Investigation #8 Analyzing a conversation

Note: There is something wrong with the spacing of this blog site. The conversation transcription may be quite hard to read without proper spacing.

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Here is a transcription of an after-class conversation between the Academic Manager and me in the staff room of the language learning centre that I work in.

Transcription convention: C=Chritine (the Academic Manager);J=Joey (Myself);K=Miss K (Senior lecturer);= = simultaneous speech;//=interruption;(.)= pause; ()=non-verbal communication

1 C: Hey Joey! (smile)How was the class today?

2 J: Oh.. it went well! (smile)

3 C: How was the 12H class?
4 Did Victor behave himself?

5 J: Haha. He still talked to me with his mean language
6 saying it was my bad to find someone else
7 to talk to him about his misbehaviour
8 rather than directly talking to him by myself.
9 Haha, I guess he is scared of your talk//last time.

10 K: //Which Victor?
11 Did I teach him before?
12 What's his chinese name?

13 J: Victor Chau Yiu Bong
14 C: =Oh.. I'm sure you didn't.(smile)

15 K: HAHAHA (laugh)
16 Yes, if I did then I'm sure
17 he wil know what is discipline!

18 J: Yes, I wish he knew.
19 He is trying to act like those rebellious big brother.
20 (sigh)

21 C: Haha.
22 But from the way he talked
23 I think he is trying to be friendly to you.

24 J: Maybe he just needs to protect his face
25 in front of his friends. Haha.

26C: Haha yea.. (.)
27 Hope he won't make too much disturbance.

28J: Yea haha.

29C: Yea yea(.) (smile)

30J: (smile)

31C: (Turning away)Okay.
32 Thank you. Thank you.(smile)

33J: Thank you. Thank you Christine.(smile)

For a normal conversation between the manager (or the lecturers) and the part time tutors, the one with higher power, that is the manager or the lecturers, ritually summons the conversation. As shown in the conversation transcription, the higher power starts off by asking "how was the class today" (line 1). This is a usual opening for most of the conversations of my investigation site and the meaning of the utterance is equivalent to the greeting "have you eaten yet". The adjacency pair of sommon-answer (line 1-2) habitually takes place at the beginning of the conversation.

As for the topic of the conversation, it is usually initiated by the higher power. The manager starts the topic after greeting; Subordinates then tend to stick to the topic and give relevant response. In the above conversation, the manager raises the question-the discipline matter of a certain class, and then the part time tutor answers to the questions with details (line 3-9). It takes the adjacency pair of answer-question.

In line 10, we can see that the senior lecturer interrupts and asks if she knows that student. From the response of the two participants of the conversation, it is shown that they are used to the interruption made and they simply let her take the turn to speak. However, this kind of interruption is only 'appropriate' for the more senior staff who have relatively higher power over the participants of the conversation.

The closing of the conversation often includes some ritualistic expressions, for instance, 'yea','okay'. Towards the end of the conversation (line 26-27), the manager says 'yea','okay'and also pauses to signal invitation or willingness to pass the turn. In this company, it is not unusual for the senior to say something like 'hope the situation will improve' (line 27)in the pre-closing of the conversation. And to end the conversation, there is a strong institutional culture for the staff, regardless of the seniority, to say thank you for more than once at the end of the conversation. People who do not follow this ritual would be considered impolite or uncooperative.

Throughout the whole conversation, it can be noticed that participants often say 'haha'. It might be a way for them to show their willingness to take the turn; it might also be a positive face strategy to show friendliness and involvement in the conversation. As for the senior, by saying 'haha' might help reduce the weight of imposition of the conversation; it creates a more casual atmosphere for the conversation to go on with the subordinates.

Other than circumstances such as the junior making queries to the senior, the above identification of the 'procedural rule' can be applied to most of the before or after-class conversation between the senior and the part time staff. Even for the dialogues in the bulletin intranet of the company, it is ritually the higher power ones start off the conversation and initiate a topic and then the junior will take the turn to give preferred response. Interruption would mainly be made by the senior lecturers. They sometimes interrupt by leaving comments and making jokes, but that is not a normal approach for the junior to follow.