Exploring the use of turn-taking and overlap resolution strategies among Vietnamese non-English major students

Abstract

Based on Sacks et al.'s (1978) turn-taking model, the research aims to determine how Vietnamese students managed their discourse. Two Vietnamese students were conveniently selected for the study, and their conversations were recorded, transcribed, and coded in the style of conversation analysis and deductive content analysis. The results show that in one-at-a-time talks, the male student used more devices and strategies than the female in taking turns. Also, both employed latching to reduce transition space most of the time. In overlapping talks, in most cases, the male student tended to employ repair strategies more frequently than the female. Nevertheless, the female student used more strategies in simultaneous talks than in one-at-a-time talks. The findings shed light on Vietnamese students' turn-taking styles, a great boon to English educators who should provide students with necessary interactional resources and rethink speaking assessments, including turn-taking strategies as a linguistic competency.