English Language Teaching in its Social Context

someimpossible332 JOAN SWANNadopted in Figure 20.2, and in several chapters in this volume. One of the better knownalternatives to this layout is a ‘column’ layout, in which each speaker is allocated a separatecolumn for their speaking turns.Figures 20.3 and 20.4 illustrate respectively ‘standard’ and ‘column’ layouts applied tothe same brief extract of talk. This comes from one of a series of English lessons in asecondary school in Denmark, near Copenhagen (Dam and Lentz, 1998). The class of 15-year-old mixed-ability students were carrying out a project on ‘England and the English’.The extract shows a group of students, two girls and two boys, beginning to plan what todo for their homework. The students are seated round a table, the girls opposite the boys.TranscriptionG 1 :BI:What are we going to do at home(.) any ideasYes(.)Itakeh(.) Itakethis yes yesI take it mmh antl 1 see and Isee if there’s something I canuse (.)GI?: We can use9 BI: We canuseIO B2: So what (would) we do ( )1112read it at home (.) thequestionnaire13{ (.) read it at home1 4 B 1 {(I. . .I15 G2: Maybe 1 can get some materials16 for this17 G 1 : From ( mother)18 G2: Yes19 RI?: fromwhere20 G2 from my mother (.) from thc21 travel agencyNotesaddresses groupdirectlyrefers to book whichhe holds upquestion towardsgirls?KeyAs in Figure 20.2 with, in addition:G, B = Girl, Boy(would)transcription uncertain: a guess( ) unclear speech ~[, . , ] excision ~to transcribedata excludedFigure 20.3 Transcription of small group talk: standard layoutIn group talk it’s often interesting to look at the role taken by different students. In this case,the group seemed to collaborate fairly well antl to be generally supportive of one another.Girl 1 seemed to play an organising or chairing role - e.g. by asking for ideas from the restof the group; by ‘correcting’ Boy 1, reminding him that his work is for the group as a whole(line 8 of the standard layout); and by completing Girl 2’s turn (line 17 of the standard