VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULITY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ------ ------ NGUYỄN THỊ MAI HỮU TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS (Chiến lược lượt lời trong hội thoại thông thường Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt) M.A Combined Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Hanoi – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULITY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ------ ------ NGUYỄN THỊ MAI HỮU TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS (Chiến lược lượt lời trong hội thoại thông thường Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt) M.A Combined Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: PROF. NGUYỄN HÒA Hanoi – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ………………….v List of Tables …………………………………………….vi List of Figures …………………………….vii Transcription Conventions …………………………………….viii Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………………………………….2 Objectives and significance of the study …………………………………….3 Scope of the study …………………………………………………………….4 Organization of the study …………………………………………………….4 Chapter 2: Literature Review ………………………………………………………….2 The Organization of Turn-taking ………………………………………………7 2.1 Definitions of Turn ……………………………………………….2 Turn-taking Organization ………………………………………….3 Turn-taking strategies in English conversations …………………………….1 Verbal turn-taking strategies …………………………………….6 Overlaps and interruptions ……………………………….2 Non-verbal turn-taking strategies ……………………………….15 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Turn-taking strategies in Vietnamese conversations ………………………….1 Verbal turn-taking strategies …………………………………….2 Non-verbal turn-taking strategies …………………………………21 Chapter 3: Methodology ……………………………………………………………….3 Data collection procedure ……………………………………….28 Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion ……………………………………….1 Analysis of the participants and the settings of the recorded conversations .2 Turn-taking strategies in Vietnamese casual conversations ………………….1 Verbal turn-taking strategies ………………………………….2 Non-verbal turn-taking strategies ………………………………42 4.3 Similarities and differences between turn-taking strategies used in English casual conversations and those used in Vietnamese casual conversations ….60 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.62 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications ……….1 Turn-taking strategies in English conversations …………….2 Turn-taking strategies in Vietnamese conversations …………….3 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese turn-taking strategies …………………………………………………………………….3 Limitationa and suggestions for further studies ……………………………………71 References ……………………………………………………………….73 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 ABSTRACT Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) stated that “the organization of taking turns to talk is fundamental to conversation, as well as to other speech-exchange systems.” Since these scholars developed a systematic mechanism of turn-taking in English conversations in 1974, much research has been conducted on the field and turn- taking has become a central issue in pragmatics and conversation analysis. Under the scope of conversation analysis, this M.A thesis is conducted to discuss the turn- taking mechanism in general and the turn-taking strategies in particular in casual Vietnamese conversations. Video ethnography and stimulated recall were applied to collect data for analysis, with which a system of turn-taking signals in Vietnamese conversations was developed.
The system included both verbal and non-verbal signals, namely adjacency pairs, name nomination, appositionals, recompleters, overlaps, syntactic cues, prosodies, pause, gaze directions, head movement, kinesics, and postures. These strategies were, then, compared and contrasted to those applied by the English speakers to detect any patterns that stand out. On the whole, many strategies applied in the two languages are identical; whilst differences were spotted in the use of prosodies, pause between turns, lexicons, and overlap in the two languages. Specifically, the Vietnamese speakers rely on lexicons more often than the English speakers do to identify transition relevant places and to request a turn.
Besides, the Vietnamese speakers, who tend to favor sound volume or loudness rather than pitch variation to keep, to acquire, or to surrender a turn, seem to overlap in a higher frequency than the English speakers do. Also, as compared to the English, the Vietnamese speakers have the propensity to tolerate silence of longer duration between turns. With such findings, implications for teaching English in Vietnam are discussed to wind up the thesis. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Distribution of genders in ten conversations Table 2: Results of t-test run on the independent samples of turn-taking strategies applied by gender and intimacy Table 3: Distribution of adjacency pairs in the conversations Table 4: Overlaps by gender and intimacy Table 5: Distribution of turns with turn-taking signals in terms of intensity, pitch, tempo, and duration among participants Table 6: Intra-turn spaces and inter-turn spaces LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Sample picture of one recorded conversation Figure 2: Measurements of intensity, duration, tempo, and pitch with Nuendo 3.0 Figure 3: Measurement of intensity with Nuendo 3.0 Figure 4: Sound of low intensity as turn-end signal Figure 5: High intensity as turn-acquiring signal Figure 6: High intensity as turn holding signal Figure 7: Measurement of pitch with Nuendo 3.0 Figure 8: Rising contour as turn-beginning signal and Falling contour as turn-end signal Figure 9: High tempo as turn-end signal Figure 10: Adobe Audition 1.5 – Time Length Measurement Figure 11: Hand raise to self-select a turn Figure 12: Gesturing to select a next speaker LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS [ Indicates the points of overlap onset ] Indicates the point of overlap termination = a) turn continues bellow, at the next identical symbol b) if inserted at the end of one speaker’s turn and at the beginning of the next speaker’s turn, it indicates that there is no gap at all between the two turns (2) An interval between utterances (two seconds in this case) - A single dash indicates an abrupt cut-off CAPITALS Especially loud sounds relative to surrounding talk Ah::: Indicates lengthening the preceding sound ○ ○ Utterances between degree signs are noticeably quieter than surrounding talk I… “.” indicates uncompleted utterance ↑ ↓ Indicate marked shifts into higher or lower pitch in the utterance following the arrow Turn taking Indicates utterances of higher tempo than surrounding talk Turn taking Indicates utterances of lower tempo than surrounding talk ☺ Smiley voice X___G1 The gaze of the speaker is marked above an utterance and that of the addressee below it.
An unbroken line (___) indicates that the party marked is gazing towards the other (girl 1 in this case); absence indicates lack of gaze.) mark the transition from nongaze to gaze and the point where the gaze reaches the other is marked by X. Commas (, , ,) indicates the moment when gaze is shifted. ((raise hand)) Non-verbal actions or editor’s comments (hhh) Laughter tokens (unintelligible) Indicates a stretch of talk that is unintelligible to the analyst (comment) Single parentheses indicate unclear or probable item LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the following parts are presented: - Rationale – reasons for choosing the research topic - Objectives and significance of the study - Scope of the study, and - Organization of the study 1.1 RATIONALE In a recent study about turn-taking (2009:10587), Tanya Stivers, Steven Levinson, Makoto Hayashi and other linguists stated that ―informal conversation is where language is learned and where most of the business of social life is conducted. A fundamental part of the infrastructure for conversation is turn-taking, or the apportioning of who is to speak next and when.‖ Actually, much research has been conducted to study the organization of turn-taking in English; however, little has been done about that in the Vietnamese language.
Also, I have queried a lot whether there is a universal set of rules governing the turn-taking system across cultures or that set varies culture to culture. With that thinking in mind, I came up to carry out this research, which is about the turn-taking strategies in Vietnamese casual conversations and comparing those to turn-taking strategies applied in English conversations. More significantly, in the main course of doing the research, it became more practical when I looked at it from different perspectives. From a language teacher‘s point of view, one of the most important purposes of learning English is the communicative purpose.
English learners have so far been familiar to meaning, language in use, and so on, but not many of them realize that there are still other matters that may help them master conversations when they are actually involved in. One LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 of those matters is turn-taking. Actually, certain strategies are commonly used in English for taking, holding onto, and relinquishing the floor in conversations. The problem is whether these strategies are used in the mother tongue of the English learners and whether they are aware of such strategies if there are certain differences between those used in the mother tongue and those used in English.
Thus, this paper seeks to examine different strategies employed during casual conversations by native Vietnamese speakers, to take, hold onto and relinquish the floor. The strategies will then be compared with those used by English speakers in their native language, and some pedagogical implications for teaching conversation in English classes will be discussed. From a sociologist‘s stance, the following is worth mentioning. The 21st Century is marked as the information era or the computer age, in which Internet is conceived as a distributed network that could connect computers together and with the invention of World Wide Web, Internet truly became a global network.
Internet today has become the ultimate platform for accelerating the flow of information and is the fastest-growing form of media. With the ease and convenience of exchanging information via Internet, people are more and more reliable on Internet and less on direct communication. ―Staff sitting next to each other send email rather than speak‖ (Gascoigne, 2004). People find it easier to chat via Internet than meet in person.
These cause serious problems to direct communication in general, and to communication skills in particular. Therefore, one purpose of this study is to improve learners‘ communication ability with the awareness of some turn-taking signals used in Vietnamese and English casual conversations. From the viewpoint of a technocrat, the study of a systematic turn-taking may make a little contribution to the robotic industry, which is to develop the turn-taking system in Vietnamese so as that the robot designers may find it useful in their creating robots closer to human beings, the new version of robots with ability to interpret both verbal and nonverbal languages.2 OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Turn-taking actually plays important role in everyday communication. For the Vietnamese studying English and the people of other languages studying Vietnamese to LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 achieve smooth conversations in practice, it is a prerequisite to know how the turn-taking mechanism varies across cultures.
The research aims of this study, therefore, are to investigate: - Turn-taking strategies used in Vietnamese casual conversations by native Vietnamese speakers. - The similarities and differences of turn-taking strategies used in English and Vietnamese. To achieve the above-stated objectives, the research questions should be designed so as that they cater for sufficient and relevant findings. With such, the below questions will be dealt with: (1) What turn-taking strategies are used in Vietnamese casual conversations? (2) What are the differences and similarities between turn-taking strategies used in English casual conversations and those used in Vietnamese ones? This study shall be of interest to those who are concerned with or have worked on Conversation Analysis, to the teachers and learners of English and of Vietnamese, who desire to develop a systematic conversation rules supporting in improving learners‘ interactional skills in the target languages, and to those who are struggling to improve their communication skills so as that they get involved in smooth and successful face-to- face conversations.
Specifically concerning Conversation Analysis, different researchers are recently paying much attention to turn-taking, under which two contradicted hypotheses are developed: (1) universal system hypothesis, which supports a universal set of rules governing the turn-taking mechanism across cultures, and (2) culture variability hypothesis, by which turn-taking is language and culture dependent. This study will be of moderately-significant contribution in settling such controversy over turn-taking.