[진미주 영어교육론] Conversational Gambits

[Dio Jin 교수]

Conversational Gambits

Briefly defined, gambits and routines refer to the words and phrases that

facilitate the flow of conversations. As such, one way to help learners acquire oral proficiency is to teach gambits that support the social skills emphasized.

What are GAMBITS?

Communication GAMBITS are used to make conversation sound natural and fluid.

A communication GAMBIT is basically a word or phrase which helps us express what we are trying to say, comprehend or clearly understand what someone else is trying to say. There are various types of GAMBITS in many different settings. For example, you can use GAMBITS to.......

Introduce a topic of conversation

Link what we should say in response to someone

Clarify someone's opinion or comment

Ask for repetition when something is not clear

Check and see if your communication is being understood and so on

Gambits – Routine formulae

Everyday conversation seems to abound with routine formulae, i.e. "highly

conventionalized pre-patterned expressions whose occurrence is tied to more or less

standardized communication situations." (Coulmas 1981:2-3). In his psycholinguistic

approach to routines, Eric Keller (1979/1981) focuses on routines called 'conversational

strategy signals' which structure conversational procedure in general and turn-taking in particular. Some of these discourse strategies are represented in the form of semi-fixed expressions called 'gambits'. Keller defines gambits as "[...] a certain set of signals in the conversationalist's speech, used to introduce level shifts within the conversation, or to prepare listeners for the next turn in the logical argument." (1981:94). In his research paper, which is based on a collection of about 500 gambits commonly employed in North American English speech, Keller (cf. 1981:94) identifies the four main functions of gambits:

- Acting as semantic introducers, gambits suggest the overall framework in which the

topic is supposed to be placed. Expressions like "The way I look at it" or "I have reason to believe" serve to present a personal view, just as a piece of unpleasant realism might be introduced by phrases such as "Whether we like it or not, ..." or "To be realistic, ...".

- The second function of gambits relates to the social context of the conversation. The

basic moves of turn-taking, i.e. turn claiming and yielding, as well as the wish to end a conversation can be signaled by gambits.

- Moreover, they may indicate a participant's state of consciousness. As outlined above, a person can show his/her willingness to receive information by using expressions like "Yes, I'm listening" or simply "Yes?". This attitude contrasts sharply with the face threatening comments "I'm not really interested in that," or even "Why don't you just leave me alone".

- Finally, the communicative control functions of gambits range from pause fillers, i.e.

hesitations such as "you know" and "you see," to special gambits checking the

continuous flow of communication. Among many others, the phrases "Are you with me" and "Is that clear?" are regularly used for this purpose.

Gambits can either fulfill only one of these functions or combine various strategies. The marked expression‎ "I'd like to add something to that", for instance, will thus determine the semantic frame of subject-expansion and the social context of turn claiming at the same time. In any situation, factors such as the appropriate degree of politeness and the size of the audience also account for the precise surface structure that gambits take.

Conversational Gambits_진미주.pdf

[배워서남주자]

감사합니다

[Dio Jin 교수]

Sure~