Gender and Interruption in Conversation Among the EFL Learners of University of Widya Gama Mahakam Samarinda

Abstract

Interruption is defined as the act of resistance by certain speaker in conversation which caused by certain factors such as an eagerness of being powerful or the act of asking for clarification of the current speaker is saying. In conversation, sort of interruption occurred when people belong to certain conversation.  The matter of interruption itself influenced by many factors that cause it comes into the surface where gender is one of crucial aspects in influencing the existing of interruption in conversation. Conducting conversational analysis, the researchers investigated interruption occurred in morphology class of third semester based on West and Zimmerman's Syntactic Measurement of Interruptions. 22 students were involved as the research subjects who are grouped into three. Each group consists of male and female students. The researchers also focused on interruption which occurred 1) before the speaker making first point, 2) after the speaker making first point, 3) in mid-clause after the first point, and 4) after pause or other turn ending signal. Having analyzed two-hour video records of students’ discussion, it is found that females interrupted more than males in mixed group gender. They tend to interrupt after the speaker making their first point and in mid-clause after the first point was made acted as confirmation, conclusion or completion of the idea delivered by the speaker.