Intonation and feedback in the EFL classroom 189T: //o TRUCK //o or LORry //o GOOD //o and BY //
S4: //p CAR //
T: //p CAR //p alRIGHT //
One of the meanings Brazil attaches to selection of o tone is that it occurs
when tone unit boundaries do not fall at ‘points of potential completion’
(1985:205ff). In the context considered here ‘completion’ represents an
indication that an assessment of a response has been given. Selection of o
tone withholds assessment. This is well illustrated in (14). The teacher
wishes to elicit a list of relevant means of transport and only produces a
proclaiming (i.e. informing) tone when this list is completed to her satisfaction.
Items such as //o by BUS //, //o VAN //, //o TRUCK // and //o GOOD //,
then, represent an acknowledgement that the response has been noted, but
refrain from giving an assessment.
Sinclair and Brazil (1982:125) consider the selection of r+ tone in the
following example taken from the L1 classroom:
15 T: Where do we get tea from?
S: China.
T: //r+ CHIna //
Here the teacher acknowledges a shared understanding that tea does indeed
come from China, but selection of referring tone will be heard as conspicuously
not indicating that the response was (all of) what the teacher wanted. While
acknowledging the truth of the response, the teacher is also indicating that
he wants the pupil to go on and say more, or that he wants someone else
to offer a response. A possible continuation might be:
16 S: China
T: //r+ CHIna //
S: India
T: //r+ INDia //
S: Sri Lanka
T: //p SRI LANka //
where the proclaimed Sri Lanka signals the ‘achievement’ of the business—
here, the elicitation of a list. Although different tones are selected for feedback
in examples (14) and (15/16) the same function appears to be realized: the withholding
of an indication of the satisfactory completion of the interchange until more
responses have been given. While selection of r tone here is not represented in
the corpus it is possible to imagine a context in which it might occur:
17* T: Where do we get tea from?
S: China.
T: //r YES //
A possible paraphrase of this feedback could be ‘We know that tea comes
from China—but where else?’ Alternatively, we might hear