An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

the window/OK’ (request/grant). Not all responses are preferred (or positive); some 
are dispreferred and in English typically accompanied by some kind of justification 
or explanation, as in this invented example:
Anne: 
Did I ever tell you about my neighbour’s encounter with a funnel web?
Jane:
No ... look, I’d love to hear about it some other time, but I have to rush to catch 
my train right now ...
In a narrative, it is the storyteller (here Anne) who gets more turns than the other 
speakers. However, the listener’s role is also important. Although their turn-
taking rights are limited, it would seem very odd if listeners remained passive and 
silent; Jane’s contributions play an important part in showing she is on track (J1) 
(backchannelling), predicting what will come up (J5) – ‘Did the doctor have any 
antivenene?’ – and assisting Anne to evaluate the significance of the events (J8), 
without which the entertainment value (the ‘so what?’) of the story would be absent.
Topic Management
Closely related to turn-taking is the way speakers manage and negotiate topics. 
Speakers must ensure mutual understanding, selecting appropriate levels of 
explicitness (cf. Grice, 1975) and using discourse strategies, such as clarifying, 
checking, summarizing and adapting to points made by other speakers. Observe 
how Anne:
• Checks mutual knowledge with Jane (A3).
• Assumes it elsewhere with the reference to North Shore [Hospital] (A6).
• Provides further information (A4) on the basis of her response (J3).
Jane’s ‘backchannels’ (J1, J8) provide Anne with feedback that she is negotiating 
the topic successfully.
Repetition (McCarthy, 1998) is another discourse device used to manage topic 
negotiation. Speakers repeat each other’s words to move the topic forward. Too 
much exact repetition tends to reflect non-co-operative situations where the 
interaction gets held up. Socially co-operative interaction, such as in the spider 
text, is typified by repetition as in A2/J2 (‘a funnel web spider’), J5/A9 (‘antivenene’), 
A7/A8 (‘the pain was excruciating, like a blowtorch’), J7/A8 (‘the poison’).
Knowledge about turn-taking and topic management can help learners 
understand the changing roles that speakers take up in conversation and the way 
meaning is negotiated at the micro-level of each turn.
Issues in Pronunciation
In addition to what we have observed about the workings of spoken discourse 
so far, there is another level at which we can analyse speaking: ‘pronunciation’ 
and the role it plays in getting our meaning across, both transactionally and 
interactionally. Pronunciation is a term used to capture all aspects of how we 
employ speech sounds for communicating.
Revisiting some of the aspects of speaking we described above, then, we can 
fine-tune our analysis to a consideration of how the actual sounds we produce 
contribute to communication. In so doing, we shall move from larger to smaller 

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204 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
units, attempting to explain and illustrate some of the most important concepts 
and terms as we go along. We shall consider elements of pronunciation that 
extend over entire utterances (whether these are long texts or just one word) 
and thus go beyond individual sound segments – which is why they are called 
‘suprasegmental’ (or ‘prosodic’) features. Also, acts of speech are physical acts 
which often involve the whole body, so pronunciation does not work in isolation 
from other factors: in addition to employing our voice, we also use eye movement, 
mime and gesture. As Abercrombie (1972: 64) puts it, ‘we speak with our vocal 
organs, but we converse with our entire bodies’.
Tone Units/Chunking
To start with, there are certain patterns to how speakers use their voices to 
structure what they say, thus providing important signposts for listeners as how 
to process what they hear. A good example is the way we usually say telephone 
numbers in certain groups, and the variation in these patterns we can observe in 
different linguacultures. These patterns are achieved by chunking utterances into 
what is called ‘sense or tone groups’ or ‘tone units’, which indicate what, from the 
speaker’s point of view, ‘belongs together’. Observe how Anne’s first long sentence 
(A1) can be chunked into: