Dicción Inglesa 1 - Final exam

1. Utterance
According to Bakhtin, an utterance is a unit of speech communication which
boundaries are determined by a change of speaking subject. That is to say, it is not a
conversational unit but a real one which starts and ends with language produced by
one person at any point in interaction. In the case of written language, an utterance
can be a whole piece of writing such as an email, while in the case of oral language
it is the language produced by a speaker at any point in interaction whether it be a
backchannelling item such as “ ahha” or an extended turn (as the one that I am
developing right now through this presentation).

To conclude, to learn to speak means to learn to construct utterances because we

speak in utterances and not in individual sentences or words. All our utterances have
definite and relatively stable typical forms of construction of the whole.

2. Main four differences between written and spoken language

The most useful way to conceive of the differences between spoken and written
language is to see them as scales:

1. Speech tends to be more involved while writing tends to be more detached. By

this we mean that in speech interlocutors are interpersonally more involved while in
writing authors tend to distance themselves from their interlocutors and be more
detached. Two extreme examples can be on the one hand a casual conversation
with a friend as an example of this involvement that is conceived of as typical of
spoken language. In contrast, an academic paper in written language is an exponent
of the detachment that is expected in written language.

2. Oral language tends to be more implicit, while written language holds a tendency
towards explicitness. The reason for this is that as oral language occurs in real time,
speakers have the chance to make adjustments and introduce clarifications to their
contribution as the interaction progresses, considering the ongoing feedback they
received from their interlocutors. In contrast, there is no such possibility in written
language. A text will be read in a last time and therefore requires a higher level of
detail so as to be understood. This lead us to the third distinction in this scales:

3. Spoken language occurs in real time while written language is created at one time
and read in a last time. This difference between the moment in which language is
produced and received by the interlocutor is responsible for the degree of detail and
explicitness that is required for most written language in contrast to the implicitness
that we can tolerate in oral language. Yet, many extended genres today, such as
WhatsApp texting, contains a high level of implicitness and real time use. Most
people have found themselves interacting in a written chat as if it was an oral
exchange among us. So we can say that most WhatsApp texts tend to be implicit
and real-time.

4. Spoken language tends to be fragmented because of its real-time nature. As it is

produced in real time, it tends to be less elaborated and simpler in linguistic choices.
In contrast, written language displays more elaborated organization and a variety of
a linguistic choices.

3. Medium and Mode

Carter and McCarthy distinguish MODES of communication (more or less speakerly
or writerly) from MEDIUMS of communication (spoken or written)

Mode: the linguistic choices that you would associate with descriptions of written or
spoken language. The lexical, grammatical and discourse features typically
associated with each of them in linguistic description as used in a specific text.

Medium: the channel through which language is conveyed whether it be oral or

written. The means though which language is produced.

Eg: Academic presentation (written mode and spoken medium)

4. Text and discourse

Often used interchangeably to refer to a stretch of language beyond the sentence.

Text is the product of language use.

Discourse is the process of meaning creation and interaction.

Text refers to the product of language use, that is, the actual object that results from
linguistic activity. Conversely, discourse refers to the process through which people
generate language.

Both notions are studied by linguistics as a main field of language study. Text is
studied by a branch of linguistic that we call text linguistics, while discourse is
studied by the field of discourse analysis. It’s important to note that both fields of
study are complementary and feed each other.

5. Discourse analysis
Discourse analysis is the field of linguistics which studies authentic language in
context and thus contribute to an understanding human activity through language.

So, DA studies:

● Authentic texts produced in context.

● A text of any size written or spoken.
● Texts are studied in terms of contexts in which they are found.
● Texts are studied in terms of their intertextual relations with other texts.
● Texts are analysed with reference to the ideologies and viewpoints which
underpin them.
● Texts are analysed with reference to their socio-political implications and
consequences.

6. The structure of a definition in Academic Language

A well-developed academic definition consists of 3 parts:

1. Define: explain/describe the notion.

2. Reformulate: state the same in a different way. DeReEx
3. Exemplify: provide an example that illustrates the notion.

1. DEFINE
(Notion/Term) is….
The term …….. is defined/explained/described/can be defined/ as……..
(Author) defines (notion) as…..
According to (Author), (notion) is….

2. REFORMULATE
That is to say….. / In other words… /
(Notion/Term) is….
The term …….. is defined/explained/described/can be defined/ as……..
(Author) defines (notion) as…..
According to (Author), (notion) is….

3. EXEMPLIFY
An example of (notion) is /can be…
For example/ instance…
An illustration of this is/can be...
In the case of …
7. Concepts
● The most basic mental entity.
● An abstract object that corresponds to a mental representation that we use to
guide our actions.
● Concepts group together in our minds to form mental models, which are
similar in some way to maps or diagrams.

8. Mental models
● A combination of concepts forming larger conceptual structures.
● A number of interconnected concepts.
● Mental models are not physical, but internalized into our psychology.
● When a concept becomes complex enough, it can be called mental model.

9. Schemas
● Clusters of mental concepts which we draw on in order to interpret the world
around us and also to interpret language.
● Well integrated chunks of knowledge about the world, events, people and
actions.
● Concepts or mental structures that we develop through experience, which
allow us to interpret the world and also share interpretations.

10. Frame and Script

Two types of schema:

➢ Frame: non sequential sets of concepts/ non-sequentially ordered

information.
➢ Script: conventional sequence of activities, a socioculturally defined protocol
for negotiating or understanding a situation (shared).

Shareness is what distinguishes scripts from frames.

11. Genre
Genre schema: The ways in which we draw on and make use of the prior knowledge
of all aspects of genres including their typical contexts, forms, functions, lexis, and
grammar which we bring to bear as we interpret written and spoken texts.

A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share

some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognised by the expert
members of the parent discourse community and thereby constitute a rationale for
the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and
influences and constrains choice of content and style. (Swales)
Genres are guided by purposes, in other words by the functions which they are
intended to fulfil. The purpose expressed in genres are defined by the community
which uses them, not by individuals: shared rules must be learned and used for
genres to operate. They are socially constructed (implicit agreement)

Key defining features of genres:

● akin to mental structures.

● ideal vs real.
● may include language or not.
● shared by members of a particular community.
● have names though not always.
● function guides features (structure, layout, style, lexis, grammar).
● identifiable by their structure, social and contextual factors.
● flexible, change, evolve, bend and die out.

12. The structure of a descriptive presentation in Academic Language

The basic descriptive structure:
Introduction
Body IBC
Conclusion

Introduction: say WHAT you are going to do and HOW.

(In this presentation) I am going to….
First, I am going to…
Second, I will….
Finally, I will….

Body: DO what you said you would in an organised way. SIGNPOST the different
stages and relationships among concepts.

Let me begin/start/ open (my analysis) by defining/referring…

(You define the notion1 - DEREEX)

Let me now pass on to .... / Now that I have defined/explained/etc., let me define…

(You define notion 2 – DEREEX)

Finally, ….

Conclusion: ROUND OFF and say what you have done.

All in all, / To conclude/ To end, let me summarise by saying that …, (in this
presentation) I have ….
13. Discourse modes

➢ Descriptive
➢ Narrative
➢ Instructing modes of thought that build genres.
➢ Interacting
➢ Reporting

● They are modes of operating with the language, at a superordinate level

above genres and texts.
● They are pre-genres.
● They are building blocks which we can draw on in many different genres and
then use them in actual texts in flexible ways for a range of purposes.
● Modes of thought that help you to operate with language.
● They can enter in flexible ways into various genres making it possible for a
genre to draw on one or more modes.

When a text has more than one discourse mode is much more complex.

14. Narrating mode

● Presents a sequence of events and states that have the same participants
and/or causal and other consequential relations.
● Time sequence guides the sequence of events.
● Contains a structure that follows a typical script:
❖ Abstract (summarises central action)
❖ Orientation (setting and characters)
❖ Complicating action (what happened?)
❖ Resolution (what happened in the end?)
❖ Evaluation (purpose of the narrative)
❖ Coda (connection with the present)

15. Interacting mode

● Characterized by dialogic two way nature in which each participant in the
interaction offers a contribution.
● Characterizes conversation, naturally associated with everyday conversation.
● Adjacency pairs: the building blocks of interacting mode.
● Turn taking: the fundamental unit of description in conversation analysis. The
length of time a speaker holds the floor length in turn taking.

16. Describing mode

● Focus on specific particular objects, people and mental states.
● Time is static or suspended.
● Frequent use of intensive verbs such as: be, become, seem, appear.
 ● ‘’have’’, verbs in the present simple or past to describe current situation or
other verbal forms such as the present progressive to describe on going
situations and activities.
● Descriptive adjectives and adverbs of frequency to describe actions.

17. Reporting mode

A discourse mode characterized by an account of situations from the temporal
standpoint of the reporter.

● Mainly concerned with events and states.

● Relating events from the point of view of the person doing the reporting.
● Deictic verbs, a deictic use of the present perfect tense, deictic noun phrases,
deictic adverbs of time and deictic adverbs of place.

18. Instructing mode

● Language for human actions as passed on by one subject to another or
others so as to convey a mechanism of action or activity for pedagogic, work
or any other purpose.
● Passing on valued knowledge on how to carry out a task that is of interest to
the people in question.
● Imperative forms, verbs in the present simple tense to describe typical actions
and adjectives to specify aspects of elements to be used as well as adverbs
of frequency to tell the order of events.

19. Definition of corpus

A corpus is a collection of naturally occurring language text, chosen to characterize
a state or variety of a language. In modern computational linguistics, a corpus
typically contains many millions of words: this is because it is recognized that the
creativity of natural language leads to such immense variety of expression that it is
difficult to isolate the recurrent patterns that are the clues to the lexical structure of
the language. (Sinclair 1991: 171)

20. Principles for corpus construction

● A corpus consists of authentic, naturally occurring data;
● A corpus is assembled according to explicit design criteria;
● A corpus is representative of a particular language or genre;
● A corpus is designed for a specific linguistic or socio- pragmatic purpose
21. Unplanned private talk
All genres of spoken language need to be described in terms of the distinction
between:

Public talk vs private talk

Panned vs unplanned

Unplanned private talk Is defined as the interaction occurring in a context where

participants know each other well or reasonably well and where interaction is some
way personal if not domestic. In consequence, it is more likely to take place among
familiar participants in a private context.

22. Conversation
● Is spoken.
● Takes place spontaneously.
● Occurs in a shared context.
● Is interactive, jointly constructed and reciprocal.
● Is primarily interpersonal in its function.
● Is informal and a site for negotiation of social identities.

Lexis in conversation

➢ Lexical repetition
➢ Vague language
➢ Fillers
➢ Discourse markers and other inserts
➢ Routines and lexical phrases
➢ Appraisal and involvement

23. The vocabulary of conversation

The vocabulary used in conversations can vary widely based on factors such as the
context, the relationship between the speakers, the formality of the conversation, and
the cultural background. Conversational vocabulary tends to be more informal and
may include colloquial expressions, contractions, and everyday language. Here are
some aspects of the vocabulary of conversation:

Everyday Language:
Conversations often involve using words and phrases that are part of everyday
language. This includes common words used in daily life.

Colloquial Expressions:
People in conversation often use colloquial expressions, informal language, and
idioms that may not be commonly found in formal written language. For example,
"gonna" instead of "going to," or "wanna" instead of "want to."
Contractions:
Contractions, where two words are combined by omitting one or more letters, are
frequently used in spoken language. Examples include "I'm" instead of "I am," "won't"
instead of "will not," and "you're" instead of "you are."

Phrasal Verbs:
Conversations frequently involve the use of phrasal verbs, where a verb is combined
with one or more prepositions or adverbs. For instance, "look up," "give in," or "hang
out."

Fillers:
Fillers like "um," "uh," "like," and "you know" are common in conversation. They often
serve as pauses or placeholders as speakers gather their thoughts.

Slang:
Depending on the setting and the relationship between speakers, slang terms and
expressions may be introduced into conversations. These can be region-specific or
associated with particular subcultures.

Adaptable Language:
Conversational vocabulary is often adaptable and can change based on the formality
of the situation, the participants, and the cultural context.

It's important to note that the vocabulary used in conversation can be dynamic and
context-dependent. People may adjust their language based on the social setting,
the nature of the relationship with the interlocutors, and other contextual factors.

24. Lexical peculiarities of conversation

Conversational language often exhibits specific lexical peculiarities that distinguish it
from more formal or written language. These peculiarities contribute to the dynamic
and informal nature of spoken communication. Here are some lexical characteristics
commonly found in conversations:

● Abbreviations and Contractions.

● Filler Words.
● Tag Questions.
● Repetition.
● Incomplete Sentences.
● Vague Language.

Understanding these lexical peculiarities is crucial for effective communication in

spoken language. They contribute to the natural flow and informal style of
conversations, helping speakers convey meaning in a way that is appropriate for the
context and relationship with the interlocutors.
25. Lexical repetition
The reiteration of lexical items used to achieve discourse cohesion.

● Direct repetition (exactly same item)

● Derived forms
● Synonyms
● Superordinates
● Items from the same lexical set (instrument-music-beat)

26. Vague language

A feature of conversation which consists of the substitution of specific lexical items
by words that express vagueness.

Eg.

➢ Thing, stuff, somewhere, etc.

➢ A lot of, loads of, a lot of, a bit of, some of.

27. Fillers
A linguistic device used to fill a momentary hesitation produced by the demands of
real-time processing pressure.

● Verbal fillers: well, I mean, you know.

● Pauses to signal that is speaking turned is not yet finished.

28. Discourse markers and other inserts

Words or phrases that serve to show the way in which different parts of conversation
are connected.

● Within speaker turn or across speaker turns.

● Work at local level by connecting adjacency utterances and also at a global
level by segmenting the flow of talk into larger chunks.

29. Routines and lexical phrases

Fixed and semi fixed multi word phrases, i.e lexical chucks that are used to achieve
conversational fluency.

A sequence continuous or discontinuous of words or other meaning elements which

appear to be prefabricated I need stored and retrieved as a whole from memory at
the time of use.
30. Appraisal and involvement
Appraisal refers to the language resources used to negotiate emotions, judgments
and valuations alongside resources for amplifying and engaging with these
evaluations.

Involvement refers to the language resources used for indexing group membership
and includes the use of names and other address terms.

31. Differences between corpus and database

A database, or text archive is a large repository of text which is unstructured and
often compiled according to what is easily obtainable rather than based on
systematic sampling techniques. There is also a difference in the ‘reading’ of a
corpus vs a database: a corpus is read non- linearly whereas it is usually a whole
text which is accessed in a database.

32. Data derived from corpus analysis

*topics from second mid term test*

1. Grammatical complexity in spoken English.

Definition of conversation to understand this complexity:

Conversation is a genre of spoken language. It consists of an informal interactive talk

between two or more people that occurs in real time. It is spontaneous, fragmented
and reciprocal. The speakers are interpersonally involved. It is implicit, that is, the
speakers have the chance to make adjustments and clarifications as the interaction
progresses. That is why it is characterized by the presence of hesitations, false
starts, repetitions, etc.

Grammatical complexity in spoken English according to Halliday:

The sentence structure of speech is highly complex, reaching degrees of complexity

that are rarely attained in writing. Halliday states that the complexity of spoken
language is more like that of a dance. It is not static and dense but mobile and
intricate. This mobility and intricacy is in turn due to the fact that the context of
spoken languages is in a constant state of flux. And the language has to be equally
mobile and alert. In fact, the fluidity and intricacy of spoken language is the result of
the fact that speakers in conversation use a number of relatively complex and
sophisticated grammatical constructions. The complexity is achieved not by
embedding constituents within predetermined sentence frames, but through
the successive and potentially limitless accumulation of individual clause-like
units.
2. Grammatical incompletion in spoken English.
Grammatical incompletion refers to the utterances which are either left incomplete or
non-standard in their blending in a mismatch between the start of an utterance and
its completion. It occurs when a phrase doesn’t follow the standard grammatical
rules or is interrupted before being adequately completed.

This can happen because of the pressure of online planning and the jointly
constructed nature of conversation, spoken language is often ungrammatical even
by its own relatively relaxed standards.

Grammatical incompletion acquires four main forms:

1. Abandonment (where the speaker abandons or re-starts an utterance). For

example: - ‘I’m so glad the kids where not there because you know…’
2. Interruption (incompletion caused by the interruption of another speaker).
For example: - I was speaking to…
-Oh my god I hadn’t thought about that!
3. Completion by another speaker. For example:
- They had to move out of the flat because the whole…
- …roof collapsed.
4. Blending. Can occur when speakers start constructing a sentence in one way
and then switch to another. For example, ‘I think there's the colour I like is a
sort of a buttery yellow’.

3. Grammatical and lexical cohesion

Grammatical and lexical cohesion are important in spoken English as well,
contributing to the clarity and coherence of verbal communication. While the
principles are similar to those in written language, there are some differences in how
they manifest in spoken discourse.

1. Grammatical Cohesion in Spoken English:

Pronouns: Speakers often use pronouns to refer back to previously mentioned
entities. For example, "I went to the store, and they had everything I needed."
Conjunctions: Similar to written English, conjunctions like "and," "but," and "so" help
connect ideas and maintain a smooth flow in spoken discourse.
Ellipsis: Omission of words is common in spoken language, as speakers often
assume a shared context with their listeners. For instance, "Went to the store.
Bought some groceries."

2. Lexical Cohesion in Spoken English:

Repetition: Repetition of words or phrases for emphasis or clarification is common in
spoken English. For example, "It was a really, really good movie."
Synonymy: Using synonyms helps avoid redundancy and keeps the conversation
engaging. For instance, "happy" might be replaced with "pleased" or "content."
Antonymy: Contrasting ideas using opposites helps convey nuanced meanings. For
example, "The weather outside is hot, but inside it's cool."
Collocation: Pairing words that naturally go together contributes to fluency. For
instance, "strong coffee," "heavy rain."

4. The grammar of conversation: heads and tails

Head and tails are optional slots either before or after the body of the message.

On the one hand, the head slot typically consists of a noun phrase which serves to
identify key information such as the topic and to establish a common frame of
reference of what follows.

‘’My friend Sara, she came home yesterday evening’’. In this case, ‘my friend Sara’
anticipates the reference for she in the utterance.

On the other hand, the tail slot is more retrospective in its use, serving to extend,
reinforce, mitigate, clarify or otherwise comment on, what the speaker is saying or
has just said. The typical tail-slot items are:

➢ Question tags: you are not going, are you?

➢ Interrogatives: there’s a nice big pub there, no?
➢ Reinforcement tags: you’re in trouble, you are.
➢ Noun phrase identifiers: Yeah she’s nice, Taylor.
➢ Evaluative adjectives: He broke my heart, terrible.
➢ Vague category identifiers: you trying to make me talk or something?
➢ Comment clauses: they are friends, I think.

It is important to mention that the effect of this incremental construction in

conversation is that the body of the message is preceded and followed by these
optional slots.

5. The grammar of conversation: ellipsis

Ellipsis can be defined by the deliberate omission of items, such as subject,
pronouns and verb complements, that are redundant or recoverable from the
immediate context, either the linguistic or the situational context. The omitted items
can consist of single words and/or phrases.

Commonly omitted items include:

➢ Sentence subjects ‘met her the other day. Like her a lot’
➢ Subjects and operators ‘listening’ (meaning ‘i’m listening’)
➢ Auxiliary verbs ‘ she going’

Ellipsis most frequently occurs at the beginning of the utterances rather than in the
middle or at the end.
6. The grammar of conversation: deixis
Deixis is the use of language devices such as personal pronouns, demonstratives
(this and that), and adverbials (such as here, there, now, then), so that speakers can
make reference to such features of the immediate context as themselves and the
other people present (what is called personal deixis), the immediate space (spatial
deixis), and the time (temporal deixis).
Because conversation takes place in a shared temporal and spatial context (unless,
of course, it is over the telephone), speakers frequently make direct reference to
features of the immediate situation. This is the reason why there is a high proportion
of deictic expressions in casual conversation.

Example: - Look, I fixed this.

-you did?

7. The grammar of conversation: questions

Questions are traditionally defined as the grammatical inversion of terms to elicit or
request confirmation from the interlocutor. However, with regard to syntactic form,
questions can be classified according to whether they take an interrogative or a
declarative form.

❖ Declarative questions are relatively common in conversation compared to

other registers. They function primarily as requests for confirmation. For
example, ‘you are married?’
❖ Question with subject-object inversion, that is, those that are interrogative
rather than declarative in form, can be further subdivided into:
● Those that are fully independent clauses. ‘Have you been there lately?’
● Those that are elliptic. ‘Have you?’

Since conversation is interactive, dialogic and jointly constructed, it depends to a

large part on questions to maintain its momentum and purpose. A coherent
conversation will certainly contain a high proportion of questions.

8. The grammar of conversation: tense and aspect

One the one hand, tense is a grammatical marker of the verb used as a grammatical
marker of time. On the other hand, aspect serves to distinguish between verbal
situations that are seen as in progress (or not) or complete (or not).

However, there are important differences in the frequency and distribution of these
verb forms-differences that reflect both the ‘here and now’ nature of conversation, as
well as its largely interpersonal function. For instance:

● The present tense is by far the most common tense in casual conversation,
outnumbering past tenses.
● Perfect aspect is also far less frequent than simple forms in conversation.
● Progressive aspect is uncommon in conversation.
9. The grammar of conversation: modality
Modality is another area of grammar that is best understood by taking into account
the interpersonal features of its contexts of use. In other words, modality has to do
with the way speakers indicate their attitudes or judgements with regard to the
message in hand, as in utterances like X probably happens or X should happen or I
think X might’ve happened, in contrast to assertions of facts such as X happens or
does not happen.

Modality is signalled principally by the use of modal verbs.

➢ The modal verbs can, will and would are extremely common in conversation,
as are the semi-modals have to, used to and going to.
➢ The modals may, shall and must are relatively infrequently found in the data;
and must is used more to mark logical necessity, especially with regard to the
past (that must’ve been awful)

10. The grammar of conversation: reporting

Reporting is a feature of the grammar of conversation which involves the use of
verbs referring to the speech behaviour of participants in conversation in order to
frame what is being said. Examples of this are: ‘I was telling Joe that…’, ‘And then
he says to me…’, ‘I was telling you that…’

Two important features of reporting: direct and indirect speech. It can be said that
there’s a predominance of direct reporting ober indirect reporting in conversation.

● Indirect speech: A reporting structure that involves changing pronouns, verb

tenses and expressions of time and place. Example: ‘she said that she loved
Taylor Swift’
● Direct speech: it’s used when you quote someone’s exact words and enclose
them in quotation marks. Example: ‘I love Taylor Swift’, she said.

11. Unplanned public talk

Unpanned public talks are sponken interactions that take place in our everyday lives
among people we hardly know. It is between these people that the interaction is
reciprocally created as the interaction moves forward.

An illustration of unplanned public talks would be a classroom interaction between

the teacher and one student in a biology class, in which they discuss whether an
animal is or is not a reptile and why is that so. In this example, the lesson would be
planned, as it would follow a structured prepared beforehand, but the interaction
alone is not, as the participants speak spontaneously and not following a memorised
script.

Other examples:
 ➢ Service encounters which might be business or professional, that is, talking
with people in business or professional fields.
➢ Classroom interactions,
➢ courtroom language,
➢ media talk, including chat shows, sports commentaries and public information
language as the language used in air control.

12. Planned public talk

Planned public talk is the spoken interaction occurring in a context where
participants do not know each other well and whose conversation was previously
structured. In other words, planned public talk is a type of spoken interaction which
takes place among people that do not share common knowledge and have as a
main purpose, a transactional one, that is, to communicate ideas and information to
others. An example could be a lecture, where the lecturer has planned beforehand
the topics and the presentation of them. And the relationship that the lecturer has
with their students is that of acquaintances.

13. Classroom interaction Sinclair and Coulthard´s analysis

According to the authors, classroom interaction is a type of interaction that is
characterised by its educational purpose or function. That is to say, it refers to the
interaction between the teacher and learners, and amongst the learners, in the
classroom.

Furthermore, it contains a structured pattern that can be described as constituted by

a nested hierarchy of categories. In other words, there is a pattern in which there are
embedded elements with different categories and functions that operate as
sub-categories and sub-functions within a main function (which is an educational
one).

The categories are:

➔ the lesson
➔ transaction
➔ exchange
➔ move
➔ act

In fact, the interaction of a class consists of the lesson. Within the lesson interaction,
there are stages of the class that are interactionally marked as units, which are
called transactions. Every class contains different teaching moments, that is to say,
different transactions that are discursively realised with smaller units of interaction
that hang together: the exchanges. Exchanges contain moves, and moves contain
acts, which is the smallest item within classroom interaction, while a move is a set of
at least two acts realised by different participants in classroom interaction. Now let
me pass on to an example of classroom interaction. The teacher starts by saying
“What is a cell?” and then nominates a student by calling her name “Emily”. The first
act is an elicitation act and the second one is a nomination act. Both acts are part of
an opening move in the interaction. The pupil replies “The basic structure of
organisms”, this response is a reply act, and it consists of just one act. Then, there is
a follow-up move given by the teacher. The teacher says “Yes, it is” which is an
evaluation. Then, a comment: “All cells are made by the division of other cells”. In
the response given by the teacher, there are two acts for one move, that is, the
follow-up move. These opening, answer and follow-up moves constitute an
exchange. On the whole in the case of the teacher every move contains several
acts, while in the case of students a move consists of just one act.

14. Classroom interactions: Seedhouse´s main notions on classroom

interaction
Seedhouse identifies 3 interactional practices of classroom interaction that are key.

1. Language is both the vehicle and object of instruction.

2. There’s a reflexive relationship between pedagogy and interaction. This
means that as the pedagogical focus varies, so does the organisation of the
interaction.
3. Linguistic forms and patterns of interaction which the learners produce in the
L2 are potentially subject to evaluation by the teacher in some way.

Also, it is crucial to bear in mind that the basic sequence organization that applies
to all 2L classroom interaction from a conversation analysis (CA) has three distinct
features.

1. The first one is a pedagogical focus which is introduced by the teacher but it
may be nominated by learned. For example, when learners ask a question.
2. Secondly, at least two people speak in the L2 in a normative orientation to the
pedagogical focus, that is, they are speaking the second language bearing in
mind the rules and the structure of the language as a focus.
3. Finally, in all the instances, the interaction involves participants analyzing this
pedagogical focus and performing turns in the 2L which display their analysis
of the normative orientation to these focus in relation to the interaction.

As regards the teacher there are five separate, though related, simultaneous
concerns that the teacher bares

1. The first one is that the teacher controls the overall topic whilst allowing the
learners some interactional space to develop their own sub-topics. The
teacher has to orient, then, to an overall pedagogical plan. So the teacher will
be all the time in control of the topic and also the subtopics.
2. Secondly, T will respond to the ideas and personal meaning which the lerner
chooses to share, and does so successfully in that he/she develops the
subtopic introduced by the learner. It is often found in classroom interaction
 that teachers take up would students say and expand and also comment on
student interventions.
3. Thirdly, the teacher responds to the linguistic incorrectness in the individual
learner’s utterances and conducts embedded repair on them.
4. Also, the teacher orients to the other learners in class when students produce
answers that are inaudible to other learners. This is something very common
especially in young learners that students tend to speak very lowly, so
teachers have to take up what students have said and share it with the rest of
the class. By doing this, the teacher displays feedback and ensures everyone
can listen.
5. Finally, T maintains a simultaneous dual focus on both form and meaning.

15. Classroom interactions: Willis´ inner and outer structures of classroom

interaction
Willis departs from the observation what most language classrooms have one
feature in common: language is used for two purposes. It serves both as the subject
matter of the lesson and as the medium of instruction. It is precisely this dual role
that makes language lessons difficult to describe. In order to produce a clear and
useful description of the structure of language classroom discourse, it is necessary
to have an analytic model which can distinguish and separate these two uses of
language, but at the same time preserve the flow of the interaction and reveal the
relationship between the two.

Willis adopts two terms to separate the two usages of language

● Outer
● Inner

On the one hand, the outer structure language is the mechanism for controlling and
stimulating utterances. In other words, it provides the framework of the lesson, the
language used to socialize, organise, explain and check, and generally to enable
pedagogic activities to take place. For example, a teacher giving instructions and
organising the task.

On the other hand, the inner structure of language consists of the target forms of the
language that the teacher has selected as learning goals. These are generally
phrases, clauses, or sentences presented as target forms, quoted as examples,
repeated and drilled, or practiced by the class, often as discrete items. The
sequence of utterances bears little or no resemblance to possible sequences in
'normal' discourse. This is part of the language rehearsal that students need in order
to acquire the language. For example, vocabulary seen in a video on a topic that
students encounter in real life.
16. Classroom interactions: Hewing´s intonation and feedback analysis in
classroom interaction.
Feedback derives from analysis of systems in which part of the output from the
system is returned to it as input, modifying its characteristics and its subsequent
output. It is a complex phenomenon which is conveyed not only through spoken, but
also through non-verbal channels. In other words, feedback is the teacher’s
assessment of a student’s performance. Paralinguistic features are also involved, for
example a gesture or a facial expression as raising eyebrows. Items such as “good”
or “right” are also involved.

The notion of classroom exchange can be described as a three-part interaction

between a teacher and students in a classroom. That is to say, it is a type of
exchange which consists of three parts: the teacher’s initiation; the student’s
response and, finally, the teacher’s assessment of the student’s response, to inform
if the contribution is acceptable or not.

Role of intonation in feedback? Intonation plays an important role in providing

information about the acceptability and quality of a learner’s performance. That is to
say, there’s information conveyed through intonation in feedback.

The teacher has three options in providing feedback after the response: to give a
negative assessment, that is, to reject the response; to withhold the assessment,
that is, to give a partial acceptance; or to give a positive assessment, that is, to
indicate that the response was acceptable.

In the case of the negative assessment, the teacher re-initiates the exchange with
the use of the level tone providing an incomplete quotation of the student’s response,
so that the student makes the necessary modifications. Other possibilities of
intonation such as r+ or p+ can happen too, to indicate that a certain word in the
student’s response should be reconsidered.

In the case of the withholding of the assessment, the teacher does not give positive
nor negative assessment, and selects the use of the level tone to indicate the
incompleteness of the response, or selects the use of a referring tone to indicate that
the response was not what the teacher wanted and wants the student to go on and
say more.

The last possibility in providing feedback is the positive assessment, where the
teacher selects proclaiming intonation; this shows the acceptability of the response.

17. Problems faced by students in lectures

● Decoding what has been said (requires recognising pauses, boundaries, false
starts, stress, intonation, etc)
● comprehending (understanding key points and not key points - knowledge of
specialist subject)
 ● Taking notes (a skill which involves several processes: distinguishing
important information, deciding to record it, the ability to write it concisely and
the ability to decipher one’s own notes.

Learners need a set of micro-skills in order to comprehend a lecture. These skills

derive from three sources:
➔ information from comprehension theory
➔ information from lectures
➔ information from students

Firstly, in the information from comprehension theory there is a list of skills that
include abilities to identify and recognize important characteristics of the lecture. If
the learner did not acquire these skills before attending a lecture, it would be almost
impossible for him/her to comprehend it.

Secondly, the information from lectures provides other list of skills related to the
information learners are given during a lecture. In this case, if the student did not
acquire these abilities, then it would be impossible not only to take advantage in the
best way possible but also to comprehend the lecture.

Finally, the information from students possess a set of problems encountered by the
students during the lectures, namely the speed of delivery, the excessive load of new
terminology and concepts and difficulties in concentrating.

The author Flowerdew also mentions some strategies that students use to help
comprehension, such as pre-and post-reading of the set text, lecturer/tutor help,
highlighting relevant sections of the set during the lecture, note-taking and efforts on
the part of the student to concentrate harder.

18. Listening cues in lectures

What Rost calls presentation cues or listening cues and how they are related to the
process of comprehension.

Rost understand comprehension as relating language to concepts in one’s memory

and to references in the real world. In this sense, listeners will first draw a map in
which the concepts fit, and as they listen, they place concepts representing new
information into this figurative map. Comprehension, then, involves the mapping and
updating of references that the speaker uses. These references are categorised as
either new or given information.

On the one hand, given information can be understood as the status in the speaker’s
mind, that information presented is already active in the listener’s memory. In other
words, it is information that the speaker can recover easily from their memory.

On the other hand, new information refers to the assumed status in the speaker’s
mind, that the information is not currently active in the listener’s working memory. In
other words, it does not necessarily mean that the speaker believes the information
itself is unknown to the listener, as it might be information newly activated in that
point of the conversation.

Generally speaking, new and given information is reflected in the prosody of speech
as proclaiming and referring tones respectively. This prosodic distinction provides
overt clues to the listener in how to attend to speech.

Because the process of comprehension is an interplay of the new and the given
information, the listener conveys their own distinctions between them through
listening cues. In English, the primarily linguistic cues are intonational: the main
stress or prominence, that is to say, increased duration, loudness and or/pitch, within
an intonational unit will fall on the content word that hosts the new information.
These prominent words guide the listener in comprehending the extract by indicating
what should be processed as new information, thus, what components of the speech
should they be focusing on.

Listening cues are also provided in the speaker’s manner of delivery, including
pacing, pausing and frequency and type of disfluency. In other words, a stretch of
speech might be comprehended more easily if processing cues such as pauses and
fillers are included together with the content information.

In lectures, teachers or lecturers normally use various devices to indicate the relative
importance of the ideas and information contained in their lectures. Among these
devices, prosodic features such as the ones mentioned play an important role. It has
been demonstrated that students tend to pay more attention to items which are
marked with high or low key and termination than those marked with mid key or
termination. Subordinating syntactic structures such as relative clauses, as well as
lexical discourse markers have also proven to be helpful in the task of organising
information in terms of their importance.

19. Distinctive features of listening comprehension: differences in degree

It is important to point out that lecture comprehension has some distinctive features
with regard to listening in general. In his analysis, Flowerdew mentions that the
linguist Richards made a distinction between listening skills required for conversation
and those which are required for academic listening.

According to Richards, some of the differences between conversational listening and

academic listening are in degree.

The first difference that is a matter of degree is the type of background knowledge
required. That is to say, in a lecture, listeners are likely to require a knowledge of the
topic, while in a casual conversation, necessary background knowledge will be more
general.

The second difference in relation to degree is the ability that the listener should have
in order to distinguish between what is relevant and what is not so relevant. An
example of what is irrelevant can be a joke that the lecturer makes. This is important
in lectures, but not so much in conversation.

A third difference is in the application of the turn-taking conventions. In a lecture,

turn-taking conventions will only be required if questions are allowed from the
audience or come from the lecturer. On the contrary, a conversation clearly requires
turn-taking.

The fourth difference of degree between academic and conversational listening is in

the amount of implied meaning or indirect speech acts. In a lecture, the emphasis is
assumed to be on the information to be conveyed, that is, on the propositional
meaning. While in a conversation, interpersonal or illocutionary meaning is more
important.

20. Distinctive features of lecture comprehension: differences in kind

It is important to point out that lecture comprehension has some distinctive features
with regard to listening in general. In his analysis, Flowerdew mentions that the
linguist Richards made a distinction between listening skills required for conversation
and those which are required for academic listening.

According to Richards, some of the differences between conversational listening and

academic listening are in kind.
The first difference is that in a lecture particular skills are required, such as the ability
of concentrating on and understanding long stretches of talk without the opportunity
of engaging in the facilitating functions of interactive discourse, that is, asking for
repetition or using repair strategies.

The second difference is note-taking. The author James sees lecture comprehension
as a five-stage process which culminates in the note-taking process, that is, decode,
comprehend, identify main points, decide when to record these and write quickly and
clearly.

The third skill related to lecture comprehension and not found in conversation is the
ability to integrate the incoming message with information derived from other media,
such as handouts, textbooks or visually displayed materials.

21. Lecture discourse

Lectures are talks which give students a general overview of a topic. In other words,
a lecture is a speech given by a subject expert on a particular topic. It is a type of
planned public talk, delivered in an academic context.

22. Lecture discourse: Lecturing styles

Dudley-Evans and Johns distinguish three styles:

● Reading style, where the speaker reads or speaks as if reading from notes.
 ● Conversational style, where the speaker speakes informally, with or without
notes.
● Rhetorical style, where the speaker presents herself or himself as a
‘’performer’’, using a wide intonational range and making frequent digressions,
marked by shifts of key and tempo.

According to Flowerdew, the key parameters in characterizing lecture styles would

seem to be whether the lecture is processed by the speaker in real time or is read
and whether it allows for any spoken interaction with the audience or is pure
monologue. The level of interactivity can vary according to class size: the larger the
groups, the less the interaction.

23. Lecture: metapragmatic signalling

Metapragmatic signalling can be defined as the devices that emphasize aspects of a
lecture's content or structure without adding to the content of the topic. The
importance of these devices in facilitating comprehension has been recognized by
researchers, who have analyzed them in lectures and have set up categories of
“lexical phrase” according to their functions. These phrases help students to predict
what information is likely to come up next and to organize and interpret the flow of
information more easily. In other words, these phrases enhance students' ability to
comprehend lectures.
One of these devices are topic markers which are used by speakers to mark
beginnings of topics. Examples of this can be “let me start with”, “before I begin the
presentation” or “I want to recall what we have done”. In addition, topic shifters are
used to change the topic and direct the listeners’ attention to a new point or
argument. Examples of such devices can be “so let’s turn to” or “now I would like to
draw your attention to”. Other devices are summarizers, which are used to sum up
the point expressed by the speaker or the entire topic. An example of this can be “in
short”, or “to tie this up”.

24. Lecture :discourse structure

Discourse structures of lectures and the discourse structures of primary school
classrooms.

Sinclair and Coulthard posed a model of primary school classroom discourse, which
Murphy and Candlin compare with the organizational structure of lectures.

Murphy and Candlin highlighted that a lectures consists of a monologue given by the
lecturer while a primary school’s lesson consists of dialogues between the teacher
and the students or between students. This means that in the first case the lecturer
has the flow of talk and no one else does, whereas in the second case any
participant who wants it may have it. An example would be the interactive qualities of
primary school lessons, where participants can interrupt to ask questions.
However, these authords noted that a number of the interactive acts from the Sinclair
and Coulthard model, namely discourse markers (such as wll, now, right), starters
(such as let’s go on with…), aside comments, meta-statements (such as I want to
mention two types of…) and conclusions, also occur in lectures.

Aside from this similarity found, it can be noted that both lectures and primary
classroom discourse have rank scales: Sinclair and Coulthard proposed that primary
classroom discourse has five ranks- lesson, transaction, exchange, move and act-,
and Coulthard together with Montgomery adapted this model to lectures, proposing
four ranks, namely - lecture, transaction, sequence and Member.

24. Lecture: interpersonal features

Even though the interpersonal features are not the focus of a lecture, they are
present in the way the speaker relates to the audience and how the speaker
expresses opinions and attitudes with regards to the topic developed.

Flowerdew showed that definitions, which are informative in nature, are hedged with
certain pragmatic features, such as anecdotes and asides, which show how the
lecturer relates to the audience, how these definitions fit into the whole of the
discourse, and the opinions and attitudes of the lecturer.

On the other hand, Rounds provided a description of interpersonal features of

mathematics lectures. The author puts emphasis on the ability of competent lectures
to develop “an atmosphere of cooperative interaction and consensus”. That is to say,
a sense of working together to achieve a common goal, which he calls “elaboration”
as opposed to the mere transmission of information. Rounds identifies seven
elaborative features of discourse, which are the following:

1. The first one is naming processes.

2. The second one has to do with overtly marking major points, both to evaluate
and reinforce student achievement.
3. The third feature of discourse is about developing cohesion and continuity
within and between lectures by repetition and “linking talk”.
4. The fourth one is that of organizing topics and marking topic change.
5. The fifth feature has to do with stating the scope of the students’
responsibility.
6. The sixth is using questions in a timely fashion.
7. The last feature of discourse that the author identifies is about using
persuasive techniques.

25. Lecture: Lexico grammatical features

Different authors analyzed the lexis of lectures about transportation and biology and
found three categories: technical, semi-technical and colloquial, identifying the
problems of each of them. Furthermore, Flowerdew noted that the lexis of these
types of lectures is very restricted in range, and that teaching materials would have a
manageable set of lexis for non-native speakers.

In terms of syntax, it's important to point out that there is no single parameter of
linguistic variation that distinguishes spoken and written texts, but rather there are
dimensions, such as clustering features which work together to fulfil their function
within the various spoken and written genres, for example formality or informality,
restriction or elaboration, contextualization or decontextualization, involvement or
detachment. Therefore, lectures are likely to share many of the features of written
texts.

26. Lecture input variables: speech rate

according to Flowerdew, there are two possible ways to help non-native speakers
understand lectures in a second language. The first one is to improve their
knowledge and skills in the target language until the comprehension process is no
longer a problem. The second one is to modify the form of the lectures, to vary the
input, so as to make them easier to comprehend.

Now let me pass on to the notion of speech rate. The notion of speech rate can be
described as the speed at which a person speaks. It is one of the variables that
could be modified in order to help non-native speakers in lecture comprehension.
Flowerdew and Miller’s research noted that for non-native speakers, the speech rate
of the lecturer affected the comprehension because of the amount of processing
required of the incoming data in a short period of time. That is to say, the speed of
delivery was the greatest obstacle to understanding the content of a lecture.

It is important to mention that there are four questions which are necessary for
speech rate studies:
1. What are the reasons for non-native speakers’ difficulty with speed of
delivery?
2. Can comprehension be improved by controlling speed of delivery?
3. What are the optimum rates for different levels of learners?
4. Is it possible for lecturers to consciously control their rate of delivery?

27. Lecture comprehension microskills

Micro-skills are those specific skills which are necessary for or to facilitate effective
comprehension. That is to say, students will not be able to understand a lecture if
they do not acquiree such abilities. Furthermore, the micro-skills approach has been
influential in the field of second language curriculum development.

Micro-skills have been derived from three sources, which are:

● information from comprehension theory
● information from lecturers
● information from students
In the case of information from comprehension theory: writers on second language
comprehension have extrapolated a list of micro-skills which they assume to be
necessary for the comprehension of lectures in a second language. This list includes
the ability of identifying the purpose and topic of lectures and the ability of
recognizing the role of discourse markers that signal the structure of a lecture; as
well as identifying the function of intonation to signal information structure, among
others.

In the case of information from lecturers, a list of skills were considered as most
important. This list includes identifying major themes or ideas and relationships
between them, retaining information through note-taking and through notes,
comprehending key vocabulary and following the spoken mode of lectures, among
others.

Another source of information on skills which is necessary for lecture comprehension

is the non-native listeners themselves. According to a study conducted by
Flowerdew, the problems that students can face in a lecture are: the speed of
delivery, the excessive load of new terminology and concepts and difficulties in
concentrating.

Flowerdew also mentions some strategies that students use to help comprehension,
such as pre-and post-reading of the set text, lecturer/tutor help, highlighting relevant
sections of the set during the lecture, note-taking and efforts on the part of the
student to concentrate harder.

summary
Micro-skills categories have been derived from three sources: information from
comprehension theory, information from lecturers and information from students.

The first one has to do with the micro skills that writers on L2 comprehension need
for the comprehension of lectures in a second language. These sets of skills which
are assumed to be necessary are the following:

● ability to identify purpose and scope of lecture

● ability to identify the topic
● ability to recognize the role of discourse markers signalling the structure of
lecture.
● ability to recognize lexical items related to subject/topic
● ability to recognize function of intonation

Regarding the second source, that is information from lecturers, the necessary skills
are the following:

● identifying main ideas

● identifying relationships between main ideas
● identifying the topic of the lecture
● retrieving information through note-taking
 ● comprehend key vocabulary
● identifying supporting ideas and examples

The third source of information on skills necessary for lecture comprehension has to
do with the problems encountered by the students such as:

● speed of delivery
● excessive load of new terminology and concepts
● and difficulties in concentrating

The strategies used to help comprehension are:

● pre and post reading

● lecturer help
● note-taking
● efforts to concentrate harder

28. Note taking

Note-taking is the practice of writing down or recording key points of information. It is
an essential part of the study process. In other words, it is a learning strategy to help
the brain remember in the process of listening comprehension. It is important to
mention that the extent to which note-taking is employed may depend on the amount
of support material available to students in the form of handouts or students’ use of
highlighting techniques on their set texts.

Rost provides a chart of ‘types of notes’ which are classified into:

1. Topic-relation notes, for example, writing down a word/phrase or translating.
2. Concept-ordering notes, such as, listing topics in order or labelling notes as
main points.
3. Focussing notes, for instance, highlighting or parenthesizing.
4. Revising notes, for example, inserting or deleting.

29. Benson´s ethnographic description of lectures

According to Benson, a lecture is composed of nine sociolinguistic features.

The first sociolinguistic feature of the lecture is that of its performative nature, in
which there are two ways where speech may be a performance. One of these
represents a special interpretive frame within which the act of speaking is
understood. That is to say, a marked way of speaking. The second way is that
attendance at lectures is compulsory.

The second feature is that the lecture is organised in two different axes. The first
one refers to the structure of the university, in which a lecture is the product of an
immense amount of planning and organization. And the second one is about its
relationship with the rest of the course, in which a lecture builds on the previous one,
it is a free-standing speech event and it anticipates the next one.
The third feature is that a lecture is also organized in relation to other learning
channels. That is to say, a lecture has different sources from which students can
previously choose and learn before-hand about the lecture.

The fourth feature is the context in which a lecture takes place. That is to say, a
lecture takes place in a specific time and location, which may have influence on what
happens in terms of expectations, attitudes, learning styles and the outcomes of
learning.

The fifth feature is that a lecture relies on the norms and rules of the temporary
speaking and listening class. In other words, a class has norms and rules such as
who can take part, what the role relationships are, what kind of content is admissible,
and the lecture has to follow these guidelines.

The sixth feature is that a lecture activates the principles and values and goals
which guide the members of the class. That is to say, the rules of the classroom are
the product of a variety of principles and values held by each participating member,
and in practice translated into goals.

The seventh feature is the demands that a lecture makes, which are linguistic and
cognitive on the listener.
The eighth feature is that a lecture is patterned into certain classes of
communication acts. These acts are recognized by the participants and are capable
of being described.

The last feature is that a lecture allows for a specific range of events to happen. A
course of lectures is made up of a range of specific events which themselves are
part of the culture of learning.

30. Young´s description of macro structures in lectures

According to Young, during any language event there are different activities going on
such as explanations or exemplifications. One way to see this is through the concept
of phase. With phases we can configure different patterns of discourse. In other
words, phases are strands of discourse that occur discontinuously through a
particular language event and taken together, structure that event. All this strands
from the macro structure of lectures.

1. Discourse structuring phase: adressers indicate the direction they will take in
a lecture, telling the audience what will come next. Examples of this can be
what we do in this subject. We tell what we are going to do as soon as we
start speaking.
2. Conclusion phase: Lecturers summarize points they have made through the
discourse. For example, a conclusion once we finish explaining something.
3. Evaluation phase: lecturer reinforces other strands by evaluating information
that is to be or was said. Example: giving our point of view if something was
positive: this is really useful… this is really interesting.
31. Listening: Orientation 1
Rost provides different definitions of listening that gravitate towards one of four
orientations, namely: receptive, constructive, collaborative and transformative.

The first orientation that the author refers to is the receptive one.
From this point of view, listening is considered as receiving what the speaker actually
says, decoding the speaker’s message. That is to say, getting the speaker's idea. It
refers to the selective process of attending to, hearing, understanding and
remembering aural symbols. As listeners, we should be able to receive the transfer
of images, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and emotions from the speaker.

32. Listening Orientation 2

Rost provides definitions of listening that gravitate towards one of four orientations,
namely: receptive, constructive, collaborative and transformative.

The second orientation that the author refers to is the constructive one. From this
point of view, listening is considered as constructing and representing meaning. That
is to say, it is figuring out what is in the speaker’s mind. According to this orientation,
listeners should find something interesting in what the speaker is saying. Listeners
also have to find out what is relevant for them and understand why the speaker is
talking to them. Furthermore, listening is the process by which oral language is
received, critically and purposefully attended to, recognised and interpreted in terms
of past experiences and future expectations.

33. Listening Orientation 3

Rost provides definitions of listening that gravitate towards one of four orientations,
namely: receptive, constructive, collaborative and transformative.

The third orientation that the author refers to is the collaborative one. From this point
of view, listening is considered as negotiating meaning with the speaker and
responding to what the speaker has said. That is to say, it is the acquisition,
processing, and retention of information in the interpersonal context. Furthermore, it
is co-ordinating with the speaker on the choice of a code and a context. In other
words, it is the process of negotiating shared information or values with the speaker.
According to this orientation, listeners should act interested while the speaker is
talking and they should be able to signal to the speaker which ideas are clear and
acceptable to them.

34. Listening Orientation 4

Rost provides definitions of listening that gravitate towards one of four orientations,
namely: receptive, constructive, collaborative and transformative.

The fourth orientation that the author refers to is the transformative one. From this
point of view, listening is considered as creating meaning through involvement,
imagination and empathy. That is to say, it is creating a connection between the
speaker and the listener, by seeking synchronicity. It is imagining a possible world for
the speaker’s meaning. According to this orientation, listening is the process of
altering the cognitive environment of both the speaker and the listener, and it has the
intention of completing the communication process.

35. Listening
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the
communication process. In other words, it’s not just the act of only hearing the words
spoken, it’s important to understand them to decode the message. For example, if
someone is telling a story, it’s necessary to pay attention not only to the story, but
how it is told. i.e: the use of language and voice.

To achieve effective communication and meaningful connections with others, it is

crucial to actively engage in attentive and empathetic listening, as it enhances our
understanding. As said before, listening is not just about hearing; it is about truly
comprehending and engaging with the messages conveyed by others.

36. Hearing
Hearing can be defined as the primary physiological system that allows for reception
and conversation of sound waves. It occurs in real time in a temporal continuum.

While hearing is a physiological process which consists of the reception and

conversation of sound waves, listening is a physiological mechanism that results
from the activation of part of the brain.

The distinction between hearing and listening lies in the degree of intention, that is,
the acknowledgement of a distal source and a willingness to be influenced by this
source.

The mechanism of hearing: sound waves travel down the ear canal and cause the
eardrum to vibrate. Middle ear converts the electrical pulses and passes them to the
brain.

The mechanism of listening: brain areas are involved in language comprehension.

37. Consciousness
Consciousness is the aspect of mind that has a self-centred point of view and
orientation to the environment. It is related to intentionality: to understand and to be
understood.

It is a flow of energy emerging from two cognitive processes that coincide:

 1. The brain identifies an outside object or event consisting of independent
properties
2. The brain sets up the listener as the central agent who willingly and
purposefully witnesses this object or event.

It is the phenomenon of experiencing this integration as a subjective phenomenon. It

allows a person to become active and goal oriented in both internal and external
environments.

Properties of consciousness

● It is embedded in a surrounding area of peripheral awareness.

● It is dynamic moving from one focus of information to another.
● It has a point of view, necessarily centro on the self.
● It needs an orientation from an immediate mode to a distal one.
● It can focus on one thing at a time.

38. Comprehension
Comprehension can be defined as the process of structure building relating
language to concepts in one’s memory and to references int he real world with the
aim of finding coherence and relevance.

Concepts are the units of reason and comprehension.

Memory nodes are the building blocks of mental structures.

The goal of comprehension is to build coherent mental representations from

concepts.

In terms of language processing, comprehension is the experience of understanding

what the language heard refers to in one’s own experience in the outside world. It
involves sensing how any incoming burst of language enhances or suppresses one’s
current understanding.

The speaker and listener do not need to have identical schemata.

Activating appropriately related schema allows the listener to make inferences that
are essential for comprehension.

When there is a match or congruence there is acceptable understanding, when there

are significant mismatches we talk about misunderstanding.

39. Range of Understandings in Listening

The range of possible understandings in listening are 6:

1) Non understanding: listener is unable to activate any appropriate schemata

to understand speaker.
 2) Misunderstanding: listener activates schemata that have significant
mismatches to speaker’s schemata.
3) Partial understanding: listener activates schema that include some overlap
with speaker’s active schemata.
4) Plausible understanding: listener activates schema that include central
items in speaker’s discourse, though not largely shared with speaker.
5) Acceptable understanding: listener activates schema that include central
items in speaker’s discourse, largely ‘shared’ with speaker.
6) Complete understanding: listener activates schema that are completely
‘shared’ with speaker.

40. Compensatory strategies when listening

Compensation is a strategy used to perform semantic processing when conditions
become severe. In other words, at any point during semantic processing, the
listener’s capacity for comprehension may be exhausted, or the listener can become
distracted. This may occur when:

● Listener can’t hear what the speaker is saying,

● Listener doesn’t know specific expressions the speaker is using,
● The information the speaker gives is incomplete,
● When there’s lack of familiarity with a word or its use,
● Unknown concept

In these cases, some kind of compensation is required if the listener aims for full
comprehension. The compensatory strategies are the following:

● Skipping: omitting a part or a Block of text from processing for comprensión.

● Approximation: using a superordinate concept that is likely to cover the
essence of what has not been comprehended; constructing a less precise
meaning for a word or concept than the speaker may have intended.
● Filtering: compressing a longer message or set of propositions into a more
concise one. (this is different from skipping or approximation, which are
“reduction” strategies, because filtering involves active construction of a larger
semantic context.)
● Incompletion: maintaining an incomplete proposition in memory, waiting until
clarification can be obtained.
● Substitution: substituting a word or concept or proposition for one that is not
understandable.

(examples in page 71)

41. Political Speech

Political speech is a genre of the spoken language which is planned and public. It
can be defined as the talk of a professional politician addressed to a certain target
group. (e.g, electorate in general, students, older citizens, etc.) and aimed to pursue
them to support her/his ideas and activities.

Political speech is organised into both a micro and a macro structure.

In the microstructure, there are some key elements such as:

● logos, which refers to the argumentative structure;
● ethos, which relates to the speaker's credibility;
● pathos, which appeals to the emotions of the audience, often with the
intention of influencing them.

Moving on to the macrostructure, there are important elements such as:

● tropes, which involve the use of evocative language;
● schemes, which refer to the deliberate arrangement of words or phrases to
create a specific effect. For example, parallelism or antithesis;
● patterns of sound, such as alliteration anf assonance, which contribute to the
overall auditory impact of the speech.

42. Rethoric and Political speech

The notion of rethoric can be seen as the “faculty of observing the available means
of persuasion in any given situation”. In other words, by taking into account the
specific qualities of an audience (like the setting and the occasion) an orator or
speaker can figure out exactly what would be persuasive in that context.

Political speakers use to adapt their messages to appeal to specific demographics,

cultural backgrounds and values, using language that connects with their audience
on a personal level.

Rethoric always has two characteristics that make it distinct from communication:
● rethoric is contingent. Rethorical communication is always contingent: the
outcome of a rethorical act depends on audience reaction. Since every
audience is unique and has its own predispositions, the audience might be
persuaded, but it might also be bored by or become angry at the speaker.
● rethoric is stategic. Because rhetoric is tied to the contingencies of the
audience, it is strategic: the speaker must figure out how to deliver the
message in a way that gains a positive audience reaction.

43. Logos in Political Speech

In political speech, logos refers to the persuasive appeal based on logic, reason and
evidence. It involves presenting factual information, logical arguments and rational
explanations to support a particular viewpoint or idea. In other words, the logos of a
speech is its logic; that is, the arguments it makes.
Politicians presents their ideas using deductive or inductive reasoning to support
their political positions.

● Deductive reasoning starts from theses and then provide examples. For
example:
All mammal have fur
Dogs are mammals
Therefore, dogs have fur

● Inductive reasoning departs from concrete examples and the stand the thesis.
In other words, is to tell facts to reach a conclusion. For example:
Every crow I have seen is black
The crows in this region are black
Therefore, all crows are black

44. Ethos in political speech

Ethos has to do with the credibility that a person has. When audiences wonder about
the speaker’s ethos, they are considering his credibility (believabiliy and
trustworthiness. Ethos is a greek term that can have two meanings: ‘character’ and
‘habit’. These two meanings are related, since a person’s character is composed of
habits, the things that a person just ‘does’ all the time.

In order to gain an audience’s trust, persuasive speakers try to create a certain kind
of relationship with their audience. (also intonation and key are crucial to create an
effect in terms of credibility) Speakers create ethos in a number of ways:

● Action. Speakers might call explicitly on the history of their actions, as

politicians often do when invoking their voting records.
● Deeds. Speakers might point out deeds that exemplify their character,
perhaps a war record or participation in a social movement.
● Understanding. Speakers can show they understand their audience’s point of
view by adapting carefully to them, identifying similarities in their experiences
and beliefs.
● Expertise. Speakers often claim some kind of expertise, which they can justify
by citing their education or the research they have done with experts.

45. Pathos in political speech

Pathos refers to the emotional state of the audience, as produced by the speaker or
speech. The audience may feel bored, irritated, or excited by the speaker or speech.
Or they may have vague or specific feelings about the topic. The important thing is
that their feelings help frame how they understand the arguments of the speech and
whether they may accept them. Successful speakers work to bring the audience’s
emotions into alignment with the arguments they are making. In other words, the
speaker will try to get the audience’s emotions in line with the conclusion he/she
wants them to reach.

For example, in Martin Luther King’s speech, he uses emotional language to evoke
strong feelings in people. Phrases appealing to emotions such as freedom,
oppression, brotherhood, etc.

46. Tropes in political speech

Tropes is any sort of figurative or evocative language. Here there are two types of
tropes:

Allusion
Reference to another artistic work, person, place or idea well known to the audience
in order to use its message or characteristics to illustrate the author’s message. For
example, English speakers frequently allude to Shakespeare or the Bible.

Metaphor
The use of a word or phrase to symbolically represent another word or concept in
order to highlight the similarities between them. Vivid images and analogies help to
capture an audience’s attention and imagination, but they can also make a subtle
suggestions.

For example, when Martin Luther King says: ‘’let the freedom rings’’

47. Schemes in political speech

Schemes can be defined as variations on sentence structure purposefully. There are
two types:

Parallelism
A pairing (or grouping of several) related words, phrases, or sentences with the
same or similar grammatical structure.

‘’We can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground’’

-Abraham Lincoln, ‘Gettysburg Address’, November 19, 1863.

‘’Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in. Those left behind, we will help
to catch up.’’

-Richard Nixon, ‘Inaugural Address’, January 20, 1969.

Anaphora
A form of parallelism, anaphora refers to the repetition of words at the beginning of
successive clauses in a sentence. Such insistent repetition leds emphasis and builds
momentum.
‘’We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the oceans,We
shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend
our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
the landing grounds, we we shall fight in the field and in the streets, we shall fight in
the hills, we shall never surrender…’’

-Winston Churchill, ‘’we shall fight on the beaches’’, in June 4th, 1940, House of
Commons, arguing to Parliament and the British people that they must continue to
confront the Nazi threat.

48. Patterns of sound in political speech

Writing for speaking means paying special attention to the sound, cadence and
rhythm of words and phrases. These elements can imbue feelings and create
shades of meaning in language. There are some techniques writer and speakers use
for this purpose.

Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of phrases.

‘’The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible
lives of its speakers, readers, writers.’’

-Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993. The repetition of the ‘’L’’ sound- ‘language, lies,
limn and lives’ lends the sentences its music.

Assonance
‘’Why is mob murder permitted by a Christian nation? What is the cause of this awful
slaughter? This questions is answered almost daily- always the same shameless
falsehood that ‘Negroes’ are lynched to protect womanhood.’’

-Ida B. Wells, ‘Lynching Our National Crime, Address at the National Negro
Conference’, 1909. The ‘’aw’’ sounds in ‘awful’ and ‘slaughter’ echo a cry of pain.
And the long ‘’a’’ sounds in ‘daily’, ‘same’, and ‘shameless’ feel drawn-out and weary,
lamenting the violence and injustice that has been perpetuated for so long.