Goals

After reading this article, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the cultural rules that govern different speech events.
2. Differentiate between a casual conversation and the ethnographic interview.
3. Understand the importance of expressing interest and asking questions in speech events.

Introduction

Broadly speaking, we all recognize different speech-event types without consciously thinking about it, such as a job interview, a lecture, or a friendly conversation (Ezeifeka, 2018). These events have cultural rules for how they begin, flow, and end, including taking turns, asking questions, and even making facial cues and gesturing (Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2021). It’s essential to be aware of these rules, especially for ethnographic interviews (Spradley, 2016), which is a specific speech-event type discussed in this article. To help you understand the ethnographic interview, we’ll compare it to a familiar speech event—a friendly conversation.

Let’s take a moment to examine the social context in which this speech event takes place. This context may encompass elements such as gender, age, status, as well as cultural and social background (Yang, 2022). The example below is a conversation between two friends—Emily and Sarah—who are catching up on personal news after not seeing each other for some time. Emily and Sarah have a friendship history dating back to their college days. They live in the same city and occasionally see each other at social events with mutual friends. This conversation takes place at a shopping mall where they unexpectedly encounter each other.

In this example, we can observe a social speech event that falls under the casual conversation category. Below are some elements that are evident in this example.

Greetings

Most speech events feature greetings, as they help establish a welcoming tone for the conversation. In this example, Emily begins the conversation with a friendly greeting, expressing her excitement to catch up with her friend Sarah. This sets a positive and welcoming tone for the rest of the conversation. Both verbal and nonverbal greetings, such as waiving hello, frequently emphasizes people’s close relationship.

Lack of Explicit Purpose

Some speech events have a specific purpose, such as a job interview or a doctor’s appointment. However, in social situations like this one, the purpose may not be explicit. Also, these conversations rarely begin with specific topics, such as, “Let’s discuss your Hawaii vacation.” Or, “I have some questions regarding your sister’s wedding planning.” The direction of their talks doesn’t matter as long as they eventually arrive at a destination. This is evident in the casual and relaxed conversational tone.

Avoiding Repetition

Repetition can make a conversation feel tedious and uninteresting. In this conversation, both Emily and Sarah try to avoid repeating themselves throughout the conversation. Emily doesn’t go into too much detail about her sister’s wedding planning, assuming that Sarah remembers the general situation from a previous conversation. Likewise, Sarah doesn’t repeat information that Emily already knows about her recent trip to Hawaii. In casual conversations, repetition is not typically used. We would not say, “Could you clarify that by going over it again?” Casual speakers aim to move the conversation forward without dwelling on a particular topic. However, this approach is not suitable for ethnographic interviews, where the interviewer may need to clarify and repeat information to obtain a more comprehensive understanding.

Asking Questions

Asking questions is an essential aspect of most speech events, as it helps the speakers learn more about each other and keeps the conversation flowing. In this conversation, both friends ask each other questions to show interest in each other’s lives. Emily asks when Sarah’s trip to Hawaii was, and Sarah asks about the details of Emily’s sister’s wedding.

Expressing Interest

Expressing interest is an essential speech-event characteristic, as it helps the speakers show that they are engaged and invested in the conversation. In this example, both friends express interest in what the other person is saying by making facial gestures. Sarah smiles and nods when Emily talks about her sister’s wedding, and Emily raises her eyebrows when Sarah mentions her trip to Hawaii.

Expressing Ignorance

It’s impossible to know everything about every topic, and speakers may need to admit their ignorance from time to time. In this conversation, neither friend seems to be shy about expressing ignorance if they don’t know something. For example, when Emily mentions that she could use a vacation, Sarah nods in agreement but doesn’t offer any advice or suggestions about where to go, indicating that she doesn’t have any specific recommendations.

Taking Turns

Taking turns is an essential speech-event characteristic, as it helps ensure that everyone has a chance to speak and to be heard. In this example, both friends take turns speaking and listening throughout the conversation. They don’t interrupt each other or talk over each other, which helps the conversation flow smoothly. However, in speech events like an interview, taking turns is usually conducted differently.

Abbreviating

Abbreviating is an essential speech-event characteristic, as it helps speakers convey information quickly and efficiently. At times, both friends use abbreviations or shorthand when speaking. For example, when Emily talks about helping her sister with wedding planning, she uses the sentence, “We’re still finalizing some details.” This suggests that they have already talked about certain details, and she doesn’t need to explain them again. However, abbreviating speech can be challenging for outsiders to comprehend.

Pausing

Pausing is an essential speech-event characteristic, as it allows speakers to collect their thoughts and think about what they want to say next. In this example, there are a few silent moments or pauses throughout the conversation, but they’re not awkward or uncomfortable. For example, when Sarah first enters the conversation, there’s a brief pause before they start talking.

Leave-Taking

Leave-taking is a most essential speech-event characteristic, as it allows speakers to end the conversation in a polite way. In this example, the conversation ends with a friendly goodbye, with Sarah waving and saying, “You too, Emily!” Both friends seem satisfied with the conversation and happy to have caught up with each other.

Conclusion

This conversation between Emily and Sarah exemplifies a casual social speech event. Through sharing personal news and asking questions, both friends demonstrate interest in each other’s experiences. They also avoid repetition by using abbreviations and taking brief pauses to collect their thoughts. As the conversation closes, see how a friendly goodbye shows leave-taking’s importance in speech events. While there are other friendly conversation features that we could examine, these observations provide sufficient grounds for comparing and understanding the ethnographic interview.

Practice

Think about a recent friendly conversation you had with a friend. Reflect on this experience in relation to the ethnographic interview. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Describe the social context in which the conversation took place, including the setting, the duration, and the topics discussed.
2. Identify the casual conversation’s elements in your discussion, such as greetings, lack of explicit purpose, avoiding repetition, and asking questions.
3. Compare your conversation’s elements to the ethnographic interview’s rules and conventions, such as the purpose, repetition, and approach to clarifying information.
4. Reflect on the similarities and differences between the two speech-event types. What elements are unique to the ethnographic interview, and why are they necessary for this speech-event type?
5. What did you learn from this comparison? And how can you apply this knowledge in your future communication with people from diverse cultural backgrounds?

References

Ezeifeka, C. R. (2018). Discourse analysis: Concepts and approaches. Patrobas Nigeria Limited.

Spradley, J. P. (2016). The ethnographic interview. Holt Rinehart & Winston.

Wardhaugh, R., & Fuller, J. M. (2021). An introduction to sociolinguistics: Vol. 8th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.

Yang, Q. (2022). Ethnography of communication analysis of Ph.D. students’ on-line group discussion. Journal of Sociology and Ethnology, 4(1), 108–113. https://doi.org/10.23977/jsoce.2022.040122