Spoken language features glossary
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A comprehensive glossary of spoken language features for English language analysis, perfect for teaching transcription analysis and spoken language study.
What's included
- 35+ key terms and definitions covering essential aspects of spoken language analysis
- Clear, student-friendly explanations with relevant examples
- Organised in an easy-to-navigate table format, ideal for revision and reference
The glossary list below is available as a free PDF download or as an editable Word document for subscribers.
What are spoken language techniques/devices?
Spoken language techniques are the distinctive features that characterise natural conversation and distinguish it from written language. These include everything from pronunciation patterns (accent) to conversation management strategies (turn-taking) and linguistic choices that reflect social relationships and contexts.
Spoken language techniques and their effects
Understanding spoken language techniques helps students analyse how speakers achieve their purposes and maintain relationships through talk. Features like back-channeling, hedging, and discourse markers reveal how speakers negotiate meaning, while aspects like convergence and divergence show how language choices reflect and construct social identities.
How to teach English spoken language techniques
Use this glossary alongside real transcripts to help students identify and analyse features in context. Start with more obvious features like fillers and false starts before progressing to more complex concepts like Grice's Maxims. Encourage students to record and transcribe their own conversations to make the learning experiential. Test understanding with our companion quiz: Spoken Language Features Quiz.
Looking for more like this?
For more spoken language activities and teaching ideas, try these related resources:
- Features of Spontaneous Speech - Explore natural speech patterns
- Online Spoken Language - Digital communication analysis
- Spoken Language Terms Puzzle - Interactive learning activities
- 20 Teaching Ideas for Spoken Language - Creative classroom activities
Or browse our Spoken English hub.
Spoken language features
| NOTE – this is far from an exhaustive ‘list’ – just some basic terms that students should be familiar with for analysis of spoken data. Students are reminded, however, of the primacy of context in studying transcripts – approach such texts with an open mind rather than mechanically applying ‘labels’. |
| TERM | DESCRIPTION |
| Accent | The ways in which words are pronounced. Accent can vary according to the region or social class of a speaker. |
| Adjacency pairs | Parallel expressions used across the boundaries of individual speaking turns. They are usually ritualistic and formulaic socially. For example: ‘How are you?’/ ’Fine thanks’ |
| Back-channel | Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances [e.g. ‘I see’, ‘oh’, ‘uh huh’, ‘really’] used by a listener to give feedback to a speaker that the message is being followed and understood. |
| Code-switching | When a speaker alternates between different languages or language varieties within the same conversation. |
| Contraction | A reduced form often marked by an apostrophe in writing – e.g. can’t = cannot; she’ll = she will. See also ELISION |
| Convergence | When speakers adapt their speech style, vocabulary, or pronunciation to become more similar to their conversation partner, often to build rapport or show solidarity. See also DIVERGENCE |
| Cooperative principle | The assumption that participants in a conversation will contribute appropriately to achieve effective communication. |
| Deixis / deictics | Words such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘here’, ‘there’ which refer backwards or forwards or outside a text – a sort of verbal pointing. Very much a context dependent feature of talk. |
| Dialect | The distinctive grammar and vocabulary which is associated with a regional or social use of a language. |
| Discourse marker | Words and phrases which are used to signal the relationship and connections between utterances and to signpost that what is said can be followed by the listener or reader. E.g. ‘first’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘now’, ‘what’s more’, ‘so anyway’, etc. |
| Divergence | When speakers deliberately emphasise differences in their speech from their conversation partner, often to assert their distinct identity or maintain social distance. See also CONVERGENCE. |
| Elision | The omission or slurring [eliding] of one or more sounds or syllables – e.g. gonna = going to; wannabe = want to be; wassup = what is up |
| Ellipsis | The omission of part of a grammatical structure. For example, in the dialogue: “You going to the party?” / “Might be.” – the verb ‘are’ and the pronoun ‘I’ are missed out. The resulting ellipsis conveys a more casual and informal tone. |
| False start | This is when the speaker begins an utterance, then stops and either repeats or reformulates it. Sometimes called self-correction. See also REPAIRS |
| Floor-holding devices | Techniques speakers use to maintain their speaking turn, such as fillers ("um", "er") or phrases like "let me finish". |
| Grice’s Maxims | Grice proposed four basic conversational ‘rules’ [maxims] as criteria for successful conversation: quantity [don’t say too much or too little]; relevance [keep to the point]; manner [speak in a clear, coherent and orderly way]; quality [be truthful] |
| Hedge | Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force with which something is said – e.g. ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’, ‘sort of’’, ‘possibly’, ‘I think’. |
| Idiolect | An individually distinctive style of speaking |
| Interactional talk | Language in conversation used for interpersonal reasons and/or socialising |
| Minimal response | Short verbal responses like "mm", "yeah" that show engagement in conversation. Similar to back-channeling but even more minimal. |
| Non-fluency features | Typical and normal characteristics of spoken language that interrupt the ‘flow’ of talk. Some examples: hesitations, false starts, fillers, repetitions [though can be used for emphasis], overlaps and interruptions. |
| Paralinguistic features | Related to body language – it is the use of gestures, facial expressions + other non-verbal elements [such as laughter] to add meaning to the speakers message beyond the words being spoken |
| Phatic talk | Conversational utterances that have no concrete purpose other than to establish or maintain personal relationships. It’s related to small talk – and follows traditional patterns, with stock responses and formulaic expressions: ‘How are you?’ / ‘Fine’; ‘Cold, isn’t it?’ / ‘Freezing’ |
| Phonology | The system of speech sounds in a language, including features like consonants, vowels, and syllable structure. |
| Politeness markers | Words and phrases used to show courtesy or respect, such as "please", "thank you", "would you mind". |
| Pragmatics | An approach to discourse analysis which focuses less on structures and more on contexts and purposes of people talking to each other. Crystal: ‘Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.’ |
| Prosodic features | Includes features such as stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and intonation – which are used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message. Essentially, how something is said. |
| Register | The level of formality in speech, which can vary depending on context, audience, and purpose. |
| Repairs | An alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker, the addressee, or audience in order to correct or clarify a previous conversational contribution. |
| Sociolect | A social dialect or variety of speech used by a particular group, such as working-class or upper-class speech |
| Tag question | Strings of words normally added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question. E.g. “It’s a bit expensive round here, isn’t it?” |
| Transactional talk | Language to get things done or to transmit content or information [used when the participants are exchanging goods and/or services] |
| Turn taking | A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks, within a typical, orderly arrangement in which participants speak with minimal overlap and gap between them. The principal unit of description in conversational structure. |
| Utterance | An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker's silence. |
| Vague language | Statements that sound imprecise and unassertive. E.g. – ‘and so on’, ‘or whatever’, ‘thingummy’, ‘whatsit’ |
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