Characteristics of Interruption Adopted by a Thai Learners of Japanese in a Three-person Small Talk with Native Japanese Friends

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to study characteristics of interruption adopted by Thai learners of Japanese in a three-person small talk with native Japanese friends. Eight recorded small talks were analysed. Each was approximately 30 minutes in length where three female friends engaging in small talk, one being a Thai learner of Japanese, the others, native Japanese speakers. The results show that, on average, a Thai learner of Japanese accounts for approximately 30% of cumulative interruption, which is slightly less than that of a native Japanese speaker. Interruptions used by Thai learners of Japanese tend to be cooperative, such as supportive commentary, question answering, and feeling expression, whereas competitive interruptions attempting to take the floor are the least found. A similar phenomenon is demonstrated among native Japanese speakers. When it comes to taking the floor, however, different approaches are taken. To take the floor, native Japanese speakers develop from an existing topic into a new one, while Thai learners of Japanese introduce a new topic based on what they can think of or what they want to talk about at the time, which is little related to an existing topic.