IV. Dialogue Discourse Modelling

1. Out-of-class Projecting: Team up with a partner to compose and interact a public interview discussing the forecasts on prospective trends and developments of the family unit. Distribute the roles of the Interviewer and Interviewee. Develop your discourse along the following key points.

a. Pick out a position/profession (e.g. Interviewer – TV-journalist, newspaper reporter; Interviewee – social worker, representative of a family-studies institution, anyone concerned personally, etc.). Work out a way to introduce yourself (a fictitious name and social status, brief background information, etc.)/(Interviewer) your interlocutor.

b. Make a close study of the related materials and vocabulary (Text C, supplementary texts, independently done research). Outline and discuss 1) the general message to be communicated to the audience; 2) the key directions of the conversation and sort out the relevant information. Put down the draft scheme of the dialogue.

c. Discuss and compare your personal attitudes to the main topic and its possible interpretations in the context of the chosen roles. Mark the point to which your subjective views can and will influence your discourse (any implicit submessages and intentions of the interlocutors, etc.).

d. Decide on the share of participation of each interlocutor, the overall strategy of the discourse (non-/cooperativeness) and the distribution of communicative roles (i.e. who dominated the conversation; speaker-leader vs speaker-follower).

e. Reshape your interview draft, marking the prospective speaker-change points, formulating and posing questions, etc. Extend it, observing the main style-forming features and, each interlocutor individually, work on the macro-/microcomposition of your part. Estimate the length of your discourse, taking into account possible questions from the audience.

f. Plan the manner of your presentation according to the chosen 1) message and

2) role. Make it 1) interlocutor- and 2) audience-oriented. Mind the conversational context of the discourse (i.e. the number of the participants, their social status, gender; their general expectations and interest in the topic, etc.). Choose the mood (modality) of your speech to best disclose your message and project a certain impression on the listeners (factors of convincingness, emotivity and other submodalitites). Think of means to create it (possibly select the vocabulary and grammatical patterns; choose the pace, pitch and intonation contours of talk, imitate a dialect, if needed, etc.). Be ready to reframe the course of the interview and face communicative challenges (side-questions, commentary and unexpected reaction from the audience; overlapping talk, misunderstanding, unwanted silent lapses, etc.).

g. Rehearse, time and preferably record your conversation. Discuss it with the partner and make necessary changes. Provide a script-version of your discourse.

2. Class Activities

a. Act out your interviews. Keep to the required criteria.

b. Listen to and observe the speakers carefully; note down any questions you would like to ask on the subject.

c. Provide consecutive translation for pairs of speakers; be sure to communicate their intention.

d. Evaluate the interviews according to the forecoming criteria and comment on them. Select the best 1) interviewer, 2) interviewee, 3) interpreter, 4) the most active and involved listener and discuss their key success points.