Language and communication lecture 1

Question 1

Which situations can affect turn-taking? (3)

Answer 1

• informal conversation
• interviews
• ceremonies and rituals

Question 2

How long did Walker (1982) find transition pauses to be?

Answer 2

Less than 200 milliseconds

Question 3

What did Walker (1982) find about the completion of speech turns?

Answer 3

They are projectable - indicate that your speech is about to end

Question 4

Which 6 signals did Duncan and Fiske (1972, 1985) find that represent the end of a speaking turn?

Answer 4

• rise/fall in pitch at end of clause
• drawl on final syllable
• termination of hand gestures
• stereotyped expressions, e.g., “you know”
• drop in loudness
• completion of a grammatical clause

Question 5

What is an attempt-suppressing signal?

Answer 5

an attempt to stop the other person starting to talk, e.g. a hand gesture to prevent interruption

Question 6

What did De Ruiter, Mitterer & Enfield (2006) find when looking into participants predicting the end of speaker turns for original, intonation synthesised (flat pitch) and content filtered speech?

Answer 6

• original = accurate
• intonation synthesised = accurate
• content filtered = bad performance
  so content and syntax of speech is most important

Question 7

What is a silent interruption?

Answer 7

Occurs without simultaneous speech - like beginning to speak when the other person has just stopped to think

Question 8

What is simultaneous speech?

Answer 8

When a person begins to speak when the other is still talking, often as an interruption

Question 9

When can simultaneous speech not be interruptive?

Answer 9

Listener responses - e.g. yeah, uh huh, mmm, wow, really

Question 10

What are the two main dimensions of interruptions as suggested by Roger, Bull & Smith (1988)?

Answer 10

• single or complex (how much they attempt)
• successful or unsuccessful (does the person get to finish their utterance?)

Question 11

What did Menz & Al-Roubaie (2008) find when looking into the assumption that patients will spend too long talking if doctor’s don’t interrupt them? (3)

Answer 11

• non-supportive interruptions (not helpful) are used more by doctors than patients
• patients failed more in interruptions than doctors, especially more senior ones
• more interruptions from doctors = longer interviews

Question 12

What is manterrupting?

Answer 12

The unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man (Bennett, 2015)

Question 13

What can manterrupting lead to?

Answer 13

A female’s frustration due to being ignored, silenced or side-lined in personal or professional conversation

Question 14

What did Och (2020) find when looking into manterrupting in politics in Germany?

Answer 14

Women were 17.7% more likely to be interrupted than men but women interrupted men more than men interrupted women (so women were interrupting the women)

Question 15

What is equivocation?

Answer 15

People make a conscious and strategic effort to avoid parts of a conversation - not necessarily lying, just saying a fact that may not be entirely relevant or answering the question being asked

Question 16

What are the 4 dimensions of equivocation (4 ways in which a response can be equivocal)?

Answer 16

• Sender – speaker’s own opinion? - are you just stating a general fact instead?
• Content – clarity?
• Receiver – addressed to the other person in the situation? - more relevant in mass communication
• Context – direct answer to the question? - did they just answer some completely different question?

Question 17

What does equivocation occur in response to according to what theory?

Answer 17

• a communicative conflict
• situational theory of communicative conflict (STCC)

Question 18

What three kinds of equivocal response happened when participants were presented with conflictual situations (had to tell a bad presenter how they thought they did)? (Bavelas et al., 1990)

Answer 18

• Subtle changes in response
• Deferred replies - talk about it later
• Hints - how to improve instead

Question 19

What is ‘face’?

Answer 19

• your prestige, honour or reputation
• other people thinking well of you
• generally we want to preserve this to maintain a positive image

Question 20

What did Bello & Edwards (2005) find when people responded to a poor presentation in a public speaking class in terms of face preservation?

Answer 20

People protect their own face and others’ face at the same time by not hurting their feelings and not appearing mean

Question 21

What is communication accommodation theory (CAT)?

Answer 21

People reduce dissimilarities between them and the specific people they are with by altering their communication style

Question 22

What was speech accommodation theory initially concerned with?

Answer 22

Accent and how it affects how people are perceived

Question 23

What is an accent?

Answer 23

• pronunciations
• part of a dialect

Question 24

What is a dialect?

Answer 24

A distinct manner of speech that differs in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
Can differ in the actual words used (e.g. ‘nowt’)

Question 25

What did Fuertes et al. (2012) find when comparing standard and non-standard accents?

Answer 25

People with standard accents are rated as having higher status, more solidarity (can be trusted more) and more dynamism - so they are seen more favourably

Question 26

What 2 directions can accent change take according to Giles (1973)?

Answer 26

Divergence - less similar to the other person’s accent
Convergence - more similar

Question 27

What 2 directions can convergence in accent change take?

Answer 27

upward - more posh
downward - less posh (closer to original accent)

Question 28

What did Willemyns et al. (1997) find when looking into how accents changed during a job interview in Australia? (2)

Answer 28

• Applicants’ accents were significantly broader with broader accent interviewers (convergence)
• They disagreed that their accents became broader, especially women

Question 29

What did Bourhis & Giles (1977) find when looking into Welsh students’ accents in response to an English person questioning their reasons for studying (in an insulting way)?

Answer 29

Instrumental learners softened their accent (convergence)
Integrative learners broadened their accent (divergence)

Question 30

What are instrumental and integrative language learners?

Answer 30

Instrumental = learning the language for job prospects
Integrative = learning to be more familar with their heritage

Question 31

What is optimal convergence and why is it important?

Answer 31

It is possible to be over-accommodating and this may be seen as patronising so people need to do it just enough to be understood and accepted

Question 32

When Giles & Smith (1979) accommodate with speech rate, content and pronunciation, which are the most favourable and least favourable combinations?

Answer 32

• Most favourable when he converged on speech rate and either content or pronunciation
• Less favourable when he converged on all 3 dimensions