Transition Relevance Place Research Articles

Aided-speaking students’ unsolicited questions in teacher-fronted classroom talk: the use of speech-generating devices to ask questions

ABSTRACT Using the framework of conversation analysis, this paper examines aided-speaking students’ unsolicited speech-generating device (SGD)-mediated questions in teacher-fronted classroom talk. The analysis draws on a corpus of 18 h of video-recorded classroom interactions including 23 aided-speaking students using SGDs or picture-based communication boards. In all, 5% of the students’ contributions were unsolicited questions, produced by three students. The students were found to orient to turn transition relevance places, but due to prolonged production time their questions risked sequential and topical misplacement in the ongoing classroom talk and were vulnerable to misunderstandings. To address this problem, students activated the synthetic voice before finalising the question, claiming the interactional floor while securing time to complete their utterance. They also refrained from activating the synthetic voice and instead made the question visually available for the teacher to read, thereby transferring the responsibility for answering the question to the teacher when sequentially and topically relevant. The study demonstrates the complex interactional process of formulating SGD-mediated questions, sometimes requiring that the teacher, assistants, and students engage in repair work and scaffolding to establish the meaning of a student’s utterance. The findings imply that the treatment of non-speaking students’ contributions as questions requires designated teacher work.

Stand-Alone Facial Gestures as Other-Initiations of Repair

Based on video recordings of everyday German face-to-face interaction, we focus on how eyebrow furrows, eyebrow raising, eye widening, and freeze-look are used without co-occurring verbal repair initiations to indicate a problem in another participant’s turn. Unlike verbal initiations, facial other-initiations of repair only minimally disrupt the progressivity of interaction, since they can be used simultaneously with the emerging trouble-source turn and do not initiate a side sequence. Through their early positioning and their sequentially unobstructive character, facial other-initiations of repair systematically provide an occasion for the speaker of the repairable turn to carry out self-repair at the next transition-relevance place. Our findings point to the necessity of reconsidering traditional conceptualizations of the repair system in order to take bodily repair-initiating practices into account.

Transition-Relevance Places Machine Learning-Based Detection in Dialogue Interactions

A transition-relevance place (TRP) represents a place in a conversation where a change of speaker can occur. The appearance and use of these points in the dialogue ensures a correct and smooth alternation between the speakers. In the presented article, we focused on the study of prosodic speech parameters in the Slovak language, and we tried to experimentally verify the potential of these parameters to detect TRP. To study turn-taking issues in dyadic conversations, the Slovak dialogue corpus was collected and annotated. TRP places were identified by the human annotator in the manual labelling process. The data were then divided into chunks that reflect the length of the interpausal dialogue units and the prosodic features were computed. In the Matlab environment, we compared different types of classifiers based on machine learning in the role of an automatic TRP detector based on pitch and intensity parameters. The achieved results indicate that prosodic parameters can be useful in detecting TRP after splitting the dialogue into interpausal units. The designed approach can serve as a tool for automatic conversational analysis or can be used to label large databases for training predictive models, which can help machines to enhance human-machine spoken dialogue applications.

Turn-taking in human face-to-face interaction is multimodal: gaze direction and manual gestures aid the coordination of turn transitions.

Human communicative interaction is characterized by rapid and precise turn-taking. This is achieved by an intricate system that has been elucidated in the field of conversation analysis, based largely on the study of the auditory signal. This model suggests that transitions occur at points of possible completion identified in terms of linguistic units. Despite this, considerable evidence exists that visible bodily actions including gaze and gestures also play a role. To reconcile disparate models and observations in the literature, we combine qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse turn-taking in a corpus of multimodal interaction using eye-trackers and multiple cameras. We show that transitions seem to be inhibited when a speaker averts their gaze at a point of possible turn completion, or when a speaker produces gestures which are beginning or unfinished at such points. We further show that while the direction of a speaker's gaze does not affect the speed of transitions, the production of manual gestures does: turns with gestures have faster transitions. Our findings suggest that the coordination of transitions involves not only linguistic resources but also visual gestural ones and that the transition-relevance places in turns are multimodal in nature. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction'.

‘Silence is not always golden’

The past two decades have seen a growing interest in research on call centre discourse from sociolinguistic and pragmatic perspectives. Turn-by-turn micro-analyses of call centre interactions have looked at the complex power relations and face-considerations in dealing with customers’ and agents’ impolite behaviour. Although silence is ubiquitous in dyadic conversations, surprisingly few studies of call centre interactions have investigated silence between adjacency pairs and the potential trouble it may indicate. To fill this gap, this paper explores silence in service calls. Specifically, it first looks at routine calls for information and the most common ways in which silence is accounted for by the agents. It then examines non-routine calls where silence becomes interactionally meaningful following the agents’ withheld responses at a transition-relevance place. Thus, silence becomes marked behaviour by virtue of being oriented to as unexpected by the customer and thus open to evaluations of impoliteness.

The conversation-organising role of the non-lexical sound öö in Hungarian

The non-lexical schwa-like sound öö is traditionally regarded as a hesitation marker in Hungarian conversation that has a role in speech planning. This study provides examples in which öö can be analysed as a discourse marker. In research on discourse markers, there is a view that regards items that control the turn-taking system or other aspects of conversation management as discourse markers. Relying on this background, this paper explores öö from a conversation analytic perspective. Findings show that öö can serve as a device to take the floor at the transition-relevance place. In overlapping speech, öö can manage turn-taking by helping speakers keep the floor. If the speaker intends or needs to speak but does not yet know what to say or intends to avoid unintelligibility during overlapping speech, she can deploy öö as an overt but non-lexical element that projects further talk. Consequently, by using öö the speaker can claim or keep the turn space without using lexical elements. Since these functions influence the distribution of turns among participants, i.e. the sequential structure of the conversation, öö can be regarded as a discourse marker in these contexts.

Multimodal Try-marking for Securing Recipient Understanding of Codeswitched Lexical Items in Everyday ELF Conversations

In this paper I analyse sequences where multilingual English as lingua franca (ELF) speakers codeswitch single lexical items from their native language in an attempt to resolve a word search or when displaying hesitancy. The main focus of the paper is on try-marking used by the speakers as a technique for securing recipient understanding of the codeswitched items. The analysis shows that try-marking does not only comprise rising intonation but also specific embodied resources that highlight and prolong the relevance of recipient response beyond prosodic marking. The analysis also presents a single case in which the speaker invites recipient confirmation of understanding without using rising intonation but by relying mainly on the end positioning of the target word near the transition relevance place in combination with response-mobilising embodied cues. The results add to our knowledge of how participants pre-empt trouble and achieve mutual understanding in linguistically diverse ELF settings.

Identifying the Register Demolishing Hierarchy in American Discourse through Transition Relevance Place: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

In discourse, Transition Relevance Place (TRP), which transpires when the speaker changes in turn-taking, indicates numerous issues about participants' relationships, intentions, and roles in that conversation. For example, silence has the power to signal various concerns, ranging from comfort to awkwardness. Overlapping might mean cooperation or challenge depending on the context. Besides, etiquette in a conversation is scrupulously observed in formal exchanges, and interrupting the speaker is considered a severe violation of etiquette in conversations. Interlocutors tend to obey the sequences of transition in conversations, and exceptions are functional as participants of a conversation perceive them as divergent from the expected flow. In this sense, TRP is rather observable in a register regarding the possible effects it might contribute to it. As an area of sociolinguistics, register defines language use proper to a particular function in a context. Therefore, this study will argue that in an American comedy sitcom, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the interlocutors reconstruct the usual formal register by demolishing hierarchy through TRP.

Embodied Responses to Questions-in-Progress: Silent Nods as Affirmative Answers

ABSTRACT This study examines head nods produced as embodied and silent answers to polar questions before a transition relevance place has been reached. It discusses the notion of “response” and the ways in which the literature conceptualizes head nods. The analysis of video recordings of ordinary and institutional multiparty interactions shows that answer-nods rely on mutual gaze and that affirmative head nods may co-occur with other facial expressions (e.g., eye blinks). By replying with a silent head nod, respondents may complete an unfolding adjacency pair without claiming speakership, thereby enabling the questioner to extend their turn-in-progress. Alternatively, respondents may expand their answer-nod with talk, in which case silent nodding may contribute to organizing the smooth transition of turns-at-talk. Head nods produced while a question is unfolding are described as a microsequential phenomenon that may affect the questioner’s turn-in-progress. Data are in French and Italian.

Pragmatics of overlapping talk in therapy sessions

            Abstract Cooperation in conversation is usually managed by the turn- taking mechanism where the interlocutors’ turns are done according to certain rules the most important of which is that ‘one and only one speaker speaks at a time’. Since talk can be used as a cure for people who have troubles in their life, psychotherapy uses the field of conversation analysis as a procedure to deal with such troubles. Conversation analysis with all its essential facts helps therapists find out the reasons behind their patient's difficulties and predict the solutions for them. One of such essentials is that of the turn taking system and more specifically the ‘overlapping talk’. The aim of the present research paper is to show what types of overlap mostly overwhelm the therapy session and how the overlap is managed and resolved. To do so, two scripts taken from two psychological therapy sessions are selected and examined using Sacks et al’s model (1974) and Jefferson’s model (1983). The study has come to the conclusion that the overlapping talk usually occurs because of the misjudgment of the transition relevance places (TRPs) due to its type whether transitional or progressional. It has also been noticed that the terminal overlap is used more frequently than the other types. Continuers such as ‘yeah’, ‘ok’, ‘alright’, ‘aha’, ‘umm’ are used by the therapist to encourage the patients to continue in their turns.

Características interaccionales de algunos marcadores secuenciales del español: un estudio conversacional de partículas lingüísticas

El presente artículo utiliza datos provenientes de conversaciones cotidianas y aplica el método del análisis conversacional para reportar algunas características interaccionales de seis partículas lingüísticas (no, pues, oye, o sea, ah y ay) o marcadores secuenciales, como se les define aquí. Los marcadores secuenciales tienen una función deíctica y de inicio, i.e., hacen referencia al habla anterior o bien inician una nueva actividad interaccional. Por sí mismos, los marcadores constituyen unidades de construcción de turno ya que proyectan momentos pertinentes para la transición del turno. Los marcadores realizan y constituyen acciones sociales interaccionales. El estudio conversacional de estos elementos lingüísticos muestra aspectos lingüístico-culturales de los hablantes. Se sugiere que este tipo de partículas lingüísticas puede ser parte de la “mecánica” universal de la interaccional humana.

Responding in Early Overlap: Recognitional Onsets in Assertion Sequences

ABSTRACTWhat are speakers doing when they overlap with the previous speaker and start their response at a recognition point well before the transition-relevance place? This article adds to the body of literature on overlapping talk initiated by Gail Jefferson and shows that speakers use these turn-onset points to show that they have their own reasons to agree with what the first speaker is saying. That gets on record an equal, independent commitment to the assertion that the previous speaker is making. The overlapping speaker strives for a more balanced, symmetrical relationship with the current speaker with regard to time, speakership, and agency. The data are in Finnish and Estonian with English translation.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions in Interaction: Incomplete Utterances as a Resource for Doing Inquiries

ABSTRACTThis article reports on the use of syntactically incomplete utterances in talk-in-interaction as a resource for doing two sorts of inquiries: seeking information and initiating repair. The element inquired about is made relevant next, and typically given by the addressee, in the form of a completion fitted to the incomplete utterance. Using a vernacular term, the practice could be referred to as “asking a fill-in-the-blank question,” where syntactic structure is distributed across question and answer. It is shown how transition-relevance places can be set up in the absence of syntactic completion and how fill-in-the-blank questions thereby differ from other types of collaborative productions. The particular import and usefulness of incomplete utterances is demonstrated relative to other resources. The phenomenon shows that syntactic completion and turn completion need not coincide and illustrates how questions can constrain the form of answers through projection. Data are in French with English translation.

ALIH TUTUR DALAM WACANA INTERAKSI KELAS DI SMP

The aims of this research is to describe turn taking pattern, adjacency pair, and transition relevance place (TRP). The research used qualitative descriptive method. Data were collected using observation and selected from the classroom interaction at the 9B graders of SMPN 2 Sambungmacan, Sragen on November 2015. The result of analysis showed that turn taking pattern followed talk shift systematically where teacher role was the initiator. Adjacency pair pattern followed 5 of 8 rules so it could not always be applied in conversation. In TRP, it applied a rule where teacher let students respond. If responses were not applicable, teachers let other turns delivering instruction and information.

Teacher Interruptions and Limited Wait Time in EFL Young Learner Classrooms

Abstract In human interaction, change of speakership becomes natural at certain points in utterances called Transition Relevance Places (TRPs), and if a listener steps in at a point that is not a TRP, an interruption, and thus a potential trouble may emerge. In an EFL classroom, a teacher can create learning opportunities by managing interaction successfully, with awareness of TRPs and potential interruptions. Lack of this awareness, conversely, may lead to teacher interruptions and limited student participation. This paper attempts to show how teachers⿿ interruptions and limited wait-time practices affect learner participation and learning opportunities in EFL young learner classrooms. The data consist of transcriptions of video recorded classroom interactions that come from three fifth grade intermediate level classrooms. The findings revealed that teachers⿿ interruptions and limited wait-time obstructed learner participation and learning opportunities in both form-and-accuracy and meaning-and-fluency contexts ( Seedhouse, 2004 ). The results demonstrate that teachers⿿ use of language and their Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC, Walsh, 2006 ) are crucial for providing sufficient learning space and facilitating learner engagement. Implications are discussed for teacher education and teachers⿿ CIC.

Turn-taking in Korean conversation

On the basis of Sacks et al.’s (1974) turn-taking model, I explore the flexibility of the Korean turn-taking system. Noting first that speakers bring a turn to a stop without projected final turn elements, I propose that the turn stop is a legitimate completion specifiable as a transition-relevance place (TRP). I view turn construction as a process of improvisation in which lexical chunks are accumulated one after another to deliver a recognizable action; a TRP is thus constituted at the completion of a lexical chunk loosely tied to a prior lexical chunk. In parallel, a turn stop occurs at a lexical boundary in which the lexical chunks thus far accumulated have conveyed a complete action. I argue that any lexical boundary can serve as a TRP on the condition of action completion, as negotiated and determined by the participants’ shared knowledge and experiences. This flexibility of TRP constitution is proposed as a specification of Sacks et al.’s (1974) generic model applied to Korean conversation.

Adjournments during TV watching: A closer look into the organisation of continuing states of incipient talk

This article examines how participants collaboratively achieve projection of adjournments in TV audience interaction in Turkish. Adjournments are lapses in continuing states of incipient talk (CSIT) when the participants are not just talking but engaged in another activity. Adjournments during CSIT are neither attributable silences nor are they treated as accountable by the participants. Adopting the ethnomethodological tool of conversation analysis, the article reveals two types of episodes of talk in TV audience interaction: (1) adjacency pairs and (2) extended sequences. In adjacency pairs, an adjournment is projected through absence of mutual gaze and providing minimal agreements. In extended sequences, however, gaze aversion and demonstrable establishment of mutual alignment (e.g. using proverbial expression) are employed by the participants to hold the transition relevance place and project adjournments.

The management of turn transition in signed interaction through the lens of overlaps.

There have been relatively few studies on sign language interaction carried out within the framework of conversation analysis (CA). Therefore, questions remain open about how the basic building blocks of social interaction such as turn, turn construction unit (TCU) and turn transition relevance place (TRP) can be understood and analyzed in sign language interaction. Recent studies have shown that signers regularly fine-tune their turn-beginnings to potential completion points of turns (Groeber, 2014; Groeber and Pochon-Berger, 2014; De Vos et al., 2015). Moreover, signers deploy practices for overlap resolution as in spoken interaction (McCleary and Leite, 2013). While these studies have highlighted the signers' orientation to the “one-at-a-time” principle described by Sacks et al. (1974), the present article adds to this line of research by investigating in more detail those sequential environments where overlaps occur. The contribution provides an overview of different types of overlap with a focus of the overlap's onset with regard to a current signer's turn. On the basis of a 33-min video-recording of a multi-party interaction between 4 female signers in Swiss German Sign Language (DSGS), the paper provides evidence for the orderliness of overlapping signing. Furthermore, the contribution demonstrates how participants collaborate in the situated construction of turns as a dynamic and emergent gestalt and how they interactionally achieve turn transition. Thereby the study adds to recent research in spoken and in signed interaction that proposes to rethink turn boundaries and turn transition as flexible and interactionally achieved.

Extending Prior Posts in Dyadic Online Text Chat

This study explores whether chat users are able to extend prior, apparently completed posts in the dyadic online text chat context. Dyadic text chat has a unique turn-taking system, and most chat softwares do not permit users to monitor one another's written messages-in-progress. This is likely to impact on their use of online extensions as an interactional resource. For example, intonation is one interactional device used in spoken conversation to indicate imminent turn closure and project a response from interlocutors, thus creating a possibly complete turn-constructional unit (TCU) and transition relevance places (TRP). The speaker, however, may add further talk to that TCU, thus producing an extension and redoing the TRP. If prosody and monitorability of recipients' online talk production are unavailable as interactional resources, can participants still extend prior posts during online textual interaction? The analysis of chat logs of geographically dispersed speakers of Italian provides new evidence on the fundamental role of semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and punctuation in users' deployment of extending devices with various forms and interactional functions in dyadic textual online chat, as resources for social action.

Managing turn entry: The design of EI-prefaced turns in Mandarin conversation

Using the methodology of conversation analysis, this article examines how participants claim speakership in multiparty Mandarin conversation. Specifically, I describe the use of two previously unspecified practices involving turn-initial ei and demonstrate how their deployment figures in the management of turn transfer in everyday Mandarin interaction. I first show that even though orthographically Mandarin ei is always represented as a stand-alone unit in writing, separated from the sentence that follows, this particle is not always produced as its own prosodic unit in natural conversation and may or may not be latched onto the turn component it prefaces. I next show that the resulting two different turn formats routinely occur at differential sequential positions in my 35hours of data: Whereas speakers commonly deliver an ei-preface in an independent intonation contour when claiming speakership at a transition-relevance place, they tend to latch the ei-preface onto the turn component it preface if the attempt is made at a non-transition-relevance place. I argue that this recurrent orderly distribution should not be viewed as an outcome pre-determined by the sequence's structure, but rather as an embodiment of the would-be next speakers’ orientation to the fit between the incipient turn entry and the currently on-going talk.