2026-09-24T01:03:13Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/125868 2025-02-13 col_2142_13736 col_2142_5131 com_2142_8975 com_2142_8903 com_2142_5130

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125868 Dissertation/Thesis Spanish and American turn-taking styles and the misinterpretation of each in cross-cultural conversations Berry, Anne Genevieve 1992 Teaching English as Second Language Turn-taking Styles Cross-cultural Conversations English Conversations Communication Rules Cooperative Communication Bilingual Spanish Women Playback Interviews Assumptions Underlying Turn-taking eng Research on turn taking in English indicates that there are rules that Americans follow when organizing their conversations. Following these rules, consciously or subconsciously, helps ensure a good conversation because the rules are based on what Americans consider polite, cooperative and efficient. Research on turn taking in other languages, and even in different dialects of English, indicates that the organization of conversation is sometimes different. I have found that the turn-taking styles of some native Spanish speakers is different from that of American speakers of English, and that those differences can cause both groups to misinterpret the other's intentions. The data consist of four one-hour segments of dinner conversation involving four bilingual Spanish women, and four American women. I examined the turn-taking styles of the participants, paying special attention to overlap and use of backchannel. Then I conducted playback interviews with each of the participants and administered questionnaires to six other non-participant informants in order to determine what assumptions underlie the different turn-taking styles. text Copyright owned by the author. Teaching English to speakers of other languages Linguistics Teaching English as a Second Language University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign M.A. Thesis