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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $108.95

Format:
Hardback
240 pp.
9 b/w illustrations, 6.125" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780190913366

Publication date:
June 2022

Imprint: OUP US


Face-to-Face Dialogue

Theory, Research, and Applications

Janet Beavin Bavelas

Series : Foundations of Human Interaction

Face-to-face dialogue is our basic form of language use. It is, and always has been, the only form of language use that spans all cultures and societies. Face-to-Face Dialogue: Theory, Research, and Applications focuses on the unique combination of features that make face-to-face dialogue the fastest, most precise, and most skillful activity that ordinary individuals do together.

Writing for an inter-disciplinary readership, Bavelas draws on her research program of over three decades to reveal the unique features of face-to-face dialogue. Unlike written or mediated forms, face-to-face dialogue uses both speech and co-speech gestures and also permits rapid-even simultaneous-exchanges. This book demonstrates the importance of focusing on interactions rather than individuals and on specific multi-modal acts rather than all nonverbal communication. Bavelas's mixed research methods begin inductively, leading to experiments with qualitative measures. Second-by-second microanalysis uncovers details of how a dialogue works. By focusing on communication as joint action, Face-to-Face Dialogue refocuses the conversation around the science of human communication, with realizable practical applications for researchers and professionals alike.

Readership : Scholars of psycholinguistics, conversation analysis, and communication studies, as well as practitioners in psychotherapy.

Reviews

  • "Janet Bavelas is a true expert on face-to-face dialogue, and in this book she gives us a master class on the topic. She takes us beyond speaking and listening into the 'space between'-into the dialogue itself. She takes us beyond transcriptions of talk into the microscopic timing and meaning of speech and gestures-both inside and outside the lab. She helps us appreciate what it really takes to understand people speaking face-to-face."

    --Herbert H. Clark, Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Stanford University

  • "Since co-authoring the seminal Pragmatics of Human Communication in the 1960's, Professor Bavelas has been investigating how face-to-face dialogue observably works, moment by moment and utterance by utterance. n this book, she summarizes a career's worth of rigorous research on that topic, dispelling many longstanding myths about interpersonal communication along the way. The reader will be amazed at how efficiently and meaningfully the participants in a face-to-face conversation can collaborate to build and shape their mutual understandings. This book will be equally at home on the shelves of researchers and practitioners alike."

    --Peter De Jong, Ph.D., MSW, co-author with Insoo Kim Berg of Interviewing for Solutions, Professor of Sociology and Social Work Emeritus, and mental health therapist

Preface by the Series Editor
Preface by the Author
Acknowledgements

Chapter One: Appreciating Face-to-face Dialogue

PART I. CHANGING THE FOCUS
Chapter Two: From Individuals to Interactions
Chapter Three: From Nonverbal Communication to Co-speech Gesture
Chapter Four: Common Goals, Different Methods

PART II. INSIDE FACE-TO-FACE DIALOGUE
Chapter Five: Doing Dialogue
Chapter Six: Dialogue Favor Demonstrations
Chapter Seven: The Social Life of Hand Gestures
Chapter Eight: The Social Life of Facial Gestures
Chapter Nine: Meaning and Understanding as an Interactional Process

PART III. DIALOGUES IN APPLIED SETTINGS
Chapter Ten: Dialogues in Computer-Mediated Communication, Autism, and Medical Interactions
Chapter Eleven: Psychotherapy as Dialogue
Chapter Twelve: A Summary So Far

References
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Janet Beavin Bavelas was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada, from 1970 to 2005, when she became Professor Emerita, doing full-time research and writing on both basic and applied topics. She is the co-author of a seminal work, Pragmatics of Human Communication, with Paul Watzlawick and Don D. Jackson, and publishes journal articles and book chapters in several disciplines. Her honors include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the International Communication Association.

Making Sense - Margot Northey
Communicating & Relating - Robert B. Arundale
Repairing the Broken Surface of Talk - Edited by Paul Drew, Edited by Jorg Bergmann and Gail Jefferson
Distributed Agency - Edited by N. J. Enfield and Paul Kockelman

Special Features

  • Proposes an original theory based on the features that make face-to-face dialogue unique
  • Shows that understanding face-to-face dialogue requires focusing on interactions rather than individuals, and on multi-modal acts rather than nonverbal communication alone
  • Uses previously unpublished empirical data from the author's world-leading experimental research program
  • Addresses implications for psychotherapy and other applied fields