Three Kinds of Conversation

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2.1.2 Three Kinds of Conversation

Since people all over the world spend the biggest part of their lives to engage themselves in conversation, we can find conversation activities easily in our surrounding. People do conversations in the form of formal such as conference or meeting and informal such as exchange of information. Conversation done by people now is growing widely in line with the modern technology that we face. In older times, people only had the opportunity to make conversation when they met each other. But in modern era, we are able to make conversation with others although we do not see each other, directly by a long distance conversation. Taking advantage of the rapid growing of the technology, we can make conversation using telephone or teletype everywhere. Modern technology divides conversation into three categories, they are: face to face conversation, phone conversation, and instant messaging conversation. Elizabeth 2002: 66-74 gives us the view of these three categories of making conversation: “Conversation is marked by an exchange of comments. It used to be that face to face conversation was the only kind. Then, with the invention of telephone, phone conversation came into being; with the advent of teletype, people who use sign language have been able to participate in real-time conversation with other people who teletype or people who speak. Now we have Instant Messaging, which is real-time written conversation by all parties involved.” 13 Here are the elaborations of those three kinds of conversation: a Face to Face Conversation Face to face conversation just happens when two or more people meet each other and exchange any information, ideas, or feelings that they have. This face to face conversation simply happens when you are at the bus stop waiting for the bus, and there is someone standing beside you, and then you two are involved in a familiar conversation after greeting himher and introducing yourself to himher first. Face to face conversation can also simply happen among people who have already known each other. For example among housewives from a neighborhood that are gathering in one of their houses, and talking about their husbands’ jobs, their favorite TV series, their favorite cooking, etc. b Phone Conversation In the past, it used to be that face to face conversation was the only way to make a conversation. But now taking advantage of the invention of telephone, phone conversation also appears as one kind of making conversation. Phone conversation really makes people within a long distance able to communicate. c Instant Messaging After the invention of telephone, now we have internet as the more modern technology that also enables people to make a conversation. Instant Messaging, called IM for short, is a free service that uses an internet connection to link people who all have a similar service. Instant 14 Messages go directly from one user to another and are not stored on a server. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 2002: 66-74.

2.2 Communicative Competence