A Research Proposal on Gender Differences in Interruption Speech Act

1. Introduction

Conversation is an expression of interaction between speakers and listeners， which needs both sides to play a role of cooperation and harmony， and exchange conversational role to achieve the final purpose of social movement. As the basic element in a conversation， “turn” is an important research object in conversation analysis. From the perspective of social linguistics， they have summarized the turn-taking rules in daily conversation by employing research methods of Folklore methodology. However， people may violate the turn-taking rules while talking， which leads to interruption. This research studies the gender differences on interruption patterns， purposes and effects between hosts and hostesses in talk shows from the language and gender aspect.

2. Aims

In my research， I intend to investigate four major aims as below：

（1）Are there gender differences of interruption patterns and interruption purposes between hosts and hostesses ？

（2）If there are some gender differences， what are they？

（3）Are there gender differences of interruption effects between them？

（4）If there are some gender differences， what are they？

3. Sample

Sample plays an important role in our research， and it can help us get the relevant information from the sample and achieve our goals. In order to get convincing and true information， the author would like choose six different American talk shows from 12 episodes： The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon， The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien， Late Night with Seth Meyers， The Oprah Winfrey Show， Ellen Show， and The Grace Helbig Show. The author hopes to get valuable information from the samples.

4. Ethical issues

A researcher may face ethical problems from the starting point till the end of a research project. Jones Carlson （2003） mentioned that a researcher may need to resort to deception to avoid what is technically known as observational reactivity， so that the validity of the research data can be ensured. As far as I am concerned， I know that maybe the each process of my research has the potential ethical issues， so I will do my best to avoid to make kinds of mistakes.

5. Data analysis

Firstly， we will devoted ourselves to analyzing all the data carefully and systematically. Secondly， while doing the report， we must consider whether the research is still fresh in everybody’s mind. And， in our analysis， using the charts instead of a large number of figures. Finally， thanks to those who contributed to my analysis of this report.

6. Limitations and Further Studies

This study explores the gender differences in interruption speech act between hosts and hostesses. Due to my limited level， there are many limitations. First， the limited corpus. Due to the urgency of time and the limitation of technology， the author only selects 12 programs as the corpus of the study. In the analysis， the author knows that the limitation of the corpus may bring some influence on the conclusion. Second， the limitation of the programs selection. As the title shows， this paper is based on the six different American talk shows to do a comparative analysis， the scope is too narrow. And， although this topic tries to control other variables as much as possible when choosing the corpus， other variables， such as the age of the guests， identity of the guests， the style of the host and so on. These variables uncontrollable.

There are many studies on the conversational structure analysis of talk shows， however， few from the perspective of hosts’ gender. I believe that people pay more attention to language gender and television talk shows， the influence of the host’s gender differences on the conversational mechanism of talk shows will become more and more important.

References：

[1]Anderson K J，Leaper C.Meta-Analyses of Gender Effects on Conversational Interruption：Who，What， When， Where， and How[J]. Sex Roles，1998，39（3-4）：225-252.

[2]Goddard A，Patterson L M.Language and gender[M].Routledge， 2000.

【作者簡介】溫琪琪（1995-），女，漢族，河北石家莊人，華北理工大學，研究生，研究方向：外國語言文學；王顯志（1969-），男，漢族，河北唐山人，現任華北理工大學外國語學院院長，博士，教授，碩士生導師，全國先進社科工作者，唐山市社會科學優秀青年專家。