establish and maintain connections and openness. While conversations sidestep competition, it is encounter in which the power mind, good sense, and moral
sentiments of a person come to be revealed. In conversation, one listens to persons, not just utterances. In conversation, people of thought and people of
action can please themselves and be true to type, although self-constituted elites or self impressed individuals will not are well. Conversation can yield insights and
astonishing connections; yet it cannot establish knowledge. Like life, conversation grants no irreversible clarification.
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As an addition, Douglas Biber, et.al has done a functional survey of conversation which correlate to its purpose and utter nine points about the
function of conversation, there are :
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1. Conversation takes place in the spoken medium
2. Conversation takes place in shared context
3. Conversation avoids elaboration or specification of meaning
4. Conversation is interactive
5. Conversation is expressive politeness, emotion, and attitude
6. Conversation takes place in real time
7. Conversation has a restricted and repetitive repertoire
8. Conversation employs a vernacular range of expression
9. Lack of functional explanation
From the statement above, the writer concludes that purpose of conversation is for negotiating, sharing, exchange of minds and ideas.
Conversation also is a medium, which can unite the different perceptions, viewpoints, and opinions and make one solution to be gained.
C. Types of Conversation
According to Patrick Jenlink and Alison Carr in their book ’Education Technology, 31-38
’ there are four types of conversation, discussion is the most
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Buchmann et.al., Detachment and Concern…, p.105- p.110
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Biber, et.al., Longman; Grammar Of Spoken And Written English…, p.1041- p.1051
familiar and pragmatic; dialogue is also pragmatic but less common. Dialectic and design conversation are more disciplined orientations.
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1. Dialectic Conversation
Dialectic conversation focuses on framing a logical argument for searching the truth. It is a scientific approach, a disciplined inquiry into whatever is being
examined. In dialectic conversation, participants are often rigid in their beliefs and debate for what they perceive as truths.
2. Discussion Conversation
Discussion conversation is the forum in which many of us advocate for our own individual position. Unlike the logical argument expressed by dialectic,
discussion is more subjectively influenced by opinion and supposition. Discussion conversations are transactional in nature, one participant negotiating with others
with the advocacy and preservation of personal assumptions as the center of the discourse.
3. Dialogue Conversation
Dialogue conversation is a conversation where meaning is constructed through sharing. It is a community-building form of conversation. Its purpose is to
create a setting where conscious collective mindfulness can be maintained. This form of discourse transforms the individual thinking and thought processes,
creating collective thought. It requires that individuals first examine their personal assumptions or opinions and then suspend these assumptions before the entire
group. They must step out of their advocacy for personally held assumptions as well as those of others. This type of conversation recognizes variously held
common experiences. According to Mary Finocchiaro and Michael Bonomo, dialogues in which
individuals listen to a speaker and react, either by speaking themselves or by performing some action, are especially well suited for practicing language in
realistic communication situations. Dialogues permit students to practice whole statements, questions, or formulas of the language rather than items or bits of
language which, by themselves, do not duplicate the real communication or
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http:carbon.cudenver.edu~lsherrycoursesjenlink.html.
