190 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
18* T: Where do we get tea from?
S: Sainsbury’s.
T: //r YES //
where the implication is ‘We do indeed get tea from Sainsbury’s—but that
is not the answer I wanted!’
o tone in feedback occurs in other types of interaction than in the elicitation
of a list of items. In (19) for example,
19 S: //o EVery WEEK //o GREEdy TOM //p EATS RICE //
//p EATS SOME RICE //
T: //o EATS SOME RICE // (a)
//p oKAY // (b)
the student, by correcting herself, in effect produces alternative responses
for the teacher to assess. In selecting o tone for ‘eats some rice’, the teacher
effectively says ‘This is the alternative I choose to assess’, before going on
to make an assessment with //p oKAY//. We see here a switch from what
Brazil terms oblique orientation to direct orientation. In (a) the teacher
quotes a sample of language originally uttered by the student, adopting no
position on its accuracy or acceptability. In (b), however, he returns to an
interactive stance and the negotiation of a positive or negative evaluation.
Positive assessment
The third and by far the most common option is to give a positive assessment.
20 T: //o number TWO //o ROSlan //p READ it //
S: //p RUN aWAY from SOME where //o MEAN
//p EScape // (a)
T: //p oKAY //o (b)
//o THREE //p HENG CHIN // (c)
In the example above (a) labels the student’s response, (b) is feedback
relating to that response and (c) is the initiation of a new exchange. Of
interest here, then, is the item
T: //p oKAY //In the L2 classroom data studied the majority of items of feedback, either
those of a single tone unit, as in (20), or the final tone unit of longer items
such as in (21),
21 S: //o CAPtured MEANS //p MADE PRISoner //
T: //o GOOD //o CAPtured MEANS //p MADE PRISoner //
are proclaimed—that is, p or falling tone is selected. This, however, is not
surprising when the function of such items is considered: the assessment of
the student’s performance.