Transcript - Drawing Challenge

Transcript

J: across from the Christmas tree \/ yeah /\

B: no (.) from the bauble /\

J: yeah yeah ye:::ah /\ (.) but then you said go up /\

B: right \/ (1) kay \/ so then go four (.) thumb marks across \/ /

J: /yeah \/ but then/

B: /from the (.) from the bauble/

J: /yeah /\

B: and then four thumb marks/ up

J: /but that brings me to the Christmas/ tree /\

B: no it does not \/ no/ it doesn’t \/

J:/yes it does \/ /

B: /it gets me to the bottom of the Christmas tree \/

J: okay (.) fine /so just say the bottom

B: /okay/

J: /the bottom of the Christmas tree

 

The task was much harder than I thought it would be - without the use of body language we had to rely solely on our powers of description. Beth instructed me first and our back-and-fourth meant our pictures came out looking quite similar in the end. I think the fact we double checked things with each other helped when recreating the picture, as we could be sure of placement and size. It was a little frustrating not being able to show each other what we meant with our body language, but we did alright and it was fun.

 

Throughout the transcript our intonation tends to go up at the end of our utterances, suggesting a questioning tone. This was helpful as it gave the other person a chance to correct them and redirect them, as Beth did when I said, 'across from the Christmas tree \/ yeah /\'.

   Beth's use of 'kay' is colloquial and shows a relaxed relationship between us, where she is comfortable enough not to speak in a formal manner. She uses the word 'right' as a filler in order to keep her turn, even with the short pause. Beth pauses more frequently during the dialogue because she needs time to think about how she is going to describe to me the shapes. This deliberation is also clear with her repetition of 'from the', which gave her a chance to clear her thoughts and prevent herself from becoming confused.

   I use back channel agreement with 'yeah' in order to show I am listening and trying to understand, encouraging Beth to continue explaining. My previous 'yeah yeah ye:::ah' show my personal speech pattern, and my desire to understand what Beth is trying to explain.

   Our interruptions and overlaps in  the transcript show our frustration at not being able to see each other, which inevitably led to confusion. Our intonation goes down when we are sure that we're right during our disagreement, 'no/ it doesn't \/', '/yes it does \//'. This drop makes the statements seem stronger and more argumentative.