Why Conversational Management Differs between Americans and Japanese: A Contrastive Study of Teacher-Student Conversations in American English and Japanese

Abstract

This paper examines conversational management in American English and Japanese in conversations between teachers and students meeting for the first time. The analysis characterizes the teacher-student relationship by observing how teachers and students act during (1) opening phases to negotiate who will tell a story first, (2) phases to end the story and allow the next person to tell a story, and (3) phases to look for a new topic to share. The American pairs demonstrated equalizing behaviors to level possible status difference between teachers and students by, for example, providing equal opportunities to tell their own individual experiences. The Japanese pairs, on the other hand, displayed complementary roles by, for example, the teacher suggesting a topic for the student to talk about. It is argued extensively that the Japanese teacher-student relationship is characterized as a quasi-parent-child relationship that conveys a sense of inseparatedness. This can be interpreted more appropriately by introducing the notion of dual mode thinking that incorporates rationality and sensibility (Shimizu, 2003).