<TITLE: Text, Interaction and Communities Conference 2: Professionals, Clients and Interaction
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: social policy and social work
EVENT TYPE: conference presentation
FILE ID: CPRE06B
NOTES: continuation of and continued in CDIS06B, session also includes presentations CPRE06C-D

RECORDING DURATION: 23 min 23 sec

RECORDING DATE: 25.5.2005

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 25

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 3

NS7: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: English (UK); ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: unknown

S12: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: female; AGE: 31-50

S13: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Estonian; ACADEMIC ROLE: research student; GENDER: female; AGE: 31-50

SU: unidentified speaker

SS: several simultaneous speakers>


<S13> hello everybody , er i wanted to apologise er about my bad english so <SS> @@ </SS> it @makes@ me even more nervous so , kind of er <NSU-7> [don't worry] </NSU-7> [i have done] this er before myself but never thought that i maybe er become s- mhm object of taping by by myself . okay <P:06> on those handouts you have er four examples of er , patterns i'm going to talk about erm but er yeah in the beginning i i'd like to draw out this er . <SIGH> information er background information about this er kind of data i have and er <COUGH> the first thing i have to say that my title has little bit changed i exclude the particle <FOREIGN> jajaa </FOREIGN> er from er er this presentation er there is not enough time for it so there will be particle <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> and <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> only . in the 12 telemarketing calls of the present study both parcipi- <SIC> parcipitants </SIC> er represent an institution , and the telemarketers represent a company that prova- provides training courses on sales marketing management and leadership , and the potentional client is preferably a whole company not a person single person and bigger company the better , the aim of the training company is to teach and train the whole staff from secretaries to top managers , so the telemarketers themselves are the trainers also they have been trained how to proceed through certain stages in the process of sales negotiations , and these strategies include seeking agreement expressing interests and understanding , they have a set of agenda questions and they cannot interrupt in clients' turns , they are instructed to show their understanding and affiliation explicitly using er intonation and making the af- affiliation salient and undoubtful , and one specific feature about this kind of interaction has to be mentioned the negotiations begin er as a business interaction on a higher level on a high formal level but the aim of the telemarketer is to achieve informal relationship with the client so in the er in the end of negotiations they er may act like er in ordinary conversation . the overall structure of this course , can be compared with a visit to the doctor , the interaction begins with the opening sequence and then telemarketer asks question about the situation of the client , when obtained this information the telemarketer tries to sum up the situation of the client it's kind of diagnosis er he provides in case the client hasn't had any training the telemarketer has the chance to offer training from his company which is evidently the best one , my data is mainly from the beginning of the negotiations so they are in the higher level high formal level calls . this makes the call calls longer and not so much oriented to augmentation about the best solutions or for client problems , the telemarketer tries to gather as much as he can information about the client aims and attitudes towards the training , the comparison with doctor-patient interaction can be done at least in two exceptions the doctor or telemarketer has to find his patient himself and the client or patient usually does not know anything about his or her disease , the telemarketer has to convince the client that his situation is problematic , make him accept this and of course provide the best solution for the problem . in these calls i have focused on turns that consist only of the particles <FOREIGN>  jah </FOREIGN> and <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> they can , be translated into english a- as yes yeah or yep in different er mhm sequences , earlier studies on everyday talk have mainly taken up their usage er as answers to yes-no questions . it is said in dictionaries that er main or first task of particles <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> and <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> is er provide a positive answer to polar question . in estonian particles <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> and <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> are used also as a to confirm declaratives declaratives answers to focused interrogatives to V-interrogatives responses to dire- directives and et cetera , all those acts initiate the first pair-part and affirmation confirmation or acceptance is a successful result of first pair-part , in addition especially <FOREIGN> jah  </FOREIGN> has been mentioned as a closing turn in a repair sequence . now conversation may deal with only one topic like for example in information calls or contain several subtopics in the telemarketing calls the participants may take up lots of subtopics especially in the beginning of the negotiations the telemarketer asks questions of a very broad range he tries he or she tries to get as much information about the potentional client as possible , but the potentional clients may not have the same interests and may act quite reluctantly or even to refuse to provide information about his or her company , then telemarketer has to account for his or her interests it depends on previous conversation , it may be for example the description of courses they are offering <P:05> so in this presentation i concentrate on the the particles <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> and <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> as acknowledgement tokens not the er answers to a polars polar questions or er other kinds of er second pair-parts . and er <COUGH> when i started to group them then i faced that the patterns of er usage are different . in the first example you have on your handouts erm there is a . let's say typical example of a telemarketer acknowledgement token with particle <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> it is er provided with rising intonation . and er it is erm . er it is providing the er environment when er client er talks er , about a concurrent , of course it is very interesting for telemarketer to hea- to hear about er his concurrent and er how successful the concurrent's offer er may be in a mhm in the training er telemarketers are not allowed er in the practice they are not allowed to speak about concurrents they don't name them , so , they are very erm interested in er any information they can get from clients about their concurrents <P:07> clients' patterns are a little bit different . erm . let's say @completely different in in some places@ er in e- example two mhm there is acknowledgement token in the opening se- sequence where a telemarketer calls to the company and erm , should i read it or can you follow it <SU> mhm-hm </SU> which one </S13>
<SU> i think we can follow it </SU>
<SU> we can <S13> i read </S13> follow it </SU>
<S13> read no <SS> [@@] </SS> [@@] </S13>
<S12> well <SU> [yes read] </SU> [someone wants] you to read it and some don't but please do [read yeah mhm] </S12>
<S13> [i do okay] . telemarketer says hello secretary says hello er then er telemarketer introduce it himself erm and er says i wish to speak to rauno rätik , secretary says <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> one moment , this <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> we are not er focused on telemarketer says thank you then there is a waiting er pause filled with music then er person who was attended to says <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> rauno speaking , hello hello . (xx) and name of a company here and then it is <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> <P:06> the erm , in this place the particle <FOREIGN>  jah </FOREIGN> or <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> , can be used er even quite equally there is er . since i have no evidence that erm clients use er more particle <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> or <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> and in this environment it could be with even intonation or falling intonation or rising intonation there is no er difference erm er , in the in the intonation in in this kind of position <P:05> in the third example . you have on your handouts there are . two examples in er line twe- er 124 there is a client who provides and er , in line er 126 there is a telemarketer who says <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> , i i read it <READING ALOUD> i imagine that if we start now in the winter talk about that and to make plans then we can get half of the amount due <FOREIGN> jaa </FOREIGN> it would be excellent wouldn't it , well yes and for winter there may be i hope that by february we know who are good salespersons <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> very good salespersons and salespersons </READING ALOUD> <P:07> in the line er 124 erm , the erm usage of er , er it's it's er it's kind of pattern when er clients are really interested in er getting er half sum erm erm to pay erm mhm mhm <FOREIGN> noh  </FOREIGN> little more erm , excuse me i lost my words erm not er in er opportunity not to pay so much or it can be possible possibility of getting funding or some kind of things then they erm clients er react in a in really interested intonation er intonation gets always up in this kind of pattern . but in line 127 erm <P:07> the p- particle er it's er it's prod- mhm it is erm erm client and telemarketer are s- starts talk to a simultaneously is it er there is overlap , so , i'm not really sure about this falling intonation because erm i can't erm very very s- s- erm , precisely erm listen to it but , er in in this case , the er particle <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> is er provided erm <P:07> erm , kind of er acknowledgeming er a- acknowledgement er of er , the information that is er provided by client , there is no er specific in- , interest erm in my point of view in in this kind of usage . but in er example four we are going to listen to it <P:06> erm <P:05> it's a , there are er there are also two erm er two er examples er of er er the riding er erm acknowledgement by client and by telemarketer the telemarketer acknowledgement token is in line 161 <BROWSING THROUGH PAPERS, P:13> excuse me where is the <P:06> i've changed my it is erm , it is client <COUGH> sorry it is client it is mainly client , er turns er 161 165 167 and 169 <P:12> just listen to this <PLAYS A RECORDED TELEMARKETING CALL> can you hear these <FOREIGN> jaas </FOREIGN> it's a quite quite <NS7> [just] </NS7> [oh yes] okay . another time no <NS7> no </NS7> you don't want okay <P:09> i'd like to comment this er line er er 161 which is a , er example of er using this er particle erm as a you might call fa- false turn it is after adjacency-pair sequence er 159 is it a i- is a telemarketer's <FOREIGN> aha </FOREIGN> which er marks er erm which is used as a change of information state token er displaying that information is new and surprising and then client says <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> <P:05> it is also a typical environment to to use er er for clients to use er particle <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> <P:08> and er this er seri- er serial of er of er <FOREIGN> jaas  </FOREIGN> , it's erm interesting because erm . erm you can say that they they they are er placed in the erm proper place they are erm , may er be analysed as real con- continuas in a schegloff er sense of continua . but er , what i claim that erm . in in this kind of position er the only er the turn what er consists only in particle <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> is not efficient <P:05> i don't know yet is it a question of er intonation er or it is a combination of er intonation and er position . but erm , er if you looked at what is er going on in er line 168 <P:06> to 160 er 72 , the turns of er telemarketer are full of hesitation long pauses word search he's uncertain er and er . client are not providing er any help er , she only says <FOREIGN> jah </FOREIGN> . in er line one er 166 when er telemarketer says that erm and er line 60 er 163 when he's telling that they are really short courses they are er that er his company is oriented er to really short courses , if er the client erm would act er differently erm er expressed er her interest er it would be more cooperative way to interact <P:16> i don't know did i convinced you @er with this example@ but er . er if you don't want to listen this tape any more then er i think er maybe erm maybe you ask some questions er i didn't er mhm maybe i i i didn't er mhm make it er enough explicit what i i meant for it </S13>
