Turn-Taking Analysis in EFL Research Seminar at Graduate Program of State University of Makassar

The aim of this research is to probe the types of turn-taking strategy and its functions in interaction of EFL students’ research proposal seminars. This research was conducted purposively toward four students of English education study program in the fourth semester in 2018, Graduate Program of State University of Makassar. For collecting data, the researcher employed descriptive qualitative method based on conversational analysis as a part of discourse analysis approach by using video recorder. It was conducted to monitor, analyze, and interpret the spoken language used by presenters, audiences, and examining committee in research proposal seminars. Findings of this research revealed that there are some kinds of turn-taking strategies used in EFL students’ research proposal seminars interaction, i.e. (1) taking the turn in terms of starting up, taking over, and interrupting; (2) holding the turn in terms of filled pause, silent pause, lexical repetition, and new start; and (3) yielding the turn in terms of prompting, appealing, and giving up. This research found new functions of prompting, namely ensuring and suggesting. Moreover, there are new functions of lexical repetition, namely repairing and emphasizing. Keywords: Turn-taking, English as Foreign Language (EFL) students’ research seminars