Occupational Analysis - Hospital

To what extent does the represented language of medical occupation reflect real language use in this kind of workplace, or language in the work place more generally?

The language used in the Holby City clip successfully reflects work place jargon in a hospital.

In the clip, the language used follows a researched concept that when participants are engaged in genuine enquiry or information sharing, language tends to become grammatically more complex. In the clip, the surgeons exchange saying ‘’Then we need to make a small incision over the vessel that were going to bypass’’ ‘’Her blood pressures dropping…right why don’t we convert her to an open procedure’’. Here we see the engagement of conversation between two surgeons. As the speakers get more involved in what they’re saying, the language used starts to become more complex. They begin to use hospital jargon which outsiders would not understand. The other surgeons who do not talk comply with what they are saying, and so this also supports the study that the common use of technical vocabulary binds it’s users together, whatever relative formal status.

The lack of power constrains a person’s language, even when the powerful participants in a dialogue are using their language for entirely benevolent purposes. The new surgeon tells the experienced and most power surgeon ‘’Why don’t you let me do my job’’. This supports the theory because we see a drop in the use of technical occupational language. The speaker uses common forms of speech despite how he is trying to do something for the purpose of the patient in order to express opinion that he is capable. The experienced surgeon demands ‘’We need to open her up now’’ and again this supports the fact that language is constrained in benevolent purposes as she gets straight to the point in order to save time and help the patient.

My chosen clip from Holby City challenges the idea that equality in the dialogue between participants tend to produce less predictable content and turn taking, as well as more interruptions. During the scene, the surgeons stick strictly to talking about the procedure they are undertaking and use technical jargon in order to communication. The two surgeons jump straight in at each other at the talk which defeats the idea of turn taking as they are eager to express their point.