Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: This study explores dialogues from a corpus of 19th century fiction as a possible model of conversation for use in English as a second or foreign language classrooms. We employ corpus linguistics methods to investigate the extent to which such dialogues contain lexical chunks and conversation strategies. This is then compared to usage in unscripted 21st century conversations, as found in a large spoken corpus. Findings show that there are a number of similarities to modern day spoken language in the chunks used in the 19th century data but also some key differences in how some common chunks function. It is also clear that many conversation strategies are significantly underused in the fictional dialogues. Overall, the study shows that dialogues from fiction have some potential as a model of conversation and could be used to supplement materials offering very contrived dialogues.
Authors: Christian Jones, David Oakey
Institution: University of Liverpool
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2962974465