PARTICIPATING IN ORAL INTERACTION

▣ Speaking

◈ PARTICIPATING IN ORAL INTERACTION

▶ MAINTAINING THE FLOW OF SPEECH

■ When observing the flow of speech taking place between a speaker and a hearer in the typical sequence of events, one feels amazed at the smooth way in which the roles are switched between the two and at the way ideas keep being transferred from one interactant to the other as they had carefully rehearsed the sequence, although what one is observing is a one-time, unique interaction.

 

 

 

■ Turn-taking rules, which exist in every language, make it possible for the speaker and hearer to change roles constantly and construct shared meaning by maintaining the flow of talk with relatively little overlap between the two and very brief pauses between turns. 

 

 

 

■ A native speaker knows how to function at the transition points - both by reacting appropriately when there is a pause in the flow and using various signals to "get the floor" or to "close a conversation." Most important, speakers know how the two parts of an adjacency pair fit together, such as a question and its answer, a greeting and the response to it, or any other two-part exchanges in the conversation. The compatibility required within adjacency pairs (i.e., interlocutor exchanges that occur in sequence and are directly related to each other) is linguistically, semantically, and pragmatically conditioned. 

 

 

 

■ Since the rules applied to the conversation can be somewhat different in different cultures, the learner of a new language often has to recognize and develop new rules of behavior. Thus, there are differences in the length of pauses that are "tolerable" within the conversational flow (i.e., in one culture, these may be extremely short, and when the conversation stops for any reason, the interactants feel that they must quickly "find something to say" - in another culture pauses of some length may be expected, and perhaps even considered polite, in that they allow for reflection and avoid overlaps with other speakers). In order to be an effective communicator, the learner should have the linguistic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge to function successfully and appropriately in terms of the conversational turn-taking system of the new language.

 

 

 

▶ ACCOMMODATING THE HEARER(S) 

 

■ The initiating speaker in a communicative interaction has, in many instances, controlling power over the flow, content, and manner of the interaction. Based on the cooperative principle, the speaker needs to accommodate the hearer and facilitate the interpretation of the spoken message. However, beyond adhering to the four maxims and the rules of sociocultural appropriacy, the speaker also needs to maintain (or, in some cultures, learn to avoid) eye contact and to pay careful attention to the hearer's body language and overall reaction in order to be prepared to repair in case anything goes wrong in the exchange. This places a special responsibility on those speakers who, in the natural course of events, need to attend to unexpected mishaps in the exchange, but even more so on the initiator of a conversation, especially if that initiator also holds a unique position or status in the interaction (salesperson to customer, interviewer to interviewee, and the like).

 

 

 

■ The learner of a second or foreign language needs to develop strategies in the new language that will enable him/her to recruit the help of interlocutors in an evaluation process regarding whether the two interactants understand each other. 

 

 

 

■ Interacting as a speaker in a new language requires self-awareness and self-evaluation and a considerable amount of tolerance and accommodation, both for one's limitations in production and for the reactions of interlocutors. Learners of a second or foreign language need to be exposed to a variety of situations in which such exchanges take place. However, above all, nonnative speakers need to possess communication strategies that can facilitate and make adjustments in incomplete or failing interactions.