Turn-taking System Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Turn-Taking in Arabic and English Conversations: Implications for Language Learners

Early work in conversation analysis focused primarily on English conversations. During the past 20 years, conversation analysts started to investigate informal verbal interaction within communities with a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Sidnell, 2007). Although comparative studies have examined a wide range of languages, there seems to be no emphasis on Arabic conversations. This study aims to explore whether there are differences between informal Arabic and English conversations turn-taking system. Six participants, three native Arabic speakers and three native speakers of English, took place in this study. Data were collected through audio recording; seventeen minutes for Arabic conversations and 20 minutes for the English conversation. The study revealed that there were no major differences between Arabic and English informal conversations in terms of the turn-taking system. While English speakers used more filling words such as “mm”, “yeh”, and “so” to keep the conversation going, both Arabic and English speakers aimed to minimize the gap and overlap. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of cross-cultural interactions and offer implications for language teaching and learning.

Turn-Taking Machinery in a Japanese Sign Language Triadic Conversation in an Online Environment

Abstract: This article explores turn-taking in Japanese Sign Language (JSL) by using Baker's (1977) framework. JSL as a language is wholly unrelated to American Sign Language (ASL), but because Baker and other discourse analysts have always been concerned mostly with ASL and European sign languages, it remains to be seen if Asian sign languages such as JSL have similar discourse mechanisms at work. Baker introduces three types of regulators that manage who has the floor in ASL conversations: initiation regulators, continuation regulators, and shift regulators. The sequential analysis, which looks closely at each case of regulatory behavior as they happen in chronological order, will be used. The video analyzed consists of three fluent deaf JSL users recorded on a virtual platform. While Baker's turn-taking system holds water for the most part, there are some crucial differences that deserve further examination. As the recording was done remotely rather than in person, a turn-taking mechanism not made explicit by Baker has been observed, and an addition to the sign language turn-taking process is put forward.

Phonetic differences between affirmative and feedback head nods in German Sign Language (DGS): A pose estimation study.

This study investigates head nods in natural dyadic German Sign Language (DGS) interaction, with the aim of finding whether head nods serving different functions vary in their phonetic characteristics. Earlier research on spoken and sign language interaction has revealed that head nods vary in the form of the movement. However, most claims about the phonetic properties of head nods have been based on manual annotation without reference to naturalistic text types and the head nods produced by the addressee have been largely ignored. There is a lack of detailed information about the phonetic properties of the addressee's head nods and their interaction with manual cues in DGS as well as in other sign languages, and the existence of a form-function relationship of head nods remains uncertain. We hypothesize that head nods functioning in the context of affirmation differ from those signaling feedback in their form and the co-occurrence with manual items. To test the hypothesis, we apply OpenPose, a computer vision toolkit, to extract head nod measurements from video recordings and examine head nods in terms of their duration, amplitude and velocity. We describe the basic phonetic properties of head nods in DGS and their interaction with manual items in naturalistic corpus data. Our results show that phonetic properties of affirmative nods differ from those of feedback nods. Feedback nods appear to be on average slower in production and smaller in amplitude than affirmation nods, and they are commonly produced without a co-occurring manual element. We attribute the variations in phonetic properties to the distinct roles these cues fulfill in turn-taking system. This research underlines the importance of non-manual cues in shaping the turn-taking system of sign languages, establishing the links between such research fields as sign language linguistics, conversational analysis, quantitative linguistics and computer vision.

Analysis of the Documentary The Firsts in Life from the Perspective of the Turn-taking System

Analysis of the Documentary The Firsts in Life from the Perspective of the Turn-taking System

The Strategy of Turn-Taking in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

This scientific article examines the turn-taking system and adjacency pairs in George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" to gain insights into the rules and characteristics of conversational interaction. The study aims to investigate the adoption of turn-taking rules and components in the selected texts, analyze the structure of the texts, and explore the tactics employed in written texts related to turn-taking rules, elements, preference systems, and adjacency pairs. Through a meticulous analysis of the selected texts, it is revealed that the data adheres to the criteria of the turn-taking system and includes both adjacency pairs and insertion sequences. The findings contribute to the understanding of the turn-taking theory and its application in analyzing discourse. The implications of this research highlight the importance of understanding the systematic nature of turn-taking in facilitating successful exchanges in conversations and provide valuable insights for conversation analysts, linguists, and professionals in the field of discourse analysis.
 Highlights:
 
 Analysis of turn-taking system and adjacency pairs in "Pygmalion" play.
 Investigation of turn-taking rules, components, and tactics employed in written texts.
 Findings demonstrate adherence to turn-taking criteria and presence of adjacency pairs and insertion sequences.
 
 Keywords: Turn-Taking System, Adjacency Pairs, Conversation Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Pygmalion

Invitation to respond by rhetoric or delivery

Abstract English (an SVO language) and Korean (an SOV language) are polar opposites in terms of grammatical order. Studies show that rhetorical devices (RDs) are effective in generating collective audience responses in British political oratory. This article attempts to study the functions of RDs in Korean oratory and the importance of speech delivery. Through the analysis of the speaker-audience turn-taking systems, it is suggested that RDs do not function as cross-cultural universals in the invitation of audience responses but rather depend on the syntactic structure of a given language and the use of nonverbal factors. Thus, due to SOV language features, RDs do not play a predominant role in inviting audience responses in Korean oratory, whereas speech delivery is crucial.

The paradox of disengagement: Bodily displays of inattention in couple therapy

Using concepts developed by Goffman and the theory of inter-corporeality, this paper describes non-speaking spouses' responses to complaints made about them by the other spouse in the context of couple therapy first consultations. While the turn-taking system of couple therapy effectively precludes the possibility of a direct verbal response, non-speaking spouses often display bodily their disengagement from their spouse's talk. Using multimodal conversation analysis as the method, we show the repertoire of such disengagement behaviors and trace the moment-by-moment contexts in which they arise. While disengagement behaviors embody their producer's inattention to their spouse's talk, at the same time, they are, paradoxically, interactional moves produced in the presence of others, conveying their producer's negative stance to the ongoing talk. We argue that the timing of these disengagement practices involves anticipation of the direction of talk: non-speaking spouses display disengagement in moments when the speaking spouse's talk takes a direction toward an intensification of complaints about them.

Questions with address terms in Indonesian conversation: Managing next-speaker selection and action formation

This study explores the turn-taking system in conversations involving speakers of Indonesian, focusing on explicit next speaker selection in Indonesian multiparty conversation. The dataset comes from nine and a half hours of recordings of everyday conversations between 64 people. Using conversation analysis, this study examines Indonesian speakers use of an explicit practice for next speaker selection – address terms – in questions. Specifically, it focuses on 238 questions including address terms. This study demonstrates that address terms are used to commence courses of action and deal with problems of mutual orientation, deal with problems that emerge in a turn or sequence, address a person-specific action, or carry out fine aspects of action formation. These findings offer a dimension for describing diversity and commonality in conversation across languages and cultures.

The multiple constraints of addressed questions in whole-class interaction: Responses from unaddressed pupils

This article explores pupils’ responses to addressed questions in two third-year primary school classes, organized as plenary interaction and based on the next-speaker selection. In this context, unaddressed pupils often produce responses of various kinds spontaneously, showing that the next-speaker selection per se does not exclude unaddressed pupils from participating. Analysis of the design and position of these responses show their orderly nature as mainly depending on the following dimensions: the position of the address term in the question and who has primary access to answers. Pupils’ responses display a high level of awareness of the next-speaker selection rule operating in this setting, and more globally, of the turn-taking system. This competence enables pupils to understand and navigate the other-selection rule, often gaining their right to speakership. In line with prior studies on multiparty interactions, the article shows that teachers’ questions pose multiple constraints on responses.

제도 대화에서의 질문 유형과 효과성 분석 : 국무총리 인사청문회를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to analyze confirmation hearings for Prime Minister Nominees from the perspective of institutional conversation analysis, to identify what types of questions politicians use and their effectiveness related to the institutional context. The data consist of confirmation hearings for the 45th former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and the 46th former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and were transcribed and analyzed based on the transcription system suggested by Gail Jefferson. The findings show that a confirmation hearing is a highly institutionalized conversation that has legal regulations on the turn-taking system and time limit for speaking with a clear purpose of verifying the qualification of bureaucrat nominees. Questioners set topical agenda and strategically used questions in the form of polar, alternative, and close-ended with prefaced statements implying specific presuppositions to limit the nominees' answers. Questioners recognized and performed their role under the institutional context, and at the same time played the role of an intermediary relaying the answer to the listener outside the conversation situation. Questions have significance in that they are being used as an effective means to achieve the institutional purpose of the confirmation hearing system.

Self-Repeats-as-Unit-Ends: A Practice for Promoting Interactivity During Surgeons’ Decision-Related Informings

ABSTRACT Although information provision is a prerequisite of informed decision making in surgical consultations, research has shown that patients’ understanding of such information is often limited. We use conversation analysis to illustrate patients’ and surgeons’ management of interactivity, intersubjectivity, and progressivity during information provision, which frequently takes the form of extended tellings. In the midtelling phase of extended tellings, the surgeon is the primary speaker and patients orient to the temporary suspension of the usual turn-taking system. On the rare occasions that patients do take the floor midtelling, it is overwhelmingly following surgeons’ self-repeats-as-unit-ends, which include gist formulations. We argue that surgeons’ self-repeats-as-unit-ends are a practice for encouraging interactivity during extended tellings and as a consequence for facilitating shared understanding of decision-relevant information. Data are in English.

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.

Analysis of Turn-Taking System and Gender Differences in Online Iranian EFL Classrooms

Analysis of Turn-Taking System and Gender Differences in Online Iranian EFL Classrooms

Conversation Analysis of Turn Taking in the Political Interview between Luara Kuenssberg and Boris Johnson

The concentrate on political interview between Luara Kuenssberg and Boris Johnson. According to the researcher's knowledge a lot of interviews have been studied pragmatically, but no one has tackled them in a conversation analysis study. So, this field needs research because it is one of the scientific fields that was not previously studied.
 The study aims at 1- examining the dominant of the turn taking system between the participants in the interview. 2- The analysis is focused on the utterances said by speakers of the dialogue between Luara Kuenssberg and Boris Johnson. The study hypothesizes that 1- the textual structure of interview is organized in accordance with feature of the turn-taking system. 2- turn taking system dominants the participants in their interview. To achieve the aims of the present study and to validate its hypotheses, one script of political interviews is selected. The theoretical model used as the basis for the analytical work is a synthesis of theoretical views and practical procedures proposed and used by Sacks, H, Schegloff, E, and Jefferson, G, (1978). The present study employed a descriptive qualitative approach since the findings were presented in narrative or textual descriptions. The conclusions of the analysis confirm the two hypotheses of the present study. They are as follows :1- Structures of interviews are organized in accordance with specific features operating on the turn-taking system. Turn allocation process is controlled by the interviewer who is considered the main controller of the conversation. 2- Interviewers alone can maintain their turns by continuous speech causing temporal overlap in the display of turns.

The Analysis of Peer-Peer Interaction Through L1 Group Discussion

The purpose of this research is to examine the significance of peer-peer interactions on L1 discussions for L2 reading tasks. This research was designed to see how college EFL students interact during a L1 group discussion assigned as part of an L2 reading task by a means of CA (conversation analysis). Five college EFL students engaged in an L1 group discussion on L2 reading comprehension questions and their conversations were video-recorded for transcription. The peer-peer interaction CA analyzed discussions through a turn-taking system and contextualization cues and has provided pedagogical implications. Observed interactions among students showed that a team leader playing a role as a mediator attempted to focus on the issues arising during the discussion to solve and foster the engagement from other team members. The findings of this study suggest that students effectively find the best ways of reaching desirable conclusions through negotiation-driven interactions. Group discussions with L1 can encourage students to use their linguistic resources to perform the L2 task effectively, which leads to successful completion of the given tasks.

Conversation and Culture

Conversation analysis is a method for the systematic study of interaction in terms of a sequential turn-taking system. Research in conversation analysis has traditionally focused on speakers of English, and it is still unclear to what extent the system observed in that research applies to conversation more generally around the world. However, as this method is now being applied to conversation in a broader range of languages, it is increasingly possible to address questions about the nature of interactional diversity across different speech communities. The approach of pragmatic typology first applies sequential analysis to conversation from different speech communities and then compares interactional patterns in ways analogous to how traditional linguistic typology compares morphosyntax. This article discusses contemporary literature in pragmatic typology, including single-language studies and multilanguage comparisons reflecting both qualitative and quantitative methods. This research finds that microanalysis of face-to-face interaction can identify both universal trends and culture-specific interactional tendencies.

Speakership, recipiency and the interactional space: Cases of “Next-speaker self-selects” in multiparty university student meetings

This paper addresses the pragmatics of meeting interactions by focusing on a locally managed turn-taking system in a recurring meeting activity that is yet to be examined, namely, roundtable update discussion. In these activities, a meeting chair appoints primary speakership to each participant to give an update on recent work, during which non-chair, non-primary co-participants may contribute ideas and raise questions. By examining a collection of four cases of one specific turn-taking practicev, namely, next speaker self-selection, this study illustrates: 1) how the static, seated interactional space affords a non-chair, non-primary participant various multimodal resources in pursuing and constructing his/her self-selecting actions, and 2) how co-participants mobilise the multimodal resources that are made available by the physical seating arrangements in the local ecologies of the activity, to carry out mutual monitoring and orientation in accordance with their emerging roles. Particularly, this study explores the systematicity of participants’ mobilisation of multimodal resources by revealing the hierarchical order of gaze/head movements, upper torso and gesture when deployed in side-by-side and face-to-face seating arrangements. Such an explication shed new lights on how visual access in-between incipient self-selecting speakers and current speakers is exploited as a publicly-available resource to contextualise the operation of turn-taking.

Turn-allocation and gaze: A multimodal revision of the “current-speaker-selects-next” rule of the turn-taking system of conversation analysis

It is argued in this paper that a multimodal analysis of turn-taking, one of the core areas of conversation analytic research, is needed and has to integrate gaze as one of the most central resources for allocating turns, and that new technologies are available that can provide a solid and reliable empirical foundation for this analysis. On the basis of eye-tracking data of spontaneous conversations, it is shown that gaze is the most ubiquitous next-speaker-selection technique. It can function alone or enhance other techniques. I also discuss the interrelationship between the strength for sequential projection and the choice of next-speaker-selection techniques by a current speaker. The appropriate consideration of gaze leads to a revision of the turn-taking model in that it reduces the domain of self-selection and expands that of the current-speaker-selects-next sub-rule. It also has consequences for the analysis of “simultaneous starts”.

Turn Control and the Right to Speak in the Moroccan Classroom A Critical Discourse Analysis

Turn Control and the Right to Speak in the Moroccan Classroom A Critical Discourse Analysis Abdelhak BZIOUI, PhD Abstract This article aims at studying how talk is distributed among the participants in the classrooms observed. It considers both the structure of turn-taking and the propositional content of participants‘ turns. The focus is finding out in what ways the turn-taking system in the classroom reflects a certain power structure that bears on the observation of human rights principles inside the classroom; namely, the right to speak, to self-express, to argue, to hold and voice a different opinion, and other related rights. The turn-taking sequence is analysed in light of Rymes‘ (2009) analytical framework. There are three main dimensions to this analysis of turn-taking, namely, the interactional context, the social context, and individual agency. The study shows that teachers tend to strictly maintain T-S-T exchange patterns, ask largely closed questions, and allow relatively short thinking time; a situation which would endanger the spirit of dialogue and the students‘ sense of ―I‖ in the target classes. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v10n1a11

Whose turn is it anyway? Latency and the organization of turn-taking in video-mediated interaction

Latency in video-mediated interaction can frustrate smooth turn-taking: it may cause participants to perceive silence at points where talk should occur, it may cause them to talk in overlap, and it impedes their ability to return to one-speaker-at-a-time. Whilst potentially frustrating for participants, this makes video-mediated interaction a perspicuous setting for the study of social interaction: it is an environment that nurtures the occurrence of turn-taking problems. For this paper, we conducted secondary analysis of 25 video consultations recorded for heart failure, (antenatal) diabetes, and cancer services in the UK. By comparing video recordings of the patient's and clinician's side of the call, we provide a detailed analysis of how latency interferes with the turn-taking system, how participants understand problems, and how they address them. We conclude that in our data latency unnoticed until it becomes problematic: participants act as if they share the same reality.