Abstract:
A basic rule of turn-taking in a conversation is one speaker speaking at one
time. Some people may break the rule by interrupting other speaker while
speaking. Interruption means that the next speaker cuts into the current speaker’s
ongoing utterance.
The purpose of this research was to find interruptions that occurred in an
American sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, which later would be applied in teaching
speaking. The researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method to analyze the
conversation in the show to find interruptions occurred in it. After that, the
researcher classifies the found interruptions into three types. They are cooperative,
intrusive, and other interruptions. Finally, the researcher applied her research into
teaching learning activity, especially teaching speaking.
After analyzing the data, the researcher found that there are 34
interruptions occurred during the show. From 34 data which are taken by the
researcher, 6 (17.65%) data belongs to cooperative interruptions, 19 (55.89 % )
data belongs to intrusive interruptions, and 9 (26.45%) data belongs to other
interruptions. Studying interruption later is applied in teaching speaking which
deals with expression of how to ask and give an opinion. When students are faced
into a problem and they have to discuss it in a debate, it can cause an interruption
occurred. So, it would be better if teachers teach their students the types of
interruption that might occurred during conversation. Teacher can use American
Sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, to show the examples of those expressions to make
the lesson interesting.
