WEEK 2: Social

Interactions
Social conventions in interactions
What are social
interactions?
Two or more people taking one another
into account in building up their action.
What are social
conventions?
How we should interact with people based on what
is normal.
 Social Example:
- Greeting people before
Convention starting a conversation.
- Using appropriate language
Conventions are - Being polite
agreements among people
to handle things in a All of these agreements enable us
to communicate with each other.
particular way.
Social conventions are also agreements among people. They are
often implicit, or unspoken. Social conventions are unwritten
expectations about how people should behave in society.

For example, we take turns when speaking, use acceptable table

manners, and wait patiently in line.

All of these are examples of behaviors that are learned in a

particular society.

Members of that society are expected to behave in particular ways

or they may be ostracized from the group.
 1. The physical setting of
the place
Context of social 2. The social environment
interaction 3. The activities
Where does it occur? surrounding the
environment
Things to
The person/people
consider when
interacting
with people
Topic

We must use appropriate

social conventions during
interaction Social Context /
formality
Activity: Talk about an
instance where social
conventions are violated
 1. Greetings starts an interaction
2. A formal expression of
goodwill, said on meeting or in
GREETINGS a written message.
3. What happens when we don’t
greet people before an
interaction?
GENERAL GREETINGS

FORMAL INFORMAL

- Hello - Hi
- How are you? - Hey
- How are you doing? - What’s up?
- How have you been keeping? - How are things with you?
- I trust you are well - How’s life been treating you?
 Greeting a person you haven’t seen
in a long time
FORMAL
- It has been a long time.
- It’s been too long.
- What have you been up to all
these years?
- It’s always a pleasure to see you.
- How long has it been?
- I’m so happy to see you again.
INFORMAL
- How come I never see you?
- It’s been such a long time.
- Long time no see.
- Where have you been hiding?
- It’s been ages since we last met.
Activity:
Write several greetings
based on several
situations
 In contrast to greeting, leave taking
can be defined as an expression or
act with which somebody is

LEAVE TAKING
indicating that the interaction is
ending.
Ending a conversation
Example: An English teacher leaves
a class, she/he says, “Good bye” OR
“See you next week.”
Troubles with leave taking

We all know of the house visitor who we literally have to push out the door, or the
afternoon companion who is tougher to get rid of than a wad of gum on the
bottom of our shoe. This situation arises because one or both of the people do
not know how people take their leave.

- How does one member indicate that the mutuality has come to an end?
- What does he do to take his leave?

Although we may not understand body language or facial expressions that

indicate leave-taking, there are actually three words that people use for this
purpose.
Indicators
1. NAME
They can say your name for other purposes, such as greeting
you or emphasizing a point, but when your name occurs out of
the blue, it is leave-taking.
Example, “Joe, it’s been a fun afternoon.”

2. WELL.
- Example: “Well, I have some stuff to do.”

3. NOW.
- Example: “I am going home for dinner now.” (The word “now”
usually follows mention of another activity.)
Continue...

When a person takes his leave, the other party is entitled to a short sentence or
two to acknowledge the leave-taking, and then the leave-taker to acknowledge
that he is in fact taking his leave will utter an even shorter reply:

Tom: I am going to work on my e-mail now.

Joe: Okay, cool. I think I’ll go watch TV.

Tom: Catch you later.

FORSTALLING LEAVE
If a companion is taking his leave, you may forestall it if you state a brief reason to do so. For example:

Tom: I am going home to dinner now.

Joe: Oh, before you go, what time do you want to meet tomorrow?
Tom: Noon would be cool.
Joe: Okay, see you then.
Tom: See ya.

1. acknowledges that leave is being taken (“Oh, before you go”)

2. States the reason briefly immediately thereafter.
3. Note also that forestalling a person’s leave a second time is inappropriate. All reasons to do so should be stated
the first time.

Note that the word “now” is also used to postpone the initiation of social contact, when it is combined with a designation
of a later time for the contact to occur:

Tom: I am trying to get this report out now; let’s talk after lunch.
Joe: Okay, see you then.
Leave Taking is not an invitation
One should be aware that leave-taking is not an invitation to follow the person taking leave. Don’t even ask. If it is an
invitation, they will negate the impression that it is leave-taking by including the invitation in the statement:

WRONG:
Tom: I am going home to dinner now.
Joe: I’m hungry too. Can I come along?

RIGHT:
Tom: I am going home to dinner now, would you like to join me?
Joe: Sure!

Note that leave-taking can occur in groups of more than two people:

Tom: Joe, you want to go work on that project with me now?

Joe: Sure!
Bob: See you guys later.

(Tom, by using the word “now”, was taking leave. By addressing Joe, he was only taking leave of Bob. Bob should not take
this as an invitation to join them.)
Activity:
Write dialogues for leave
taking based on several
situations
 A turn is the time when a speaker is
talking and turn-taking is the skill of
knowing when to start and finish a
turn in a conversation. It is an
important organisational tool in
TURN TAKING spoken discourse.

Keeping the conversation Example:

going
One way that speakers signal a
finished turn is to drop the pitch or
volume of their voice at the end of
an utterance.
 1. Adjacency pairs
2. Interruption
Methods 3. Overlap
Of turn taking 4. Linguistic devices
5. Body Language
Adjacency pairs
A unit of conversation that contains an exchange of one turn each by two
speakers. The turns are functionally related to each other in such a fashion that
the first turn requires a certain type of range or a range of types of second turns.

Example:
Greeting - greeting pair
Question - answer pair
Offer - acceptance pair
Complaint - excuse

What happens when the pair is not complete?

- Refer to paper
Interruptions 1.
2.
“If I may interject…”
“I’m sorry but can I…”
Linguistic
1. Your honour, if I may present …
2. Hang on a minute!

Devices 3. So I pass on to my fellow

speaker...
 1. Hand gesture
Body language 2. Eye contact
3. Facial expression
References
https://fauzigeneraloflostsaga.wordpress.com/b-inggris/bab-2/

https://www.slideshare.net/nguyentham14/turn-taking-in-conversations-ppt