Discourse Approach to Turn-taking

2.4

Basic Concepts of Turn-Taking System

Turn-taking is one of the basic facts of conversation: speakers and listeners change

their roles in order to begin their speech (Coulthard 1985: 59). The turn-taking

mechanism may actually vary between cultures and between languages (Cook 1989).

In ordinary conversation, it is very rare to see any allocation of turns in advance. The

interactants naturally take turns. However, some account can be offered of what

actually occurs there (Wardhaugh 1998: 295). There is a set of rules that govern the

turn-taking system, which is independent of various social contexts (Sacks, Schegloff

& Jefferson 1974: 704): (a) when the current speaker selects the next speaker, the next

speaker has the right and, at the same time, is obliged to take the next turn; (b) if the

current speaker does not select the next speaker, any one of the participants has the

right to become the next speaker. This could be regarded as self-selection; and (c) if

neither the current speaker selects the next speaker nor any of the participants become

the next speaker, the current speaker may resume his/her turn. Oreström (1983: 29),

however, claims that there is a limitation in their system that all speaking-turns are

given the same status. He suggests that more attention should be paid to how

participants design their turns to make them compatible with the rules. A speaking turn

and a back-channel utterance should be kept apart. That is, a back-channel utterance

should not be treated as a turn, based on the notion that a speaking turn conveys

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message and expands the topic (Henne cited in Oreström 1983: 23), on the other hand,

a back-channel has a relatively low level in content but has a relatively high level for a

smooth communication (Watzlawick et. al. cited in Oreström 1983: 24). Back-channel

utterances signal the listener’s continued attention, agreement, and various emotional

reactions to show that s/he is on line.