Conversation Gambits

Edith has just screamed 'I don't want to go to bed yet!' at me, or near enough. What she actually actually produced is a six or seven syllable utterance with rising intonation and emphasis on the second and last syllables, which are stretched into a falling cry. 

Even though the language isn't there yet, the intonation, the music of the utterance is spot on and very specifically English. I know this because I often try and get French or Italian students to stretch their syllables for emphasis when I'm teaching intonation, and trust me, they don't like it. So this gets me thinking, how much of these intonation patterns has she learned from us? Sure I don't spend that much time protesting loudly about going to bed. But I'm sure she's listened to plenty of other expressions of protest coming from my mouth. So maybe Edie is tuning in to the forms of discourse first and picking up waveforms. Perhaps there aren't actually that many to learn. 

We have a book in our speaking and listening library called Conversational Gambits By Keller and Warner from the old days of TEFL in 1988. They get to about 60 different gambits in their book split into opening gambits, linking gambits and responding gambits. But you could probably shave it down to a fairly small group of short expressions that Edith must be tuning into and mastering one by one. the protest gambit, well that seems a fairly good place to start, especially when you're a small person and you've got two big people telling you what to do all the time.

Some Languages

Edith lifts her hands to her face as if to count the number of fingers on each hand. I notice that she is able to turn her eyes right in to focus on the object a few centimetres from her face.  Instead of counting she gargles some dental fricatives. Not any recognisable consonant. It’s her ‘ I’m busy working’ language.

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I’m just back home and Edith is always happy to see me. But she doesn’t like sitting in her high chair much. It’s too much of a bucket seat, and who likes bucket seats, right? She likes to sit upright at the moment, alert and able to look around. So to voice disapproval she lets out an almighty aaaaiiiieeeeeaeaeaeae, her tongue folding itself through the sounds. This is longer, more complex than the usual monophthong cries. This is dissatisfaction language.

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And then at other times I try a conversation.  She will squeak and I’ll squeak back… but nothing. I can try words or sounds but she just listens to me.  She’s not going to interrupt herself thinking. She does not need to sound out her thinking. 

Libre circulation

Je prepare une presentation pour ma classe, sur la libre circulation de gens dans l’UE. –

But during the presentation I find that I stumble on every word. I revert to my weird Spanish / French pronunciation.

So to focus on pronunciation Amy reads it back to me with a more accurate pronunciation. Concentrating on the /ʒən/ for example, I repeat, bouncing the phrases back and forth.

I start to repeat the following phrase 'sont foux, completement foux' avec expression - with gesture  - and suddenly I find myself adopting a pronunciation poise. 

That a position with the neck, the mouth, the tongue and the throat. It's not me, not English David anyway. The pace of delivery is different – and perhaps it’s a bad parody of a French accent. But at least it’s not English. Adrian Underhill talks about this he says that as babies we explore the musculature of pronunciation. in this video. More about this soon I hope...

Adrian Underhill - Pronunciation is Physical Video