The Analysis of Interruptions in American Sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” and Its Application in Teaching Speaking

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.