10 Key Points about Conversation from David Crystal

Just listened to a podcast about conversations with renowned linguist David Crystal. Crystal, who has written or contributed to over 120 books about language, is the go-to person in the British media for language and linguistic issues. Unlike many linguists, he's able to explain complex concepts in an accessible way.

Link to podcast here:

His latest book is about conversation and he had a far-reaching conversation about conversation. While listening, I jotted down a few notes which I'm writing up here.

1. Most oral communication occurs in conversations. Conversations, which are generally informal, are distinct from more formal types of oral communication such as debates or lectures.
2. Effective conversationalists must be a) fluent b) intelligible and c) appropriate.
3. Participants are satisfied with a conversation when they a) enjoyed it b) feel they were given the opportunity to participate to a level they felt comfortable with and c) had some interest in the topic.
4. Good conversationalists must also be good listeners.
5. Participants in a conversation expect simultaneous feedback from interlocutors, which is usually through backchanneling; short verbal messages such as 'right' or 'uh-huh', facial expressions, or gestures such as nodding.
6. Participants in online conversation often give successive feedback (after another participant has finished speaking), which explains why a) we often talk at length during online meetings and b) we struggle to adjust our message to reactions from other participants.
7. Prosodic features such as intonation, stress, and rhythm are essential elements of conversations.
8. We communicate in short chunks during conversations as this gives the interlocutors time to process what we are saying. These chunks or utterances contain four or five content words (verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs). If we don't pause briefly between these chunks, other participants may lose track of the interaction.
9. There is a lot of misinformation about accents. Most people have a mixed accent that changes depending on contextual factors. Accents have two main functions: 1) to promote intelligibility and 2) to promote identity.
10. A mic drop moment at the end of the conversation:

If anybody says you don't sound English, tell them you are not English and that is the whole point!

It was a fascinating conversation, even if Crystal did slip into lecture mode on a couple of occasions, and I definitely recommend listening to it. It provided me with plenty of food for thought.

Reflective questions:

1. How much time and space should we set aside for conversation in your classes?
2. How can we develop our learners' fluency, intelligibility, and appropriateness?
3. How can we provide opportunities for all learners to contribute and participate to a degree they feel comfortable with while providing a sufficient level of challenge?
4. How can we develop listening skills in conversations?
5. Should we teach learners how to give simultaneous feedback? If so, how?
6. How can we train our learners to give simultaneous feedback in the online classroom? Should we even do that?
7. How can we work on identifying prosodic features of conversations? How can we help our learners develop awareness and implementation of these features?
8. To what extent is chunking a universal feature of conversations? Does a learner's L1 influence the length of their utterances? How does this affect their intelligibility when conversing in English?
9. How can we expose learners to different varieties of English? Should we expose them to L2 varieties?
10. How can we help our learners feel comfortable and confident with their own accent?

Let me know what you think.