To what extent can a comedy drama provide a classroom model for natural conversation? A multi-dimensional register analysis of the British series Cold Feet

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether the British comedy drama Cold Feet could be used in English learning contexts to expose students to useful elements of natural conversation. Using additive multi-dimensional register analysis, we empirically ascertain how similar the language used in Cold Feet is to that of natural conversation. Through n-gram analysis, we furthermore examine to what extent the subtitles of Cold Feet share any register markers or style features with natural conversation in the Spoken BNC2014. The results show that Cold Feet shares many characteristics with natural conversation. It is matched closest to “conversations” on Dimension 1, but “general fiction” on Dimensions 3 and 5. Based on the findings, we provide concrete pedagogical recommendations for using the comedy drama as a classroom model with which students can critically engage to improve their linguistic awareness and conversation skills.