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Working with
Transcriptions of
Spoken Language
For Paper 3 and Paper 4, students need to be comfortable working
with transcriptions of spoken language. Some of the textual data
they will be presented with in the examinations will be in this form,
and they will also need to do some research by compiling samples of
spoken language from their own speech communities.

Introductory activity

Set up a small-group activity – perhaps one based on discussion

of language use in a short magazine article – and get students to
record themselves talking as they work. Then get them to listen
to the recording and try to transcribe the conversation that took
place. They may have to listen to some sections of interaction
many times in order to be able to transcribe it.
Discuss as a whole class the difficulties they experienced. Link
these problems to features in the basic transcription key used in
the specimen examination papers:
TRANSCRIPTION KEY
(1) = pause in seconds (.) = micro-pause // = speech overlap
[italics] = paralinguistic features
[UPPER CASE] = increased volume

Encourage students to consider how much more information it

would be useful to have in order to make a written transcription of
spoken language as accurate as possible. They are likely to suggest
aspects of speech sounds – ways of representing accent and intonation.

More advanced transcription

Many websites hosted by university faculties of linguistics will
have information about more advanced transcription conventions
– for example: http://w3.erss.univ-tlse2.fr/textes/publications/
CarnetsGrammaire/carnGram14-2.pdf
More confident learners might research these for themselves. Less
independent learners might appreciate guidance.

© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute 1
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The 9093 syllabus does not require students to know about phonetic
transcription, but some students might become interested in ways
of representing and analysing speech sounds. A good and accessible
resource for the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols can
be found at: http://www.phonemicchart.com/

© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute 2