Institutional talk

This week we asked the question how does 'talk in institutional settings' constitute those settings as such?

The way I understand this topic is that every time we enter an institution we will conform to a certain way speaking to each other because of the institution we are in, but at the same time the fact that we are speaking to each other in that particular way is what makes the institution the institution. Wow – I know that is a messy sentence, but I am still trying to get my head around the idea!Actually, Christie Brindley was talking to me about this topic and was able to put it into much better words: “the institution can be seen to be a product of its participants”.

An interesting concept looked at in the lecture was that there are specific procedures that will be used in institutional talk. Andy looked at the procedure for making an emergency phone call and set out five phases for the interaction:

1. Opening
2. Request
3. Interrogative series
4. Response
5. Closing

I think this concept can apply to a broad range of interactions and institutions. For example, when I take a booking for the restaurant I work in, I will follow the same procedure as above. I have set out the different phases below:

Phase 1: (ME) “Good evening, 'Italian restaurant', Danielle speaking”

Phase 2: (CUSTOMER) “Hello, I would like to make a booking for tomorrow night?”

Phase 3: (ME) Ask them “how many people”, “what time”, their “name and contact number.”

Phase 4: (CUSTOMER) Answers these questions.

Phase 5: I will confirm the details and say something like “Thank you for booking and I will see you tomorrow.”

Benwell, B and Stokoe, E (2002) 'Constructing discussion tasks in university tutorials: shifting dynamics and identities' Discourse Studies, vol 4 no 4, p429-453.