Conversation Assignment

Conversation Assignment

This is a conversation which took place between five 4th grade students and myself during lunch one day. We were sitting around a large table together and were the only ones in the room. Four of the students are bilingual and speak both Spanish and English and one student is a monolingual English speaker.

01/26/07
[Note: This was not the beginning of the conversation.]

Daniel R.: My uncle is in Mexico. All of his family, well his sons and daughters, they help him kill [goats]. Like his older sons kill them and the heart is the best part of the goat.

Danielle: You mean when you eat the heart?

Daniel R.: Yeah, they make good tacos. They take out the stomach and guts and all that and clean it off. They have to make sure to get all the worms out.

Danielle: If you were here last summer for 4-H, umm, this man named…did you see a truck near the goat’s pen? With glasses, he had white hair. He’s not tall but he was out there wrestling with the goats putting some medicine in them. He looked like he was wrestling. And they told us that the last, a couple of years ago, you how there was not really any medicine? Well, umm, to get the worms out of their stomach we had to umm put sugar on the back of them so the worms would crawl up to get it. And we would get them out.

Daniel R.: Uggh.

Danielle: But that was the only way we could do it.

Daniel R.: Yeah. Your bun looks like a muffin.

Danielle: I know. Ms. Zoch, it looks like a muffin.

Mrs. Zoch: [laughs]

Daniel R.: Ms. Zoch, how come, umm, Por qué te gusta la mantequilla? I’ve never liked it, how come you like it?

Danielle: Because it tastes saltier. How come you don’t like it with butter?

Daniel R.: No. I don’t know.

Danielle: Never say never Daniel.

Daniel R.: You got that from Miss Frizzle.

Danielle: What?

Daniel R.: Miss Frizzle.

Danielle: No, I got it off this little commercial of a movie about these mouses and the grandpa says, “Never say never.” ‘Cause he says, “I thought I’d never see you again, Grandpa.” And then he says, “Never say never.” I don’t like milk just like you don’t like butter.

Daniel R.: How can you like milk? How can you not like milk if butter is made from milk?

Danielle: There’s a difference between their tastes.

Mrs. Zoch: I don’t like milk either but I like butter and cheese and ice cream.

Danielle: And yogurt and cake.

Daniel R.: I like cake. No más me gusta el tipo de three…three milks.

Mrs. Zoch: Tres leches.

Danielle: I don’t really like icing. But I only like, you know the hard type of icing, it feels like it has a lot of sugar in it?

Mrs. Zoch: Mhmm, like the cookies?

Danielle: It tastes too sweet, that’s why I don’t like it. I like the icing that’s soft.

Zabdi: Me too.

Daniel R.: Yeah, I like the cakes that are made from ice cream.

Zabdi: Me too.

Daniel R.: I’m not into Cinderella, but, gosh, I read that there’s going to be number three.

Danielle: I know.

Mrs. Zoch: There’s going to be what?

Danielle: A Cinderella three.

Mrs. Zoch: A movie?

Daniel R.: Yeah, I’m not into it.

Mrs. Zoch: Like a Disney movie?

Daniel R.: Yeah, Disney.

Danielle: You heard it from Disney channel?

Daniel R.: Uhh, no, I saw, I heard it from..,I think so but I don’t remember. It said go to Disneychannel.com and see half of the movie.

Danielle: I already got number two. I had it.

Daniel R.: You’re supposed to go to www.cinderlla3…something…something…something. And then you can see part of it.

Daniel R.: Are you into Cinderella Ms. Mares, I mean Ms. Zoch?

Mrs. Zoch: Umm, I guess Cinderella is okay.

Danielle: Who needs butter? Whoever? Okay. Can you pass this to him? Pass it Aaron.

Daniel R.: I passed it. [waves it in front of Daniel J., the student who is to receive the butter]. [laughs] It’s give it to Aaron. That’s the trick my mom always says to me ‘cause I’ll say pass me the salt or guacamole, or stuff like that. She always passes it.

Mrs. Zoch: Passes it right by you?

Danielle: Yesterday was my mom’s birthday.

Mrs. Zoch: What’d ya’ll do?

Danielle: Nothing.

Mrs. Zoch: Did you make her a card?

Danielle: I didn’t but I…you know those flowers, they have leaves shaped like a heart?

Mrs. Zoch: Mhmm.

Danielle: Well, I got one and I got some dirt into a cup and then put it in.

Mrs. Zoch: Cool.

Danielle: And she said, “Ahh, too much gifts.”

Mrs. Zoch: [laughs]

Danielle: I think she forgot it outside.

Daniel: Me and Jorge already finished and then the others are the only ones who aren’t finished.[is referring to a math test]

Danielle: Well, it’s hard. She doesn’t teach us. She barely…she teaches us most of it but I don’t get the ones she doesn’t.

Daniel: Ahh, for me it’s super easy. Although yesterday my mind was getting confused. Remember my brain was tired. When I was like this, since I had finished my writing test I went like this and then when I was doing a math packet I only got…[can’t hear the rest of the sentence]

Danielle: How come you don’t even talk Spanish over there with Ms. Flores and you talk over here Spanish with Ms. Zoch?

Daniel R.: ‘Cause Ms. Flores doesn’t let me.

Danielle; No fair!

Daniel J.: Yes she does.

Mrs. Zoch: She doesn’t let you?

Daniel R.: She wants for me to learn English. She won’t let me do anything in Spanish.

Danielle: She won’t even let me do anything in Spanish.

Mrs. Zoch: Do you speak Spanish Danielle?

Danielle: Yes.

Daniel R.: A little bit.

Danielle: No!

Mrs. Zoch: At home or?

Danielle: Más o menos.

Daniel R.: Yeah, like a little. [says to Aaron who does not speak any Spanish]

Mrs. Zoch: Who speaks Spanish at your home?

Danielle: That’s so-so. My dad and my mom but mostly my dad because he’s from Durango, Mexico.

Mrs. Zoch: Oh.

Daniel R.: Oh, I thought Durango was in—

Mrs. Zoch: But you’ve always been in English classes right?

Danielle: Until now, well ‘cause there’s—

Daniel R.: The class is bilingual not just Spanish.

Danielle: I know.

Mrs. Zoch: Have you learned any Spanish, Aaron, since you’ve been in Mrs. Flores’s class?

Danielle: I’m going to be in a Spanish class when I’m a teenager because I’m gonna move.

Mrs. Zoch: Hmm?

Aaron: Uhhuh.

Mrs. Zoch: No? You haven’t learned even a single word? I’ll bet you’ve learned a little bit.

Daniel R.: Liliana says like say ‘bobo’ and stuff right? Liliana says to Aaron sometimes, “Say bobo.”

Danielle: What does it mean?

Daniel R.: Bobo, like how do you say bobo.

Zabdi: Tu eres bobo.

Daniel R. Like if you’re dumb or something.

Danielle: Doesn’t dumb mean tanto?

Daniel R.: Yeah, there’s too many different ways to say dumb. She says say bobo and he sometimes does it and she laughs.

Danielle: Does he say bobo? Bobo. When I’m a teenager my dad might make me move to Mexico.

Mrs. Zoch: Why?

Danielle: I don’t know. My grandma’s getting older. The house is really deserted.

Daniel R.: For once English is a good thing ‘cause I don’t have to take the writing test again since yesterday.

Danielle: Who knows what grade I got?

Daniel R.: Uhuh know. 4?

Zabdi: I do but only pues in the composition I don’t know.

Danielle: We both got, umm, a 93. We only missed two. Ya’ll only missed one [talks to Daniel R. and Daniel J.].

Daniel R.: The both Daniel’s only missed one. Whoohoo!

[Note: This was not the end of the conversation.]


There were two students who dominated the conversation (Daniel R. and Danielle). They talked most of the time and were the ones who introduced new topics. One student (Zabdi) spoke only a few times and the other two students (Aaron and Daniel J.) did not speak, they just listened. At first I tried not to be a part of the conversation because I just wanted to listen. This became impossible as I was pulled into the conversation as Daniel R. asked me a question about butter.

Most of the conversation took place in English but some Spanish was used. Daniel R., who dominated most of the conversation, speaks mainly Spanish at home, yet is comfortable using English in social situations with other students. Daniel R. does not use Spanish for long phrases. He demonstrates a sort of ease with switching between the two languages and is sensitive to Aaron (who only speaks English). When Danielle uses the term “más o menos,” Daniel R. translates for him.

The pace of the conversation was pretty steady. Daniel R. and Danielle kept the conversation moving along. Daniel R. introduced several new topics (goats, bun looking like a muffin, Cinderella, the math test, saying bobo and the writing test). He didn’t provide an introduction to his topics and didn’t seem to wait for the best moment to introduce them, he would just switch from topic to topic. When Daniel R. began the topic of the math test, I wouldn’t have known what he was talking about if I hadn’t know that his class was taking a math test. He didn’t offer any explanation for what he was referring to, he just said, “Me and Jorge already finished and then the others are the only ones who aren’t finished.” (deixis)

Even though he initiated most of the switching, Danielle kept up with him and would respond to his comments. The conversation was a mix of statements and questions/answers. Although Zabdi didn’t initiated any conversation and spoke very little, she was an active listener in the conversation and would interject when able. Daniel J. and Aaron were not a part of the conversation, but didn’t have their own conversation on the side either. They listened to the others speak, but didn’t try to take part.

I didn’t include the beginning or end of the conversation. The beginning is not included because it didn’t occur to me to begin tape recording until the point at which I started. Before I started recording, Daniel R. had already been talking about goats. A part of me wanted to remind him that we were trying to eat and maybe some parts of the conversation weren’t appropriate for eating, but then I decided to not say anything and record what he was saying. I don’t remember how the conversation began. We came into the room together and everyone sat down. I assume the conversation began shortly after or maybe even in the hallway on the way to the classroom. I didn’t include the end of the conversation because parts of it were difficult to make out and for the most part it ended with me telling the children that it was time to leave.

Transcribing the conversation was more difficult than I thought it would have been. It was difficult to make out some of the conversation and so I am certain that this transcription is not 100% accurate. Also, as I was transcribing, I was picturing the children as they were talking, where they were sitting and how they talked (pragmatics)—all of which is difficult to express from a transcription.

I think this activity has caused me to be more aware of how conversations take place. Since then, I have thought about such things as speaker turns, introducing new topics and adjacency pairs as I carry on conversations with friends, my husband and my parents. As I thought about how Daniel R. just jumped from one topic to another I realized I also do the same. There aren’t always more opportune times to introduce a new topic—especially when you are in the company of close friends or family and the conversation is more informal so that it doesn’t seem as important if the conversation moves quickly from one topic to another.