Research Book: Summary of the book so far Part 4a

So this next section of the book deals with Interrupting in Conversations. There are many factors that determine if there is any interruption in the conversation at all and if so, exactly who is interrupting and who is not. Tannen says that to find out, one must know as much as possible about the people speaking and listening (their culture, where they came from, their personalities, etc), the topic, the setting, who is trying to do or say what, and so on. She says that in general, there are two types of people: people who are "high considerateness" who basically do not impose and who give others a chance to speak, and people who are "high involvement" who basically speak enthusiastically and actively (196). The "high considerateness" people would usually wait for a pause in the conversation before they decide to speak, and at the same time, the "high involvement" people would think that those people are silent because they have nothing to say so therefore they should keep talking to keep the conversation alive.

Tannen also explains the difference between overlapping and interrupting: overlapping is when more than one person talks at the same time, interrupting is when the person you are talking to fells they are being cut off from the conversation. Tannen explains that overlapping does not always necessarily mean that you are interrupting, and that not overlapping in a conversation may not necessarily mean that you are not interrupting. For example, Some people can easily overlap each other in a conversation and never feel interrupted, especially if they keep talking about the same subject or overlaps to expand on it. Also, in some cases, even though people might take turns speaking, one person might feel interrupted if someone abruptly changes the subject or says something that makes the person feel ignored. Of course, if someone is overlapping and changing the subject at the same time, people will feel interrupted, and if there is no overlapping and no abrupt change in subject, the conversation will go on.