Turn Taking and Conversation

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Turn Taking and Conversation: A Study of Turn Taking and Conversation within Discourse Analysis Linguistics 347.3 – Web Presentation http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5flBCPrU9WQ/THSPSGio0xI/AAA AAAAAAAM/EWSwMM7JG00/s1600/conversation.gif Contents: 1- Turn Taking: Introduction 2- Cross-Cultural Turn Taking 3- Turn Taking and Gender 4- Turn Taking and Technology 5- Suggested Further Reading 6- Works Cited and Referenced 1 – Turn Taking: Introduction http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/Dec_06/JR53950-PELKversation.jpg Conversation is not chaos. From a very young age we are taught how to take turns: this helps shape conversations for the rest of our lives (Coates 111). Video of a baby already learning/displaying turn taking skills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKD6jzUxkek&feature=related Turn taking is a cyclical process. It begins with one person speaking, and continues as the speaker gives up control to the next person. The second speaker now has the conversational floor. When the speaker is finished, they give control back to another speaker (in this case, the beginning speaker), thus creating a cycle. The turn taking cycle stops when there is nothing left to say (Woodburn, Arnott, Newell, and Procter 5). Turn taking has two central aspects: 1) Frequency 2) Control of contribution Frequency refers to the amount of turn taking within a conversation. For example, a conversation between two people has high frequency, and a lecture has low frequency, as show in diagram A below (Woodburn, Arnott, Newell, and Procter 8). Lecture Conversation Low Medium High A) Frequency of turn taking Diagram: (Woodburn, Arnott, Newell, and Procter 8). The control of contribution refers to the amount of control a person has over what to say
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