Gender and Interruption in the Defense Sessions of Dissertations

This paper aims to investigate the ways in which socio-linguistic parameters such as gender contribute into the turn organization of defense sessions. Interruption plays an important role in the organization of turn taking in the interactions of defense sessions. The current paper is then primarily focused on the description and analysis of interruptions in the interactions of dissertation defense sessions of Persian speakers using the “community of practice” approach. A number of discourse and pragmatic functions (e. g. defense، directiveness، cooperation، competition، etc.) have been identified for interruptions in relation to the power relations of interlocutors in the interactions. Apart from qualitative analysis، some quantitative findings have been provided for further clarification. The analysis of data shows that it is mainly the social status of a speaker that influences the types and frequency of interruption rather than his/her gender. In other words، the social variable does not play an important role in the interruption for turn organization in the defense sessions of Persian speakers.