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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

ORCiD logo with link | University of Stirling
ORCiD logo with link | University of Stirling
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with the University of Stirling.

Published online: 28 July 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.24012.can
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.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Telecinematic language and language teaching
    • 2.1Telecinematic language and comparisons with natural conversation
    • 2.2Telecinematic fictional speech as a classroom model for English language speaking skills
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1The Cold Feet corpus
    • 3.2Analysis methods
      • 3.2.1Additive MD analysis
      • 3.2.2N-gram analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Situational characteristics
    • 4.2MAT results
    • 4.3N-gram results
  • 5.Cold Feet as a classroom model for natural conversation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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