Our task was for Liam to draw several abstract images and shapes. Me and him were back to back, Liam then had to describe to the best of his ability what he had drawn. He was directing me on what to draw, as I could not see what he had drawn, the objective of the task was to try and get identical pictures but more importantly to record what was said in order to practice transcript writing.
Here is an extract from mine and Liam's dialogue.
Liam: To the top left draw a diamond.
Me: (7) Yeah.
Liam: About the space of your little finger (.) on the (.) right edge of the diamond (.) stick your finger out and draw a snowman with a small head(.) but it's got to be joined.
Me: Small head.
Liam: Then a big body going down but don't separate the head (.) don't put a line (2) if you get where I'm coming from.
Dwayne: Yeah.
Liam. Um (3) below the diamond (.) probably a finger space below it do an equal sign.
From this extract you notice a lot (.)'s, these are pauses in Liam's speech. This was because Liam is thinking of the directions in his head before he tells me them. This prevents him from telling me the wrong thing. In this extract you also see a very long pause before I say yeah "Yeah". This is because I was processing in my head what Liam had told me then actually performing the act by drawing the object. After Liam gives me a set of directions, I repeat back to him a part of what he said by saying "Small head". This is a use of back channel agreement, doing this shows that I have heard and understood what he has said, he then also has the opportunity to correct as he has heard what is on my mind.
