Analysis Of Structures Of English Corner Conversation On University Campus

Generally speaking,it is inevitable to get involved into various kinds of conversation in daily life.How is the conversation structured? How do interlocutors interact with each other? What turn-taking mechanism do they use? All the above questions are closely related with successful management of conversation.In previous studies on conversation analysis,the focus has been put on conversation in contexts of foreign language classes, doctor-patient dialogue,office conversation,etc..However,there is little research based on conversation analysis in the context of the English corner.On the other hand,the English corner on university campus,as an important place for English learners to practice their oral English,plays a significant role in second language acquisition in non-English speaking countries like China.Therefore,it is worth making efforts to analyze the structures of English corner conversation.Due to the important function the English corner has played in Chinese people's learning of English as a foreign language,this thesis conducts research on conversational structures in the English corner.The present research aims at describing the specific characteristics of conversational structures in the English corner so as to shed light on the conversational mechanism in the English corner.The present study is a descriptive one.It is based on the naturally occurring conversation of 10 hours in the English corner on university campus,which has been carefully recorded and transcribed.It analyses concrete examples and uses numbers and percentages to describe the linguistic features of conversational structures in the English corner.After a detailed analysis,two major exchange patterns in the English corner are identified—I-R,I-R-F,and based on transcription of English corner conversation,it is found that the former occurs more frequently than the latter.In the English corner there are also variant patterns such as I-R-I pattern and I-R-F-I pattern,I-R1-R2-R3 pattern, I-I'-R'-R,and I-I'-R' pattern.Besides,it is found that among all the head acts of initiation moves,elicitation acts take the first place,followed by informative acts,requestive acts, and directive acts.It is found that self repair and same turn repair occur most frequently respectively in the two classifications.Besides,meaning-oriented repair occurs more frequently than form-oriented repair in English corner conversation.Finally,discourse markers that are used to signal conversational structures in the English corner are discussed.