AJB_AKJA Conversation Analysis

Faculty of Education
Autumn 2015
Extent and Intensity
0/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Renata Povolná, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Supplier department: Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Timetable of Seminar Groups
AJB_AKJA/01: Fri 2. 10. 8:00–13:00 učebna 10, Mon 21. 12. 8:00–13:00 učebna 10, R. Povolná
Prerequisites
This course is recommended to students in higher than the second year of their studies.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 18 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/18, only registered: 0/18, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/18
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course is for students who are interested in authentic spoken English, notably face-to-face private conversation. Texts from 'A Corpus of English Conversation' (1980) and some other sources, for example MICASE (Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English) will be analysed and, based on the differences between spoken and written English, many features typical of conversational English, such as back-channels, false-starts, hedges, discourse markers, simultaneous speech, fillers, vague expressions, will be discussed in great detail. Presentations based on the study of some articles from corpus linguistics, for instance, on discourse tags, hedges, comment clauses, non-fluencies, compliment formula, some differences between the ways women and men communicate, and expletives, will be prepared by individual students.
Syllabus
  • 1. Act of communication. Functions of language. 2. Spoken versus written language. 3. Features typical of spoken language. 4. Discourse markers. Discourse tags. 5. Comment clauses and their functions. 6. Politeness formula. Expletives. 7. Pauses. Simultaneous speech. 8. Turn-taking. Non-fluencies. 9. Comparison of face-to-face and telephone conversation. 10. Conversation and preference structure. Communicative strategies. 11. Conversational style. Scale of formality. 12. Backchannel signals. Body language. 13. Analysis of authentic corpus material.
Literature
    required literature
  • DEUCHAR, Margaret, Robert HOOGENRAAD and Geoffrey Neil LEECH. English grammar for today :a new introduction. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1982, xvi, 224 s. ISBN 0-333-30644-9. info
  • SVARTVIK, Jan and Geoffrey N. LEECH. A communicative grammar of English. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1994, xiv, 423. ISBN 058208573X. info
    recommended literature
  • THOMAS, Jenny. Meaning in interaction : an introduction to pragmatics. Harlow: Longman, 1995, xii, 224. ISBN 0582291518. info
  • A corpus of English conversation. Edited by Jan Svartvik - Randolph Quirk. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup, 1979, 893 s. ISBN 91-40-04740-7. info
Teaching methods
Mode of teaching: seminar Students must attend the course on a regular basis and prepare one presentation which is based on their own individual study of a topic connected with the analysis of spoken language. After each presentation the given topic is discussed in the whole group and then, based on their newly acquired knowledge, students analyse authentic texts with regard to the topic presented. Students either listen to some texts or are given them in the written form drawn from a spoken language corpus such as LLC, MICASE.
Assessment methods
For getting a credit, students must attend the whole course on a regular basis and prepare one presentation which is based on their own individual study of a topic connected with the analysis of spoken language. At the end of the course, they are expected to come to their teacher with a piece of text on which they prove their knowledge and understanding of the structure of spoken interaction.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 12 hodin ve 2 blocích.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2009, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2016.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2015, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/autumn/AJB_AKJA