Dyadic Conversation between Mandarin-Chinese-Speaking Healthy Older Adults: From Analyses of Conversation Turns and Speaking Roles

Abstract

Older adults’ daily conversations with other older adults enable them to connect to their surrounding communities and improve their friendships. However, typical aging processes and fluctuations in family caring might cause conversation changes. The purpose of this study was to explore the quantitative contributions of conversation turns (CTs) and speaking roles (SRs) in Mandarin-Chinese-speaking conversation dyads between mutually familiar healthy older adults (HOAs). A total of 20 HOAs aged 65 or over were recruited. Each dyad conversed for ten minutes once a week for five weeks, five sessions per dyad, for a total of 50 sessions. The frequency and percentages of the coded CTs and SRs contributed by each HOA were individually tallied and calculated. Quantitatively symmetrical contributions of CTs and SRs occurred in Mandarin-Chinese-speaking conversation dyads between mutually familiar HOAs. Although typical aging processes might change conversations, both Mandarin-Chinese-speaking HOAs serve as active interlocutors to each other in taking CTs and SRs to co-construct their conversation processes and content in their dyadic conversation. Sufficient knowledge of conversation co-constructions might lead them to have more supportive environments to connect to surrounding communities and improve their friendships.