Turn-taking

Factors
1. knowing how to recognize appropriate turn-exchange points
2. knowing how long the pauses between turns should be
3. knowing if conversational overlap is allowed.
4. knowing how to 'repair' a conversation that has been thrown off course by undesired overlap or a misunderstood comment.
Areas to be considered
1. intonation
2. grammatical structures
3. utterances
  1. 'ah', 'mm' and 'you know'
4. body language
5. gestures
Guiding principles
1. Only one person should talk at a time
2. We cannot have silence
Ways of indicating that a turn will be changed
1. formal methods
  1. selecting the next speaker by name or raising a hand
2. adjacency pairs
  1. a question requires and answer
3. intonation
  1. a drop in pitch or in loudness
4. gestures
  1. a change in sitting position or an expression of inquiry
5. gaze direction
Violations
1. interruption
  1. where a new speaker interrupts and gains the floor
2. butting in
  1. where a new speaker tries to gain the floor but does not succeed
3. overlaps
  1. where two speakers are talking at the same time

Resource summary

	Created by María Estela Hernánd about 9 years ago