CHATTING IN THE ACADEMY: EXPLORING SPOKEN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES Michael McCarthy

OUTLINE Is spoken academic English like or unlike conversational English? Insights from corpus analysis How might these influence EAP materials? Examples from new edition of Academic Vocabulary in Use and Viewpoint (both CUP)

DATA Corpus of lectures, seminars, supervisions and tutorials (humanities and science) ACAD SPOKEN Sub-corpora of MICASE – lectures and seminars; variety of disciplines 1m-word sub-corpus of social and intimate conversations from CANCODE

ANALYSES Single-word frequency lists Key word lists (significantly frequent or infrequent) Cluster lists (chunks) Consistency (dispersion): “which words recur consistently in lots of texts of a given genre” (Scott 2008)

FREQUENCY ACAD SPOKEN: Frequency: (in top 50) - items associated with conversation, informality and interactive contexts: you, I, yeah, hesitation markers (er, erm), discourse/pragmatic markers and/or response tokens (right, mm, great, okay). In conversation, 66% of know = you know

KEY WORDS SPOKEN ACADEMIC 1 the 2 of 3 is 4 which 5 are 6 in 7 by 8 this 9 section 10 terms 11 okay 12 between 13 example 14 these 15 process 16 within 17 important 18 sense 19 very 20 will

KEY WORDS SPOKEN ACADEMIC 1 the 2 of 3 is 4 which 5 are 6 in 7 by 8 this 9 section 10 terms 11 okay 12 between 13 example 14 these 15 process 16 within 17 important 18 sense 19 very 20 will

KEY WORDS Key word lists show differences: okay

KEY WORDS 95% of all okay either response tokens (That’s okay, Well okay, Yeah/yes okay) or discourse markers signalling phases (e.g. Right okay), overwhelmingly by lecturers/tutors. ACAD SPOKEN: items from frequency list disappear from key word list: such items don’t distinguish ACAD from CONV (e.g. well, mm, er, I, you)

4-WORD CHUNKS ACAD SPOKEN 1THE END OF THE 2AT THE END OF 3IF YOU LOOK AT 4SORT OF YOU KNOW 5HAVE A LOOK AT 6AT THE SAME TIME 7I’M GOING TO 8IF YOU WANT TO 9THE WAY IN WHICH 10TO BE ABLE TO 11YOU CAN SEE THE 12I WANT YOU TO 13IS GOING TO BE 14AND YOU CAN SEE 15TO DO WITH THE 16YOU DON'T HAVE TO 17AND THIS IS A 18IN TERMS OF THE 19IS ONE OF THE 20ON THE OTHER HAND 21WHAT DO YOU THINK 22YOU LOOK AT THE 23IN THE COURSE OF 24ONE OF THE THINGS 25QUITE A LOT OF 26YOU CAN SEE THAT 27AS YOU CAN SEE 28A BIT OF A 29ANYTHING TO DO WITH 30DO YOU WANT TO

4-WORD CHUNKS ACAD SPOKEN 1THE END OF THE 2AT THE END OF 3IF YOU LOOK AT 4SORT OF YOU KNOW 5HAVE A LOOK AT 6AT THE SAME TIME 7I’M GOING TO 8IF YOU WANT TO 9THE WAY IN WHICH 10TO BE ABLE TO 11YOU CAN SEE THE 12I WANT YOU TO 13IS GOING TO BE 14AND YOU CAN SEE 15TO DO WITH THE 16YOU DON'T HAVE TO 17AND THIS IS A 18IN TERMS OF THE 19IS ONE OF THE 20ON THE OTHER HAND 21WHAT DO YOU THINK 22YOU LOOK AT THE 23IN THE COURSE OF 24ONE OF THE THINGS 25QUITE A LOT OF 26YOU CAN SEE THAT 27AS YOU CAN SEE 28A BIT OF A 29ANYTHING TO DO WITH 30DO YOU WANT TO

4-WORD CHUNKS ACAD SPOKEN 1THE END OF THE 2AT THE END OF 3IF YOU LOOK AT 4SORT OF YOU KNOW 5HAVE A LOOK AT 6AT THE SAME TIME 7I’M GOING TO 8IF YOU WANT TO 9THE WAY IN WHICH 10TO BE ABLE TO 11YOU CAN SEE THE 12I WANT YOU TO 13IS GOING TO BE 14AND YOU CAN SEE 15TO DO WITH THE 16YOU DON'T HAVE TO 17AND THIS IS A 18 IN TERMS OF THE 19IS ONE OF THE 20ON THE OTHER HAND 21WHAT DO YOU THINK 22YOU LOOK AT THE 23IN THE COURSE OF 24ONE OF THE THINGS 25QUITE A LOT OF 26YOU CAN SEE THAT 27AS YOU CAN SEE 28A BIT OF A 29ANYTHING TO DO WITH 30DO YOU WANT TO

CONSISTENCY Detailed consistency shows shift in relative values of I and you

VARIATION ACROSS EVENTS: USE OF “I”

TENDENCIES Lectures in MICASE and Acad Spoken show widely differing academic styles Styles range from events typical of casual conversation (interactivity, freer turn-taking), to monologues, albeit peppered with conversational items Drilling down into the frequency and key word lists gives a more nuanced picture

IN TERMS OF

CHUNKS: EXTENT & SENSE ACAD spoken MICASE

MATERIALS

MIGHT IN ACADEMIC SPEAKING ACAD spokenMICASE

MIGHT IN ACADEMIC SPEAKING

MIGHT IN CONV

MATERIALS

CONCLUSION Academic speaking shares much in common with conversation (lexis, grammar, pragmatic marking) No one prescribed or proscribed style Institutional labels (lecture, seminar, tutorial) not an infallible guide to degree of conversational features Other tools (key words, chunks, consistency) all add to nuanced picture EAP and academically/vocationally oriented materials can directly teach the lexico-grammar of academic speaking Learners need to be prepared for a wide range of possible styles

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