Janet Beavin Bavelas was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada, from 1970 to 2005, when she became Professor Emerita, doing full-time research and writing on both basic and applied topics. She is the co-author of a seminal work, Pragmatics of Human Communication, with Paul Watzlawick and Don D. Jackson, and publishes journal articles and book chapters in several disciplines. Her honors include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the International Communication Association.

Face-to-face dialogue is our basic form of language use. It is, and always has been, the only form of language use that spans all cultures and societies. Face-to-Face Dialogue: Theory, Research, and Applications focuses on the unique combination of features that make face-to-face dialogue the fastest, most precise, and most skillful activity that ordinary individuals do together.
Writing for an inter-disciplinary readership, Bavelas draws on her research program of over three decades to reveal the unique features of face-to-face dialogue. Unlike written or mediated forms, face-to-face dialogue uses both speech and co-speech gestures and also permits rapid-even simultaneous-exchanges. This book demonstrates the importance of focusing on interactions rather than individuals and on specific multi-modal acts rather than all nonverbal communication. Bavelas's mixed research methods begin inductively, leading to experiments with qualitative measures. Second-by-second microanalysis uncovers details of how a dialogue works. By focusing on communication as joint action, Face-to-Face Dialogue refocuses the conversation around the science of human communication, with realizable practical applications for researchers and professionals alike.

Preface by the Series Editor
Preface by the Author
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Appreciating Face-to-face Dialogue

PART I. CHANGING THE FOCUS
Chapter Two: From Individuals to Interactions
Chapter Three: From Nonverbal Communication to Co-speech Gesture
Chapter Four: Common Goals, Different Methods
PART II. INSIDE FACE-TO-FACE DIALOGUE
Chapter Five: Doing Dialogue
Chapter Six: Dialogue Favor Demonstrations
Chapter Seven: The Social Life of Hand Gestures
Chapter Eight: The Social Life of Facial Gestures
Chapter Nine: Meaning and Understanding as an Interactional Process
PART III. DIALOGUES IN APPLIED SETTINGS
Chapter Ten: Dialogues in Computer-Mediated Communication, Autism, and Medical Interactions
Chapter Eleven: Psychotherapy as Dialogue
Chapter Twelve: A Summary So Far
References
Index