词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Conversational Styles and Sports

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sport of conversation.

FIRST ANNOUNCER: "Not going to stop him!"

SECOND ANNOUNCER: "I tell you, you get him out on the run, Felton's quick, but he's not faster than Brown. Felton may be quicker with the ball, but Brown's faster with the feet ... [crowd cheering]"

RS: From C.B.S. television Monday night, coverage¹ of the national championship game in college basketball. Final score: North Carolina 75, Illinois 70.

AA: What's this got to do with our topic? Well, our guest this week is an English teacher who sees basketball as a great analogy to describe the conversational² style of Americans.

SUSAN STEINBACH: "If you're playing basketball, your goal is to get your hands on the ball, to steal it from another person, to dribble³ -- which would be the equivalent of hesitating, 'well, let me see now, the thing I really wanted to tell you was ... oh and by the way' -- and then once you steal the ball, make your point, and then other person is expected to steal it back."

AA: Susan Steinbach works in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. It's not just Americans who play the game of conversation this way, she says, but also people in Canada, Britain and Australia.

RS: Susan Steinbach says a lot of her work is based on two concepts by the linguist⁴ Deborah Tannen, who uses the terms "high considerate" and "high involvement" to describe different conversational styles. Susan Steinbach takes these ideas further and applies some sports analogies to help people understand those differences.

AA: For example, she contrasts the "basketball style" with the "bowling⁵ style."

SUSAN STEINBACH: "Bowling is 'high considerate,' by Deborah Tannen's terms, which means that a speaker from a country using that style would perhaps take turns. And it would be based on a hierarchical system. The more seniority or the higher the age of the person, that person is likely to speak first, whereas a junior person would hold back."

AA: "And the bowling style tends to be used where?"

SUSAN STEINBACH: "Japan, particularly in the older generation or in the corporate⁶ world, where hierarchy⁷ is very important. Korea. Northern China. And Thailand, to some regards. Not so much Taiwan. Taiwan is a little different."

AA: "So now we've talked about the bowling style and we've talked about the basketball style. Are there other styles?"

SUSAN STEINBACH: "Yes, the third style is rugby. And this is basically based around Deborah Tannen's term 'high involvement.' And in this style you are expected to interrupt other people, and you expect to be interrupted. There's a rapid change of topic, a rapid change of speakers and a concept called overlapping⁸, where one person starts speaking and another speaker speaks on top of that."

AA: "So where do you find the rugby style of conversation?"

SUSAN STEINBACH: "Rugby style is very much a Russian style, a Greek style. It tends to be associated with warmer climates, southern European, African cultures, Latino cultures, where many voices are going at once. It's like a cacophony⁹ of sound. It would be unusual for them to pause and listen to another speaker until they finished."

AA: "That must be interesting as a teacher yourself, to see that. I mean, does that tire you out trying to act as a referee¹⁰ when you've got two or three different 'games' going on in one classroom?"

SUSAN STEINBACH: "It's actually very helpful to talk about it, because the students will start to make judgments¹¹ on personality based on someone's conversational style. So if we talk about it at the beginning of a semester and kind of explain the different backgrounds that the students are coming from, then they start to make jokes with each other and say 'oh, you're just playing rugby today.' And, you know, instead of 'oh, you're mean and you're rude and you're inconsiderate,' they can actually understand it's a style difference based on culture."

RS: Susan Steinbach directs the multimedia¹² lab in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. She also produces instructional videos for English learners through a company called the Seabright Group.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is。。。。。。。。 And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

 

1 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

2 conversational   

adj.对话的，会话的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a conversational style.该文是以对话的形式写成的。
• She values herself on her conversational powers.她常夸耀自己的能言善辩。

3 dribble   

v.点滴留下，流口水；n.口水

参考例句：

• Melted wax dribbled down the side of the candle.熔化了的蜡一滴滴从蜡烛边上流下。
• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。

4 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

5 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。

8 overlapping   

adj./n.交迭（的）

参考例句：

• There is no overlapping question between the two courses. 这两门课程之间不存在重叠的问题。
• A trimetrogon strip is composed of three rows of overlapping. 三镜头摄影航线为三排重迭的象片所组成。

9 cacophony   

n.刺耳的声音

参考例句：

• All around was bubbling a cacophony of voices.周围人声嘈杂。
• The drivers behind him honked,and the cacophony grew louder.后面的司机还在按喇叭，且那刺耳的声音越来越大。

10 referee   

n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人

参考例句：

• The team was left raging at the referee's decision.队员们对裁判员的裁决感到非常气愤。
• The referee blew a whistle at the end of the game.裁判在比赛结束时吹响了哨子。

11 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

12 multimedia   

adj.多种手段的，多媒体的；n.多媒体

参考例句：

• Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
• Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题，从而引发了许多有益的讨论。