 Review what you have read and summarise in up to 5 bullet points what you have learnt.  Be ready to feed back to the rest of the class in 7 minutes’ time.

LO: to understand some issues relating to power in occupational contexts

 The way people talk to colleagues  The way people talk to superiors  The way people talk to subordinates  The way people talk to customers/clients  Extension: can you think of any occupations where particular practices might exist which are different from what we identify as the ‘norm’? E.g. Teachers/pupils

 A superior shows consideration in an other-oriented token, as when the Queen says to the factory worker: “It must be jolly hard to make one of those”. The inferior might respond with a self-oriented token, like “Hard work, this”.  On the surface, there is an exchange of information. In reality there is an offering and acceptance of a hierarchy of status. The factory worker would be unlikely to respond with, “Yes, but it's not half as hard as travelling the world, trooping the colour, making a speech at Christmas and dissolving Parliament”. In many occupations those of higher status will show their standing by other-oriented tokens: “How are you getting on with the new photocopier, then?” The response may show acceptance of the hierarchical relationship, in a self-oriented token: “I prefer it to the old one, thanks”.  It is accepted, without question, that those of higher status will display interest in the work, and perhaps personal lives, of those whose status is lower. But the reverse rarely happens - the clerical worker may be less likely to ask the finance director how he or she is managing with the business's five-year plan or how the wife and children are doing.

 How does the conversation reflect the occupation, relative status and roles of the consultant and student?  In what ways is the way they both discuss the patient’s case distinctive?  How is the way the consultant converses directly with the patient different?  REMEMBER to use as many technical terms and refer to the language levels as much as possible.

 How is the consultant’s behaviour similar to teacher/student interactions?  How does the consultant response to the student doctor’s comments?  Why do you think they use the third person to refer to the patient?  What details about the patient that they discuss do you find interesting/surprising?  What jargon is used? What form does it take? (Extension: what do you think the origins of some jargon terms might be and why?)  Where is non-specialist register used?  Who has the highest status in this interaction? Is it straightforward?

 Discuss the idea that power influences interactions in occupational contexts, using the data as a starting point.  Which AOs are assessed for Paper 2 Q1?  AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated terminology and coherent written expression. (10 marks)  AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to language use. (20 marks)  What do we need for success in this question?  Consideration of theoretical ideas., e.g. Grice’s conversational maxims, accommodation theory, politeness strategies/face etc.  Detailed use of language levels to support your ideas, i.e. technical terminology  Detailed reference to the data in the form of quotations.

Due to the complex nature of hierarchical relationships in occupational contexts, it is to be expected that, in spoken discourses, we can expect a particular conversational structure to occur, with superiors holding the floor, leading turn-taking and inviting responses from participants. This is certainly the case in the data here, where, although the student doctor opens the discussion and sets the agenda for the talk (‘This is Mr Herbert Nicholls’), the consultant gives evaluative comments such as ‘right very good’ and ‘yes’, and uses frequent interrogatives such as ‘what do you think might have happened...’ designed to elicit the students’ knowledge. However, we can also see examples of Howard Giles’ (1975) Accommodation Theory, in particular the use of convergence, where the use of personal pronouns (‘you’) and some slight hedging of questions (‘might’) suggests a less formal relationship, as we might expect in a student-teacher relationship. Evidently, the context of a hospital is still one where a strict hierarchy exists, but some roles within an organisation, such as the roles of teacher and student, mitigate the formality we might expect here.

 Discuss the idea that power influences interactions in occupational contexts, using the data as a starting point.

 Using your copies of the mark scheme, mark your partners’ work and suggest a target.

 Continue with preparation for individual presentations. Don’t forget you will be presenting on 29 th January. You should now be gathering data and analysing it using ideas from academic studies and articles/blogs discussing attitudes towards these language variations.