Face-to-Face Dialogue

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
The author summarizes decades of research, providing readers with a master class on the topic, both inside and outside the laboratory. She helps one appreciate what understanding people takes when speaking face-to-face. Though written by an academic psychologist, the book is appropriate for people in all disciplines, both researchers and practitioners. * Choice *