South African business-news interview talk : its typicality and implications for materials design in the domain of ESP
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Date
2000-11
Authors
Brokensha, Susan Iris
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Drew and Heritage (1992) have focused attention on the influential role Conversation
Analysis (CA) has played in the study of interaction in institutional settings. One such
setting is the news interview, and a number of researchers (e.g. Clayman, 1991;
Heritage and Greatbatch, 1991; Greatbatch, 1992) have noted that interviewers (IRs)
regularly adhere to the institutionalised language practices that govern the management
of topical agendas within the news interview turn-taking system. In this research study,
the researcher postulates that the findings of CA studies of news interview talk may be
used by language practitioners in the domain of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) to
generate meta-communicative and communicative teaching materials for prospective
South African news IRs in the field of business.
In order to achieve this applied linguistic aim, the role of the IR in managing news
interview talk is described in terms of Clayman's (1991) study of news interview
openings as well as within the framework of Heritage and Greatbatch's (1991) analysis
of news interview talk. Aspects of Clayman's (1992) study of the strategies IRs employ
to maintain a neutralistic stance are also included in the description of the IR's role.
The researcher posits that, if the generality of the discourse findings of these CA
analysts are verified in an analysis of South African news interview talk, the analysis
may be regarded as a target-centred needs analysis (Cf. Jordan, 1997: 25). That is, the
analysis specifies the areas of knowledge and skills prospective news IRs need to
function effectively in the news interview situation. To establish generality, the principles
of qualitative research are adhered to in this study. That is, in a preliminary analysis, a
corpus of South African business-news interview talk is scrutinised to determine whether
the discourse patterns in it replicate those identified by the CA analysts. An exhaustive
analysis of the full corpus of lingual data is then made, and finally, the researcher
collects and recycles through the data in order to validate the findings (Seliger and
Shohamy, 1989: 121-124). This CA study shows that the patterns of discourse reflected
in South African business-news interviews replicate those identified by Clayman (1991;
1992) and Heritage and Greatbatch (1991).
Based on the analysis, ESP activities that conform to Van Lier's (1996) Awareness,
Authenticity and Autonomy curriculum model are designed for prospective news IRs.
Next, one of the activities is implemented in the language classroom and a criticalreflective
analysis is made of the activity in order to determine whether it simulates
South African news interview discourse. The analysis shows that cycles of critical
reflection cannot be omitted by language practitioners if they wish to cross-validate the
authenticity and credibility of their teaching materials. Finally, future areas of research
are considered.
An important justification for this research study is that a review of the literature has
revealed that most studies of professional contexts are unrelated to the teaching of ESP
(Cf. Gunnarsson, Linell and Nordberg, 1997). Moreover, as this study aims to
demonstrate, the discourse features characteristic of the activities devised in the
materials design phase reflect most of the specific outcomes of OBE (outcomes-based
education).
Description
Keywords
Business communication, English language -- Business English -- Study and teaching, English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--University of the Free State, 2000