Mark scheme and scripts (with marks and comments) for NTB5 paper.
QUESTION 2A Text A is a transcript of a conversation in which a motorist (M) is given directions through York by a pedestrian (P). Text B is taken from Villette (1853), a novel by Charlotte Bronte. The heroine, Lucy Snowe, has travelled to Belgium in the hope of gaining employment as a governess. She does not speak French and is distressed because her trunk is missing. She is helped by a fellow Englishman.
Compare
the two texts, commenting on the ways in which they reflect differences and
similarities between conversations in real life and talk in literature.
You should refer in your answer to:
• the significance of context and situation
• how attitudes and values are conveyed
• the functions of interaction. INDICATIVE CONTENT Answers may
include the following
• Comparing the significance of context and situation Text A
planned encounter between confused motorist and pedestrian (gender/identity
unknown) by roadside (recognisable situation), possible pressure of other traffic
behind hence little phatic usage; exchange hasty, phrases and words repeated
to help M remember details; minimal responses/questions/interruptions to ensure
accuracy of information. Text B chance encounter between Lucy and young Englishman;
recognising her lack of French he seeks information on her behalf and reports
back to her; style of address (?rakes [conductor] fore and aft?) conveys character,
further revealed by his questioning L about her situation (friends, money);
again he provides information and accompanies her through park to near her inn;
his kindness and courtesy comfort lonely and insecure young woman who trusts
him instinctively.
• Comparing how attitudes and values are conveyed Text A M anxious
('erm') uses hedges ('a bit lost'); P reassuring, minimises difficulty ('quite
straightforward?''if you just?'); P gives clear, accurate sounding detail, even
modifying to be more accurate ('part of the way anyway'); conditional tense;
interpersonal, friendly ('you'll see'); at end of exchange M responds to information
acquired ('OK') rather than politely ? may be male/male; overlapping conveys
anxiety/haste to move on; P has more power in exchange and longer turns because
he has information M needs. Text B Lucy's feelings (revealed via 1st person
narrative voice) initially negative ('storm' 'my heart sank' 'failure of courage'
'absence of claim'), become positive when describing young Englishman ('kind'
'goodness' 'trust' 'honour in bright eyes'); description of dark, wet park foreboding
but her recollection of his kindness remains 'a sort of cordial.' Reader gains
insights into heroine's situation and feelings and her capacity for happiness;
use of figurative language; varied length and complexity of sentence structure;
syntactic parallelism; antithesis.
• Comparing the functions of interaction Text A purposes
of exchange differ: M seeks information, P provides information, and issues
directives; initial adjacency pair, followed by repetition of instruction, further
questions to clarify details; politeness strategies; some interruptions; both
use some hedges and vague language; monitoring devices and pauses. Text B purpose
of passage to reveal more of Lucy's character (unassuming but not weak; sensitive
to goodness in people; imaginative; resilient; truthful); to introduce new character
(handsome and kind) into plot (what will happen next?); to describe L?s vulnerable
situation (natural and human world seem hostile).
INDICATIVE CONTENT Answers may include the following:
• Comparing the purposes of planned and unplanned talk
Text C purposes of exchange: to share plans, invite opinion, convey information
(phatic, transactional, expressive, informative); each initiates exchange/sets
agenda by describing plan or commenting on another?s proposal; Alice initiates,
sets agenda (painting hallway walls/changing paint colour); Carmel?s agenda
includes discussing overall scheme/architecture (paint colour, lighting, carpet
colour); Bill?s agenda focuses first on changing lighting, secondly on painting
ceiling; intersecting adjacency pairs. Text D purposes of exchange; to show
relationship between Aston/Davies, Aston/Mick to reveal character (Aston kind,
full of optimistic/unrealistic plans, almost naïve ? some previous problem
implicit? Davies self-focused, insecure, also making plans); to further action
(audience curious about revelations about character and what will happen next);
to describe setting performative description by Aston, plus stage directions;
to introduce title of play. Self-revelation by Aston and Davies at heart of
scene; each has own agenda within exchange; three topic shifts (Aston?s plans
for home improvement, Davies?s bag and contents, Aston?s invitation to Davies
to be caretaker) all of which reveal character.
• Comparing how attitudes and values are conveyed in conversation
Text C all speakers express opinion and invite judgements ('too dark'
'too bad' 'quite well' 'really good' 'bloody horrible' 'sick of cream walls');
Alice and Bill use negative evaluation, Carmel positive; relaxed family relationship
conveyed by use of colloquial lexis, taboo language, humour, implicature (Carmel
doesn't want to be negative about darker paint for ceiling ? simply questions
' darker?'), hedging; collaborative discussion shown by sympathetic circularity/back-channel
behaviour; shared knowledge; deixis. Text D contrast to idiolect conveys attitudes
and values; both men insecure for different reasons ? possible breakdowns? Differing
social class; Davies can?t believe his luck having been down and out; Aston
has need to be kind/protective? Aston uses informal standard English, Davies
colloquial, some non-standard English ('ain't
got' 'don't fit too bad' 'never done'); Aston uses many non-fluency features
like pauses, hesitations, false starts: Davies's short but complete utterances
mainly declaratives, some tag questions, interrogatives; in last topic shift
Davies ' thrown' into incoherence (hesitations, hedges, false starts) by Aston's
'job' offer; some hints at elaborated/restricted codes contrast; both use clichés
and collocations; ellipsis.
• Comparing gender and power in language Text C conversation between two
women and one man; some sense of differing genderlects, but little sense of
empowerment/disempowerment; some male/female difference can be discerned e.g.
Bill uses declaratives/negatives, some taboo language; Alice and Carmel use
rhetorical questions, declaratives, hesitations, interrogatives, hedges, incomplete
utterances, modal auxiliaries; Bill?s lexis referential, not evaluative or expressive;
he overlaps Alice once; no significant difference in politeness strategies,
negative/positive face; Bill has fewer turns than Alice or Carmel but power
shared in collaborative exchange; Alice uses tag question; some non-fluency
features; Alice and Carmel have longer turns. Text D Aston and Davies same gender,
but idiolects and power relations different/vary in course of exchange; Davies
tends to use discourse features associated with male speech, Aston's idiolect
closer to female speech patterns; power balance even; Davies, though 'victim'
appears in control of situation; Aston less secure, but seeks power over Davies
(offers job); significantly, Davies?s idiolect becomes more 'female' when caretaking
job proposed; overall view suggests that empowerment/disempowerment as significant
as genderlect.
Question 2a script Candidate one
The most obvious difference between talk in real life and talk in literature is that all talk in literature is crafted to serve a purpose, and help the progression of the piece in which it comes from, whereas talk in real life often serves no purpose at all. However, both passage A and Passage B have the same purpose: the pedestrian is giving the motorist directions. just as the English gentleman is giving Lucy Snowe directions. The transcript from real life (Text A) is obviously far less fluent than B. The motorist?s initial hesitation and awkwardness in asking for help is shown by the frequent hesitations and fillers used such as 'erm.' The repetition of the directions given by P, ('quite straight forward from here', 'carry on straight ahead') are really quite confusing though they obviously map his thought process as he tries to imagine where M is going. P is obviously the dominant speaker as he is the one transferring his knowledge to M. As such he is charge of the agenda and progression of the conversation and when, as frequently occurs, both of them speak at the same time, he carries on the conversation afterwards. This is not a normal conversation really, in that it doesn't occur for social reasons or through choice but through necessity. M and P are strangers but M needs P's help to find his way through York, and it is this which brings them together and which id the main purpose of their conversation. The same information is repeated throughout the conversation, 'ignore the left fork', 'carry on straight ahead', 'right on the traffic lights' to reinforce it. M repeats what P has said like a school child repeats a teacher, to try and remember. The motorist often says 'yeah', 'ok', and 'huhuh' in response to what the pedestrian has said, which lets him know that he is following it. The pedestrian's willingness to help the motorist suggests that he is a helpful sort of person, and the detail of his directions imply that he knows York well. His utterance 'you're in York then' implies that this is the end of conversation as he has fulfilled its purpose of telling the motorist where to go. This transcript is a good example of a conversation in real life that occurs solely for a purpose and not for pleasure. Text B is very different in form from A being a literary text and so containing both speech and descriptive prose. Obviously there are none of the hesitancies or misunderstandings of natural speech. The young woman Lucy Snowe is in a slightly worse predicament than the motorist from Text A; she is not only lost but without anywhere to stay, she has lost her luggage, and cannot speak the language. The gentleman chivalrously helps her to locate her luggage although as we read from the point of Lucy we hear only his explanation to her (?the fellow avers he was over loaded..?). Her reply is quite a good example of phatic speech, common in real life talk. She says thank you to show her gratefulness to the man and to be polite but Bronte?s description of her heart sinking lets the reader know that locating her luggage has not solved her problems. Her disappointment is made apparent in her tone and the gentleman understands the pragmatics of what she has said and that she still needs help. Most of the conversation between the two characters is in the form of adjacency pairs, for example, 'Have you any friends in this city?' ? 'No, and I don't know where to go.' The repetition of this form of questions and answers reinforces that the woman and gentleman don't actually know each other, they have met by chance and he is merely helping her. Similarly to the pedestrian and the motorist it is the gentleman and the motorist, it is the gentleman who is dominant here, both in speech and actions. He addresses the conductor in French, which Lucy cannot understand, which makes him seem superior, and he leads her to the inn, through the park, ( 'he moved on, and I followed him'). What the reader experiences in this text, unlike the other, is Lucy's thoughts on the gentleman helping her and this in turns reveals her own attitudes and values. It is apparent that she is somewhat in awe of him 'nature had made him good enough for the prince, I thought'. She also feels a sense of inferiority and guilt at him helping her ('my absence of claim to look for further help from such a one as he?). The kindness of his actions leads her to trust him, and the inn he recommends to go to. After walking her through the park and giving her some final directions, their conversation is over, having served its purpose: ?Good night?. ?Good night, sir?. There is a sense of poignancy in their parting as Lucy?s thoughts on the man suggest that she felt fond of him, even as little as she knew of him. This is one of the differences between talk and life and literature. Talk in literature does not only exist as a function but is crafted to reveal to us the characters involved and their thoughts and opinions. Text A merely served a functional purpose, M helping P, whereas text B is a story in itself.
[18 marks]
Question 2b
Both extract C and D are about home improvements and decoration. I think that Alice (C) and Aston (D) are looking for opinions on what they are thinking of doing. However, there are some fundermental differences. In text C it is much more of a discussion based conversation whereas text D, Aston is providing a not very receptive Davies with informational talk. Text C is more discursive because Alice wants the hallway to look nice and values Carmel's opinion. Text D is more informational because Aston is not looking for an opinion from Davies on how to decorate someone else?s house. In Text C, the 'real' talk situation is conveyed in various ways. While giving opinions on Alice?s colour schemes, Carmel is thinking on her feet, this is why there is lots of pauses and hesitations such as those in lines 3, 10, 33 and 41. These pauses and hesetations give Carmel time to think about what she is going to say - she wants to portray on opinion but without offending Alice?s and Bill's ideas. In text D, Davies' hesitations such as line 2 'What ?..you mean ? you mean it's his house?? are there to portray his surprise, shock and admiration at the situation he has found himself in at the things he is finding out. I think that Aston?s pauses and hesitations are there to show to the reader that he is mildly uncomfortable with the situation he is in with a homeless man. For the character itself, the pauses and hesitations mimick 'real' talk situations like that of Carmel. Aston is buying himself time to think about what he is going to say. In Text C, Bill's attitude is that he will leave 'the women' to the paint and decoration he is not much interested in and deal with the electrical DIY. Alice is obviously happy with this arrangement. We can tell this by her use of 'I?m going to paint the hall' telling us that Bill is not involved in the painting. Equally, Bill says 'I want to get rid of the fluorescent light'. There is a similarity there between Texts C and D. Although he is not talking to women about painting, Aston is still talking about how he is doing heavy DIY, like Bill ('I think I'll put in a partition') to a fairly unreceptive audience. Alice and Carmel would rather talk about painting and Davies would rather talk about clothes and his bag. Davies obviously has very different values to Aston. As a homeless man, Davies has a stereotypically non accent and his grammar is not either. 'He don't live here' and 'I been thinking.' This clearly defines lower middle-class Aston from lower class Davies. As Text D is from a play, there are stage directions and as a visual production, actions can take the place of words. This is the same as Text C, except we don't get as many stage directions in text C. We get some 'points to ceiling' but more, and more descriptive directions in text D 'He takes from the bag a deep-red velvet smoking jacket.' In Transcripted talk, actions are made to aid explanations whereas in the scripted talk, actions are made to create atmosphere and develop characters such as Davies' appreciation of the coat. In Text C, the gender and power roles are clearly defined. Alice is in charge, choosing topics and controlling other peoples turns. She overlaps Bill, showing authority. She asks questions but corrects the answerer if she doesn't get the desired answer C= 'too dark' A= 'No'. She also hedges 'Sort of like those two bottom ones' in an attempt to get people to agree with her. Carmel is also in power as she gives opinions and has the longest turns. Bill is obviously not in power. He rarely talks - he practically gives up after 3 attempts of voicing an opinion and being shot down. In Text C the power is evidently in the women especially Alice who does not like being told how to decorate her home. It is very similar in Text D in many ways. Aston like Bill is not confident in saying what he would like/is going to do on his job. When talking to each other, the two men stutter and repeat themselves - the author is trying to convey the uncomfort and underconfident nature of the conversation. There is also a lot of hedging D= 'It don't fit too bad' A= 'perhaps I can knock up one or two things.' This portrays the mens' relucatance to form strong opinions or lay down facts. If power is with anybody it is with the non-stereotypical male, Davies. He seems to control topics and get his own way such as the jacket and the job - even though he has the shorter turns and may even be drunk. [26 marks]
Commentaries
on Candidate Responses Candidate 2 Question 1
• Wobbly start to passage A, gets better on passage B
• Strong on lexical choice and its effects in establishing atmosphere
(pp2, 4)
• Some key points show understanding (tripling, metatalk)
• Quite competent on context though repetious
• At first makes valid comments on dramatic effects but loses focus
• Literary perspective more dominant
• Uneven performance, 'flashy but not sustained' 18
Marks
Question 2b
• Engaged response, sound and confident start
• Confidently moves between texts in course of comparison
• Good point re non SE usage (though calls dialect accent)
• Clear understanding of how atts/vals are achieved in both
• Aware of difference in purpose (pp6&9)
• Stronger on gender and power
• Makes quite subtle points about relation of action to scripted talk
• Securely into 24-29 band matching descriptors for midband - 26 Marks