Speech as discourse
1. Record a short segment of unscripted spoken interaction, e.g. part of a casual conversation between friends, or a service encounter, or even the "chat" stage of a language lesson. It should not be longer than a minute or so.
2. Transcribe the recording, using transcription conventions from a reliable source (don’t forget to credit the source), or the following:
Riggerbach 1999
[from Riggenbach, 1999, p. 213]
3. Identify any features of spoken language that you have been reading about in this unit.
4. Discuss the texture of the text, i.e. how it is made cohesive, and how it achieves coherence.
5. Comment on those features which you think are particularly salient and/or interesting in the extract, and suggest ways that these features might be made the focus of a language lesson.
