Authentic English at Work Almut Koester

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Authentic English at WorkAlmut Koester
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Authentic English at Work

• What do people talk about?
• How do they interact?
• What kind of language do they use?

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Authentic English at Work

• Why does vague language frequently occur?
• When should you be explicit?
• When does small talk occur during a business
  conversation?
• What role do summaries play?
• When are idioms used?

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Vague language

• Vague tags
• Vague nouns
• Vague approximators

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Reasons for using vague language

• Because you are uncertain about the information.
• Because it is not necessary to be more precise.
• Because it might be impolite to be more precise.

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Hedgesquite really just a (little) bit just kind
of

• Words with very little meaning on their own,
  which are used to make a statement more indirect.

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Reasons for being explicit

• In order to clarify something
• To indicate what a workplace conversation will be
  about
• In arguing a point

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Activities for Vague language and hedges

• Match vague with explicit expressions
• Add vague language and hedges to a text to make
  it more polite or friendly
• Replace explicit expressions with vaguer ones
• Decide whether to use vague or explicit
  expressions in a given situation

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Learning from Real Conversations for Business
English

• Organizing talk Small talk and summaries

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The structure of work-oriented conversations

• Small talk
• Introducing the topic
• Discussing the topic
• Summarizing
• Small talk

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Introducing the topic

• Ive got a couple more queries actually, Mary,
  then Ill leave you to get on.
• Shall we arrange a meeting with Jenny?
• Uh, just wanted to tell you about my conversation
  with Tony.
• Just wanted to come and chat to you a little
  about the company.
• I dont know if youve heard, but if you havent
  heard, its confidential.
• Something very important I need to tell you.

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Using summaries

• 1) At the end of a conversation or before
  changing the topic
• to refer to things discussed or agreed during
  meeting
• to refer to future actions agreed as a result of
  meeting

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Using summaries

• 2) To check you have understood correctly
• 3) Tactical summaries
• Negotiators use tactical summaries to move the
  negotiation in a direction favourable to the
  speaker.

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The Language of summaries

• To introduce a summary
• Okay
• All right
• So
• I just wanted to...

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The Language of summaries

• Idioms in summaries
• i) A manager at the end of a training session
• All right, but youre sort of getting the drift
  of it, yeah?
• ii) At the end of a one-to-one meeting
• I just wanted to like clear the deck.

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The Language of summaries

• Summarizing present situation
• Thats my last question, I think.
• Thats where we stand.
• So thats where were up to.
• Summarizing intention
• I just wanted to clear the deck.
• I just wanted to like get a focus on it.

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Summarizing talk

•  Positive Evaluation
• Thats a good idea.
• That makes sense.
• Works for me.
•  Negative Evaluation
• So thats todays doom and gloom.
• Par for the course isnt it.
• Can't win 'em all.

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Summarizing talk

• Further Action
• So you need to get that wrapped up.
• Okay. Ill figure something out.

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Activities organizing conversations and using
small talk

• Teaching the structure of workplace
  conversations
• Practice conversation openings small talk and
  topic introductions
• Guided dialogues, including small talk

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Activities Using summaries

• Matching summaries with situations
• Making tactical summaries
• Adding tactical summaries in a dialogue
• Negotiation role play students observe and
  discuss the use of summaries

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Conclusion

• Real conversations give insights into the
  characteristics of natural spoken language.
• Intuitions about spoken language are not always
  accurate.
• Real conversations can be used directly or for
  inspiration in designing classroom activities.