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Component 1: Language Concepts and Issues
Quick questions on The spoken language question (Component 1 Section A): analysing transcripts - Eduqas A-Level English Language
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is read the transcript's notation first?Show answer
The decisive first move is to decode the conventions the transcript uses, because they are the data. These vary, but commonly include numbers in brackets for timed pauses (in seconds), a full stop in brackets for a micropause, underlining or capitals for stressed syllables, colons for lengthened sounds, arrows or symbols for intonation, and brackets or square brackets for overlapping speech. Every mark is evidence: a timed pause may show hesitation, planning or a turn-yielding cue; an overlap may show high involvement or a struggle for the floor.
What is lead with the frameworks that do real work?Show answer
Spoken data foregrounds particular frameworks. Discourse captures the conversational architecture (turn-taking, adjacency pairs, topic management, openings and closings). Pragmatics captures the implied meaning and face-work (implicature, politeness, speech acts). Phonology and prosody capture delivery (the stress, pause and intonation the notation marks).
What is a model integrated paragraph?Show answer
"In the first transcript the senior speaker controls the floor through discourse: they initiate every topic and allocate turns, and the few overlaps are theirs, cutting in without sanction. This is reinforced pragmatically, as they issue bald, unmitigated directives while the junior speaker hedges ('I suppose', 'maybe'), and prosodically, as the junior's turns end on rising intonation and are broken by long pauses (1.5) that read as hesitation. Together these features construct a clear power asymmetry."
What is a weak paragraph upgraded?Show answer
A feature-spotting answer writes "There are lots of pauses and fillers, which are mistakes." Upgraded: the clustered micropauses and fillers in the junior speaker's turns are not errors but signs of planning under pressure and face-saving hesitation, and they contrast with the senior speaker's fluent, unbroken turns, a prosodic difference that mirrors the power gap in the interaction.
What is q1?Show answer
Name three things a timed pause in a transcript might signal. [3 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Why should you not treat fillers and false starts as errors? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Analyse how the speakers in two transcripts use language to convey attitude and manage the interaction. [18 marks]
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