 Review what you have read and summarise in up to 5 bullet
points what you have learnt.
 Be ready to feed back to the rest of the class in 7 minutes’
time.
LO: to understand some issues relating to power in
occupational contexts
 The way people talk to colleagues
 The way people talk to superiors
 The way people talk to subordinates
 The way people talk to customers/clients
 Extension: can you think of any occupations where
particular practices might exist which are different from
what we identify as the ‘norm’? E.g. Teachers/pupils
 A superior shows consideration in an other-oriented token, as when the Queen says to the
factory worker: “It must be jolly hard to make one of those”. The inferior might respond with
a self-oriented token, like “Hard work, this”.
 On the surface, there is an exchange of information. In reality there is
an offering and acceptance of a hierarchy of status. The factory worker would be unlikely to
respond with, “Yes, but it's not half as hard as travelling the world, trooping the colour, making a
speech at Christmas and dissolving Parliament”. In many occupations those of higher status will
show their standing by other-oriented tokens: “How are you getting on with the new photocopier,
then?” The response may show acceptance of the hierarchical relationship, in a self-oriented
token: “I prefer it to the old one, thanks”.
 It is accepted, without question, that those of higher status will display interest in the work, and
perhaps personal lives, of those whose status is lower. But the reverse rarely happens - the clerical
worker may be less likely to ask the finance director how he or she is managing with the
business's five-year plan or how the wife and children are doing.
 How does the conversation reflect the occupation, relative
status and roles of the consultant and student?
 In what ways is the way they both discuss the patient’s case
distinctive?
 How is the way the consultant converses directly with the
patient different?
 REMEMBER to use as many technical terms and refer
to the language levels as much as possible.
 How is the consultant’s behaviour similar to teacher/student interactions?
 How does the consultant response to the student doctor’s comments?
 Why do you think they use the third person to refer to the patient?
 What details about the patient that they discuss do you find interesting/surprising?
 What jargon is used? What form does it take? (Extension: what do you think the
origins of some jargon terms might be and why?)
 Where is non-specialist register used?
 Who has the highest status in this interaction? Is it straightforward?
 Discuss the idea that power influences interactions in
occupational contexts, using the data as a starting point.
 Which AOs are assessed for Paper 2 Q1?
 AO1: Apply appropriate methods of language analysis, using associated
terminology and coherent written expression. (10 marks)
 AO2: Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to
language use. (20 marks)
 What do we need for success in this question?
 Consideration of theoretical ideas., e.g. Grice’s conversational maxims, accommodation theory,
politeness strategies/face etc.
 Detailed use of language levels to support your ideas, i.e. technical terminology
 Detailed reference to the data in the form of quotations.
Due to the complex nature of hierarchical relationships in occupational contexts, it is to be
expected that, in spoken discourses, we can expect a particular conversational structure
to occur, with superiors holding the floor, leading turn-taking and inviting responses from
participants. This is certainly the case in the data here, where, although the student doctor
opens the discussion and sets the agenda for the talk (‘This is Mr Herbert Nicholls’), the
consultant gives evaluative comments such as ‘right very good’ and ‘yes’, and uses
frequent interrogatives such as ‘what do you think might have happened...’ designed to
elicit the students’ knowledge. However, we can also see examples of Howard Giles’
(1975) Accommodation Theory, in particular the use of convergence, where the use of
personal pronouns (‘you’) and some slight hedging of questions (‘might’) suggests a less
formal relationship, as we might expect in a student-teacher relationship. Evidently, the
context of a hospital is still one where a strict hierarchy exists, but some roles within an
organisation, such as the roles of teacher and student, mitigate the formality we might
expect here.
 Discuss the idea that power influences interactions
in occupational contexts, using the data as a starting
point.
 Using your copies of the mark scheme, mark your partners’
work and suggest a target.
 Continue with preparation for individual presentations. Don’t forget you will be
presenting on 29th January. You should now be gathering data and analysing it using
ideas from academic studies and articles/blogs discussing attitudes towards these
language variations.