Spoken language assessment
Spoken language assessment
In this essay I will be analysing a transcript from a Newsnight show featuring Jeremy Paxman, Baroness Amos and Dizzee Rascal. I will be talking about the effects of choices in the use of standard and non-standard forms of spoken language.
Often the situation influences the structure and fluency of the conversation. Especially in this situation the location of the debate is a key factor that tests the rule of conversation, because each person is in different studios there is a slight time delay which interrupts and sometimes confuses speech.
From the start of the interview JP shows his confidence and ease being a television interviewer. His speech is relaxed and welcoming and his use of filler ‘well’ and the phatic phrase ‘I’m pleased to say’, it is conversational and shows his desire to put his guests at ease. This sets a relatively informal tone for this Newsnight interview. This confident authority is reinforced by paralinguistic features. His body language is relaxed and he nods approvingly as he introduces BA, suggesting his awareness of her status as a political commentator who can make a valuable contribution to the debate. However his fluent and articulate use of formal SE falters slightly in his introduction of DR. JP pauses before the words ‘rapper’ and ‘hip-hop artist’ smiling ruefully and apologises ‘sorry’ for his momentary hesitation. This seems to indicate his self-consciousness when using the terms, perhaps suggesting that such vocabulary is unfamiliar to him and that he may - as a middle aged, middle-class, white, political journalist, feel foolish using words related to the contemporary music scene.
BA speaks in SE and uses sophisticated vocabulary as well as subject specific terminology to display her authority and knowledge in this political arena. She uses jargon such as
In this essay I will be analysing a transcript from a Newsnight show featuring Jeremy Paxman, Baroness Amos and Dizzee Rascal. I will be talking about the effects of choices in the use of standard and non-standard forms of spoken language.
Often the situation influences the structure and fluency of the conversation. Especially in this situation the location of the debate is a key factor that tests the rule of conversation, because each person is in different studios there is a slight time delay which interrupts and sometimes confuses speech.
From the start of the interview JP shows his confidence and ease being a television interviewer. His speech is relaxed and welcoming and his use of filler ‘well’ and the phatic phrase ‘I’m pleased to say’, it is conversational and shows his desire to put his guests at ease. This sets a relatively informal tone for this Newsnight interview. This confident authority is reinforced by paralinguistic features. His body language is relaxed and he nods approvingly as he introduces BA, suggesting his awareness of her status as a political commentator who can make a valuable contribution to the debate. However his fluent and articulate use of formal SE falters slightly in his introduction of DR. JP pauses before the words ‘rapper’ and ‘hip-hop artist’ smiling ruefully and apologises ‘sorry’ for his momentary hesitation. This seems to indicate his self-consciousness when using the terms, perhaps suggesting that such vocabulary is unfamiliar to him and that he may - as a middle aged, middle-class, white, political journalist, feel foolish using words related to the contemporary music scene.
BA speaks in SE and uses sophisticated vocabulary as well as subject specific terminology to display her authority and knowledge in this political arena. She uses jargon such as