Abstract
This paper analyzes the use and frequency of backchannels, in Japanese and English, in terms of their relationship with turn-allocation. The data consists of role-play conversations by native speakers of Japanese and of New Zealander (NZ) English. A higher frequency of backchannels was observed in the Japanese data in comparison to that of New Zealander English. Backchannels in Japanese occurred at two different locations in conversation; Transition Relevance Places (TRP) and non-TRP's. An exchange of backchannels was often observed at TRP throughout the Japanese data, which indicates the tendency in Japanese to postpone taking turns. Apart from these findings, both languages were found to behave similarly in terms of turn-taking and backchannels. Contrary to common assumption, New Zealanders use backchannels just as often as Japanese at the beginning of turns.
