiet in class, used many back channels. When the lecturer said “But each language is more than one course” on line 6, she did not take the turn and just said “Yeah” to fill the silence. The function behind it is “making it clear to the speaker that we are attending to the message” (McCarthy, 1991). Thus, student Tadashi used back channels to indicate that she was paying attention in class.

The analysis above reflects that not all the participants take turns equally in class. Tylie is a competitive student who often grabbed turns by doing interruption and overlapping. However, the weaker student Tadashi had difficulty in getting into conversation. She sometimes used “back channel” and did not take over the floor. The lecturer can use other features of giving turns to students in class. For instance, he can use body language such as eye contact and gesticulation as a turn-seeking signal, as well as linguistic phenomena such as a drop in pitch or use of grammatical tags (McCarthy, 1991).

Reference
Couthard, M. (1985). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. (2nd ed.). UK: Longman Group Limited.

Manning, M.L., & Bucher, K.T. (2003). Classroom Management: Models, Applications and cases. Columbus, OH: Prentice-Hall.

McCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press.

Appendix
Lecturer: OK, let’s move on. Tadashi and Wong Young can you, (1.0)
Lecturer: The last eleven, what is a profession. (0.3) What distinguishes profession from trade, (0.2) What does it mean to be a professional? (0.4) Affect the way you dress speak behave towards others at work?
Tadashi: Uh.
Lecturer: Comments?
Lecturer: There are hundred and forty-nine HSC courses, how many languages Cour[ses].
Tylie: [thi]rty ei[ght]?
Tadashi: [uh]
Lecturer: No there are thirty eight langu[gaes],
Tadashi: [lan]guages.
Lecturer: But each language is more than one [cour]se.
Tadashi: [yeah]
Kylie: Ah [that’s right. Yeah that’s right yeah]
Lecturer: [many language ha[ve mo]re than one]
Tadashi: [uh]
Kylie: [that’s]
Lecturer: [course.]
Kylie: Right.
Tadashi: Uh huh huh.
Lecturer: All right? Do you remember?
Tadashi: I don’t remember.
Lecturer: No? Okay.