The Nature of Turn-Taking Among The Freshman Students in Their Group Discussions At the Addis Ababa University
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Date
1997-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was carried out to describe the nature
of turn-taking among the freshman students in their
group discussions. In other words, it attempted to
describe the nature of turn - taking to see the level of
student participation. For the study one freshman class
which consisted of 33 students was selected . The
students were then divided into five groups. The data
was gathered by video recording the group discussions.
The recording was made three times and, on the average,
one group was video taped for 20 minutes.
Allwright ' s(1980) turn-taking categories (with slight
modification) were used for the analysis of the data .
The overall results revealed that students got the
great majority of the turns(i.e., 126 or 33.9%), out of
the total(372) , by responding to specific solicits, that
is , by allocation . However, they got very limited turns
on their own initiative, i.e., by volunteering (30 or
8 .1% turns), self - selecting (21 or 5.7% turns) and
stealing (2 or 0 . 5% turns). Students did not take any
turns by interrupting .
Results also showed that out of 372 turns,
162(43 . 5%) turns were taken by both the teacher and the
group leaders f or discourse maintenance. Both took
23(6.2%) unsolicited turns during others ' turns to
maintain the discourse without the intent to gain the
floor. Of these, students particularly group leaders
took only one turn. The teacher took 2 specific solicits
and interrupted only once . However, he did not steal any
turns .
The findings further indicated that out of the
total of 117 specific turns, 53(45.3%) and 61(52.1%)
turns were given by the teacher and group leaders
respectively . Students gave only 3(2.6%) specific turns .
Based on the results of the study, it was strongly
recommended that instructors should help students build
their confidence so that they could speak of their own
accord without awaiting the teacher ' s and group leaders'
allocation of turns for opportunities to talk .
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Keywords
Freshman Students, Group Discussions