Spoken discourse

speaking

Please don't attempt this guide unless you happy that you know what is covered in the guide to cohesion.

Referencing

If you have covered the material in the guide to cohesion then you will be able to see and analyse the cohesive links in the following dialogue. There are examples of most of the types of cohesion which are covered in that guide.

Task
Read through the dialogue and identify an example of the following six:
      anaphoric demonstrative pronoun reference
      nominal ellipsis
      nominal substitution
      use of a general word
      clausal substitution
      cataphoric reference

When John saw it, he realised how fine the garden was.
John:	Where does the door lead?
Mary:	That goes to the vegetable patch, every garden should have one. Doesn’t yours?
John:	It should, I suppose, but I have so little space.
Mary:	You don’t need much, you know. Why not start one?
John:	I don’t think so. Besides, I wouldn’t have time.
Mary:	You’re making excuses because you don’t want the work. Having a vegetable area in the garden makes real sense when you live in the city.
John:	I prefer to keep my land for flowers and not that stuff.

Now click here for an answer.

anaphoric demonstrative pronoun reference	Mary says, That goes to the vegetable patch. Here the demonstrative pronoun, that, refers back to the door
nominal ellipsis	Mary says, You don't need much, leaving out the word space
nominal substitution	Mary says, Why not start one / every garden should have one, substituting one for vegetable patch (twice)
use of a general word	John says, and not that stuff, using stuff to refer generally to vegetables and vegetable areas
clausal substitution	John says, I don't think so, using so to substitute for the clause I will start one
cataphoric reference	In the first line, it refers forward to the garden

If you found that task very difficult, stop now and do the guide to cohesion. What follows will be difficult if you don't.

Theme-rheme

Keeping things on track

The other thing to notice in this example, is the way the speakers maintain the discourse. Essentially, there is something called theme-rheme linkage occurring. Each speaker takes up the previous speaker's comment and develops it into a new theme. It works like this.

Complete the (_____________________) parts in your head and then click on the table for the answer to check.
Don't worry if you don't have exactly the same answers, providing you have identified the correct themes and rhemes.

theme rheme 1

Of course, as we shall see, interactions between native speakers of any language are rarely so simple and orderly, especially if more than two speakers are involved. Even in this little exchange, Mary makes things more complicated by deploying two theme-rheme couplets in her last turn (one of which John avoids, by the way).
However, we are not strangers to the idea of simplifying structures to help our students understand and learn and there is no real difference between simplifying, say, conditional structures to make things easier and simplifying the targets of skills teaching for the same reason.

Rules for speaking

One of the reasons why learners often find speaking the hardest skill to master is because it seems random and unpredictable with no rules to guide the user. That's not entirely true as the example above shows but before we go on to look at what these rules might be, can you think of some more problems that learners have when they try to speak in English?

Click here when you have had time to think a little.

There are, essentially, three issues to contend with:

Time pressures: speaking happens in real time usually so there is no opportunity to listen to what one has said, redraft it and try again
Preparation: unlike writing, we do not usually have the luxury of thinking time to prepare what we are going to say
Familiarity with the topic: again, we don't usually have time to prepare what to talk about with someone and sometimes have to cope with suddenly holding a conversation on a topic which is not very familiar to us

How do native speakers deal with these pressures?
Think again, click again.

Essentially we do two things:

We facilitate: to make life easier for ourselves and
We compensate: for not having time and preparation to make life easier for our listeners

Here's how it works:

Using parataxis and hypotaxis	Parataxis refers to the fact that in speaking we often add things with very unsophisticated conjunctions such as and ... and ... and or then .... then ... and then... etc. Technically the term applies to the non-use of conjunctions, too, as in, e.g.: I ate eggs, bacon, cheese, toast and butter. The term comes from the Greek meaning to arrange side by side. Parataxis is a simple system which requires less processing time to produce or understand. Hypotaxis refers to subordinating conjunctions and conjuncts such as because, so, consequently, accordingly and so on which are less common in informal spoken language. The term comes from the Greek meaning to arrange below. The use of hypotaxis, it is assumed, requires more thought and sometimes preparation time and is indicative of prepared speech in formal settings.
Ellipsis	Sharing background knowledge. If something is known to both the speaker and the listener then there's no need to describe it or, in many cases, mention it
Example: that new roundabout certainly makes getting into the hospital car park hard.
Formulaic expressions	Native speakers have a huge range of these at their disposal which don't have to be constructed (or decoded) because they are memorised as prefabricated chunks of language
Examples: You know what I mean, You'll never guess what, And then what?, Say again, What can I say? etc.
Simplification	Speakers use simpler lexis and grammar than writers
Example: What might be written as X and Y would like to invite you to their 20th Wedding Anniversary party to be held at ... on ... might be spoken as Please try to come to the party [ellipsis of shared knowledge]. It's at ... on Saturday.
Fillers and false starts	It's common (that is to say, frequent, not uneducated or slovenly) to use err, erm, um, and to backtrack and rephrase an utterance.
Example: I saw John in town the ... Well, he saw me first actually and, erm, well, we just got talking about things and, y'know, ...

Now click here for a short test in this area.

	How is interaction structured?
a breakfast conversation

Can you follow this?

M:	Do you want some toast?
S:	You seen my green shirt?
P:	I’ve just had some.
D:	What time is it?
M:	It’s in your room.
P:	Is there any more tea?
S:	Half past. Where?
P:	Have you looked? Aren’t you late?
S:	Of course. No, I don’t need to be in till 10.
M:	He didn’t mean you - I’ll go and look. No, do you want me to make some?
D:	It’s OK. I’ll do it.

Given a little time, most of can unravel who is talking and whom they are responding to but it isn't easy. We can, with the text in front of us, also identify the theme-rheme structures in the interactions.
Just as we don't just give learners a text and a grammar book and tell them to figure things out for themselves, we need to break down the skill of speaking into manageable units. Theme and rheme is one such structure and here's another.

Initiate-Respond-Follow up

Look at this simple exchange:
    Have you ever been to France?
    Yes, I have.
    When did you go?
    Last year.

That may be a good way to practise the present perfect-past simple contrast but it doesn't sound very natural, does it?
Compare it with this:
    Have you ever been to France?
    Yes, I have. Why do you ask?
    I'm thinking of taking John there for his fiftieth. Can you recommend any particular places for a history buff?
    Well, I went for the skiing and the wine but I'll ask my brother. He's lived there for over 20 years and will know something, I'm sure.
    Thanks.
    No problem.

What's the difference you notice? Click here when you have some idea.

Essentially, the first exchange follows a simple pattern:
One person Initiates, the other Responds, like a game of ping-pong.

In the second dialogue, the thing to notice is that one person Initiates, the other Responds but then also Initiates in the same turn.

The other thing to notice is that at the end of the conversation, both speakers signal that they are giving up their turn. That's the Follow-up.

Learners whose only speaking practice has been the oral manipulation of grammar structures may well be unaware that to keep a conversation alive they have to serve as well as return.

Here's a table of the possible ways of conducting this simple conversation.

IRF diagram
This looks more complicated than it is but it’s actually a very simple grammar of speaking. Just like grammar, we can break down the data and teach it bit by bit.

Have you ever been to France?	This is an Initiation. In the table above we can identify that it's an Elicitation (asking if). We can also express it as a Requestive: Can you tell me about ... or a Directive: Tell me ... or an Informative: You've been to France.
Yes, I have. Why do you ask?	Here we have a preferred Response and a new Initiation (also an Elicitation). A dispreferred Response would be something like: Sorry, no.
I'm thinking of taking John there for his fiftieth. Can you recommend any particular places for a history buff?	Again a Response followed by an Initiation (Informative).
Well, I went for the skiing and the wine but I'll ask my brother. He's lived there for over 20 years and will know something, I'm sure.	Here the Response is dispreferred: the speaker is temporising but offers a new Initiation (Informative).
Thanks.	A Follow-up (preferred).
No problem.	Turn passing. With falling intonation, this usually signals that the speaker has finished but may be open to a new Initiation.

This can be taught, of course, just as you can teach any other skill or system by getting learners (with your help) to unpack the speakers' acts and what they are doing and then try to construct similar conversations about something they want to say.

With all this in mind, it's now possible, by the way, to break down the breakfast conversation and see where all the initiations and responses actually go. Like this:

breakfast

Finally, we must consider the issue of turn-taking and how that is accomplished in Anglophone cultures. For that, you need to consult the guide to turn-taking linked in the list of related guides at the end.