Quantitative Analysis of Gazes and Grounding Acts in L1 and L2 Conversations

Quantitative Analysis of Gazes and Grounding Acts in L1 and L2 Conversations Ichiro Umata1, 2, Koki Ijuin2, Mitsuru Ishida2, Moe Takeuchi2, and Seiichi Yamamoto2 1 KDDI R&D Labs, Human Centered Design Project Garden Air Tower, 3-10-10, Iidabashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8460, Japan 2 Doshisha University, Department of Information Systems Design 1-3 Miyakodani, Tatara, Kyotanabe-shi, Kyoto, 610-0321, Japan E-mail: mailto:umataichiro@gmail.com, mailto:duo0108@mail4.doshisha.ac.jp, dup0113@mail4.doshisha.ac.jp, bum1061@mail4.doshisha.ac.jp, seyamamo@mail.doshisha.ac.jp Abstract The listener’s gazing activities during utterances were analyzed in a face-to-face three-party conversation setting. The function of each utterance was categorized according to the Grounding Acts defined by Traum (Traum, 1994) so that gazes during utterances could be analyzed from the viewpoint of grounding in communication (Clark, 1996). Quantitative analysis showed that the listeners were gazing at the speakers more in the second language (L2) conversation than in the native language (L1) conversation during the utterances that added new pieces of information, suggesting that they are using visual information to compensate for their lack of linguistic proficiency in L2 conversation. Keywords: Second Language Conversation, Gaze, Grounding 1. Introduction Nowadays, the progress in transportation systems and communication networks connect wide areas with various linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and innovations in communication technologies enable us to communicate with remote partners via multimodal interaction systems that transmit the partners’ visual images. Opportunities for multimodal communication in non-native languages are increasing faster than ever, and so is the importance of studying such communication to provide a basis for supporting it. Previous studies have shown that gaze plays important roles in multimodal communication. Clark and colleagues have observed that visual information of the communication partners plays important roles in grounding, i.e. establishing a given piece of information as part of common ground (Clark & Brennan, 1991; Clark, 1996; Clark & Krych, 2004). Other studies discussed the speech turn organization role of gaze in verbal interaction (Kendon, 1967; Argyle, Lallijee, & Cook, 1968; Kleinke, 1986). Although the opportunities for embodied second-language communication are increasing rapidly, quantificational studies of eye gaze in multimodal second-language conversations have been launched only recently. Studies of gazes during utterances have shown that the duration percentage when other participants are looking at the speaker in a second-language (L2) conversation was significantly longer than in a native-language (L1) conversation, whereas the duration percentage when the speaker is looking at the other participants was not significantly different between L1 and L2 conversation (Kabashima, Nishida, Jokinen & Yamamoto, 2012; Yamasaki, Furukawa, Nishida, Jokinen & Yamamoto, 2012; Yamamoto, Taguchi, Umata, Kabashima & Nishida, 2013; Umata, Yamamoto, Ijuin, Nishida, 2013; Yamamoto, Taguchi, Ijuin, Umata & Nishida, 2015). These results suggest that gazes compensate for the lack of linguistic proficiency in L2 conversation by either (i) helping listeners understand the speakers’ utterances with visual cues, (ii) helping participants monitor their partners’ understanding (cf. Hosoda, 2006), or (iii) coordinating the conversational turns. These studies, however, did not consider the communicative function of each utterance, and the role gaze plays in L2 conversation has not been made clear. In this study, we conduct a quantitative analysis of …

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