The conversational use of reactive tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin

Clancy, Patricia M.; Thompson, Sandra A.; Suzuki, Ryoko; Tao, Hongyin

doi:10.1016/0378-2166(95)00036-4

Cited by 308 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, this finding is in disagreement with Tao and Thompson (1991) who found that Mandarin Chinese had lower frequencies of backchannel responses than English speakers. In terms of repetition, our finding that Chinese used more ''repeat'' than Canadians seems consistent with previous research (Clancy et al, 1996).…”

Section: Frequency Of Backchannel Responses and Catsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…It was found that frequencies of gaze and mutual gaze were higher in the Canadian/Canadian conversations and lower in the Chinese/Chinese conversations, but when Chinese and Canadians conversed, the frequency of gaze was similar to that of the Canadian/Canadian condition, a strong indication that the Chinese converged to the gaze style of the Canadians. The finding that Chinese/Chinese exhibited higher frequencies of backchannel responses than Canadians were in agreement with Clancy et al (1996) who reported that Mandarin Chinese displayed more backchannel responses than English speakers. However, this finding is in disagreement with Tao and Thompson (1991) who found that Mandarin Chinese had lower frequencies of backchannel responses than English speakers.…”

Section: Frequency Of Backchannel Responses and Catsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Later, scholars extended backchannel responses to include sentence completions, requests for clarification, brief statements, and non-verbal responses (Duncan & Niederehe, 1974;Duncan & Fiske, 1977). To distinguish backchannel responses, two conditions must to be met: (a) they do not disturb the primary speaker's speakership, and (b) they do not intend to take over the floor of the current speaker (Clancy, Thompson, Suzuki & Tao, 1996). The two main functions of backchannel responses are ''continuers'' and ''assessments'' (Goodwin, 1986;Schegloff, 1982).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The bilinguals also used more backchannel responses than the Mandarin monolinguals. Clancy et al (1996) studied backchannel responses in three linguistic groups although the term ''reactive token'' was used. Several types of reactive token were distinguished: backchannels (display of interest or understanding), collaborative finishes (when the listener finishes the primary speaker's utterance), repetitions (the listener repeats a portion of the primary speaker's utterance), resumptive openers (a non-lexical element used at the beginning of a turn), and reactive expressions.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Backchannel Responses as Misleading Feedback in Intercultural Discourse

Li¹

2006

Journal of Intercultural Communication Research

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This study examined the relationship between the frequency of backchannel responses and listener recall scores in inter-and intra-cultural conversations. The nature of the study was a simulated physician-patient interaction. Participants were 40 Canadians and 40 Chinese who formed 40 dyads in four experimental conditions: Canadian physician/Canadian patient, Chinese physician/Chinese patient, Chinese physician/ Canadian patient, and Canadian physician/Chinese patient. All conversations were video-taped and micro-analyzed. The data generated three intriguing findings. (1) There were significant positive correlations between backchannel responses and listener recall scores in the two intra-cultural groups, indicating that backchannel responses facilitated content communication. (2) There were significant negative correlations between backchannel responses and listener recall scores in the two inter-cultural groups, indicating that backchannel responses might have served as misleading feedback and caused mis-communication. (3) The Chinese/Chinese condition had the highest backchannel responses; the Canadian/Canadian condition had the lowest with the two inter-cultural groups in between. This finding provides support for the Communication Accommodation theory. Implications for verbal and nonverbal communication training in intercultural interactions were discussed.

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Section: Frequency Of Backchannel Responses and Catsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Frequency Of Backchannel Responses and Catsupporting

confidence: 91%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Backchannel Responses as Misleading Feedback in Intercultural Discourse

Li¹

2006

Journal of Intercultural Communication Research

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“…The results from a number of intercultural analyses (Cutrone 2005;Clancy et al 1996;Crawford 2003;Ike 2010;Maynard 1986Maynard , 1990Maynard , 1997White 1989) have consistently shown JEFLs producing backchannels far more frequently than native-English-speaker (NES) interlocutors (i.e., Britons, Americans and Australians) in both their L1 and L2 English.…”

Section: Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

A cross-cultural examination of the backchannel behavior of Japanese and Americans: Considerations for Japanese EFL learners

Cutrone

2014

Intercultural Pragmatics

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Listenership (consisting of backchannel feedback) and its effect on intercultural communication were investigated in 30 dyadic conversations in English between Japanese and American participants. The findings of this study demonstrate several differences in how members of each culture used backchannels in terms of frequency, variability, placement, and function. This study also found evidence supporting the hypothesis that backchannel conventions that are not shared between cultures contribute to negative perceptions across cultures. Thus, the findings of this study support the conclusion that listenership warrants more attention in EFL classes in Japan. Further, toward creating a pedagogical framework, this study also provides EFL professionals with a comprehensive account of the listenership of Japanese EFL speakers. Finally, this study also offers potential insights into the linguistic variation of native English speakers. That is, the negative perceptions that the American native English speakers reported of their Japanese EFL speaking interlocutors' listener responses in this study were not as pronounced as those reported by the British native English speakers in a previous study conducted by the same researcher.

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Conversation Analysis and Recipient Behavior

Gardner¹

2012

The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

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The conversational use of reactive tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin

Cited by 308 publications

References 24 publications

Backchannel Responses as Misleading Feedback in Intercultural Discourse

Backchannel Responses as Misleading Feedback in Intercultural Discourse

A cross-cultural examination of the backchannel behavior of Japanese and Americans: Considerations for Japanese EFL learners

Conversation Analysis and Recipient Behavior

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