Levelt (1989) provides a general framework for speakers of any language from the moment we start to think to the moment we self-correct i.e. from moving to morpheme to text. This happens so fast that it is automatic. He says speakers need to the ability to conceptualise (planning the message by accessing prior knowledge), formulate (find the words and grammar), articulate (use lips,tongue etc.) and self-monitor (identify and self-correct the language).
2.2 Conversation
Conversation is the most common and fundamental to human (Thornbury 2007:1). It can be says Richards (2006:2-3) says transactional (service encounter- asking for a packet of cigarette) or Interactional (social encounter- discussion among friends). Conversation is informal (as opposed to public speaking in parliament), interactive spoken discourse among a limited number of participants (Cook: 1989). I believe that conversation can be formal such as talking to one’s boss or having an interview. The context and the setting of the conversation too can make it formal such being on a television show. Here the speaker must select among the various sociolinguistic forms (appropriate language in a given context as approved by the society) available’that is, the real utterance of the speaker (Cohen 1996) for example, does the speaker say ‘Yo what’s up? Or how are you?’
2.2.1 Competence in conversation
Dornyei and Thurrell (1994:41) write conversations are accomplished by linguistic and non-linguistic skill. They write about conversational rules that guide them, strategies that one needs to use, function that are performed and cultural context within which they take place. The details of Dornyei and Thurrell’s (1994) ideas are given below.
Conversation Norms: In order to avoid overlaps and confusion among participants it is important to be aware of conversation norms (Dornyei and Thurrell 1994:42). Of many rules Dornyei and Thurrell (1994) write a couple of examples are:
‘ Opening: there are different ways of starting a conversation. One being the greeting e.g. ‘Good morning. How are you?’
‘ Turn-taking: It is a strategy to avoid overlaps and allow smooth flow of a conversation. Interrupting is a special case of turn-taking. It always is polite to do so with expressions such as ‘if I could just come in here’
Conversation specification: These help speaker to avoid communication breakdown. If one does not know a word they could explain it in a different way (Dornyei and Thurrell 1994:44). There are more than two dozen strategies. Dornyei and Thurrell (1994) present many in their paper, for example,
‘ Asking the speaker to say something again because it was unintelligible, e.g. sorry? Pardon?
Actual Message: This is the core message in the utterance for the listener (Dornyei and Thurrell 1994:45). The function is the purpose for the interaction within a given situation. Guntermann and Phillips (1982:5) define functions as the hundreds of purposes for which people communicate.
‘ Language functions such as agreeing, asking for opinion, making suggestions, etc. play a very important role. They are expressed through chunks, e.g. ‘What do think about this, John’?
Social and cultural context determines conversation is in many ways. Lack of knowledge of societal and cultural norms in conversations can lead to blunders and may seem offensive to others (Dornyei and Thurrell 1994:46). For example,
‘ The way we speak to people in a formal or an informal setting, it shows our awareness of the norms. When we speak to friends, we can get away with colloquial phrases such as ‘hang on’ but when we speak to professors or superiors for example our language changes. E.g. ‘If I could add something here’
‘ Inappropriate or sensitive or taboo topic can damage relationships. For example, it is impolite to ask someone their earning or political affiliation.
2.2.2 Turn-taking
Definition
Kendon (1967:22-63) defines turn-taking as utterance greater than 5 seconds. Michael Agar (1994: 172) writes: ‘Someone talks, and I lie back and listen and let them roll for a while. When they’re done, there’ll be a pause that will flash like a green light to announce that someone else can have the floor’. I believe turn-taking is a way to equally participate in a conversation.
However, there is a lot more to turn taking as Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) propose in their paper ‘A Simplest Systematics for the Organisation of Turn ‘Taking for Conversation’
They give a robust system to analyse turn-taking in conversation. It is through this study that we understand turn taking a little better. The core of the system is as follows:
1. Current speaker selects next speaker
2. Self-selection by non-speaker
3. Current speaker continues.
This keeps two important things in place: a) one speaker at any one time talks and b) it prevents long awkward pause. They claim that the conversation in real time is not meant to give equal opportunity to participants; it has no fixed pattern or number of speakers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-taking.) The researchers did not specify any linguistic means to fulfil these rules but it is obvious that there are linguistic (and non linguistic) cues to do so.
Turn-taking cues
Duncan & Fiske (1977) mention verbal and non-verbal turn -taking cues which help the listeners to hold the ‘floor’. These cues help to minimise gaps and overlaps. When more people are engaged in a conversation, many people can end up speaking at the same time, which is not ideal in real life conversation. So cues help in speaker selection and avoiding overlaps.
A: Turkish education is very good. It has schools, colleges and universities. So many people have access to education. They can…
B: If I could just come in here…
A: Sure. Go ahead.
(Self-selection of non-speaker)
A: Turkish education is very good. It has schools, colleges and universities. So many people have access to education. They can…
B: If I could just come in here…
A: Please let me finish.
(Current speaker continues)
On the other hand cues also help the speaker to pass turn thus minimising gaps and pauses in a conversation.
A:We need better teacher education so that our children become free thinking individual. What is your view on this, Zayneb?
(Current speaker selects next speaker)
However there are other linguistic aspects to the uttereance ‘ e.g. a rising intonation in speaking to invite someone for example,
Zayneb? Means ‘What do you think Zaynab?’
In every day informal conversation, one might just turn to someone and say something like ‘and you?’
Often one interrupts not to take turn but simply to let the speaker know that you are interested in the conversation e.g. ‘really!’ Or ‘that terrible!’
Eye movement along with body movement is also an important clue to the listener. A speaker does not maintain long eye contact as compared to the listener. So, when we are about to take the listener’s role, we gaze at the other person's eyes in anticipation for our role as listener (Langford 1994)