A Study in A Study in Cross-Cultural Interpretations Cross-Cultural Interpretations of Back-Channeling Behaviorof Back-Channeling Behavior

Yaffa Al BayyariYaffa Al BayyariNigel WardNigel Ward

The University of Texas at El PasoThe University of Texas at El PasoDepartment of Computer ScienceDepartment of Computer Science

February 22, 2008February 22, 2008 Meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research

22

Back-ChannelingBack-Channeling

• Short utterances: uh-huh, yeah, mm-hm ...

• Show active listening

• Frequent: ~4 per minute (English, Arabic)

• Below conscious awareness

• A turn-taking function

33

Misunderstandings are Common Misunderstandings are Common in Cross-Cultural Communicationin Cross-Cultural Communication

culture-dependent

interpretations

44

What Causes Problems?What Causes Problems?

UniversalLanguage-DependentCulture-Dependent

smiles

simple emotions complex

emotions

non-lexicalutterances

words

emblematic gestures

?????????????????? turn-taking mechanisms ??????????????????

Culture-dependent behaviors that we think are universal can cause deep misunderstandings.

55

Cultural Differences in Cultural Differences in Back-ChannelingBack-Channeling

• frequency (Maynard 89)

• words and non-lexicals used • timing (this study)

– typically in response to cues by the other– but the cues differ ...

66

Prosodic Cues for Back-ChannelsProsodic Cues for Back-Channels

English

>110 ms

26th percentile

Arabic < 500 ms

>40 ms, with slope > .7% every 10 ms

brief pause

“When you hear such a cue, respond with a back-channel”is a good description of listener behavior.

pitch

pitch

time

time

Game 2: listen to the cue; what emotional value do you perceive?

Game 1: listen to the back-channels

77

Initial HypothesesInitial Hypotheses

Pitch downdashperceived as

a cue for aback-channelresponse

Americansubjects

Arabsubjects

noyes

an expression of negative affect

yesno

responseprosodic cuelead-in

downdash

cadence

upturn silence

full turn

back-channel

Experiment 1 StimuliExperiment 1 Stimuli

resynthesized to obscure the words, retaining pitch contours

subjects asked to judge the naturalness of each response, given the context

99

ParticipantsParticipants

• 18 naive American-English speakers– students from an introductory CS class– mostly Spanish-English bilinguals– no knowledge of Arabic

• 18 Arabic speakers– 7 living in El Paso Texas, 11 in Qatar– some to total knowledge of English

• 18 exposed American-English speakers– with about 25 minutes of training in this aspect of Arabic, several months before

1010

4.34.1 4.2

4.7

3.7

4.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Arab Naive American Exposed American

natu

raln

ess

other pairings

downslope+BC

Results of Experiment 1Results of Experiment 1

Ratings of the naturalness of the various pairings

* matched-pairs t-test

different* different*

1111

Experiment 2Experiment 2

Subjects were asked to judge the emotional state:

“does the speaker sound more positive or more negative?”

downdash

cadence

upturn

1212

Experiment 2 ResultsExperiment 2 Results

4.54.2

5

4.2

3.2

4

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Arab Naive American Exposed

American

positive feeling controls

downslope

* matched-pairs t-testdifferent* different*

1313

Summary of Experiments 1&2Summary of Experiments 1&2

Pitch downdashperceived as

a cue for aback-channelresponse

Americansubjects

Arabsubjects

noyes

an expression of negative affect

yesno

significantly different

significantly different

1414

What Causes Problems?What Causes Problems?

UniversalLanguage Dependent/

Culture Dependent

smiles

simple emotions complex

emotions

non-lexicalutterances

words

emblematic gestures

back-channeling

Behaviors that are culture-dependent, but that people think are universal, can cause deep misunderstandings.

1515

Implication and Follow-Up QuestionImplication and Follow-Up Question

Imagine an Arab happens to use this cue while talking to an American (in Arabic or English)

• The American is likely to misinterpret it, without suspecting the danger(Experiments 1 and 2)

• The Arab may feel the American is not

being a cooperative listener ...(Experiment 3)

1616

Follow-on HypothesesFollow-on Hypotheses

Learners of Arabic who back-channel better

will be judged as

• knowing Arabic better

• being nicer

• being more socially effective

and the effect sizes will be large

1717

StimuliStimuli

Well Pronounced Greeting

Poorly Pronounced Greeting

Well Timed Back-Channeling

Poorly Timed Back-Channeling

Absent Back-Channeling

Absent Greeting

1818

ResultsResults

Is this person likely to succeed in making someone want to help him?

3.74.2 4.1

4.7 4.7

5.35.3 5.45.7

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

no back-channelling back-channeling 1 back-channeling 2so

cial

effe

ctiv

enes

s

no greeting

sloppy greeting

good greeting

How well does the listener know Arabic?

3.8

4.4 4.3

3.43.8

4

5.25.5

5.3

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

no back-channelling back-channeling 1 back-channeling 2

know

ledg

e of

Ara

bic

no greeting

sloppy greeting

good greeting

significantly different (matched-pairs t-tests, 54 pairs)

1919

ConclusionsConclusions

• The prosody of back-channeling is not universal. (experiment 1).

• It is worthwhile for learners to master its meaning. (experiment 3).

So they should be taught it, and other turn-taking patterns, and also in other languages.

• Americans perceive it as negative, but even a brief exposure reduces this. (experiment 2)

So people likely to hear even sound-bites of Arabs should also be taught about it.

A Study in A Study in Cross-Cultural Interpretations Cross-Cultural Interpretations of Back-channeling Behaviorof Back-channeling Behavior

Yaffa Al BayyariYaffa Al BayyariNigel WardNigel Ward

February 22, 2008February 22, 2008 Meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research

Thank You

2121

The PhenomenonThe Phenomenon

• Back-channel feedback happens when– One person is explaining something– The other produces short response indicating he is

paying attention

• Definition– Responds directly to an utterance of the speaker– Is optional– Does not require acknowledgement by the speaker– Does not interrupt the flow of the conversation

2222

Predictive Value of the CuePredictive Value of the Cue

Corpus-based study found that these times are commonly indicated by a prosodic feature complex which includes a steep pitch downslope, “downdash”

(Ward & Al Bayyari, 2006, 2007)

• Coverage = 43%• Accuracy = 13%

2323

Experiment 3Experiment 3

• Stimuli preparation– 9 audio fragments– 11 sec conversation between

Arabic speaker and a learner– Greeting not synthesized– Direction-giving and BC synthesized

• Subjects were asked to judge the Arabic learner

Poor Greeting

Good BC

Poor BC

No BCNo Greeting

Good Greeting

2424

Previous WorkPrevious Work

• In Arabic:– Statements & wh-questions end with a falling

pitch(Kulk et al., 2005; Eldin & Rajouani, 1999; Rifaat, 2005)

– yes-no questions generally end with a pitch rise (Eldin & Rajouani, 1999; El-Hassan, 1988)

– Back-channels function pragmatically in Arabic much as in English

• Do not always convey understanding• Can overlap the speaker’s talk

(Ola Mohamed Hafez, 1991)

2525

Results of Experiment 2 Results of Experiment 2 –– cont. cont.

Answers to question “write 2 or 3 adjectives describing the speaker” by English speakers:

For the downslope: half or more used “angry”, “scared”, “sad” or “disgusted”

2626

HypothesisHypothesis

• The pitch downslope is a cue for back-channel in Arabic, although it is not perceived as such by speakers of American English

• The pitch downslope is perceived negatively by American-English speakers but not by Arabic speakers

• In Arabic good back-channeling matters & even more than good pronunciation

2727

Does this person sound like a nice person?

3.33.6 3.7

4.34.6

4.955.4

5.8

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

no back-channelling back-channeling 1 back-channeling 2

no greeting

sloppy greeting

good greeting

2828

Sharp pitch downslope

Most likely we’re gonna stay for a month and a week

To see how life is there and probably uncle & aunt are coming with us, so it’ d be good chance for you to come visit us

OK

OK

2929

MaskingMasking

Original

Masked